Spring Living: Rituals, Films, and Cozy Evenings

Spring always feels like a much-needed reset. Longer days, a bit more light in the evenings, and that first stretch of warmth that makes everything feel lighter. It’s when I naturally start to shift a few things in my routines, my space, and even how I spend my time at home. 

For me, that shift starts in small, almost sensory ways. Scent and music always end up shaping the tone of my space more than I expect. I like switching out candles and creating seasonal playlists for different parts of the day, like something light and upbeat in the mornings, jazz while cooking, and slower tracks for evenings at home. Even small shifts in sound can quietly set the rhythm for how a day feels.

Spring cleaning, for me, is less about doing everything at once and more about choosing a few areas that immediately change how my home feels. I usually start with surfaces I see every day. Bedding, kitchen counters, bedside tables, and the corner of my desk, where things collect without me noticing. There is something about a deep clean and reorganized storage that makes the whole space feel more open. I also rotate through a couple of categories at a time. One weekend might be closets and vanity drawers, another might be the fridge and bathroom cabinets. The goal is to make things feel a bit more manageable among other day-to-day responsibilities.

As for my wardrobe, I’m not one to do a full seasonal overhaul. That feels too extreme and often leads me to keep things I’m unsure about because I feel rushed or overwhelmed. Instead, I pull everything I wore the least this past season and try it on again. Anything I don’t particularly love or can’t style in at least three practical ways gets donated. I then move light knits, maxi dresses, denim, and other easy, go-to pieces closer to the front of my closet, so getting dressed feels more effortless.

That same idea carries over into how I structure my routine. Instead of starting a reset with a long list of goals, I’ve found it’s more helpful to look at how I actually want my week to feel. I love to plan things out in my journal and have started to notice the small anchors that make a week feel balanced, like using my walking pad in the morning before the day gets busy, or carving out time for tae bo and pilates a few times a week. I also try to reserve a block of time during the week for focused work, especially anything creative, so it doesn't get lost in everything else. My social calendar tends to feel more manageable when it's spaced out, too. This could look like one dinner with friends each week and a movie on the weekends instead of stacking plans all at once. And I try to leave a couple of evenings open just for slowing down, whether that involves reading, watching a comfort show, or simply junk journaling. When the week is structured around habits like these, it feels less like I'm trying to optimize everything and more like the days naturally fall into place. One thing that helps here is picking two or three things you want to come back to each week and building your routine around that. This could be as simple as getting outside for a walk a few mornings a week, keeping one consistent workout you enjoy, or setting aside a block of time for solo dates in your city. The idea is to keep it realistic, so it supports your week instead of adding more to it.

That rhythm has also made me more mindful about how I take care of myself day to day, especially with spring allergies in the mix. So, here are my essentials:

• Vitamins: Iron, Vitamin D, and Vitamin C are my morning non-negotiables for immunity, energy, and seasonal support. Zinc is another staple I lean on for immune support, and Lemme Glow is another mainstay in my routine. 

• Morning sips: I usually start with lemon and ginger tea with a touch of honey, or my go-to juice blend of carrots, oranges, fresh ginger, turmeric, honey, and a pinch of black pepper to help activate the turmeric. I also really enjoy a good matcha, and the latte blends from Golde are some of my favorites. They’re rich, comforting, and feel like a simple way of nourishing my body from within.

• Self-care checklist: An everything shower twice a week has become a more intentional, full reset compared to my usual day-to-day shower routine. It includes dry brushing before I get in, dermaplaning, brow shaping, a deep conditioning treatment or hair mask, double cleansing (cleansing oil + foam cleanser), exfoliation, and shaving. After that, I usually light a candle and have some tea while doing my skincare, finishing with moisturizer and a body oil to lock in hydration. From there, I like to extend the ritual with a few extra steps like hair care, lymphatic drainage using body oil, or an at-home manicure and pedicure. I’ve also shared my favorite skincare and body care products on ShopMy if you’re curious about what I use. 

• Kitchen staples: Keep olive oil, Greek yogurt, root vegetables, fresh and dried herbs, sardines or mackerel, honey, whole grains, leafy greens, and a little mix of fresh fruit on hand. Meals at home don’t have to be complicated to feel nourishing, even on busy days. I always enjoy planning out recipes that are easy to rotate throughout the week. Some things I’ve been making lately include savory sardine snack plates, yogurt bowls, avocado toast with scrambled eggs, herbs, and chili flakes, and simple grain bowls like brown rice with capers, olive oil, and herbs or roasted chickpea salads with fresh greens and grilled onions.

Your spring curriculum also starts here, with a curated selection of books, films, and articles to return to throughout the season. I find something comforting in treating the season itself as a kind of loose structure for what you consume and revisit, not in a rigid way, but as a way to be more intentional with how you spend your time in those in-between moments. I’ve always liked the idea that what you read or watch can shape how a season feels, almost like it becomes part of the background of your everyday life. So, here's a small seasonal rotation of media to move through at your own pace, depending on your mood and downtime.

Reading requisites:
A mix of comfort reads, nostalgic favorites, and contemporary fiction that feels easy to return to.

• Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen
• The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• The House in the Cerulean Sea, by TJ Klune
• Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery
• The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
• The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
• Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones

Viewing requisites:
Light, familiar films that feel a bit nostalgic, a bit escapist, and perfect for slower evenings.

• Pride and Prejudice (2005)
• Marie Antoinette (2006)
• Mr. Malcolm's List (2022)
• Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009)
• Ramona and Beezus (2010)
• The Parent Trap (1998)
• The Secret Garden (1993)
• Emma (2020)
• The Princess Diaries 2 (2004)
• Tinker Bell (2008)
• Matilda (1996)
• Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005)
• Pretty Woman (1990)
• The Sound of Music (1965)
• Notting Hill (1999)
• Sabrina (1954)

Supplementary material:
Linked online reads you can dip in and out of throughout the week.

• There are so many lives I want to live
• Living alone ruined me (respectfully)
• A Pre-Met Runway Art Crawl Reveals How Designers Have Referenced Botticelli, Van Gogh, Kahlo, and More
• The intimacy of never speaking again
• The Case for Having a “French Sunday”
• Molly Rogers’s Well-Worn Path to Costuming “The Devil Wears Prada 2”

In the end, it’s often the small, thoughtful choices that shape how a season feels day to day, so I hope you enjoy moving through these media picks as part of your own spring evenings.