What comes to mind when you think of spring?
Maybe it is blooming flowers, buzzing insects, singing birds, or the fresh smell of the earth after a rain. Your thoughts might turn to outdoor pursuits as the days grow warmer and longer. Memorial Day is not far off, marking the unofficial start of summer. Soon, the summer solstice will arrive, followed by the Fourth of July, the kids going back to school, and Labor Day.
Before lamenting how quickly the time has passed and what you never got around to doing, it can be helpful for your personal, professional, and financial well-being to step back and give some thought and energy to reevaluating your goals and priorities for the next 100 days. Spring is an opportune season for housekeeping, both literally and metaphorically. It is time to throw open the windows of your life, let in the fresh air, and catch up on the small chores that often get pushed aside amid modern life’s frenetic pace—including dusting off your estate plan, clearing away outdated documents, and tidying up your financial house.
Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring (Cleaning)
According to the American Cleaning Institute (ACI), 80 percent of Americans engage in an annual spring-cleaning routine.1 The top areas people target in their homes are those that tend to get overlooked in daily and weekly cleaning, including floors and baseboards, storage spaces, windows, and areas behind furniture.2
Atop our list of dreaded places to clean are the spaces that are hard to access (such as underneath appliances) and have accumulated a winter’s worth of grime (e.g., bathrooms,
vents, and basements). However, 80 percent of Americans also told ACI that cleaning those filthy spots is better than at least one other seasonal activity: doing their taxes.3
Spring cleaning has roots in cultures and religious traditions that date back centuries, including the Jewish practice of cleaning homes to remove chametz (leavened bread) for Passover and the Iranian tradition of khaneh tekani (“shaking the house”) before the Persian New Year.
Some Christian traditions, such as cleaning the church altar before Good Friday or cleaning for Lent, also have elements of spring cleaning. In China, a thorough cleaning of the house before the Lunar New Year is a tradition that incorporates religious practices and symbolizes sweeping away ill fortune to make room for positive energy in the coming year.
In nineteenth-century America, the custom of spring cleaning took hold as pioneers swept out the soot and grime from winter’s coal once warmer days allowed open windows.
- Are You Ready to Clean Behind the Couch? Americans List Their Spring Cleaning Targets, Am. Cleaning Inst. (Mar. 4, 2025), https://www.cleaninginstitute.org/newsroom/2025/are-you-ready-clean-behind-couch-americans-listtheir-spring-cleaning-targets.
- Id.
- ACI Survey: 80% of Americans Now Spring Clean Every Year, ACI (Mar. 6, 2024),
https://www.cleaninginstitute.org/newsroom/2024/aci-survey-80-americans-now-spring-clean-every-year
