Spring Clean with a twist!

It’s that time of year isn’t it. The time we try to deep clean our homes, have a clear out, take the items we’ve hoarded over the winter months to the tip.

We’re currently coming to the end of renovating our house (finally). It’s been a long slog to get to this point but we’ve just finished our final major project, the bathroom! I’ve been in a little bit of a rut and a cycle of cleaning the mess that continues to pile up from having 2 kids under 4. It doesn’t leave me with much time to do any of the finishing jobs at the house and I just sit down at the end of the night exhausted, looking at unfinished painting and toys without a home.

So onto the spring clean, with a twist. I’ve decided over the next few weeks I would like to have a spring clean of my home AND my health. Not only am I tired of looking at the unfinished bits of my house, I’m tired of being tired and anxious and (a little) overweight. Spring is a time of new beginnings and this is mine.

Over the next few weeks I plan to document my ‘spring clean’ for a few reasons. I feel like the accountability of writing will help me keep on top of my plans and who knows, in the process other people might take some of my ideas for their own journey and (I hope) some will be able to share some of their experiences that I can use.

So, where have I started? Well the same way I always do. Writing! I’ve created myself a beautiful little OneNote to keep track of goals, help me become organised and just give me reminders.

My OneNote contains all the things I’m going to need over the next few weeks and it means it’s nice and easy for me to add any extra bits I may feel is necessary as I go. I’ve started by creating the dashboard that links all my sheets. I have my ‘Spring clean’ section that outlines my plans, which I’ve separated into ‘home’ and ‘health’ sections.

The next section I’ve created is something that I’ve been meaning to do for a while. I feel like it’s a universal adult problem, the sinking feeling you get when it comes time to plan the next week’s meals and shopping lists. So I’ve created a meal planning section that contains ideas for all meals and snacks, a weekly menu/shopping list and information relating to my own personal weightloss journey. I find that it makes my week so much easier and it’s one less thing to plan. I will look through my list of meal ideas and pick out what I fancy. It removes all the thought and need for brainpower and it just allows me to focus on other things. If you’re someone who struggles with organisation and get really overwhelmed with decision making I absolutely recommend doing something like this! I found that I’d spend more money and would have to do multiple top up shops during the week, this method means that I have a list of ingredients I need and it takes all the guess work and memory out of it.

The final part I’ve created is my planner section. This section contains a habit tracker, daily, weekly and monthly planners and my own workout planner. I’ve link everything together so from my daily planner I can access my weekly and monthly planner and so on. I find that this has really helped tackle my anxiety. I can see what I’ve got coming up in the month at a glance and get more details in the week and month section. This won’t work for everyone but I really thrive know what times in my day is accounted for. I work a corporate job where I attend a lot of meetings so I really like knowing that I have a 1 hour meeting at 10, then have a break between 11 and 12. It just helps me keep on top of things at work and at home. At the moment I actually plan time for walks and workouts throughout the day. I work from home and enjoy going out on a walk at lunch time, which I plan into my daily planner. I find that I’m far more likely to actually do something when it’s written in my planner. I’m not saying this will be a long term solution but it’s really helping me get into a solid routine.

So, what are my goals and what’s my timeline. I don’t necessarily have a timeline at the moment. We are hoping to put our house on the market in the spring so ideally my ‘home’ section will be ticked off my mid-end April! The health section is far more difficult to put a time frame to, I’m wanting to make a lifestyle change and my mental health is certainly a shambles that won’t be fixed in just a few months. In terms of eating better (and possibly losing a few pounds) I’m giving myself a goal of the end of May. I’m going on holiday in June and I’d like to go feeling better and a bit more confident about myself.

So that’s it, that’s the post. For now. So, if you’d like to follow along, join our mailing list!