Subscription Spring Cleaning 2026: The Complete Purge Guide
Updated February 2026 · 9 min read
You clean your closets. You clean your garage. But when was the last time you cleaned your recurring charges?
The average American has 12 active subscriptions and wastes $133/month on ones they barely use. That's $1,596/year — enough for a vacation, a new laptop, or 6 months of groceries.
This guide walks you through a complete subscription purge, room by room. Grab your bank statement and let's start cleaning.
🛋️ Room 1: The Living Room (Streaming & Entertainment)
This is where the biggest waste lives. The average household pays for 4.7 streaming services but actively watches only 2-3.
The Audit Questions:
- Which streaming services did you actually open in the last 30 days?
- Are you paying for ad-free tiers you don't need? (Switching to ad tiers saves $5-8/mo each)
- Do you have overlapping sports packages? (ESPN+, Peacock, Paramount+ all carry sports)
- Are you still paying for a cable package AND multiple streaming services?
Common Cuts:
- Netflix — $15.49-22.99/mo. Consider rotating: subscribe for a month, binge, cancel.
- Hulu — $7.99-17.99/mo. Check if it's bundled with your Disney+ (save $7-15/mo).
- Paramount+ — $5.99-11.99/mo. Often forgotten after signing up for a free trial.
- Peacock — $5.99-11.99/mo. Most content is available on the free tier.
- Discovery+ — $4.99-8.99/mo. Now bundled with Max — you might be paying twice.
- Starz — $9.99/mo. The #1 forgotten add-on channel.
- SiriusXM — $16.99/mo. Free trial from your car purchase that converted to paid? Very hard to cancel — our guide has the script.
💰 Potential savings: $30-80/month
📱 Room 2: Your Phone (Apps & Mobile Subscriptions)
Phone subscriptions are sneaky. They charge through Apple/Google so they don't even show up as separate charges on your bank statement.
How to Check:
- iPhone: Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions
- Android: Google Play → Profile → Payments & subscriptions
Common Cuts:
- Dating apps (Tinder Gold $29.99, Bumble $29.99, Match $35.99) — the biggest money pit on your phone
- Duolingo Plus — $6.99/mo. The free version works fine for casual learners
- Calm / Headspace — $14.99/mo each. YouTube has thousands of free meditation videos
- Strava — $11.99/mo. Free tier tracks all your runs/rides — premium adds segment leaderboards
- Weather apps, photo editors, keyboard apps — check for forgotten free trials
💰 Potential savings: $20-80/month
💻 Room 3: Your Computer (Software & Productivity)
Software subscriptions add up faster than any other category. Adobe alone costs $54.99/mo for all apps.
Common Cuts:
- Adobe Creative Cloud — $54.99/mo. If you only use Photoshop, switch to the Photography Plan ($9.99/mo). Or try Canva ($12.99/mo), Figma (free tier), or Photopea (free).
- Microsoft 365 — $6.99-9.99/mo. Google Docs/Sheets/Slides are free and do 95% of what Office does.
- Dropbox — $11.99/mo. Most people only need the free 2GB + iCloud/Google Drive they already pay for.
- Grammarly — $12/mo. Free tier catches most errors. Or use ChatGPT to proofread.
- ChatGPT Plus — $20/mo. The free tier is surprisingly capable. Do you actually hit the limits?
- Notion / Evernote — $8-15/mo. Apple Notes and Google Keep are free.
💰 Potential savings: $30-100/month
🏋️ Room 4: The Gym Bag (Fitness & Health)
Gym memberships are the original subscription trap. 67% of gym memberships go completely unused.
Common Cuts:
- Planet Fitness — $10-24.99/mo. The annual fee ($39-49) hits in March — cancel before then!
- Peloton — $12.99-44/mo. App-only is $12.99 vs $44 with the bike. YouTube has free cycling workouts.
- Noom — $59/mo. One of the most expensive health apps. MyFitnessPal free tier does calorie tracking.
- WHOOP — $30/mo. Your Apple Watch or Fitbit already tracks most of the same metrics.
- Zwift — $24.99/mo. Only worth it if you ride 3+ times/week through winter.
- BetterHelp — $240-360/mo. Check if your insurance covers in-person therapy — often cheaper.
💰 Potential savings: $30-150/month
📦 Room 5: The Front Door (Delivery & Food)
Delivery subscription stacking is the 2026 version of cable bundling.
Common Cuts:
- Amazon Prime — $14.99/mo ($139/yr). If you only use it for shipping, most items ship free over $35 without Prime.
- DoorDash DashPass — $9.99/mo. Are you saving more than $10/mo in delivery fees? Check your order history.
- Uber One — $9.99/mo. Covers Uber Eats AND rides. Worth it only if you order 3+ times/month.
- Instacart+ — $9.99/mo. Free delivery on $35+ orders. Math: do you order 3+ times/month?
- HelloFresh — $60-80/mo. Meal kits are convenient but cost 2-3x grocery store prices per meal.
💰 Potential savings: $40-100/month
🔒 Room 6: The Junk Drawer (Security, VPNs, & Identity)
Fear-based subscriptions you signed up for after a data breach and forgot about.
Common Cuts:
- Norton Antivirus / McAfee — $30-100/yr. Windows Defender and macOS built-in security are sufficient for most people.
- LifeLock — $12-35/mo. Credit Karma (free) + bank fraud alerts provide most of the same protection.
- TransUnion / Equifax monitoring — $20-30/mo each. Credit Karma is free and uses the same data.
- ExpressVPN / NordVPN — $8-13/mo. Do you actually use it? Most people sign up and forget.
- 1Password / Dashlane — $3-8/mo. Apple Keychain and Chrome password manager are free built-in alternatives.
💰 Potential savings: $20-60/month
🧮 The Spring Cleaning Scorecard
Add up your potential savings:
- 🛋️ Streaming & Entertainment: $____/mo
- 📱 Phone & Apps: $____/mo
- 💻 Software & Productivity: $____/mo
- 🏋️ Fitness & Health: $____/mo
- 📦 Delivery & Food: $____/mo
- 🔒 Security & Identity: $____/mo
- Total monthly savings: $____/mo × 12 = $____/year
The average person who does a thorough spring cleaning saves $180-570/month — that's $2,160-6,840/year.
The 3-Step Spring Cleaning Method
Step 1: Find Everything (5 minutes)
Don't rely on memory. Upload your last 3 months of bank/credit card statements to JustCancel. We'll identify every recurring charge — including ones disguised under corporate names you won't recognize (like "AMZN Digital" for Kindle Unlimited or "GOOG*YouTube" for YouTube Premium).
Also check: iPhone/Android subscription settings, PayPal recurring payments, and Venmo.
Step 2: Sort Into Keep / Cancel / Downgrade (10 minutes)
For each subscription, ask:
- Did I use this in the last 30 days? No → Cancel
- Could I use a free alternative? Yes → Cancel
- Am I on the highest tier? Yes → Downgrade
- Would I buy this today if I didn't already have it? No → Cancel
Step 3: Cancel Everything at Once (20 minutes)
Use our 1,100+ cancel guides for step-by-step instructions with direct cancel links. Pro tip: do it all in one sitting so you don't lose momentum. Companies count on you putting it off.
🚫 Services That Get Harder to Cancel Over Time
Some subscriptions have cancellation windows or penalties. Act on these first:
- Planet Fitness — Annual fee hits in March. Cancel before it charges.
- Adobe Creative Cloud — 50% of remaining contract as early termination fee on annual plans.
- SiriusXM — Must call. Budget 30 minutes for the call.
- Noom — Auto-renews for 4 months at a time. Cancel at least 24 hours before renewal.
- Salesforce — Requires 30-day written notice before annual renewal.
After the Purge: Stay Clean
- Use a virtual card for every new subscription. When you want to cancel, just freeze the card.
- Set a quarterly calendar reminder to repeat this audit
- Use the free trial rule: Set a cancel reminder for 1 day before every free trial ends
- Rotate streaming services instead of paying for all of them simultaneously — our rotation guide shows how
🧹 Start Your Spring Cleaning Now
Upload your bank statement and find every subscription in 30 seconds. Free scan, $5 to unlock everything.
Scan My Subscriptions →Join 1,000+ people who've already cleaned up their subscriptions
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I audit my subscriptions?
At minimum, twice a year — during spring cleaning and before the holidays. Ideally, do a quick check every quarter. The average person accumulates 2-3 new subscriptions per quarter without canceling old ones.
What's the fastest way to find all my subscriptions?
Upload your bank or credit card statement (CSV or PDF) to JustCancel. It automatically identifies every recurring charge in seconds — including ones you forgot about. The average user finds 3-7 forgotten subscriptions.
Should I cancel or pause subscriptions I might want later?
Cancel. Most services offer the same price when you re-subscribe, and many offer a comeback discount. Pausing often has time limits (30-90 days) and you might forget to cancel after the pause ends.
How much can I save by doing a subscription spring cleaning?
JustCancel users save an average of $273/year. Heavy subscribers (10+ active subscriptions) often save $500-800/year by cutting services they barely use.
What if I'm still in a contract or annual plan?
Mark the renewal date on your calendar and cancel 1-2 weeks before. For annual plans, you usually keep access until the end of your paid period. Some services like Adobe charge early termination fees — check our cancel guides for details.