Spring Cleaning Checklist for Bloggers

I don’t always follow the trends, but one trend I do stick to is spring cleaning. Life gets a little busy and my living space can see the consequences of that. But allowing myself some time to clean and refresh my space is vital. And I am not only cleaning my home but other aspects of my life as well. By following this spring cleaning checklist for bloggers, you can not only clean your physical workspace but your digital as well. This will lead to a refreshing brand-new start to your blogging goals!

Spring cleaning has been around for a long time. If you want to read the history of spring cleaning, check out this article on Fantastic Cleaners Blog. Personally, it has been a tradition in my house since I was a kid. My family would all spend a weekend cleaning our bedrooms and working together to clean out the kitchen cabinets, the game closet, the garage, and more. Anything that had gotten a little messy over the year.

Now, as an adult, I continue this tradition. I spend some time cleaning and refreshing my living space, going through and getting rid of old clothes, throwing away unnecessary documents, and anything else I feel has been clogging up my life.

And spring cleaning isn’t only for the home anymore. With our lives becoming more and more entangled with the digital world, we have an increasing amount of clutter that isn’t tangible. Ans as bloggers, we spend a lot of time on the internet and we collect a lot of drafts, images, etc. that can clog up our computer memory and our mind.

Spending some time de-cluttering these digital spaces can make reaching blogging goals so much easier and more productive! So join me, and check out this spring cleaning checklist for bloggers! Let’s clean our minds and reach our blogging goals together!

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Spring Cleaning Checklist for Bloggers

1. Your Workspace

I know I mentioned that this list is dedicated to the digital sphere, but I might have lied just a little. However, this is going to be the only physical space that will be on this list. The number one thing you see when you decide to sit down and work on your blog is your workspace. For me, it’s my desk. Over the year it can get cluttered with papers, random writing utensils, unwashed coffee cups, and more. Eventually, it becomes overwhelming, to the point where I can’t get any productive work done because all I am thinking about is how messy my workspace is.

So, the first place I start when completing my spring cleaning checklist for bloggers is my workspace. I remove any and all unnecessary clutter so all that’s left is a clean and harmonious place to write. The less clutter physically around me, the less cluttered my brain is!

2. Emails

With our lives becoming increasingly entangled with the digital sphere, a lot of our mail is now coming in through email. I probably get hundreds of emails every day from advertisers, insurance companies, retail businesses, and more. Unfortunately, I rarely have the energy and time each day to do more than just open the email so the notification goes away. This leads to a pretty full and cluttered email inbox.

Also, did you know, leaving emails in your inbox is actually bad for the environment? I mean, not the worst thing you can do for the planet… but storing emails on servers takes electricity which leaves a carbon footprint! You can read more about the environmental impact of emails in this article from Green Matters.

All this is why I love spending some time during my spring cleaning weekend to clear out those old emails I don’t need anymore. This is an easy and sometimes fun activity! I sit in front of the TV, marathon whatever Netflix show I’m watching, and clear out my inboxes!

3. Blog Post Drafts

I don’t know if anyone else does this, but at least once a week I have some “brilliant” idea for a new blog post. And, instead of writing it down on an idea list as I should, I go directly to my blog and open up a new post, write the title, save, and leave. Over the year, I accumulate a lot of different blog post drafts that I come back to and realize I don’t actually want to finish. Some of them are half-finished and some of them only have a title. Either I don’t care about the topic anymore, or I don’t even know what I was trying to go for with the title. Either way, it clogs up my drafts folder on WordPress.

Just like going through my old emails, I will spend some time going through the various half-started or barely-started blog post drafts. I will delete anything I don’t think I will finish and keep those that I still like. It makes it much easier to sit down at my computer and finish the blog post drafts I am actually excited about! What can I say, this spring cleaning checklist for bloggers is all about making life easier!

4. Income and Tax Information

As we all also know, spring doesn’t just bring flowers and allergies, it also brings tax season. Well, for Americans at least. The due date for taxes is in April, which means it is almost time to start pulling together all the various information you will need.

If you make any money from your blog, even just 1 dollar a month, you know that filing taxes as a blogger can be difficult. With much of blogging income coming from 200 different places in relatively small amounts, there are no W-2s or even 1099s that make filing taxes easy. You need to know where the income came from and how much, so you can file your taxes correctly.

I like to spend some time while spring cleaning pulling together all the information I need to file my taxes. I create a spreadsheet in Google Sheets and fill it with info on the where, who, and how much of everything I made last year. That way, I am all ready to file my taxes!

5. Images and Media Storage

A huge factor in writing blog posts is the images and media. You can probably see some of those images in this post! Throughout the year, I tend to collect a large collection of images saved to my computer that I either want to use or have used on my blog. Eventually, I have so many that it slows down my computer and clogs up my laptop’s desktop.

During my spring cleaning weekend, while I am rummaging through email inboxes and deleting unused blog post drafts, I will also go through the images I have saved to my computer. It feels so good deleting all of the media I don’t need anymore. It also improves the speed of my laptop, which is an added bonus!

6. Bookmarks on Web Browser

That article you bookmarked for a blog post, that keyboard you wanted to buy three months ago, and that random website you thought you were going to use for your blog. They all sit in your bookmarks waiting for you to come back. But will you really? I know when I bookmark something I am sure I will come back to it immediately. But I rarely do.

Either I forgot about it, or I realized I didn’t need it anymore. Whatever the reason, spring is a great time to go in there and delete all the old bookmarks on our web browser that you don’t need anymore!

7. Social Media

A huge part of being a blogger is social media. Using Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and more to connect with others is fantastic. It is a great way to drive traffic to your site and connect with people with similar interests! I love social media. But sometimes it can get a little cluttered!

At least once a year it is smart to get refreshed when it comes to social media. Go through the photo app and delete any images you don’t plan on posting. Delete old messages and posts you don’t need anymore. Go through your saved folders on the various apps and get rid of anything you no longer need. Go through your following list and make sure you are surrounding yourself with people that bring you joy and lift you up.

Although social media can have a lot of benefits, the constant need for validation that comes with it can stunt creativity. I have felt it and I’m sure a lot of others have as well. So taking some time to refresh your social media accounts as well as your thoughts around social media can be incredibly helpful.

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The whole reason I have a spring cleaning checklist for bloggers is purely to help my creativity. Personally, it is near impossible for me to create content in a messy space. And nowadays, that includes digital spaces. When my computer is slow because of the copious amounts of files and media, my brain won’t focus on anything else.

Of course, it is probably better to also do these things throughout the year as well. But as I am sure we all know, life gets busy. I have so much to worry about throughout the year that things fall through the cracks.

This is why I love spring cleaning time so much. It allows me to focus on all those things that fell through the cracks. Starting spring with a refreshed work and living space just feels too good not to participate in spring cleaning!

Related: Things to Clean Before the End of the Year