The Rites of Spring: Clearing Space for What's Next
A new season is coming. Before you rearrange the house, try clearing out a little space upstairs.
Feb 22, 2026
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When I was growing up, the end of winter wasn’t so much a season as a tactical operation led by my mother. Each year, she’d wake up one morning in late February and declare that winter had overstayed its welcome. The house would spring into action.
Windows were thrown open, closets were raided, and suddenly all five of us kids were being reassigned to new rooms. We’d come home from school to find our dressers in the hallway and a set of marching orders on the table. The annual McCann Room Migration had begun.
It felt like chaos, but it was really her way of getting us ready, physically and mentally, for a new season.
Mom was onto something: You can’t really welcome what’s next if you’re still living in the clutter of what came before. And that doesn’t just apply to living rooms and hallways. It applies to our heads too. If we want to be ready for spring, a little “mental scrubbing” can help.
The logic behind the ritual
Spring cleaning can feel like one of those habits we inherited from our parents, but the instinct is older than any of us. Long before anyone gave it a name, families treated the arrival of spring as an intentional clearing-out of whatever the dark months of winter left behind.
At first it was just for practical reasons. In colder places, winter meant shut windows and lots of smoke and soot from the fire. When the weather finally softened, you could open the house to let fresh air move through, beat the rugs, and wash the curtains.
Different cultures have different names for the same impulse. A colleague recently mentioned the German practice of Lüften, a.k.a. “house-burping,” which involves opening the windows for a few minutes, even when it’s freezing, just to cycle out what’s stuck and let the space breathe. Another friend told me she’s been reading A Monk’s Guide to a Clean House and Clean Mind, which treats cleaning as a form of spiritual discipline. The first step is as plain as it gets: Open the windows and invite the purifying breeze in.
That’s the thread that runs through all of it: Open the space and clear what’s stale.
Scrubbing away winter's residue
We still need the ritual of spring cleaning because winter has a way of overstaying its welcome. The season leaves salt on the floorboards and grit in the garage. It can leave a residue on our minds as well.
By the time February rolls around, a lot of us feel tired and isolated. When it’s dark before dinner, the days start to feel like repeats. Our minds start to become mental junk drawers: a place where we’ve been tossing worries and frustrations just to get through the short days.
The good news is that the same instincts that help us refresh a home can help us reset our minds. Here are three ways to start:
Air it out
Fresh air changes a room quickly. The same is true for the mind. Worries tend to grow in silence, especially when they’ve been sealed up all winter. So start with the simplest move: Open a window.
That can be both literal and emotional. For the latter, it can be as simple as calling a friend you haven’t talked to in a while and having a real conversation. Write down the thoughts that have been looping in your head. Say out loud what you’ve been carrying quietly.
You’re just letting some air circulate around your relationships.
Empty the junk drawer
Every house has a junk drawer, and every mind does too. It’s where we toss things we don’t know what to do with in the moment — an old grudge, guilt over something that never worked out, or frustration about what we can’t control.
This spring, pull those thoughts out the way you’d empty a cluttered drawer. Examine each one honestly. Ask whether it’s useful, whether it’s teaching you something, or whether it’s helping you build the life you want.
If not, it’s clutter. Let it go.
Rearrange the furniture
Sometimes the mind feels heavy because everything is the same. Winter routines can turn our days into grooves, and before long we’re living on autopilot.
So borrow a page from my mom’s playbook and introduce a small disruption. Drive a different route or take a walk at a different time. Read a book you’d never normally pick up. Or change one small habit on purpose.
It may feel minor, but your brain notices. It’s like coming home and finding your dresser in the hallway. Suddenly you’re awake and ready to move into a new season.
Ready to blossom
Spring is still a few weeks away, which makes this the perfect time to start with the “upstairs.” When you clear a little mental clutter, you make room for something new. Maybe that’s getting your hands in the dirt, planting a garden, or putting a few herbs on a windowsill. The act of nurturing something is powerful. It reminds us that we cleared all that clutter for a reason: to prepare the soil for what comes next.
All the best,
Jim
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AUTHOR
Jim McCann is the founder and chairman of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. as well as a business leader, author, and philanthropist with a passion for helping people deliver smiles. Devoted to helping others, he also founded Smile Farms, a 501(c)3 organization that provides meaningful jobs in agricultural settings to young adults and adults with developmental disabilities.
