6 Ways to Spring Clean Your Home and Finances

This spring, go beyond cleaning just your home and take a second look at your budget. Here's how tidying up your physical home as well as your financial home house can help with your financial wellness.

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With spring just around the corner, we might be daydreaming more about spring break and summer getaways. However, bundling a “financial spring cleaning” in with your home spring cleaning could help your money situation. In honor of Credit Education Month in March, take a closer look at your credit as well as review your budget and spending.

If you're part of the three-fourths of Americans who partake in the annual ritual of spring cleaning, here's how to go about tidying up both your physical space and finances to improve your overall wellness:

1. Start by decluttering

To begin your spring cleaning, go through each room and decide which items to keep, sell, or donate. This might take longer than anticipated, so aim to carve out time regularly. There are plenty of methods to declutter. To help inspire you, here are some popular techniques to declutter:

• KonMari method. This widely used and beloved method involves touching each of your items. If the item sparks joy, then you'll keep it. If it doesn't, you can get rid of it.

• 30-day challenge. With the 30-day challenge, you start by removing one item on Day 1, then two items on Day 2, and so forth. When you get to Day 3, you'll have purged your home of a grand sum of 465 items.

• Five-box method. To help you stay organized in your quest to tidy up your home and get rid of unwanted items, you can stick to a five-box method. Grab five containers or boxes. Next, label them accordingly: Trash, Storage, Stow Away, Donate, and Sell. As you go through your belongings, decide which category each item falls into.

2. Sell unwanted items

Next, see if you can make a little cash by selling unwanted items. There are many online marketplaces to sell your gently used or new items—Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, eBay, and Craigslist are great places to start. Poshmark, thredUp, and Depop are platforms to sell unique and fashionable clothing, shoes, and accessories. You can also go niche and sell housewares, gifts, and vintage items on platforms like Mercari, eBay's "Retro" or "Vintage" sections, and Etsy. Before putting up an item for sale, note the condition, and look at similar items to see what they're going for.

It's also a good idea to keep track of what's sold. Come tax season, if you earned more than $600 in online marketplace sales, you might owe taxes. This wasn't in effect for 2023 but might change going forward. Consider maintaining a spreadsheet to keep track of what you sell. Or, if you anticipate selling a high volume of goods, consider creating a separate business account with a payment platform such as Zelle, PayPal, or Venmo.

3. Donate items to a non-profit or charity

For items you've decided to donate versus sell, it's a good idea to check what tangible items an organization needs. A charity or non-profit will often list on their website or post their top "in search of" supplies and items on social media.

Typically, they won't accept used mattresses, pillows, and bedding. As for perishable food, some food pantries might accept food past the "best by" date, but you'll want to check ahead of time.

For you to qualify for a tax deduction, the organization needs to be qualified to receive deductible contributions and have 501(c)(3) status. The IRS has a handy tool where you can search if a charity, non-profit or other type of organization is tax-exempt.

4. Nix redundant or underused subscriptions

Beyond the clutter in your home, you can clear financial clutter by combing through your subscription services and recurring expenses. For example, maybe you have been enjoying your home gym more or are going for more lunchtime walks and aren't using your fitness membership. If you aren't using that $50-a-month gym membership, canceling your subscription saves $600 a year. Or maybe your library card includes access to an online film archive. If you end up dropping your streaming subscriptions, that's $25 extra bucks in your pocket, or a $300 annual savings.

5. Check in with your credit reports and credit card debt

While you're reviewing underused subscriptions, look over your credit report and make sure there aren't any errors. You can get a free credit report from each of the three bureaus at AnnualCreditReport.com. Spring cleaning is a great time to also review your finances and see if there's anything missing or inaccurate on your credit report.

On top of that, review your credit card debt and look into options to pay it off quicker. If you're struggling to pay off debt, you can try the snowball or avalanche debt payoff technique, or look into credit card debt consolidation.

6. Consider a shift in shopping and spending habits

Once you've tidied up your home and your finances, it's a good time to examine how you accumulated the extra stuff in the first place. Be mindful of what you spend your money on, examine wants versus needs, and consider which purchases actually bring value to your life. Also consider your shopping habits: do you have a healthy relationship with shopping? Or do you shop because restless, bored, or anxious? You can also consider practicing gratitude, which may help you spend less, or consider a minimalist lifestyle, which can also benefit your pocketbook.

Bottom line

A bout of spring cleaning can not only make you refreshed and clear-headed, but it may help you save money, earn money, or boost your overall money situation. Consider engaging in purging, donating, and selling regularly– it may lead to a shift in money-saving habits.

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Jackie Lam

Jackie Lam is a personal finance writer whose work has appeared in Salon, Business Insider, and GOOD.