Spring is officially here! Spring cleaning has been a tradition for, you won’t believe it, thousands of years. While reasons for the event and when it generally happens varies across cultures, the commonality seems to be to cleanse and reset your space. The feeling of a reset can do so much for your wellbeing, especially when many of us are thawing from a full winter in quarantine.
I recently signed a lease for my new place and I’ve been packing a little bit everyday to avoid overwhelming myself at the last minute. While I’m not necessarily doing the conventional version of spring cleaning, I am going through all of my belongings to ensure I cut down on the amount of “stuff” I bring with me. Throwing little scraps out is the goal, but I am an incredibly sentimental person and find myself struggling to permanently get rid of certain things. I have ticket stubs from my first Warped Tour in 2009 and a stack of fast passes from my first trip to Disneyland. It unlocks memories I forgot I even had, but also takes up lots of space. There are a few ideas I want to share that you can use to help restore your sanctuary. It may also protect the little things from getting damaged and you potentially losing that ability to remember.
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You can always make a scrapbook! Get the little artifacts and put them all together with this fun craft project.That way you can even jot notes about the memory as they come, and it’ll be so much easier to share with friends and family.
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Take polaroid (or even digital) pictures! Taking pictures of the items may be a great solution for you- maybe you don’t need to hold it, seeing it could be enough and a collection of uniform photographs in an album could really satisfy your eye for perfection.
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Decorate a picture frame, tray or even a piece of furniture! Take all of your little mementos and use them to decorate something that you will see almost everyday. If it’s part of your home decor, you may find that the reminder of such memories makes you smile on days where you need a little extra light. Using an acrylic sealer will allow it to last forever.
Ultimately, you may not even know that holding onto some things from the past is actually hindering your ability to move forward in life. It’s important to think about everything you own and how it’s really serving you in your present. With that in mind, let’s move onto clothing.
My body has transformed in so many different ways in the past 5 years. I have been plus sized, mid sized, slim/straight sized- and kept all of the clothing from each stage. That’s crazy! While there may be a few articles that have extreme value, whether they’re handmade, vintage, or tied to valuable memories such as a prom dress, it can cause a lot of harm to keep clothing with the thought that it’ll one day benefit you again. If it doesn’t serve you anymore, consider getting rid of it. And this should rarely ever mean just throwing it out- you can donate it, give it to friends, resell on FB Marketplace or Poshmark or you can even repurpose the fabric to make something completely new!
You are not automatically stuck and selfish for keeping things from the past and having a lot of clothes, but I do recommend asking yourself if any of your stuff is holding you back from moving forward, having new experiences, and accepting yourself as you are. There is a feeling of lightness when you thoughtfully reflect on each thing you own. It may seem overwhelming at first but I promise by the end of it, you’ll learn so much about what it means to be you and feel even closer to yourself. If this past year has taught me anything, it’s that you need to be okay with being close to yourself and more than that, you should work towards loving it!