7: Finding Peace By Creating Happy Spaces in Your Home (and it’s easier than you think!)

At some point, you will be ready to make your home a priority. Mental health and family relationship should always be healthy before you shift focus to your home – seriously, just avoid rotting food in the kitchen, keep it clean enough to avoid rodent or pest problems, and focus on your mental well being and relationships FIRST!

(This post contains an affiliate link – check under the email enrollment banner for the link to the softest blanket I’ve ever touched!)

I spent 2 years fiercely advocating for my mental health and helping others to apply the top techniques for mental wellness into their everyday life. This next chapter in my personal life will begin to shift some focus onto getting my home in functioning order and of course, I’m going to be sharing anything I learn right here on I Get To.

One very helpful thing I’ve done is create a Toy Library. Very similar to a toy rotation, but a lot easier to manage. My kids have a basket of toys in the living room (things like Buzz, Woody, Potato Head and other dolls and dinosaurs), they have a drawer each in their bedrooms for their special toys that they are not required to share with each other. And to keep my sanity, all the multipiece toys are stored out of reach, in a cabinet, in a locked room they don’t go in unsupervised (the business office). The Toy Library is filled with puzzles, letter games, blocks, cars and tracks, trains and tracks, LEGOs and the like.

By keeping the toys that suck to sort and put away out of reach, our kids only play with one type of toy at a time and clean up isn’t too overwhelming for them. When the kids are too overwhelmed for their own mess, who ends up on clean up duty?

What we’re really here to talk about today is creating happy spaces in your home. Your whole home doesn’t have to be clean and in order before you can be happy. Your home is meant to serve you, not the other way around. You shouldn’t be feeling overwhelmed and stressed by simply walking into your house. What is the purpose of your home? Is it meant to be the place you escape the stresses of the world or is it the main source of stress for you? Don’t go perverting the purpose.

How do you currently feel about your home? Does the entire thing feel like a to do list? Like an unending series of projects?

Your worth is not dependent on the state of your home. Give yourself grace that you’re growing and learning and living your life. You can love the home you live in, you can put in all the work needed to complete every project, you can spend hours every day decluttering and deep cleaning, but at the end of the day you’re going to need a place you can rest.

For the longest time, I didn’t have a place inside my home that could feel restful, so I chose to stand outside on the porch and look to the horizon. I would look over the mud and the outdoor projects and landscaping happening and stare at the tree line and sky. I needed something to look at that felt peaceful and beautiful.

Like I mentioned, you don’t have to get your whole home clean before you can find peace in it. Choose one place to make a happy zone. You can’t control everything all the time, so find a small space you can keep up with and find peace.

Your bedroom is a great place to start with renovations, decluttering and redecorating. I know this one falls to the backburner pretty often because guests never see your room. You set the tone for your family, you set the example, you get to prioritize your rest so you’re available to help others to calm themselves too.

Start by dusting and washing linens – this is a super quick fix that makes a big impact in brightening the space. Declutter the space so only what’s needed is there. Set boundaries – like no laundry piles, no dishes left, and no kids toys. Get a few touches of texture that you are in love with. I have this blanket that makes me melt, I lay it out on the floor and just lay down to relax, meditate, or stretch. This is my small happy space, even when my whole room isn’t perfectly clean, I can relax on the floor in my little corner with that blanket.

Your life shouldn’t feel like a to-do list. Your life is meant to be lived. Messes happen, life happens, it’s okay. Don’t let yourself feel guilty or shameful for it. Live your life, do your best. Messes will always happen and you’ll always be cleaning them up, but if you have a space to go and relax and restore your soul and energy, it becomes much easier to handle those messes.

In the Podcast Episode I mentioned the softest blanket I’ve ever touched, which can be found right here (affiliate link): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KTK8BSS/?tag=britclarkson-20

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