Clutter comes in many guises, both literal and figurative. Too much junk in your home, too many emails in your inbox or too many toxic people in your circle can crowd your life with confusion, jeopardise your happiness and leave little space for enjoyment or personal development. There is an army of Marie Kondo-type experts out there who can help purge your life of excess baggage. Some of them will even come to your home and do it for you. Use spring as an opportunity to sweep away the old disorder and start afresh with a new-found sense of accomplishment, resolve and opportunity.

Your wardrobe is the classic place to start a spring clean, and for good reason. “You cannot arrange anything until it has been edited,” says Nancy Lightfoot, co-founder of Ever So Organised. “Get everything out of the wardrobe and then start shedding. Keep the staples, but be ruthless with items that rarely see the light of day.”

“Put all your clothes hangers facing the same direction,” says James Wallman, author of Stuffocation: Living More With Less. “If you wear something, when you put it back in the wardrobe, hang it facing the other way.” Soon you’ll be able to tell the items never touched.

Your wool trousers, waxed field jackets and tweed overcoats should be dry cleaned before being packed away until winter, says Camille Myers Breeze, founder of Museum Textile Services. “It’s also a preventive measure against moth damage.”

If it’s still a bit too nippy to pack them away just yet, invest in a clothes brush to knock dirt out of textile and wool fibres between wears.

Opening the windows to freshen your home and your lungs is a national pastime in Germany. The recommended advanced version is Stoßlüften, or shock ventilation. According to research from Aachen University, you’ll give your home and your internal air bags a thorough airing if you open your windows completely for three minutes if it’s breezy, and five to 10 minutes if it’s not.

Storage space frees up room in the rest of the home, so it shouldn’t be overlooked. Add shelving units in cupboards along with air-tight storage boxes to keep rarely used items and put up hooks to make things easier to store and find. Hanging fabric wardrobe organisers can also provide additional space.

We all have that one drawer into which random items of possible usefulness get tossed. Tip the contents out, bin anything you no longer need, re-home the things that should be elsewhere, then replace everything into the cleaned drawer, this time grouped together tidily in repurposed small dishes, boxes or containers.

“Spring is a great time to incorporate more colourful, fresh, seasonal fruit and vegetables into the diet,” says Suzie Sawyer, a clinical nutritionist. You’ll give your gut a good cleanse in the process, thanks to the fresh fibre content. “Warmer-weather produce, such as purple sprouting broccoli, sweet peppers, courgettes, rocket and salad leaves, are all packed with micronutrients the body needs and thrives on.”

“Re-organise your workload using the Covey Time Management Matrix,” says Audrey Tang, a chartered psychologist. “Put your daily tasks into four quadrants: urgent, urgent but not important, important but not urgent, and not urgent and not important. Anything urgent, do. Anything important but not urgent, delay, but not too long because otherwise it moves to urgent. Anything urgent but not important, delegate. And anything not urgent and not important, delete.”

Another way to sort the in-tray – which works for household tasks and life admin, too – is to follow the two-minute rule. If a task comes up and can be done in two minutes, just do it.

“Planning is a great way to clear out all those tasks downloaded from your mental to-do list and into order,” says James Purnell, a researcher for NHS England and previously Campaign Against Living Miserably. “It’ll free up some brain power to hit the ground running. Be realistic with your expectations. Break big tasks down into chunks and keep track by ticking off what you’ve achieved. A ‘done’ list can be just as motivating as a to-do list.”

“A useful habit to get into these days is a mental palate cleanse,” Tang says. “Take a moment to leave one meeting mentally before heading into the next. Research has shown that people retain more information from the last meeting and are more engaged in the next if that break is clear. If you are walking from one meeting to another, take a route that gives you a bit of fresh air. Alternatively, go and drink a glass of water. If you can’t leave your desk, switch off your camera and mic and do some star jumps, or shake yourself out, or walk around your room while doing a quick stretch. You’ll be surprised how a simple change of position makes a difference.”

“Taking the time to breathe deeply helps release negative thoughts from our mind and helps to clear it up,” says Kadeem Alston-Roman, author, meditation expert and holistic wellness coach at KadeemOne.com. “One simple technique is an exercise called box breathing. All you do is inhale for four counts, hold your breath for four counts, exhale for four counts, then hold your breath again for four counts. Repeat this process a few times and experience the magic.”

“Write down the things that are stressing you out,” says Nick Wignall, a clinical psychologist. The goal is to list worries, not solve them. “Toss the paper in the bin and get on with your evening. Do this for two weeks around the same time each day. You’ll train the brain to worry only at a specific place and time. Do this and you’ll worry less overall and anxiety levels will drop.”

A change is as good as a rest, especially if your workouts have become boring and you’ve stopped seeing results.

“The best way to reinvigorate your training is to shake up your sessions,” says Joe Warner, fitness editor of NewBodyPlan.com. “Only ever lift weights? Try a week or two of cardio classes at the gym or run or ride outside instead of pumping iron.”

Upload all your photos and videos to storage (Flickr, Google Photos, whatever) and delete them from your phone. Set up albums to keep photos organised while boosting the memory and battery life of your smartphone. Then “ditch the apps you don’t need and the newsletters you never read in your inbox,” says Trine Syvertsen, author of Digital Detox. Put your most important apps on the home screen and organise them in priority.

One day offline will recharge your batteries and help you live in the moment, rather than through the screen, so try a phone-free policy to refresh your social get-together.

“Try ditching the screen at least an hour before bed and especially between the hours of 10.00pm and 4.00am,” says Hector Hughes, co-founder of the digital detox break specialist Unplugged. “Exposure to bright light during these hours suppresses the release of dopamine, the chemical in the brain that gives you the motivation to achieve your goals.”

“Research suggests men are less distracted by social media than women, but relatively more distracted by online news and news push notifications,” Syvertsen says. “Disabling news feeds or avoiding constant news checking could be good advice to declutter.”