Spring is here!! The change from winter to spring is one of my favorite times of the year. I live in New England where every season is signified by weather changes. Springtime means buds on the trees, greener grass, warmer mornings, and the start of Spring cleaning. It’s a great time for a fresh start all around, and after a year of social isolation, this Spring feels especially bright this year.

It’s a great time to purge the old and welcome the new. I will be clearing out my home, my yard, and my mind so I can welcome more good things into this year. Cleaning and organizing are great ways to reset our focus. I find that when my closets are cluttered or my basement is disorganized, the walls start closing in on me. Organization gives me the room I need to think about what makes me happy.

Shifting out of survival mode and into supporting your own ability to thrive takes a lot of little steps. Survival mode is operating within the conditions you’ve been given. Thriving is about growing out of those conditions and creating a life that feels good.

Small Ways to Get Out of Survival Mode:

Set a Sleeping & Eating Schedule

During the fall and winter months, there isn’t much daylight to work with so I can stay on schedule pretty easily. Once it starts getting dark outside I know dinner needs to be started which helps us all stay on track for bedtime. After daylight savings, all time goes out the window. It looks like it’s 4 pm when it’s 7 pm so I’m always missing dinner time, delaying bedtime, having less alone time with my husband, and then feeling behind.

Setting a schedule means adding reminders to the calendar on my phone. I have three kids under 5 so while I’d like to say that I can stay on track voluntarily, that’s just not true. I need a noise to pop up and tell me that I have to start dinner regardless of whether I think the sun is still at high-noon or not. Organizing eating and sleeping patterns help us feel regulated and energized. It makes implementing other small steps into our lives easier.

Benefit: Staying on track with your health keeps your mind clear of the fog and the guilt.

Clear Out the Clutter

Once you have your sleeping and eating on track, it’s time to start clearing out your living space. Clutter causes friction. Moving around a disorganized living space brings stress and weight to your life. Look around at what you have in your home. Do you have extra furniture or appliances, maybe some boxes that should have gone to storage already? These things become fixtures in our home so we barely notice the space they take up. But clearing out this space brings a lightness you didn’t know you needed.

Moving aroung furniture and boxes after a year of social isolation—when many of us let physical health lag—is probably not the safest way to bring more happiness into your life. Consider hiring a moving company like Fresh Start – the moving crew to help get those boxes moved into storage and the old furniture into donation or recycling.

Spring is also one of the best home-buying seasons too. So if your space is simply too small for all the things you need, consider this a season of change. If you’re in New England like me, it’s a great time to look for a new home with more space and then call a residential moving company in Worcester to get started. Fresh Start moving company is available with clean trucks, helpful crew, and competitive prices so you can create your new normal in a new location. Pack up only what you need and create a space where you and your family can thrive.

Benefit: Creating space in your home naturally leads to more space in your mind to think, to analyze, and to be there for yourself and others.

Start a Chore Schedule

I know, the word chore is boring and immediately brings bad feelings. But clean things bring good feelings! Cleaning one part of your home each day will make it feel clean all month long and it helps you feel accomplished on the days where all you did was that one chore.

Clean the bathroom sink after brushing your teeth. Don’t do the whole bathroom, just the sink. The next morning, wash the windows in the dining room or the kitchen. Don’t wash every window in the whole house, just two or three every day. Get into the habit of rotating tasks so every space gets the love they need.

If there are chores you do every day without fail, consider letting those fall into rotation. If you wake up to a sink of dirty dishes, it’s not the end of the world. It feels like it to me sometimes, but I also know when I need to sit and do nothing to reset my energy. I could be busy 100% of the time if I let myself. Five people live in my house so there is no way to never not be busy.

Benefit: Putting undesirable tasks on autopilot lessens the friction of doing them at all.

Check Your Credit Report

This one seems a little out of place, right? It’s not. Our adultness weighs on us more than anything. When we have debt, unknown issues on our credit report, or no handle on our finances, it can be draining. We have dreams about the future and they can be invigorating if they feel accessible, but they can also be anxiety-ridden if it feels as though we’ll never reach our end-goal.

Get a handle on your financial situation so you know where you can start making small changes. Progress happens step by step so regardless of your current situation, there is a way out as long as you have a plan and take action.

Start by accessing your credit report on CreditKarma.com or through a credit card app like Capital One. Find out your score and what information is impacting it, then organize the information so you know how you will take care of any errors, past due balances, or negative marks on your report.

Benefit: Responsible adulting makes us feel valid and in control of our lives.

Prioritize Your Happiness

Small changes help us refocus our energy so we can pursue our happiness. You are worthy of your time and attention. Creating a life that feels good is going to require that you put time and attention into the things you need.

Start with the basics:

1. Eat and sleep on a schedule.
2. Make more physical space in your life.
3. Rotate your cleaning schedule.
4. Keep track of your credit and finances.

I’m looking forward to a new spring season and to see how all of the small changes I’m making impact my day-to-day life. I hope you are too.