Spring is near, and spring fever is in the air! After a long winter nap now is the best time to tidy up what we’ve accumulated during our winter hibernation. This year rather than doing the usual spring cleaning get serious about tidying up your entire life.

While material possessions create the bulk of our clutter and are a great place to start, other areas of our lives need de-cluttering too. Finances, personal relationships, and even jobs and clubs could be purged from our lives. To do so takes honesty and discipline; what serves us and what does not can be hard to recognize sometimes. Letting go of things that clutter our lives leads to more freedom and productivity but this can be hard to see when unnecessary material objects and obligations are weighing us down.

Here are a few starting points for de-cluttering your life:

• Stop spending so much money on material possessions unless they are absolutely necessary. Instead, start spending money on experiences for a happier, more fulfilling life. What sounds better: spending a Saturday afternoon going on a shopping spree only to throw away most of it a year later, or going to a play or concert with a close friend?
• Tidy up your material possessions first. Having less physical clutter in your life helps you feel calmer and more organized, leading to less stress in other areas of your life. Sort through your clothes, then books, kitchen, garage, and personal belongings. Categorizing makes things more manageable. Also, don’t get bogged down with a “maybe” pile; if an item is no longer serving you or making you happy you don’t need it, no matter how much you like it. Donate your unwanted items.
• Clean up those intangible things, like your computer and phone. Get rid of outdated files, the music you no longer like, and contacts you no longer need. Go through your work papers, taxes, and receipts, and keep what is only essential. Even getting rid of the clutter you can’t see is a huge way to release stress and chaos. You’ll feel better going through daily life having only the essentials.

It can be difficult to completely de-clutter your life, but once you do so you may find the results magical. You will feel newfound freedom as you begin to see what’s important in life as well as what was never necessary. This purge of the unnecessary creates freedom and can help you devote your attention to the present. We know we don’t need all of our material possessions, and we know we can’t take them with us. Learning to live with only what we truly need is life-changing, and something that everyone can accomplish by learning the “magical” art of letting go.

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