8 Ways to Spring Clean Your Life
It was a rainy Saturday LA -- and if you've lived here you know that means the city was shut down. Here in Los Angeles, we derive our energy from the sunlight and many activities are meant to be done outdoors, so when it rains we literally don’t know what to do during daylight hours. Normally, I roll out of bed on Saturday mornings ready to go hike or workout or do something productive like drink mimosas; however, due to the unusual downpour, those plans were cancelled and I was left to decide whether I’d give into my inner couch potato or make something of this rainy day. I decided that it'd be very poetic of me to go to a cafe and write, and I soon found myself at a coffee shop in Larchmont Village talking to two of my favorite people in this city. Somewhere between taking picture of our lattes and gossiping about the people around us, we decided that we were hot messes and that we needed to clean up our lives in 2019. Therefore, it only made sense that my next blog post be inspired by that very thought -- featuring some inspiration from Marie Kondo’s Tidying Up. Since I hadn’t yet watched the popular Netflix Series -- due to anxiety about it confirming that I am indeed a slob -- we came to the conclusion that I’d need some more reinforcements on this post. So join Adriana, Elisa, and me as we discuss the nine areas of our lives that we should spring clean this year: relationships, closets, bad habits, subscriptions, phones, spaces, finances and more!
Step #1: Spring Clean Your RELATIONSHIPS
MAYA
I learned something important in college: the way that you show love to others may not be the way they express it to you. For example, I’m very much a person who shows love with words of affirmation (it’s one of my love languages 🤷🏿) and when I have friends that do that same it’s so easy to understand when we’re on the same page and when we’re not. But it’s wild to think that everyone I interact will have the same love languages as me. I have one friend that shows her adoration and loyalty through acts of service and quality time, which means she might not tell you all the time that she loves you or text you everyday to see what’s up, but rather she shows her love through simply being there for you. When I realized this about her, I was so touched to be one of the people that she makes time for. I say this to say that I feel like sometimes we’re really quick to cut people off in this generation, but before we do I think it’s important for us to try to translate our love languages, and see if it is a relationship worth saving.
However, while I do think we should be careful who we cut off — my dad always advised me against burning bridges — it’s vital to make sure that those whom you hold close do nothing but add value to your life. If they don’t, if you feel them negatively impacting your spirit in any way shape or form, you might need to cut them off. Here are some ways you can try to salvage the relationship before you do:
Setting Mental Boundaries: Before either of you vent to each other about things that may be triggering or mentally exhausting, practice asking if the other person is in a mental space to participate in the following dialogue.
Honest Conversation: Talk to them about what in your current relationship is not ideal. Identify what can be changed and make an active decision to work on those things as a team.
Time Apart: Absence makes the heart grow fonder and that’s no lie. If this person is someone who is constantly in your life, spend a couple of days, weeks, months, apart. That make succeed to give you clarity on how to proceed in your friendship.
ADRIANA
For me, relationships are about reciprocity whether they be romantic, platonic, or somewhere in between. If you find yourself doing all the emotional labor in your relationship, it might be time to think about whether that person is adding anything to your life and have an open and honest chat with them.
Maya is right - relationships can be salvaged but it takes vulnerability, compromise, and work from both parties. Other times, we have to let people go. And that’s okay.
ELISA
I can’t really pinpoint any toxic relationships (maybe I am the toxic relationship 😬) so for me this is more about nurturing the relationships I have and care about. Making plans with that friend I haven’t seen in a while. Calling my sister. Texting my long distance best friends to hear what’s new in their lives. My life can feel really cluttered at times with work/stress/exercise/chores/lack of sleep building up so I work on setting boundaries on those things so I can make time for the people that I care about.
Step #2: Spring Clean Your CLOSET
ADRIANA
I’ve always had something in my closet that I’m HOPING to fit into. I’ve always told myself, When you lose ten pounds, think of how this will look on you. Think of how much better your life will be! Waiting for your life to start after some arbitrary goal is reached is an awful way to live your life. In 2019, I’m going to revel in the present, and buy clothes that look good on me NOW.
My advice: start sorting your clothes by how often you wear them. If there’s a sweater or pair of jeans or crop top that you never wear… girl toss that sh** and use the space for something that makes you happy RIGHT NOW.
MAYA
As a plus size woman who LOVES fashion, going to the mall can be hard sometimes. I always want the cutesy, trendy clothes from fast-fashion stores. Sometimes I even convince myself that things that are slightly too tight will fit me in a couple months once I hit my fitness goals. But here’s the thing, I could just buy the right size for now and then if/when my size changes buy some more clothes. The most important thing is that everything in your closet makes you feel beautiful, confident, and worthy. If that’s not the case, GET RID OF IT.
A little piece of advice before I go, if you don’t absolutely love it at the store you won’t wear it when you get home!
ELISA
I am that girl with a decently filled closet who always complains about having nothing to wear. I have 3 go-to shirts (black tank top, black t-shirt, other black t-shirt) and everything else just sits there. I don’t know why I am this way, please don’t ask.
As I was Kondo-ing my closet (more on that later) I decided to go by a simple rule with most of my clothing: if I haven’t worn it in the last month, give it away.
“But I’m saving that for summer!”
“It’s gonna be perfect for this trip!”
“I just haven’t had the right opportunity to wear it yet!”
Girl if ya haven’t worn it in the last month you probably just aren’t going to wear it. Anyway, I’m not perfect, so I still managed to make excuses for a good amount of clothing but Hey! I did clear out some much-needed dresser and closet space.
Step #3: Spring Clean Your BAD HABITS
ADRIANA
Trigger warning: dieting . New Year, New Me, baby!!!
If the end of your 2018 was anything like mine, you ate way too much takeout and went to the gym approximately once. So, the new year ~for me~ was about getting back to the things that I love to do that are actually good for me.
January 2019 was about breaking bad habits, deleting the domino’s (uber eats and postmates) app from my phone and getting back to cooking at home! So I embarked on a thirty-day clean eating extravaganza. Whole30. Whole30 is technically an elimination diet meant for people who are having some sort of reaction to their food but don’t know where it’s coming from. You cut out all the food groups that you might be sensitive to then slowly reintroduce them into your diet at the end of the thirty days. For me, this wasn’t about finding allergies, it was about knowing where my food was coming from and connecting with my food through the process of cooking, so I focused on finding really tasty recipes without dairy, soy, grains, or added sugar.
I thoroughly enjoyed being able to shut off my brain for forty five minutes and take that me-time to meditatively prepare myself dinner. Plus, I would then be immediately rewarded with food way tastier than anything I could order.
For thirty days I ate clean foods and felt like a better version of myself. During that time, I had way more energy throughout the day and didn’t feel the gross crash from surviving only on coffee and bread. Plus I saved so much money on takeout. Afterwards, I was rewarded with a lifelong appreciation of cauliflower rice and an enormous rush of accomplishment.
My advice: I don’t think everyone needs to go on Whole30, but if there’s something in your life that you want to change, a habit you’re trying to break, know that you’re fully capable. All you need is a plan and the dedication to a better you.
MAYA
SHEESH, that was motivational, Adriana.
As a former black child, I have a history with negative reinforcement to get rid of bad habits -- for those of you who don't know I'm talking about whoopins. However, studies show different types of reinforcement psychologically stimulate different types of people. Personally, I feel that in the spirit treating yourself with love, positive reinforcement is a healthy way to motivate oneself. Say you’re trying to lose weight. Set a specific goal and tell yourself that when you reach it you’ll buy yourself a new pair of leggings or headphones. That way you have something to look forward to and when you reach your goal you get to reward yourself without feeling bad about it, now that’s what we call #SelfLove.
ELISA
Adriana made a strong argument for Whole 30, but I am actually quite content with my balanced diet of McChickens, donuts, and Sweetgreen salads, so I’ll politely decline. Though I have heard rumors that my daily 3pm headaches might subside if I cut down on the cookies at work.... Guess we'll never know 🤷🏽.
The real bad habit I want to discuss is complaining that I have no hobbies outside of work and then doing absolutely nothing about it. I used to be a vibrant 23-year-old with artistic and musical passions, but then I got a big girl job and sleep became my main extracurricular activity closely followed by Netflix, eating, and Jose Cuervo.
This spring, I decided to stop making excuses and bought myself a keyboard piano. Sitting at the piano and playing feels so good! I love coming home and playing for a few minutes (which sometimes turns into an hour) in the evening after work. This inspired me to go to the art store and pick up some new pens—now I’m doodling again!
Moral of the story: don’t wait a year to change your habits! But even if you do wait a year, it’s definitely worth it.
Step #4: Spring Clean Your SUBSCRIPTIONS
MAYA
We’re deep into the age of subscriptions. It’s so easy to sign up for things we don’t actually need. As we get buried deeper and deeper by these different companies offering us products we may or may not need and $5/month turns into $50/month for things we don’t even use!
So here’s my advice, take a deep dive into all of your accounts (credit cards, debit cards, and email) and list out all of your active subscriptions. Then cut one, JUST ONE, that you don’t really need. I did it and I’ve decided to pause my Book of the Month subscription. You see, the way that my work schedule is set up, I’ve got a queue of about 4 books lined up that I haven’t even cracked open yet. So I’m gonna call and disable my account until I catch up on all these books — plus Adriana promised she’d take me to get a library card.
ELISA
I also could take you to get a library card but it’s fine……..
On the real though highly recommend a library card for all you book-loving people! I have a Kindle and a lot of people are surprised to hear that I can check out books and read them on there.
I said tearful goodbyes to a couple subscriptions recently -- R.I.P Adobe Creative Cloud and Classpass! Similar to my closet situation, I just kept saying, "I swear I’m going to Photoshop something this weekend," and before I knew it six months had gone by without my touching it for a personal project. CUT! Classpass and I had a great run, but then I joined a gym that offers workout classes. CUUUUUT.
ADRIANA
Maya, we can go to the library whenever you want. And Elisa, please let’s talk about how expensive an Adobe subscription is …. I had to say goodbye to Creative Cloud after realizing that if you haven’t been regularly using something in the past three months, you probably won’t need it anytime soon. And you shouldn’t be paying $50/Month for it.
I’d like to double down here and ask you to please look at your bank statement and make sure you have no surprise purchases. (Yes, someone did recently take my debit card on a trip to FashionNova without me… Don’t be me.)
Step #5: Spring Clean Your PHONE
ELISA
Soooo I recently did a phone “cleanse” but it wasn’t by choice...my older iPhone decided to stop working the other day and in getting a replacement (thanks for nothing, Genius Bar) nothing but the contacts from my old phone transferred over to my new one. Surprisingly, this was actually a nice little zen moment for me, having a clean new phone with no apps or pics or texts. Is anyone else obsessively nostalgic, refusing to delete text conversations or voicemails from 2012? Same. Does anyone actually read or listen to said texts and voicemails? I sure don’t. But with the decision to delete made for me I felt strangely relieved and freed from my self-made prison. I was also finally freed from the daily notifications I was getting, telling me I was out of storage space on my phone, computer, cloud, etc. And you know I’m not about to drop $5 monthly for more cloud storage.
My advice if you are also facing this issue: Move all your photos to the cloud with Google photos. Unlimited space for free and you can still access them from your phone/computer! Then delete them from your phone. Rip it off like a Band-Aid. Then just ride that wave and delete apps you don’t use. Delete texts. You know what? Now we’re going full Kondo. Turn off notifications, social media obsession is the devil anyway. Full purge mode. Delete it all. Oh my bad Maya I went a little off the rails there.
MAYA
Yoooo, have you considered just color coding your apps instead of deleting them? I know it doesn’t reduce clutter but it makes you feel organized and creative.
ADRIANA
Step 1. Color code the apps on your phone.
Step 2. Discover your selection of yellow apps is seriously lacking.
Step 3. Find and Download 5 useless yellow apps so that the gradient is even.
Step 4. Realize you have a problem.
Step #6: Spring Clean Your SPACE
ELISA
Ok so I watched the first episode of Marie Kondo’s show on the treadmill and while I was generally not motivated to continue watching more episodes, I did feel inspired to organize my apartment. I went home that night and started throwing clothes into a shopping bag. Then moved on to my desk. Then my dresser. Then I rewarded myself for this purge by dropping like $30 on a makeup organizer and plastic bins and now my room looks amazing and I have a couple bags of stuff in the back of my car ready for Goodwill!
Main advice from me and my Kondo-inspired experience: get rid of things you don’t use. Seriously, similar to clothes, if you haven’t used something in the last month then it’s probably not worth hanging on to. Go through old papers/magazines and recycle what you don’t need to keep. Go through your desk drawer, you know the one...where you just throw miscellaneous items you don’t know what to do with. Clean it out!
Put similar items together so you aren’t hunting all over the house for something (i.e. small bins for all medicine, makeup you don’t use regularly, art supplies, cleaning supplies, travel stuff). Label the bins! I used tape and sharpie so I can change the labels later. Invest in organizers for your dresser and desk, especially if you’re prone to leaving things in piles on top of them. A clean tabletop is so calming.
MAYA
Elisa, you don’t have to yell. First of all, I feel attacked because I’m one of those people that has to fold clothes and put them on the floor because my drawers are overflowing. I really should go through my closet, but I feel like if I throw something out I’ll miss it when I want to wear it. So here’s the thing, I’m gonna work on organizing my items into bins and getting organizers first and theeeeen, I’ll pray on the closet issue. And, I just ordered the very makeup organizer that Elisa got, she's made me a believer.
ADRIANA
My advice: HANGERS. If you are like me and don't own drawers, hanging all your clothes is a revelation. It’s much faster than folding and you don’t have to deal with wrinkles. It also makes it easy to sort through the clothes in your closet so you can donate what you don’t wear to make space for literally anything else.
Step #7: Spring Clean Your FINANCES
MAYA
Back in the olden days our parents used calculators, legal pads, and maybe even excel sheets to create and stick to their budgets. Nowadays, who has time for that. There are so many budgeting apps that want to do the work for you and for free at that. My favorite of the moment is MINT powered by Intuit. It’s dope because you can connect your bills and all of your payment methods. Based on your history of spending it gives you a budget for all the areas of your life (entertainment, restaurants, bars and clubs, coffee shops, etc.) so it’s just up to you whether or not you stick to it!
ELISA
When we first moved to LA and started working together, Adriana and I went ham on some Google spreadsheets (formulas and conditional formatting and all) to figure out our budgets. I don’t know about her, but I only stuck to updating that spreadsheet for about two months. It still was handy in showing me about how much I typically spend (and how much I CAN spend without going broke) monthly on different categories like groceries, dining out, Ubers, gas, etc. It could be helpful to take a couple months of bills and look at what you spent on these categories, then take steps to decrease spending in areas you identify as unnecessary. For example, I joined a fancy new gym because health and fitness is an area I’m willing to invest in, so I take steps to dine out less (make more lunches, cook more on weekends) to compensate.
ADRIANA
Yes, Elisa, I abandoned that spreadsheet so quickly and maybe lied to you about it I felt ashamed.
As much as I love a good spreadsheet, when it comes to my finances, I’ve found that a simpler strategy works the best for me. Here’s what’s currently working for me: as soon as you get your paycheck, move however much you want to save into your savings account. Now make sure you don’t even THINK about touching that money. Then you don’t have to worry about where you’re spending, only about how much.
Step #8: Spring Clean Your...JUST CLEAN
ADRIANA
I’m gonna keep this one pretty simple: DON’T BE NASTY.
Set a cleaning schedule and keep to it. Clean the bathroom, do your laundry, rinse your plates before you throw them in the dishwasher. This will clear up so much mental space, I promise you.
MAYA
Somebody reading needs to hear this...change your sheets it’s been a month. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
ELISA
I’m pretty good at changing my sheets and vacuuming. Vacuuming is one of my hobbies. There, I said it. However...I don’t remember the last time I washed my Hydroflask. I’m embarrassed. Someone please say something else so we don’t have to end here.
Whew, chile! If you made it to the end of this blog post shout out to you, this was much longer than usual. I hope you enjoyed us rambling on about the areas of our lives we've found room for improvement in and maybe it'll inspire you to do a different type of spring cleaning as the flower start to bloom!
As always, thanks for reading and please like, share, and subscribe!
Yours truly,
