4 Tips for Psychological Spring Cleaning

It’s finally spring! The snow is melting, the trees are budding, and the breeze actually has a hint of warmth in it. You know what that means: time to throw open the windows and air everything out! While I do plan on literally opening the windows and airing out my house—and have, in fact, had the windows open for the better part of a week—something else I have to do is air out my mind for a psychological spring cleaning.

Since the beginning of 2015, I’ve felt scattered and disorganized. Part of this was knowing that we’re PCSing to Fort Bragg but not being able to contact houses until recently. (This part has now become the “OMG, we haven’t found a house yet” part.)

Another part is falling behind on my own blog. I’ve managed to maintain my schedule, but writer’s block has been preventing me from scheduling much ahead of time.

I’ve also been looking for jobs near Fort Bragg, and actually just got a job offer…in Raleigh. So, that’s an additional area of stress, because now we need to find a house that isn’t a ridiculous commute to Raleigh, but is also still close to Fort Bragg. Oh, and soon, because I start in April.

Finally, as minor as this seems, my desk is cluttered, and when my desk is cluttered my mind is cluttered, and I’ve been procrastinating on cleaning it because I always find something else to do.

However, enough is enough.

While many focus on spring cleaning this time of here, I thought I’d give myself a psychological spring cleaning.

Here’s my four-step program:

1. Prioritize.

I am so bad at this. I’m also bad at saying no, and I’m bad at knowing my limits. Not counting my new job (which doesn’t start for another week and a half), here are some of the obligations currently on my plate: writing for AWN, writing my own blog, working on a collaborative book blog, copy editing for a Boston College sports blog, myriad social and volunteer obligations with the ladies of the Fort Jackson DENTAC (dental command), training and taking care of my dog, cleaning and de-cluttering our house before our move (and just in general), house-hunting for our PCS to Bragg, and more.

What I need to do—what I’m going to do—is sit down and make an exhaustive list of all my obligations, and prioritize accordingly. I don’t know yet what that’ll look like, but it’s the first step in getting organized.

2. Let it go.

First, I have to admit something: No, I haven’t seen Frozen (gasp!), but the point still stands: something’s gotta give. Probably. After prioritizing, if there’s something that I need to drop, especially once work in Raleigh starts taking up a significant amount of time, I have to do it, and I have to be okay with it. I’m pretty sure this will be the hardest part; I’ve never exactly been good at letting things go.

This also goes for all the stress surrounding our imminent PCS, as well as my new job, which naturally starts two months before we PCS. What’s going to happen is going to happen, and stressing about it isn’t going to change that. If I have to stay with family for the first few weeks I’m working instead of beginning a new rental early, that’s fine. That’s not to say I’m going to stop being proactive about house hunting and finding a place that we love that checks all (or most) of our boxes, but I’m going to work really hard to compartmentalize it a little bit and stop thinking about it all the time.

3. Enlist help. 

I’m lucky enough to have a pretty unflappable husband, and he’s been very good at talking me down when I start freaking out about something. We’re going to have to figure out how to work with me being in Raleigh three days a week, and we’re going to have to do it soon. Obviously, this is also where we need to set and stick to a time limit! However, I know that we will figure it out, because we’re good at that. (Okay…he’s good at that.)

4. Get active.

Something else I’m going to make an effort to do, and something I would recommend to anyone else who needs a little mental spring cleaning, is exercise again. When we first moved here, I ran two miles almost every day for about two months. The minute it started to get cold, I gave it up, and boy, do I regret it. I’m no runner, but getting up in the morning and going for a run gave me an easy win for the day. If I didn’t accomplish anything the rest of the day, at least I knew I had gone for a run, and that made me feel pretty great. It doesn’t have to be running, either, and it doesn’t have to be in the morning—lunchtime yoga or a post-dinner stroll could work just as well. Exercise has this amazing ability to make me feel at peace with everything, and now that the weather is getting warmer, I’ll hopefully be able to push myself to do it more.

So, that’s my plan. Prioritize, let things go that need to be let go, enlist help, and get active. Hopefully I’ll be able to report back in a few weeks with a clearer mind!

What are your tips (or plans) for a psychological spring cleaning? Share with us!