Mofoluwaso Ilevbare: How to Make Your Home a Haven

We all have a place we call home. It doesn’t matter if you’re single, married, divorced or separated, you wake up every morning to a place you call home.

Do you know that the atmosphere of your home affects your mood and your health? How do you feel when you look around your home? Are you Happy? Sad? Overwhelmed? Excited?

How do you love to feel when you’re out and you think about returning home?

Imagine you’re in your ideal place. What are the specific things that make you feel safe, welcome or homely? What do you see on the walls, in the kitchen, the bedroom, the bathroom floor?

Then compare that with what your home looks like?

Here are a few tips to help:

• Take your journal and write down 3 things you are going to start, stop, or continue doing so your home can begin to look like that dream.
• Ignore your phone for 30 minutes every other day, or 1 hour every week to tidy up a small section of the house.
• Find out about housekeeping services and hire someone to do a one-time clean up that’ll make your life easier.
• Get a daily/regular housekeeper.
• Share the load. If you’re living with your family, even kids have to learn how to clean up after themselves. Schedule a regular clean-up time Friday nights/Saturday mornings/evenings where every member of the house has a task to do. Draft a winners’ board to make it a little fun, then celebrate the clean house afterwards. Over time, they’ll all get used to helping around the house.
• Visit your closest store and buy different sized containers for toys, library books, and mails coming in. Waste paper, music CDs – all those little items that pile up in no time making your house look messy.
• Putting things in their place makes the house spacious and relaxing to be in.
• Some people do their laundry themselves, others use laundry services. The more you can outsource things the less stress you carry, but if you’re not in a position to hire anyone, map out a schedule that works for you. Either do a little bit every day or big chunks at particular times during the week. The goal is to not feel overwhelmed.
• Ditch perfection! If you’ve got little kids running around the house, don’t stress yourself out trying to pick up every toy as soon as it drops on the floor. Sometimes taking an extra hour of sleep is better than fretting over the dirty dishes. Rest, and when you wake up, you’ll feel more productive and can get things done faster.

What else would you add to the list? I’d be happy to hear from you.