Spring Cleaning Tips for Mental and Emotional Wellbeing
As we transition out of winter and into Spring, I often think of this season as an invitation to engage in some intentional mental spring cleaning—clearing space in your mind, freshening your emotional energy, and making room for renewed clarity and growth. Just as spring invites us to open up our windows, shake out the rugs, and donate what no longer serves us, it’s also the perfect time to clear out the mental clutter that’s built up over the winter months.
Tidying up our mental and emotional spaces is essential for our mental health. Here are some practical, evidence-informed ways to give your mind the spring refresh it deserves:
Morning Mind Dump: Your Mental Compost Bin
Much like cleaning out a cluttered drawer, we need to empty the contents of our mind regularly to see what we’re actually holding onto. I recommend a morning “thought dump” practice. Before diving into your day, take five to ten minutes to write down everything that’s swirling in your head—tasks, worries, reminders, judgments, or random thoughts.
Don’t edit or organize—just dump. This is your mental compost bin, collecting yesterday’s leftovers so you can start today with a little more space. You can do this in a journal, a notes app, or even a scrap piece of paper that you toss afterward.
Declutter Your To-Do List
Just as every plant in your garden can’t bloom at once, not every task on your list deserves equal attention. Use tools like the Eisenhower Matrix to sort tasks into four quadrants: urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, and neither.
This simple exercise helps you prune what’s nonessential so you can nurture what really matters. A simple pen-and-paper planner works great for this. The goal is to cut back the overgrowth of to-do’s so your energy can flow freely to what’s truly meaningful.
Clear the Mental Dust
When your mind is foggy and overwhelmed with worry, breathing techniques can be powerful tools for grounding. One of my favourites is box breathing—inhale for 4 counts, hold for 4, exhale for 4, and hold again for 4.
This technique engages your parasympathetic nervous system (your body’s “rest and digest” response), helping reduce mental clutter and calm the nervous system. Practice this whenever you feel stuck in rumination or spinning in circles mentally.
Do a Thought Inventory
A great spring-cleaning practice is to label your thoughts—“This is a worry,” “This is self-criticism,” “This is a planning thought.” By noticing instead of fusing with your thoughts, you create psychological distance and gain choice about which ones you want to keep.
Ask: Is this thought helping me grow, or is it taking up precious space? Let go of the ones that don’t serve your current season of life. Remember this takes a lot of practice, it won’t be easy right away but with time it may become more consistent.
Spring is a season of growth, but growth requires space. By decluttering your mental and emotional space, you create the conditions for something new to bloom.
Wishing you a season full of clarity, calm, and fresh new beginnings. Happy Spring!
