How to Enjoy Your Home
With so many of us spending more time at home, perhaps the saying “take the time to smell the flowers” is good advice. So is taking the time to really live in your home. What a tragedy if the colors, textures and, perhaps most importantly, the stories behind your furniture and décor have become unnoticed or half-remembered memories! Turn the lockdown into a window of opportunity to fall in love with your home with these ideas.
Rediscover Your Home
Take a walk around the rooms on a quiet morning. Run your hands along the walls and surfaces. Try to imagine how such beautiful things came together to become one home from elements so different, originating in places so far apart.
Recreate Your Home
Whether you can sketch, paint, design digitally or create a model out of matchsticks, reproduce your home in miniature. The experience will make you see familiar spaces in an entirely new light. It may even give you some intriguing ideas for a remodel or renovation down the road. Display it when you finish!
Create New Memories in Your Home
That decade-old passed-down quilt doesn’t have to be bundled away because it has frayed. The rickety stool you made ages ago doesn’t have to be relegated to the dark shed. Repair them, rework the details, and add to their character. Do it together with your family and create a wellspring of new memories to go with the older ones.
Remember the Triumphs
Past achievements can be effective motivators. Place old sports trophies prominently in your workout space. Frame and mount your college degree and work commendations in the home office. They are tangible evidence of your abilities and can give you an incentive to push on when you are struggling to motivate yourself.
Conquer the Clutter
In hunting out those old trophies, you will likely also encounter a mass of useless knickknacks. Get rid of them responsibly through donation and/or disposal as appropriate. Decluttering your home works almost like magic – just recall the fresh ‘lightness’ you felt the last time you did it!
Live Like a Queen/King in Your Home
What’s your sin - ridiculously expensive cutlery and crockery? Perhaps it’s sheets with sky-high thread counts or exotic scented candles. We all tend to sequester the best of our things for “someday.” Don’t. The day is today and the time is now. Indulge.
Positivity is the Key
Some people believe that we leave an imprint of ourselves in every place we visit. Whether or not you believe that, infusing the world around you with joy, gratitude and happiness is a wonderful philosophy. The simple steps above help you start with your home today.
