Pearls of Wisdom: Spring Cleaning Should Be a Habit, Not a Chore

By Binney Wietlisbach, President of Haverford Trust

Every year, when the days start to get longer and the temperatures start to rise ever so slightly, it signals to us that spring and summer are just around the corner. For some people, myself included, it’s also a signal for spring cleaning – a time to take a look at everything to see what can be refreshed.

We traditionally think of spring cleaning as washing the baseboards in our homes or sifting through our closets. But, taking the time to clean up your finances is an essential part of spring cleaning that often goes undone. It’s easy to toss bills and statements aside and let the clutter pile up but making financial spring cleaning (which includes more than throwing out old statements) a yearly habit will help you reduce stress.

With the warmer weather, it’s understandable that you’d rather be outside than diving into your finances, but this is the perfect time to do so. Think of Tax Day as your cue to set your financial goals for the remainder of the year. Make a plan to take care of any financial debts and check in on your monthly expenses and bills. This can help you set budgets and ensure that nothing has changed in your accounts without your knowledge. If you don’t keep an eye on your accounts, you could miss important changes. Even if you have the most balanced check book, a thorough review of your finances should be done each year. Financial spring cleaning should also include decluttering your financial documents and files.

A 2019 study found that clutter problems were associated with life dissatisfaction in older adults.[1] In my experience, the more things stack up, the harder it becomes to clean them up.

Later in life, when my mother was in hospice, my siblings and I decided to begin cleaning out her house. We were completely floored by the amount of things she had accumulated, including old tax documents dating years back. We had no idea that she had kept so many documents in the house, many of which no longer served a purpose. Later that night, I told my husband that we needed to go through our own files. It was then that I found that he had kept every paystub that he had collected since 1981…

Keeping your documents in check and organized now will reduce the burden on both yourself and on others in the future. Not to mention, you’ll be able to find important documents in a pinch without sifting through endless folders.

It certainly can be hard to find the motivation for spring cleaning, but I’ve discovered a few ways over the years to turn it into a fun and meaningful activity. At Haverford Trust, we dedicate one day each year to cleaning out our desks and offices. We sort and scan files, wipe down our keyboards, and tidy up our working spaces. It’s my favorite day of the year because everyone always comes back to work the next day feeling revitalized and refreshed. It’s become a very cherished tradition for us and doing it together makes the cleaning fun.

Even when you’re sorting documents in your own home, spring cleaning doesn’t have to be a solo task. You shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help, especially if you’re not sure where to start with your finances. A financial advisor can help you prioritize and develop a strategy for decluttering. As for those baseboards -that might be some good chore money for your children!

Another common challenge of spring cleaning is parting with things. While it can be bittersweet, one trick that’s helped me is to donate items and then think about the good they can do once they’ve left my hands.

For example, I would open my linen closet and glance at my old linen sets in the back. Though I no longer used them, I’d never thought about getting rid of them because I thought that maybe one of my children would want them. Recently, when our church solicited donations to help refugees from Afghanistan gather necessities for their new homes, I looked at the linens and realized that they could mean more to someone else who needed them now and could use them to their full potential.

Spring cleaning might be trying at times, but I promise that the satisfaction and relief you’ll feel afterwards will make it all worth it. Once you make it a yearly habit, it will only get easier over time. Our Speaker Series for Women presenters – Janet Bernstein, Certified Professional Organizer, and Elissa Faraglia, Senior Investment Officer at Haverford Trust – will equip us with tactics for getting started with spring cleaning and strategies for decluttering in both your personal and financial life.

Tackling spring cleaning can be overwhelming, but there are a few tried and true tips that can make parting ways with clutter easier.

1. Set a time and stick to it
Choose a time each year that will serve as your cue to begin spring cleaning. I’d recommend the start of Daylight Savings Time. Whatever you choose, make it a habit and stick to it each year.

2. Shred your documents
Stacks upon stacks of documents can be overwhelming and, quite frankly, take up a lot of space. Each year, be sure to go through your financial documents and scan the ones you need to keep stored electronically. Then, you can have some fun shredding your old documents.

3. Reframe your emotional attachments
There are some things that we just can’t bear to part with but letting go is easier when you reframe how you think about the object. The first paycheck you ever earned may be sentimental, but does that piece of paper have any use today?

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/03/well/mind/clutter-stress-procrastination-psychology.html