20 ways to put SPRING in your step
From wellness tips to a new wardrobe, we’ve got the ideal ways to say goodbye to the winter blues
HALLELUJAH! After what seemed like an eternity, January is finally over. Spring traditionally brings with it a sense of newness — a prime opportunity to switch up tired old routines, detox bad habits and declutter your life. If
1 The 30-day challenge
DON’T pull out random drawers and ransacking presses, unless you want to end up on the floor yourself, surrounded by an unholy mess. Be strategic. The internet is full of printable 30-day spring clean checklists and challenges. A sparkling home by the end of February? Yes, please. you feel like spring has not quite sprung for you yet, don’t worry. Read on to discover fresh new ways to dust off those winter woes and embrace all that this most productive of seasons has to offer. From cleaning your home to the latest wellness trends, here are 20 ways you can ‘springify’ your life and add some brightness.
2 Outsource your sorting
IF YOU’RE time poor (and let’s face, who isn’t) — delegate by getting the experts in to sort your messy home. Professional home organising is now big business, with companies offering in-person services or virtual consultations to transform your chaos into calm. Expect to pay €150 per hour — and as you’ll have a tidy template going forward, it’s money well spent. See organisedchaos.ie and asortedaffair.ie.
3 Do da sao chu
SPRING is also an ideal time to complete tasks that have been long-out off, or fixing things that are broken. According to Chinese custom, da sao chu means to rid the house of bad luck and if you ask us, it’s a great idea to mend that leak under the sink.
4 Go full woo woo
FROM crystal therapy to sprinkling salt across your door thresholds, there’s endless ways to turn your home into a spiritual sanctuary. If that’s too hippy dippish, try smudging — the practice of burning ancient herbs and incense for purifying your home of negative energy. Popular choices include white sage, rosemary and frankincense — and your home will smell fragrant too. 5
THE mental health benefits of decluttering a space have been well documented, with several studies showing how it can improve focus, productivity and wellbeing
Forget 100. Go 70
by decreasing stress. Don’t ruin your zen by comparing your efforts on Instagram or Pinterest — remember, even Marie Kondo has relaxed her pedantic grip on tidying. Think better, not perfect.
6 Wellness zone
FROM acoustical privacy to sustainability to calm corners, the biggest interior trend for spring is on making a home a haven of tranquillity. According to Deirdre Coleman of self-ly.com, designated yoga spaces are increasingly popular and easy to achieve.
‘Use elements and inspiration from the natural world, choose a quiet area and remember the colour green is the most restful colour,’ she says.
7 Mantra for life
RAISE your vibe with mantra-based meditation, a mindful practice which utilises the silent repetition of a word or phrase to calm the mind. Irish born meditation guru, Emer Lush, has virtual ancient Sanskrit mantra meditation classes — see instagram.com/spiritual gardenie/.
8 Embrace Viva Magenta
NOT for the faint hearted, Pantone’s colour of the year is a hybrid of purple and red, and according to the colour experts, ‘it strikes a balance between warm and cool’. Perfect for spring, so. Wear it as a bold accessory against pastels or add a pop of colour to your home with a feature wall or velvet couch.
9 Go primal
HUMANS have been doing movements like crawling, lunging, reaching and pushing for thousands of years, and now primal movement is being recognised as not just an effective, but necessary training tool. It’s Pinterest’s most predicted fitness trend for this year (and possibly all time).
10 Skill sets
REMEMBER those lockdown sourdoughs? That crocheting talent you never knew you had? All that crafting was beneficial — research shows that people with hobbies are less likely to suffer from stress, low mood, and depression. Now is a great time to learn a new language, or upskill and get creative. If you make something beautiful in the process, that’s pretty wonderful. 11
If you feel like you could do with more a health boost, smart drugs might be the answer. Nootropics are, according to Holland & Barrett, ‘a type of compound, usually in supplement form, that are used to enhance cognitive performance’. From ginseng to ashwagandha to creatine and even caffeine, you’d be surprised at what they can do. Top end is the Lyma ‘super model’ supplement (Victoria’s Secret model Romee Strijd, pictured, is a fan) priced €1,100 for 180 days (lyma.life).
Nab a nootropic
12 Sheep skincare
OUR obsession with skin barrier health shows no sign of slowing down and spring skincare is focusing on all that’s microbiome-friendly. A new Irish company, Banor, has launched a range of products from sheep milk — which includes many properties that help the skin in acting as the body’s protective barrier — and lanolin is a natural oil from sheep’s wool that locks moisture into the skin. See banor.ie
13 Swim and sauna
A NEW take on the health club circuit – the pool is now the sea;
14 Create a living wall
MODERN housing has grown up instead of out and when it comes to our gardens, vertical planting is taking over our green spaces. This time of year is ideal to stack flowers, herbs and vegetables in vertical planters and let nature do its thing. There are even living wall systems available to buy online (from €119, see theirishgardener.com).
15 High brows
FROM bleached brows to laminated brows to rainbow brows — the beauty world is obsessed with those strips of facial hair this Spring. You might not go full Lizzo with pink brows, but it’s good to remember that eyebrows can indeed alter your appearance for the better. Men are not immune — threading is rising in popularity in the men’s grooming market.
16 Seacuturie boards
YUP, you’re guessed it. It’s a charcuterie, but with seafood and is taking over party platters and grazing tables when it comes to hosting guests. Tinned fish is big news on the foodie scene this spring (at least on TikTok) — with some people deciding to serve their Ortiz straight from a can beside their gourmet crackers (John West might not quite cut it). Lots of herbs and lemon wedges please and thanks.
17 Have a vision
FANS of wellness gurus like Roxie Nafousi (author of cult self-help book Manifest) and Dr Tara Swart will already be familiar with the idea of creating a vision board, or ‘action board’. This is a collage that represents everything that you aspire to — the act of physically sticking aspirational images to card or paper is allegedly far more powerful than just thinking about your goals. Aim big — stick that chateau in France firmly to the right alongside your cut-out Maserati.
18 Open air living
WE had Danish hygge, now we have friluftsliv — a Norwegian concept that’s all about getting comfortable with the great outdoors. If you’re chilling in a sauna after a sea swim, you’re already doing it — according to lonelyplanet. com, it’s readily embracing the outdoors ‘come hail, rain or shine’. There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes, remember. Picnic in the sleet? No bother — just change your mindset (and your footwear).
19 Cape fever
Don’t have Cape Fear — if you want to push the style boundaries, nothing says Spring 2023 like a draped coat of the sleeveless variety, and the trend has even made it onto dresses. The Brown Thomas Spring/ Summer edit is awash with colourful Alex Perry cape frocks, and men are not being left out either. Designers from Gucci to Burberry have unleashed caped crusaders onto the catwalk.
20 Go plogging
THIS time taking inspiration from the Swedes, plogging is a combination of jogging with picking up litter (merging the Swedish verbs plocka upp (pick up) and jogga (jog). An estimated 2m people plog daily in 100 countries. According to Plogging Ireland, if 200 people ‘plogged’ every day, the action would take an estimated 62,000 pieces of plastic off Irish landscapes in one year. You know what to do.