Spring Cleaning

This time every year I get into a major Spring cleaning frenzy. Even though the house has been cluttered all year, I always seem to pick Spring to just finally give in and want to clean out every nook and cranny of the house. This year though is a little bit different. Since January, I have been reading a ton about decluttering my life and how it goes beyond just your home. The past couple months I have started focusing on “Spring Cleaning” up my life and while it does take a conscious effort each day, I wanted to share some of the things that have worked for me lately.

Spring Cleaning

Top (no longer available, but I love thisthis one too from Francescas!) |Lipstick | Necklace from Kendra Scott

Home:

• Start small. I tend to think about EVERY tiny little thing that needs to be done, but start small and think about one thing you can do this week. This week my goal is to clean out my nightstand. I don’t even understand where all the junk in there has come from!
• Move winter clothes out of your closet.I like to move my winter clothes into the spare bedroom closet and just see the clothes that are in season. This is a good time also, to take note of what you didn’t wear this year and decide if you still even want it! I do this twice a year and it helps me get rid of clothes I no longer wear. Totally Optional, but I also like to get matching plastic hangers. I can’t stand the wire ones! They drive me crazy. This small thing, just makes the closet feel more put together and organized!
• Fresh flowers and a new candle helps too!

Inbox:

• My inbox was stressing me out. I have had the same email for over 7 years and had subscribed to a crazy amount of junk. I found the unroll.me app (ps: it is free!) and have unsubscribed to 187 junk email subscriptions!

Photos:

• Y’all, I have an addiction. I have over 11,000 photos on my phone! ( Since I wrote this rough draft of this post last month, I somehow managed to add another 1,000. – told ya, I had a problem!) This is something that I have not actually fixed yet, but am working on it! I did take time to go in and create albums on my phone/ computer to help me organize them better. Do y’all have any solutions for this? I’d love some help!
• This is on my to-do list, but I do have a DIY in the works to actually make me display my pictures instead of keep them stored on my phone to hardly ever be looked at. Anyone else have this problem?

Take Better Care of Yourself:

I am sooo guilty of running myself into the ground. Overcommitting, staying up way too late, eating terribly, and then I end up so worn out that I literally waste an entire weekend on the couch which creates a cycle of feeling guilty etc. etc. repeat. repeat. I reached my breaking point around January and realized I needed to take time to slow down and take better care of myself. Here are just a couple things I have been trying and focusing on.

• Dance class – I started taking a jazz class once a week! It is so challenging and fun. It has been over 10 years since I last danced! Find something you love to do and block out an hour a week to do it. Taking this one hour a week for myself has seriously made me a happier person.
• Fill your well – I recently read a book that told you to take 5 minutes to write down a list of things that bring you joy. It can be literally be something bigger, like traveling, or even something smaller like enjoying your coffee on the patio in the mornings or going to the zoo. I wrote down around 10-12 things that truly bring me joy. The author of the book then asked, what would your life look like if you found a way to incorporate at least one of these things into your life each day, even if for just five minutes. Believe me, I totally get it! Some days I wish I had five minutes to spare, but I have really been trying lately to add little things here and there, because ultimately I have realized that these things bring me joy, which makes me happier.
• Try a new recipe – I have been perusing some of my favorite food bloggers blogs lately and picking at least one new recipe to try. I make it on Sundays, that way I can enjoy the process and not feel rushed during the week. This week I choose this Honey Garlic ChickenHoney Garlic Chickenrecipe. SOOOO GOOD. It was definitely a winner.
• Drinking more water
• What can you take off your to-do list that is taking up time, but doesn’t add value? – This was huge for me. I realized that I was setting unrealistic expectations of myself to accomplish SO MANY tasks that really didn’t NEED to be done right now/if at all. Once I took some of those off, delegated a few, and even though it was hard – I had to say no to some commitments that were just too much for me right now. It means that I don’t go to EVERY event and that I know that I need time to myself. Look over your calendar/ to-do list and if you are feeling overwhelmed, see what you can take a step back from.

Hope these help! These are just some things I have been doing and trying to keep focused on that I feel like have helped me the last couple months.

Thank y’all for stopping by!

Photography by: Diamond Oak PhotographyDiamond Oak Photography