Spring Cleaning: Not just for your house!

By Debbie Norris Ovarian Cancer Survivor and Advocate

It’s that time of year again. We’re all looking forward to the budding trees and flowers. Warmer weather, birds singing, open windows. Along with these things come cabin fever and the desire for spring cleaning.

Growing up, this meant my siblings and I spent several weekends going through our bedrooms and every other room in the house with my mom. We’d review all of our possessions and figure out what we didn’t want, need or use anymore and get them out of the house. Sometimes we’d give these items to friends and sometimes to local thrift stores.

As I’ve gotten older and now have my own house and a husband, we tend to do this as well. Usually we don’t have to take several weekends. Most of the time it’s one weekend in the house and one weekend in the garage. Then we spend another weekend working in the yard to get everything prepped for flowers and landscape. I’m really not sure how many people spring clean anymore. Today, I think more people call it “decluttering.” However, as I sit in the midst of the piles I’m going to purge this year, I’ve been thinking about the other areas of my life that could use a good “spring cleaning”. Those areas that are cluttered with things I’ve held onto for years; things that aren’t helping me in the least and just taking up room.

The first area I’m looking to start with is my social media accounts. What accounts don’t I use? Why do I have them in the first place? Are they valuable to me if I’m not using them? Why should I keep them? All the questions I ask about physical possessions before deciding to keep or get rid of them. Another hard question to ask is, does the social media I do use keep me from doing other important things? Does it keep me from being fully present with family and friends in real life? How much time could I redeem in my day if I’m not using certain social media?

The second area I’m looking at is my mind. This one is a bit tougher. I will add that I am going through this with my counselor. Examining my thoughts and the things I’m focusing on daily. Where am I focusing my thought energy? Are my thoughts leading my actions? Are they beneficial or are they making my life more difficult? Are my thoughts making me more negative? More emotional? More sensitive? If working to change the direction of my thoughts and cleaning out the negatives seems like a lot of work, will the end result be a more efficient me? Will I be more understanding? More positive? More fun to be around?

A third area I’m looking at is my health. What can I clean out of my diet? Am I really being the kindest to myself and my body? Am I really being a good wife to my husband with the food and meals we have in the house?

If I say I want to exercise or walk more and yet I never get up and out of the house to take a walk or go to the gym, am I really serious about wanting to improve my health? Being a cancer survivor, I really should be conscious of my health, what I put into my body and how I take care of it.

So how can we go about decluttering and spring cleaning these other areas? This doesn’t seem as easy as just packing a few boxes up and giving things away. These areas are going to take a lot more work.

Some ideas for starting points include: Looking at your social media accounts. What do you use them for? How often do you use them?

- Are you on social media “talking” to people more than you are talking to people in real life? For mental clutter – start journaling your thoughts.

- Are most of your thoughts negative? Bad attitude? With diet and health – journal your food & water intake for a week, as well as physical activity.

- What are you eating and drinking? Are you sedentary or more active?

These simple things will give you some insight as to where to start. Choosing one area and making it your focus will also make you more successful. Also realize these three areas are not the only ones out there. We all have areas in our lives which could use refocusing. It’s a matter of taking the time to figure out what needs to be cleaned up.

Spring cleaning and decluttering is never easy. It always requires sacrifice and work. Starting with your house, basement or garage could be your big first step. Just remember –Spring Cleaning: It’s Not Just for Your House Anymore.”