This post features five ways to make your house a relaxing place to be. My recent post on how to work from home went down really well, so I thought I’d continue this theme. Whether you work from home or not, having a relaxing environment around you is essential. This is perhaps even more important if you have a busy job.
Here are my top five tips, based on my own experiences, for ways to make sure you always feel relaxed and at ease in your own space.
01. Tidy As You Go
People who let clutter accumulate over time then have a mammoth task on their hands when it comes to the clean up. You don’t need to take the afternoon off just to clean the house. I find that tidying little and often means that your house always maintains a good level of cleanliness. Use this as a guide:
Monday: Washing
Tuesday: Hoovering & dusting
Wednesday: Clean toilets
Thursday: Garden Maintenance (mowing etc.)
Friday: Kitchen clean
Your list may look different, depending on what you need to do each week. Doing something little and often means your house never becomes an issue. The washing up or dishwasher and other small tidying tasks will need to be done each day, but if you keep on top of those (by cleaning up after each meal), your house will always feel comfortable.
As somebody who works from home, the easiest way to be unproductive is to be working in a messy house. If you keep your house in order, your mind will follow.
02. Use Neutral Shades
For me, relaxing colours are white, neutral and pastel colours. In order to truly relax, you don’t want anything that’s too harsh on the eyes. If, however, darker colours make you feel more at home – then those are the colours you should go for. Your house is your space and so decorate it accordingly.
If you want your house to be a relaxing environment but you’re not sure where to start, consider painting your walls white and then experimenting with different art. The art will help you to decide which colours calm you and make you feel at home. If you’re feeling brave, you can always paint the walls that colour at a later date.
03. Surround Yourself With Calming Fragrances
If you’re in the house all day and you’ve got a really strong air freshener on, it’ll make you feel sick. Instead, pick some nice candles and flowers. You don’t even have to light the candles. If it has a lid, simply take it off and you’ll notice that the room will have a very slight aroma to it.
I’m always talking about the benefits of flowers and succulents. Aside from making the house smell nice, they make it look and feel homely. If you don’t want to maintain fresh flowers all the time, get some plastic ones. Sure, you won’t get the fragrance benefits but they’ll still make the house look pretty.
04. Keep Your Bedroom Spotless
This tip changed my life for the better. I’ve done a whole post on wardrobe maintenance, but there are some key points I’d like to mention. Start by ensuring you have matching hangers. It’s a simple thing but it makes all the difference. When you go to bed and night and your experience from clothes to pyjamas is a seamless one, it keeps your mind calm.
On that note, make sure you put your clothes away before bed. There’s nothing calming about waking up to a floor full of yesterday’s clothes. In the mornings, you want to step out of bed to a clean house as it’ll put you on the right footing for the rest of the day.
Finally, make your bed every day. There are no exceptions to this rule. If you’re too busy to make your bed in the morning then you need to reevaluate your life.
05. Open Your Curtains & Windows
Don’t live in a dungeon. It’s bad enough that we don’t get adequate Vitamin D in this country, without you shutting yourself away to the little sun we have. Let fresh air and natural sunlight circulate through your house and make sure that you keep windows open whenever you’re in.
You can be forgiven for wanting to keep the windows shut in the winter, but even if it’s for 2 minutes, keeping the air circulating is important if you want to keep your house refreshed and relaxing.
