“There are few rites of spring more satisfying than the annual clean.” – Martha Stewart. Birds chirping and flowers blooming are nice, but for the neatniks amongst us, hosing down patio furniture and resealing grout are spring’s greatest treasures. Spring is not only a great time to declutter your closets, but also to declutter your legal life. Following Martha’s spring cleaning checklist may bring you inner calm and peace, but follow this list below and you will achieve total nirvana:

We love our pets. We groom them, bathe them, feed them, make sure they have plenty of exercise, recreation, and relaxation (as if that’s necessary). Last year alone $60 billion was spent on pet care in the United States. In modern America, Fluffy and Fido are part of the family. But when it comes to estate planning, our beloved, furry family members are often left out in the cold. Animals have the status of property under the law, and under most wills, are lumped together with personal property.

From a young age we are taught to respect our elders. This is for a good reason: With age also comes wisdom. . . Usually. Unfortunately wisdom is not the only thing that comes with age. There’s the other run-of-the-mill stuff of course: grey hair, wrinkles, less spring in your step, maybe the memory’s a little rusty. Sometimes there’s more: physical disability, serious mental deterioration, an illness that can lead to total incapacitation.

Estate planning is for people who have big houses, millions of dollars and are 82 years old. True or false? It is true that the term “estate planning” conjures up an image of an elderly couple roaming the gardens of their country estate, arm and arm, talking about how they plan to split their massive fortune between their adult children and their charities of choice. But it is entirely false that estate planning is only for people like this couple.