6 Quick Ways to Clear Winter and Welcome Spring

The trees have started to bud, the birds are singing, and the daffodils are popping open everywhere. You can just feel spring on its way!

When it gets like this outside I have the strong urge to shake up the stagnant winter energy inside my home. The air indoors seems in such stark contrast to the fresh, vibrant breeze making its way through the trees.

We have such little time each day to devote to a big spring cleaning job, so I have outlined here some of my favorite quick and easy ways to refresh the energy in your home and make it feel ready to welcome spring. Enjoy!

1. Open the doors and windows! Pull back those blinds and curtains and let that sunshine pour in. This alone will make a huge difference. Feel that breeze freshen everything. It’s time to wake back up after a long, cold winter!

2. Grab two glasses and some sea salt. Pour 1/3 cup of sea salt into each glass and place them in the Southwest and Northeast corners of your home. This is a trick from the world of Feng Shui. The salt stimulates the stagnant air and gets your ‘chi’ (energy) moving.

3. Recycle your reading pile. Go find that stack of magazines, catalogs, and your misc. ‘reading material’ pile and pitch everything that arrived prior to 2010. You have my permission to release yourself from this unrealistic backlog. The world won’t collapse – all that will happen is a wonderful sense of relief.

4. Clean everything off the front of your fridge. Some may be opposed to this but it doesn’t have to stay that way permanently. Just try it out and see how it feels. We adapt to visual clutter very quickly – give your senses this quick change and notice the difference.

5. Pick 1 very small area and organize the heck out of it. Maybe it is a kitchen cupboard, your underwear drawer (this is a great one), or your medicine cabinet. Sort through every item and decide if you are going to keep it and if that drawer/shelf/cupboard is the best spot for it. Put everything back in the most practical fashion possible (i.e. do those undies really need to be folded?:). Now step back and enjoy your handiwork!

6. Release some mental baggage. Make a conscious decision to shed some of the emotional downers that can invade over winter. Give the boot to your desire to stay in and watch TV; Decide not to waste anymore energy worrying about what your neighbor/spouse/boss/friends/the news thinks you should be worried about; Make a list of all that you are grateful for; Get outside and enjoy the sunshine!