Alright, witches, despite what the several feet of Vermont snow outside my door might say, spring is coming. With spring comes cleaning: un-Kondo’ed closets, unedited “close friends” lists, bruised heart-cords still weakly attached to long-left lovers, and, of course, the magic of sweeping winter’s stale vibe from our living spaces.
Using smoke to banish bad energy is a pretty common practice, but smoke-free space clearing methods work just as well. Smokeless cleansing is an excellent approach for folks with respiratory issues, scent sensitivities, nosy neighbors, sneering muggle housemates, hypervigilant landlords, uncertainty about what counts as appropriation, or folks who know themselves to be “baby witches” and therefore reluctant to invest too heavily in materia magica. These skills are also super handy for folks who just want a wide array of methods for accomplishing basically the same thing.
Another wonderful aspect of smokeless cleansing is that it’s frequently amazingly budget-friendly. As folk practices the world over will teach you, magic doesn’t have to be expensive to be effective, and often, what we have around the house is enough to accomplish what needs accomplishing.
But why would you want to cleanse in the first place? Well, consider that your bathtub or shower technically gets rinsed every time you use it. But! Soap scum, dust, shed hair, and other forms of grime build up over time. Taking a sponge (and maybe some Sanctuary and scouring cleanser to those surfaces ensures your body-cleaning space is clean enough to actually, you know, clean your body.
Energy in our living spaces can encounter the same kind of grime accumulation. Every now and then, it’s a good idea to freshen the place up — doing so helps release any lingering vibes that might get in the way of proper cozy-home levels.
All of the below methods have one core prerequisite: INTENTION. As you engage in them, as much as you can, keep in your heart & mind why you’re doing what you’re doing. If you want, you can even repeat a phrase as you do so, out loud or in your head. I personally will repeat may this space be cleansed, may this space be blessed whenever I’m cleaning out the energy of a space.
Once your intention is set and settled, pick a method! These are listed from easiest to most complicated, but literally none of these count as “hard,” so don’t worry.
Open those windows
If you, unlike me, live someplace where spring temperatures go hand-in-hand with the spring equinox, throw open all of your windows. This is a great way to literally let out any stagnant energy lingering in corners and under bookcases. This one is great to pair with another method for an even more thorough cleaning (like an Open Window Spell Kit, maybe!) You’ll want to leave your windows open long enough for the air in your house to fully circulate — this will differ depending on the size and shape of your home, so use your nose to assess whether fresh air has fully saturated your space.
Spray it away
Aromatic or saltwater spritzes are an excellent choice for cleansing small areas or oneself of any unwanted energy. Counter Magick makes one expressly for this purpose (Banish, $20), and you can also use hydrosols (similar to essential oils, but waaaaaay less concentrated), rosewater, or DIY’d sprays using whatever herbs and oils you have laying around. The easiest form of this is non-iodized salt dissolved in warm water — salt is one of the real heavy hitters when it comes to energetic hygiene, and making it into a spray is sort of like carrying around a pocket-sized salt bath.
Melodies against muddiness
Sound is one of my favorite ways to reset the energy of a space. Have you ever been blessed enough to participate in a sound bath or been up close and personal with the speakers at a concert? You know how impactful sound can be, down to our very bones. With the help of bells, chimes, or the resonance of your own voice, that power can be harnessed to clean out your living quarters. If you don’t have chimes, bells, or some other musical instrument (guitars work! Ukuleles work! Violins and pianos and kazoos work!), I really encourage you to try out your voice. Sing a song you know if that feels good, or improvise, testing out how your voice plus your intention impacts the vibe of your space.
Imagine it away
Visualization doesn’t require any tools, but it’s a little more “advanced” since it does require sharp imaginative skills and some experience with meditation practice. The simplest form of this is to sit quietly, dropping into a meditative state, and imagining a bright light illuminating every corner of your house and neutralizing any stuck or stagnant energy. If you’re cleansing after a high-key moment — say, a tough argument or a heartbreak — you can imagine completely incinerating the unwanted vibes. After neutralization or incineration, it can be good to imagine a thorough rinse via a big wave of salt water washing away any ash or debris left behind.
Clean your house
Ha, gotcha! But seriously: sweeping, mopping, dusting, and vacuuming can all function as both physical and psychic cleaning approaches. For a deeply energetic cleansing, you’ll really want to be as thorough as you can manage — get into all of the corners, move the heavy furniture so you can get behind it, dust off every single book on the shelf, and so forth. Lower-key cleaning binges are also functional — just know that energetic dust bunnies can linger the same way real ones do! You can make this practice even more potent by first sprinkling salt and/or cleansing herbs on the floor before you clean (I personally adore mugwort and rosemary for this).
Diana Rose Harper is a wanderer, tarot reader, astrologer, licensed massage therapist, and Reiki Master. Born under a New Moon, her life is filled with intention. Find her inspiring writings, posts, and stories lifting up amazing POC and BIPOC folx on Instagram at @ddamascenaa, support her on Patreon, and sign up for her newsletter to stay in touch.
