The next time you walk in your front door (or wherever you enter from), take a moment to reflect on how your space makes you feel. Are you welcomed when you walk into your space with a cozy vibe? Does your home feel bright and fresh? Are things chaotic and overwhelming?
Everyone’s home has a tone, feel, and vibe. Ensuring that the space speaks to them in a way that they enjoy is what sets some homes apart from others. Be honest with yourself and take note of what contributes to the positive or negative vibes.
If you don’t like what you feel, you can change it with some simple adjustments.
What type of experiences do you wish to have in your home?
Do you desire a space that is perfect for entertaining, encourages relaxation, fosters an environment for your home business, or something totally different? Whatever it is you’re wanting to get out of your home, you must set your space up for success in those areas.
If you don’t know what you want from your home, how will you achieve it? Gaining clarity in what you want is the first step in transforming your space into a home that supports those things.
Your home is within your control. It should be the place where you escape all negative forces of the world. Your home should be the antidote to stress, not the cause of it.
Peter Walsh
Crush the clutter and stress
A super common complaint I hear from men and women of all ages if how cluttered their home feels. Big or small, new or old, it can be easy to collect things in a home and not have places to put them all. When a home feels cluttered, stress is often triggered and the hormone, cortisol, can increase tension and anxiety that lead to unhealthy habits. These can include poor sleep, snacking on junk food, excessive binge watching, and more.
Your environment shouldn’t contribute to stress; it should reduce it. Even if you only sleep in your home (and many of us do much more than just that), you spend a lot of precious time here.
So what’s the solution? Start decluttering!
Decluttereing can benefit your home and wellness far beyond what you might expect. Benefits of decluttering can include:
- Reduce stress and anxiety
- Improve your sleep
- Increase productivity and creativity
- Save time - easier to clean and tidy
- Supports healthy habits
- Rids the home of dust, mold and allergens
- Quite possibly the best part? Decluttering is free, and anyone can do it at any time.
Start with a plan
There are many ways to declutter and finding a plan that works for you is key. You can be extreme and tackle the majority of your home at once; you can frequently go through small sections of your home, room by room, drawer by drawer, closet by closet; you can hire an organization to declutter or redesign your space if you don’t feel capable.
I also suggest figuring out what items you should throw away, what you want to donate, and what you might want to sell. It’s easy to get rid of items in the ways that make the most sense through outlets like yard sales, Goodwill, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, or pass things along to a school, daycare, or shelter.
Taking the first step
- Get into the habit of asking yourself how you feel about each item you come in contact with. If you don’t love it or use it, why keep it?
- Create a vision board or pinterest board for ideas you’d love to incorporate into your home. Some updates are very simple and inexpensive while others will require more of a time commitment and financial investment but focus on the value it will bring.
- You can start anytime, but seasonally can feel very natural. Refreshing is great before the school year begins, before summer, before christmas, or before the new year.
- Whenever you bring new items in, ask yourself what items will now go.
*Pro tip: Get into the habit of reminding your children to do the same. Depending on their ages, they can help clean out their desks, playroom closets, and clothing. If they develop this habit early, it’ll be second nature.
Refresh and support your needs
For a little money, you can easily add a fresh coat of paint to furniture or walls, purchase live plants, add matching bins or other types of organizers to a space, replace shelving, add new curtains, or freshen up linens for an instant upgrade. It’s also common for many working mothers to hire a cleaning service to help support their home cleaning responsibilities..
Places and spaces to refresh The Kitchen
Benefits: A clean and inviting kitchen makes it easier to prepare your own meals and upgrade your nutrition habits. You’ll save money by not wasting food or eating out too often
Tips: Use glass storage containers in your pantry and fridge that are aesthetically pleasing; Prioritize gadgets and equipment that helps you prepare meals and that you use frequently; Designate an area to help with packing lunches instead of relying on school lunches or take out at work
The Bedroom
Benefits: A bedroom you love being in makes it easier to get quality sleep and create a space to rest, recover, and rejuvenate. You will get sick less often, reduce stress, improve your mood, and balance hormones which promotes staying at a healthy weight
Tips: Prioritize sleep and relaxation in this room by not doing work or other stressful tasks here; Eliminate paperwork, computers, and TV’s; Dim the lights, use candles, add soft blankets, and turn on a fan for circulating air
The Office
Benefits: An organized office increases productivity, increase creativity, and helps set necessary work hour boundaries
Tips: Have a designated area in your home even if you don’t have an actual office specifically for work without distractions like TV; Shred unnecessary paperwork, file important documents, and consider scanning for online storage; Make sure what you need is at your fingertips including notebooks, pens, calculator, files, envelopes, stamps, and more
Loving and caring for your home should feel good
Your home is a sanctuary and should be a place where you feel safe and comforted from the pressures of the outside world. Remember that it is also your family’s sanctuary and a space where they “come home” to be loved and nurtured. Together, you can foster an environment that you all love and want to spend your time in. Be aware, reduce clutter, and create a space that feels like home.
Holly Mann
Holly Mann
Personal Success Coach
Founder of Fresh Habits: freshhabits.net
I am on a mission to facilitate meaningful conversations that encourage individuals to upgrade and expand their habits and routines which will ultimately allow them to live life at their fullest potential!
