Spring is the season for renewal and growth. With the first day of spring coming up March 20, this is the ideal time to freshen your home and change your habits.
From uncluttering and spring cleaning, to gardening and taking your work-out outdoors, here are six uplifting ways to get ready for spring.
Unclutter your space
Many studies show that uncluttering your space creates calm and can even help fight depression. How do you tackle the task?
Apartment therapy pros suggest moving through your space room by room, or focusing on one type of item at a time, such as clothes or books, rather than attempting to do the whole house at once. Uncluttering is one part organizing and one part eliminating. Rearrange the stuff you love and use. Anything that doesn’t make you happy or isn’t absolutely necessary should go.
Make extra cash by selling items of value using the online classifieds. Donate and recycle as much of the rest as possible. The City of Vancouver has some useful recycling guidelines. You can use their Waste Wizard to see how to dispose of specific items.
Spring clean
Once your space is clear of clutter, give it is spiff up. You can either do it yourself or hire a house cleaning service.
Start gardening
Gardening, whether for aesthetic or food reasons, is a visceral way to connect with the changing of the seasons. If you live in an apartment, try to find a space in a community garden.
Other ways to get involved include signing up for weekly seasonal produce deliveries via Vancouver Community Supported Agriculture programs, or even planting on your patio. Window boxes work well for herbs; enterprising small-space gardeners have been very successful with vertical produce planters on urban patios.
Prep your patio
If you don’t have outdoor furniture, get some. If you already have outdoor furniture, give it a clean up, oil and weather treat wood or add a lick of new paint, perhaps add bright cushions, anything that makes you excited to take the social event outdoors. Check deals on grills while you’re at it.
Start biking
Once rainy season is over many part-time cyclists return to the streets on their bicycles, for fitness, economical and eco reasons. If you haven’t tried cycling in Vancouver, fair weather is the easiest time to start. You can find lots of good deals on used bikes in the online classifieds. Use this handy guide for how to buy a used bike for tips.
Work out outdoors
If you’ve been heading to the gym throughout winter, now is the time to take fitness outdoors and be a prat of the changing seasons. From hiking Pacific Spirit Park to jogging under the cherry blossoms, you’ve got lots of gorgeous spring workout options in Kitsilano.
Last modified: December 27, 2019
