How to Seasonally Reset

7 mental and physical spring cleaning tips

You know, initially I titled this post “how to spring clean your wellness routine,” but that made me gag a little, so I had to change it. However, it’s still the main thesis of this piece.

Aside from being unbearably corny, the notion of spring cleaning your wellness routine didn’t fully resonate, because the whole concept of a ‘wellness routine’ doesn’t entirely make sense to me.

Since I started writing this Substack, the push-pull between my fascination with wellness and my disdain for the category and its connotations as been the most consistent through-line. I’ve had endless conversations with my friends about how the term “wellness” has lost its true meaning. Wellness is now an industry riddled with unnecessary (but sometimes wonderful) products like probiotic face washes and sauna blankets. Wellness in 2025 is a hobby, it’s something you can be “into”. I don’t like that. Ideally, our whole lives are our pursuit of wellness, and our routines don’t need to be labeled as such. We’re drinking water, we’re self-reflecting, we’re moving our bodies. So when it comes to spring cleaning these elements of our personal lives, it’s not ‘wellness’ in the Theragun way, it’s ‘wellness’ in the ‘be a good person’ way. I digress.

I’ve never been a fan of winter. That’s an understatement. I used to tell people that I’d never leave LA because I wouldn’t dare attempt a NY winter again. I think the memories of waking up before the sun to scrape my windshield wipers and miserably drive myself to high school scarred me. Can you blame me, though?Something shifted, clearly, because here I am living through NY winters year after year. I’ve come to understand and accept, though not fully appreciate, winter’s ceaseless arc.

I’m excited for its start — having grown out of my Scrooge-like tendencies, I, too, am enthralled by the city during the holidays. I love coziness and the activities it encourages: sitting by a fireplace, making soup, movie marathons, baking cookies. [These second part is theoretical, I did not do a single one of these activities.] But once it hits February, the luster starts to fade, and we’re left with drafty apartments and dirt-encrusted slush piles.

For some reason, the rapid decline into cold, dark melancholia didn’t upset me as much as it usually does this year. Perhaps it was because New York was so mild (which offers another reason for concern), or perhaps it was because I actively avoided the concept of seasonal affective disorder altogether by scheduling myself to the hour with work, social plans, elaborate journaling routines, you know, the works. In a (successful, might I add) bid to escape winter’s wrath, I may have overdone it — leaving me ever so slightly burnt out from both socializing and the clunky, overprescribed routines I’ve boxed myself into. Sounds familiar. So here I am now, confused by which coat to wear (on a micro-level) and how to properly take care of myself (on a more existential level).

Even when you run from the dreariness of winter, it still feels stale at the end. March will always be a tease, leaving us itching for a change in pace, climate, inspiration that won’t come fast enough. So like the control freak that I am, I decided to make the changes myself — or at least, prepare myself for the changes that will inevitably come. Here they are.

proud of this

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1. Clean out your drawers

You’ll come to find that “getting rid of what no longer serves you” is going to be a key tenet of this spring cleaning process, so we’re going to start out with what I think is the most obvious. Everyone knows it’s so dreadful to clean out your clothes, but it feels SO GOOD. I’m by no means an expert in the space, but I’m lucky to know someone who is.

Erika Veurink

wrote this post a couple months ago that served as my instruction manual for this endeavor.

I’ve been putting this off for weeks? months? so I’m happy to report that I blew through this project much faster than I anticipated. I used roughly half of my allotted 2.5 hours, AND I took a shower in the middle, so.*

The biggest hurdle is simply starting the project, followed by the inevitable “but what if I neeeeed that neon mesh top in two years when I go to a highly-specific themed party” scarcity mindset spiral. I’m going to stop you right there. You’re not going to that obscurely themed party. And if you do, I’d encourage you to browse eBay. Free yourself from the illusion of potential. You never need as much as you think you do.

*It feels deceitful not to include this important detail: I didn’t do my closet yet. That’s what this weekend is for!

2. And your digital presence

I don’t mean archiving old Instagram posts, although, now that I say it… What I’m more so thinking is a good old-fashioned photo clear out. I have a sickening amount of screenshots in my camera roll that need to be eviscerated from my Cloud.

I tend to relegate this to what I call a “plane activity” for its lack of wifi necessitation, but it works well as a treadmill activity too. While we’re clearing out items, some other suggestions:

• apps

  • bonus points if you have the same neurosis as I do and organize them by color

• old messages

• desktop folders

it’s called being sick in the head

It should not be understated how clearing your phone or computer directly translates to a clearer mind.

3. Audit your routines

You know when you pull too hard on a rubber band and it snaps back in the opposite direction? That’s the adorable metaphor I’ll use for me and my morning routine. I kept adding on journaling and meditating and mantras until I stretched it too far and I abandoned it completely. I’m a very routine-oriented person, and I’ve gone through many iterations of these daily morning practices, but I’ve never experienced such a dramatic ricochet.

I didn’t even realize it until a few weeks later, which I guess makes sense, considering I threw all of my self-reflective behaviors out the window. At this point, I’m desperate for something to ground me in the mornings, so instead of piling all those tasks back on (ok, I tried and it was unsuccessful), I’m now in the process of determining a) which of those practices are actually beneficial, and b) how long they should ideally take.

The point here is that we often do things just because we “always have been” or “feel like we should,” and the change of season feels like as good a time as ever to get clear on — here it comes again — what’s actually serving you.

3. Change your scenery

I don’t mean permanently, or even semi-permanently. I mean, go to a new neighborhood in your city. Go to a new museum. A new coffee shop. And for the love of God, don’t look at your phone. Full immersion is required for a perspective shift.

it’s happening!!

Every once in a while, I remember that Meatpacking exists only a 15 minute walk away from my apartment (not to dox myself) and I think, whoa, this place is only 15 minutes away from me. Not that it’s so remarkable, but it’s a completely different landscape. A quick trip a few blocks north is enough to snap me out of whatever autopilot thought loops I’m in and incite, even on the smallest scale, a sense of awe.

4. Refresh the menu

If you, like me, have been eating the same four-vegetable salad everyday, it’s about time we switch it up. I don’t need to lecture you on the benefits of eating seasonally and locally, of which there are plenty. But this isn’t even about that, this is about breaking up the monotony of the everyday by simply adding in one new flavor to spice things up. (It doesn’t have to be literal spice, although in my house we are on a sriracha kick.)

As I’ve shared before, I’m more of an assembler than a real chef, so a new salad dressing to have on tap for the week will always do the trick. Some other very low lift ideas include:

• Choosing a new type of apple to chop on top of your oatmeal

• Swapping out the roasted broccoli for roasted zucchini

• Hot honey mustard is criminally easy to make and goes well with most things

• Investing in good quality olive oil or a specialty sauce

• Hearts of palm in a salad will change everything

the old salad-in-the-box trick

If you’re attempting the farmer’s market (kudos) this resource tells you what’s in season based on the time of year and the region you live in so you can be prepared for. Moral of the story is, we need all the excitement we can get, so if that means adding a canned artichoke into the mix, then by all means, go crazy.

5. Update the soundtrack

Music is the backdrop for my life (I’m realizing this was the start of my college admissions essay… wow) so it’s imperative that I have options on hand to underscore my daily behaviors. Otherwise, I will spend 20 minutes scrolling through Spotify and delay my entire day until I find the perfect song.

At this point, I’m pretty sick of whatever playlist I made at the beginning of winter, so instead of hoping a song catches my eye, I’ve been playing this fun game (oh god) where I wake up and ask myself “what song am I craving today” and let my intuition answer. I wrote them all down in my notes app for a few weeks, which resulted in some fascinating data points on myself: Babygirl left a profound impact on my George Michael consumption, I’m still not over Apple, and The Talking Heads will always be a safe fallback.

being a modern girlboss means having a podcast craving

Since my current music hankerings are quite sporadic, to say the least, I’m not interested in creating another playlist that I’ll undoubtedly get sick of in less than a week, so I’m going back to album mode. Please don’t mind the ecclecticness (not a word but it should be), here’s the current rotation:

• Alligator Bites Never Heal, Doechii

• how i’m feeling now, Charli XCX

• Manning Fireworks, MJ Lenderman

• MOTOMAMI, Rosalia

• Kala, M.I.A.

• Room for Squares, John Mayer

As soon as the temperature surpasses 60 degrees, I will be mainlining Haim for the foreseeable future.

6. Do one more difficult thing

You’re already doing your taxes — and if you’re obedient — cleaning out your drawers, so I understand this is a lot to ask of anyone. But there is something to be said for momentum, so while you’re already doing things you really don’t want to do, you might as well add one more to the list. Go to the gynecologist. Organize your retirement accounts. Deep clean your fridge. Something that falls under the category of ‘hard fun.’

Again, we are riding high off of clearing our mental to-do lists and the satisfaction of doing a really unenjoyable task. It’s never as bad as we think it is.

7. Get a treatment of choice

We’re not in the business of acquiring more physical goods after all of that purging, but we deserve a dopamine-inducing wellness purchase. Enter: the experience. Nothing says spring is here like an hour-long beauty treatment, so choose your own adventure. I’m getting a lymphatic drainage massage next week to really go in on the releasing stale energy thing. Other ideas, depending on price range, would be:

• facial: Ställe or Practise

• manicure: Jin Soon is my #1

• haircut!! duh

• massage: Spencer’s for a quickie, Hotel Chelsea for an afternoon activity

• a new workout class can also count. I’m determined to spend more time in Sky Ting, personally

Obviously this step is optional, well, they’re all optional, but this one is clearly the most fun. Happy Spring.

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I welcome your seasonal resetting rituals if you want to send them my way. :)