We all dream of having a house, but there is a significant difference between a house of brick or wood and a home. A home is the place where we create happy memories, we love, and we raise our children. It is the place where we feel safe, we find solace and comfort. It is the warm and inviting place that makes us feel like… well, home. Making a home doesn’t require expensive furniture or color coordinated bookshelves because it is always the special things and the people that totally transform a house.
In fact, your home is the people you share it with and their love, and the memories you make: every morning coffee, every celebration, every quiet afternoon, every pie baked and shared, and every experience of a life well-lived. It has to be the place where you feel totally safe, at peace, and as blissful as you’d expect.
There are several small changes you can do to make your home your heaven.
- Try to always have fresh flowers or grow plants – they purify the air and improve your health. Plus, watching a plant grow will bring you so much joy!
- Fix things that are broken: a faucet, a drawer, or a light bulb. It will improve your mood and make you feel better.
- Clean your house and keep it clean. Get in the habit of cleaning daily for 10-15 minutes. Make it pleasant and do it with patience. Don’t think of it as a chore. Shift your focus and think of it as a transformation you enjoy.
- Organize your kitchen gadgets, your closets, and your bathrooms. It saves time and eliminates stress.
- Surround yourself with what makes you happy. The things that make you smile will give your guests a sense of what you find beautiful when they walk in the door. Display photos of people you love, paintings and sculptures that speak to you and you relate to. It will definitely boost your happiness.
- Donate things you haven’t used in years: clothes, books, or even small furniture pieces you save in your garage. Let the old things go. Someone in need is going to use them. Plus, it will create space and it will make you feel liberated.
- If you have a secret passion like cooking fill your house with cooking gadgets and cookbooks. If you love the ocean and the beach, make your own oasis with shells and ocean colors. If you like forests and mountains, bring them close to you with some pine cones, few rocks and some essential oils. It will recharge your batteries and you will feel like you just came back from your vacation.
Explore yourself and pay attention to your needs. Try to find the right balance between the outer world and your inner world, and your home will become the reflection of the most positive version of yourself.
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Great tips! I spent one day this week just cleaning things and gathering items to donate. Even rearranging the living room made my mood a little brighter!
I totally agree with you – it makes such a difference! 🙂
Love this post! W recently went on a major decluttering and simplifying this year and it has been awesome!
I love decluttering! I do it periodically and as often as I can. 🙂
Oh my goodness, yes, agree with all of these! It’s the simple things that make you happy in your home.
Great tips! I definitely agree with the clean house. When my house gets so unorganized and messy, I don’t even want to be in there. I would rather just leave and not think about it!
Haha, that’s so true, Amanda! I usually like to spend 10-15 minutes in the evening tidying up my house so I can wake up to a clean and organized space.
Really good tips! Lately, I’ve been wanting to have fresh flowers in my home on a regular basis. And my husband and I love to cook!
I think it’s so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life that we forget to be good to ourselves. Creating a home environment to reflect happiness and peace is a great way to bring sunshine to our lives. I really like your post, Ana! It is inspiring to me, and I will share it with others.
Aww, thank you so much, Jenn! I’m glad you like my post! 🙂
These are great tips. I’m bad about clutter. It drives me crazy but it’s still there and as soon as I clean it up it’s back again. Must stop that habit!
I know what you mean, Rachel. Clutter drives me crazy too. 🙂
Great advice and well practiced here. 🙂 Love the post! I can totally relate to giving unused items away as there’s always a need for recycling. Since we downsized, we visit the basement regularly to donate items to a needy cause, it’s a win-win situation.
I like to declutter from time to time – room after room. It’s a little harder to convince my son and my hubby to get rid of the things. 🙂
I’m waiting for cooler days so I can get rid of some things we don’t use. I love purging and being organized.
I too love to get rid of things, to create more space and to have my house organized. 🙂
We are hoping to move this next year, so I am super motivated to clean out closets and drawers and get rid of things, where I had a hard time with it before. You are so right about it being liberating! Some things that I’ve had a harder time getting rid of I’ve taken pictures of them and that makes it easier to let them go (most of the time). Love all of your other suggestions, too, Ana!
I am a huge fan of fresh flowers in the home. There is something so nice about that and I usually stop off and get some at the start of the weekend, so I can appreciate them on my days off! Good call on donating items, that is something I need to do soon. We need a good clear out. X
These are all great tips! I love fresh flowers and I’m working on growing more that are good for cut flowers. I’m so short on time that I use one of my days off for my cleaning, yard work, and I also do most of the weeks cooking as well. I do need to go though things to get rid of. I’m not real big on cooking but I am getting gadgets to help make things easier.
These are great tips! We don’t have fresh flowers in the house often, but they do make the house feel prettier. 🙂 We like to have a 15-20 minute clean up every evening before my husband gets home and then another quick one before bed. It makes the mornings so much smoother.
Such good ideas! Gotta tell you though, I am on the constant struggle bus with keeping it clean. I try so hard, but by the end of the day I sometimes just don’t have the energy. 🙂