7 Simple Ways to Make Your Home More Serene
1. Make your bed.
Off all the things you can do to create serenity in your home, this is the most important. Our bedrooms house not just our bodies, but our spirits. Keeping this most intimate of spaces serene is important to our mental wellbeing. The bed takes up the largest amount of visual space in the room, functioning either as an ugly eyesore or as a picture of serenity. It takes, on average, less than 4 minutes to make even the most complicated of beds. Make your bed. It will make your home – and your life – more serene.
2. Clear the largest flat surface in every room.
In the dining room, it’s probably the dinner table; in the living room, it may be the coffee table or the dresser or armoire on which the television sits. In the kitchen, perhaps it’s the island or the countertop surrounding the stove and sink. Every home is different, but the largest flat surface in each room is easily identifiable whether you live in a tiny home or a multi-floored mansion. Clear those surfaces! We’re not talking football fields worth of space, we’re speaking about relatively small amounts of surface space…but space that is oh-so-serene when it’s clear of the detritus and clutter of our daily lives. Take one room at a time and clear the largest flat surface in the room.
3. Place eye candy on the surfaces you just cleared.
Once you’ve cleared the largest flat surface in a room, take a moment to add a bit of eye candy to the surface…with the focus on a “bit of” eye candy. Remember, the goal is to create a serene look, not to re-clutter the space. Choose just one, maybe 2, things to put back on a surface – focusing on things that enhance your sense of calm and wellbeing. In the dining room, perhaps you’ll place a vase of just cut beautiful pink and white dogwood branches in the center; on the kitchen island, perhaps a bowl of seasonal fruits or just a beautiful empty bowl whose shape, form, or history pleases you. On the bathroom counter, maybe you’ll simply leave the surface empty, but put out fresh, pretty soaps or a new bottle of hand lotion that has a pretty label. Creating serene space isn’t about what you remove from the space; it’s about what you choose to put back in it. Choose mindfully; choose what truly pleases you.
4. If it’s full, empty it.
This is such a simple serenity-creating concept, but one that’s often completely ignored at home: if it’s full, empty it. Full things no longer afford us access to them; they are no longer of value to us. They are simply full. If the sink is full, we can’t wash out our favorite coffee cup or fill the teapot for our morning brew. If the trash if overflowing, we’re left standing above the can frustrated and needing to deal with things we no longer value; if the laundry hamper is packed to its limit, control – if just for a moment – is rested from us and we know stress instead. Make your life at home simpler and more serene: if it’s full, empty it.
5. Clean your mirrors.
Mirrors are important to the serenity of our homes! They are the eyes of our homes, our truthtellers, our imaginations – our lives – reflected. They deserve – we deserve – to have them be as clean and clear as possible. What is reflected to us in our mirrors may make us happy, it may anger or irritate us, it may make known to us our desire for something new or different. Whatever else a mirror does, it tells the truth. If we will take a moment to really look into and at what a mirror is reflecting to us, what it’s telling us and how we feel about that, we can use that knowledge to make our lives better, more serene, more our own. Take a few minutes to clean the mirrors in your home. Now, take a good look.
6. Open a window (or two or three).
Homes are living, breathing spaces and just as people do, they need fresh air and the stimulation it brings to an environment. Open a window or two and let the outside world in for just a few minutes every day. If you’ll pay attention, you’ll hear birdsong, a branch creaking in the wind, a car driving too fast down the street, the radio in your mail person’s van blaring out old 80’s rock and roll…whatever you hear, you engage with the world in a different way when you open yourself to what’s going on outside. Your home will benefit too: musty odors, the leftover tinge of burnt food from the pan you left too long on the stove last night, the smell of your daughter’s overuse of her cherry-scented cologne, the odor of your significant other’s athletic equipment? All, out the window.
7. Decorate your primary entry door.
Your primary entry door isn’t necessarily your front door; it’s the door that you and your family most often use. It may be a side door or the door from the garage into the laundry room, or the door from the basement to the kitchen. The actual door doesn’t matter; what matters is that you enter it every day. Make it welcoming. Put up a seasonal wreath or a traditional holiday-themed decorative element if that’s what makes your spirit sing, but don’t hesitate to go a non-traditional route either: stick a small bulletin board up and leave kind messages for your family or put up a new motivational quote every day, highlight your family mantra, or put up a riddle for the kids. Doors are natural transitioning elements in a home. Sometimes, when we are transitioning from work to home or from the outside to the inside or from school to home, we need a little something to help make the transition successful. Your primary entry door can do just that. Put a little thought into how you can make it meaningful and unique for your family.
Creating a serene home isn’t a complicated process, but it does take time, thought, and energy. If you could use some help making your home as clutter-free, organized, and serene as possible, call us. We are a personal concierge firm and we love helping our clients live as beautifully, and as serenely, as possible.