Work is hectic. Schedules are hectic. The kids are hectic… almost all of life can be hectic. Your home shouldn’t be.
Your home should be the antidote to stress. It ought to be a place of rest, respite, and relaxation. So you can spend the rest of your life inside it? No, of course not.
Home is a place of rest and peace and acceptance so we can live our best lives out in the world making the biggest difference that we possibly can. That is why having a calm and rejuvenating home is so important.
With that, here are:
10 Simple Ways to Bring More Calm into Your Home
1. Remove 33% of your clothing.
If you want to change your life immediately, clean out a closet. After decluttering clothes, not only will your mornings be less stressful, you’ll find more calm by not having to peer into a cluttered closet first thing when you wake up.
2. Be intentional with the purpose of each room in your home.
Not only do our homes serve an important role in our lives and families, but individual rooms also serve specific purposes. Take a moment to identify what role each room in your home should perform. And then remove everything from each space that doesn’t serve that purpose.
3. Reset your living room every evening.
Before you go to bed each night, find 5-10 minutes to reset the most lived-in areas of your home. Otherwise, you constantly bring yesterday’s mess into today. Of course, this ten-minute reset is certainly easier when you own less stuff, so make that a priority as well.
4. Own fewer toys.
Toys are a constant point of stress for young parents. We buy them because we think they will improve playtime with our children, but many times they just add frustration to it. You can own less. In fact, there are developmental benefits when you do.
5. Clear your countertops.
Don’t fall into the convenience fallacy by leaving items on your counter just because you think it is convenient to do so. Every item left out in our home is a form of visual clutter and noise. You don’t need to remove every item from your kitchen countertop, you’ll just love it if you do.
6. Identify homes for everything you own.
Toys live in the bin. Clothes live in the closet or hamper. Bathroom toiletries on the shelf, in the drawer, or the medicine chest. Coats and shoes go in the closet. The remote-control lives near the tv stand. When everything has a home, cleaning up becomes easier and your home becomes calmer.
7. Tackle 1-minute projects immediately.
As I learned from Gretchen Rubin, “If a task can be completed in less than one minute, do it right away.” Embrace that concept around your home to create a more calming atmosphere everywhere you go.
8. Choose meaningful decorations.
Decorations are a common place in the home where it is easy to go overboard. Decorations make a house feel comfortable, calm, and relaxing. But too many can make it feel cluttered and busy. To add calm into your home, choose meaningful decorations that tell your story and communicate your values.
9. Keep your garage tidy.
Your garage is the first thing you see every time you return home. If it is a cluttered mess, filled to the brim with boxes or tools, “a cluttered mess” will always be your first impression of your home when you arrive. Change your mood and attitude by keeping it as tidy and organized as possible.
10. Complete (or discard) unfinished projects.
There are few things more stress-producing than an unfinished project. Make a commitment today to either finish your projects or discard them entirely. I admit this final point may not be simple. Although, the more often you declare project bankruptcy and just discard those unfinished projects, the easier it becomes.
If you are just starting on the road to owning less, some of these steps may sound difficult to complete. But you’ll be surprised how simple many of them become when you first take the step to minimize the possessions you don’t need.
Just got rid of 80% of my Christmas decorations. The house still feels festive but is calmer and I have less work to do. I’m loving this.
I’m in the process of minimizing yet again (and with more passion than ever before) and the one thing screaming at me louder than anything else in the process is that all of my ‘creative seeds’ have spent the last 20 years buried and suffocating under other peoples stuff.
Needless to say, as all the inherited stuff is being shown the door, my creative seeds are getting breathing room and my inspiration is coming back online. I may get rid of some of what’s there but not until I’ve spent time with it in a quiet space.