Spring Clean Your Life + Free Printable Checklist

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The other day I bought some Kale.

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This is Kale … apparently.

I heard it was like some kind of magic super food and it’s certainly trendy right now, so I thought I’d give it a go. I bought it for the exclusive purpose of adding it to the smoothies which I’ve just started drinking again. In fact, I must confess that I had no idea what kale looked like until I bought some and now I am very confused that my kale looks absolutely nothing like the images I found for this post and I’m still left wondering what the vegetable actually looks like before the leaves are yanked off!

But anyway, when I was going through my infertility battle which feels like many moons ago now, I went through a ‘do anything it takes’ phase in my efforts to try and get pregnant by doing literally anything at all that I thought might help. I even had a wooden fertility statue complete with a rather large extremity in the nether region that was completely out of proportion with the size of the statue. It was a gift from a friend (a male friend who had picked it up in Thailand or somewhere exotic) and though the likelihood was low, it still sat on the bedside cabinet in high hopes that maybe it did hold some kind of super power.

However, back to the topic at hand … after months of drinking smoothies every other day in an effort to improve my fertility I went off them completely. In fact, I went off fruit in general. In addition I will never again see an acupuncturist after countless sessions acting as a pin cushion for myriads of mini needles, nor will I endure the horridness of Chinese herbal medicine. And I went off green tea. And pretty much anything considered healthy.

These days with the quick and easy approach to meals at the top of the agenda, I need something that is simple but will give me the benefit without much effort, therefore smoothies have been reintroduced as part of my new Spring agenda.

I’m loving the slightly brighter weather starting to peek through the grey and it always makes me enthusiastic and motivated to make some changes, perhaps re-arrange the furniture, wash the curtains, vacuum under the couches … you know how it is. Walk some. Have a fleeting vision of yourself jogging before going back to walking. Fix the neglected garden. Release the children to the fresh air of the beach and river walks without drowning in the splash of a muddy puddle.

Muddy-Puddles
No concept of depth AT ALL. Nor does he care.

We all know the general things that appear on a Spring Cleaning List – the cleaning of the house from top to toe. Then of course there is the purging of the chocolate and pasta and fast food diet, hopefully followed by a loss of the spare tire caused by said diet packed on over the colder months.

My list is slightly different. Not so much about clean eating and dusting the house extensively, but rather life hacks to make your life easier (because I know we are all so busy!) while refreshing and changing things up a little.

So here’s my Spring Clean Your Life list (available as a free printable checklist at the bottom of this post should you want it!).

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SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE

  • Email subscription cleanse: You know how you always skip over certain emails you subscribed to at some point and hit the delete button over and over and over again. Why not just unsubscribe? Use https://unroll.me – check it out to unsubscribe all you want in one go! (Note: Once you unsubscribe your list the first time, you need to hit the ‘Edit Subscription’ button at the top to get the ‘New Items’ list where all your random subscriptions hide. I just went from 124 to 20. So worth doing!
  • Facebook pages cleanse: Same deal. Did you like a million FB pages when you entered some random competition after another? Go through and unlike the ones cluttering your newsfeed that you aren’t even interested in so you just see the ones you are.
  • Sort out your mail and important papers: If you’re anything like me you probably have a stash of mail that was opened and thrown in a ‘file away or deal with it later’ pile. Sort it.

GET YOUR HOUSE SUMMER READY

  • Check your fire alarm batteries: Traditionally this is done on daylight savings but no harm in doing it now!
  • Clean out the freezer: Make way for the summer BBQ packs!
  • Review your utilities: Utility providers are sneaky buggers and often once you are past the time period that they bargained you into signing up with them (usually with some awesome deal) they then knock you up to some less than desirable rates without advising you. Do some homework and check your phone, internet, power and insurance providers to make sure you are on the best deal you could be on.
  • Wash blankets, cushion covers and curtains
  • Vacuum the wall edges and under furniture
  • Rearrange furniture and furnishings (out with the woollen blankets and in with the cotton throws): Sometimes rearranging a room can give it an all new feel! I park a couch over a window in winter to retain heat, in summer I move it to let the light in. 
  • Air the house out: First nice day, open every window in your house! Let the air flow through and freshen the place up with a nice air spray (I love using aromatherapy oils in water in a spray bottle – grapefruit and lemon are really refreshing scents).
  • Clean the glass of picture frames and mirrors: I have all my mums artwork on the walls and let me tell you, the glass takes a battering with the kids fingerprints and dust collecting on top of the frames and don’t even talk to me about my mirrors! Grubby.  
  • Clean the windows: Inside and out. You want to let that sun shine in!

FOCUS ON YOU

  • Sort your summer wardrobe: Make room for some funky new clothes, make up and jewellery by throwing away the stuff that doesn’t flatter you, is old or broken.
  • Pluck your eyebrows: A super simple way to update your look.
  • Buy new sunscreen: Slip, slop, slap!
  • Colour your hair a shade lighter: A lighter hair colour is always nice and summery!
  • Fix your feet: Months in socks equals not so pretty! Exfoliate, slather in moisturiser and buy some new nail polish!
  • Start exfoliating: Your body will thank you.
  • Start exercising and getting some vitamin D and fresh air: No excuses in the warmer weather!
  • Start Pinteresting salads, super smoothies and summer cocktails! Yum!: I’ll be into the frozen margaritas this summer!

FOR THE KIDS

  • Sort  your kids clothes: You’ll thank me come next winter! See what you still need to buy this summer BEFORE you go and buy a whole bunch having forgotten the 10 T-shirts you picked up for $3 a pop at the end of summer sales earlier in the year. Then pack away the winter stuff that they will still fit next year and donate the clothes they’ve outgrown.
  • Renew the Toy Box: You probably get sick of tripping over toys as much as I do so I find simplifying the toy box to a few handfuls they actually play with and packing away the rest is the best thing you can do (especially since they will likely spend the majority of their time outside shortly – one can hope anyway!). Swap them up every few months as the current lot start to be neglected. While you’re at it, throw away any broken toys, toys that have bits missing, stray puzzle pieces, broken crayons and those cheap knick knacky stupid toys that just end up everywhere but seem to have zero purpose but to be annoying. Toss them all!

CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE ‘SPRING CLEAN YOUR LIFE’ PRINTABLE CHECKLIST 

Free-Printable Spring Clean Your Life Checklist

What are you most looking forward to doing this Spring? Do you usually do a Spring Clean? Are you going to join me and give this checklist a go?

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41 thoughts on “Spring Clean Your Life + Free Printable Checklist

    1. It’s so much easier when you just do one little bit at a time aye. I’m starting with the lounge because it’s where we spend most of our time. My bedroom is the WORST. Somehow it’s ended up a dumping ground!

  1. Our big thing in spring is to start making sure that the house is ready for the fire season, which officially kicks off for us on October 1. Getting the yard cleared, making sure I have all the important paperwork in the bushfire boxes packed and ready to go, getting safety gear together. It’s glamorous stuff, but vital. It was almost this time two years ago that we had an emergency bushfire evacuation, so shit gets real around here. We go hardcore with our spring cleaning. LOL!
    Hugzilla recently posted…The Seven Emotional Stages of Dealing With Fussy EatersMy Profile

        1. I just googled! That looks so nice! Well, apart from the fires and probable wildlife you get in the bush in Aus! Haha. I’ll stick with our possums and wetas!

  2. Well aren’t you just the little organiser! Good for you. I am already in the process of a few of these things now. Starting to clean the pantry and clean the windows tomorrow too! As for the unsubscribing and facebook likes….I really want to do it, but I feel bad for unsubscribing or unliking. I know they aren’t going to know but I still feel bad!
    Kelly recently posted…WHEN PARENTING IS THE SAME AS A BIG WHITE DRAGON. SORT OF.My Profile

    1. I’m more talking about fashion stores and the one day type sales via email and the company pages than anything that has an individual person behind them 🙂 I hear ya on that!

  3. Good list Haidee, and totally relating to the infertility ‘do anything to get pregant’ list of things you tried – the Chinese herbs you boiled up with that awful pungent smell and taste that still makes me squirm! The main healthy thing I’ve kept from those days is yoga – and I’m glad of that. To your spring clean list I might have to add ‘shave your legs and other bits’ as mine are looking like a forrest.
    Kathy recently posted…Thanks Sir Richard BransonMy Profile

  4. I usually do an email sub cleanse before I go away on holidays; I hadn’t heard of unroll.me before but totally need to bookmark it! I don’t bother cleansing my FB pages anymore; if I haven’t looked at or engaged with any of their stuff, I know they don’t tend to appear in my newsfeed so that’s good enough for me … besides I hate breaking people’s hearts 🙂 .

    Visiting from #teamIBOT x
    Janet aka Middle Aged Mama recently posted…Do you Kiss your Children on the Lips?My Profile

  5. Awesome list Haidee! Just what I needed. Unroll.me is completely life changing and thanks for the reminder to clean out my facebook. Been meaning to do that for ages! I too have just got back on the green smoothie bandwagon too… after seeing Jahda drom simoke green smoothies speak at PB. Think I’m going to do their Oct challenge. Xx
    shannon @my2morrows recently posted…The Ultimate Rabbit Hole #34My Profile

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