Springtime is my favorite time of year when the sun shines, the days get longer, the flowers bloom and it’s my birthday. Springtime is a time to clean out, clean up, and declutter our selves spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically. It is the time of rebirth and putting a bit of spring into our step. 
As Oprah wrote about in her latest issue of Oprah Magazine, “it is time to declutter.”
A terrific way to start March. Following are a couple of suggestions on bringing more health, joy, and good feeling into your life both in business and at home.
Clean out closets, file cabinets, boxes, junk drawers, and email inboxes.
Clothes: Make a pile to give away, sell to consignment or repair/tailor
- Get rid of anything that you haven’t worn in a year
- Get rid of anything you don’t like, doesn’t make you feel good, or doesn’t look good on you—Be brutal!
- Organize your clothes by color and toss half the black sweaters that don’t fit right.
Drawers:
- · Throw away the old files that aren’t critical (ie. Financial and tax documents). If you haven’t used it in 2 years clean it out and only keep the most important
- · Work files are often useless after 1 year. If you can get it on the computer, internet or web get rid of it. It only holds you down
- · Pretend you just lost everything in an earthquake or flood, what do you really wish you still had?
If budgets are tight and you are still looking for a great mini vacation, try a 30 hour vacation in a city close to home. The key is to make it feel like a full weekend by staying close to home (within an hour's drive) arrive at your destination by mid-morning and stay until the following late afternoon. Besides saving on one night hotel, you don't fight the traffic on Friday night and find yourself relaxed and ready to go on Saturday morning.
This past Saturday, our family headed out to San Francisco to immerse ourselves in the festivities of the holidays and treat ourselves to our mini-vacation. Leaving our home in Marin county at 10 am we headed out to one of our favorite districts - Fillmore Street in Pacific Heights for a bit of shopping and an early lunch at Le Mediterranean, a small Greek restaurant that has been there for over 25 years. Next we headed down the hill to the Marina where Zoe-Pascale wanted to get desert at Miette, a French Bakery on Chestnut Street and so we said, "Why not. It is our vacation-- anything goes." 
In our 20s and early 30s Jean and I had lived in these two areas and we felt our heartstrings being pulled back to the time we were young and childless, hanging out with friends at nearby restaurants. Gazing around we felt nostalgic and sad to say a bit older.