Haven or Hot Mess: How Does Your Home Feel?

When you walk into your home, how does it make you feel? Do you feel relaxed and cozy? Is anxious the first thing that comes to mind? Does your home make you feel welcomed and at ease? Or do you put blinders on and just try to shut out the chaos around you? If your home doesn’t feel like a haven, then one of the best things you can do for yourself (and your peace of mind) is to declutter your spaces.

A team of UCLA researchers observed thirty-two Los Angeles families and found that all of the mothers’ stress hormones spiked when they had to deal with their belongings.

Who needs stress just from walking in the door? It reminds me of something I know to be a truth: anytime you move through your home and encounter excess stuff, it’s going to increase your ability to think clearly and respond kindly to your family.

When your home isn’t a haven, it’s going to inhibit your ability to be kind to yourself.

Everything in your home has the potential to lift you up and nourish you and it also has the power to deplete your energy. Whether it is that spare bedroom closet where you shove the stuff you don’t want to deal with, the stack of mail setting on your kitchen island, or that vase your former mother-in-law gave you, your space is sacred. That’s because everything holds energy.

Your home, oh darling, should be a space of refuge. A haven. A space filled with beautiful objects you’ve curated for the purpose of creating a sanctuary. Your home should feel welcoming, open, and peaceful.

Whether it be your closet, your pantry, or your desk, too much stuff in your environment can have a negative impact on your ability to focus and process information. Neuroscientists at Princeton University studied how task performance was affected when their environment disorganized versus organized. What the research showed was that physical clutter competes for your attention, resulting in decreased performance and increased stress.

I know that wrangling your stuff can feel overwhelming. Especially if you dream of a home makeover with beautiful touches like a built ins or finding a vintage accent piece like you’d find at reclaimed fireplaces UK.  But maybe you can follow this train of thought:  where there is clutter, there is dust and when there is clutter and dust, there is stagnant old energy. Whether the clutter is visible, hidden or both, the energy is stuck.

A home with stuck energy will never feel like a  haven.

When there is no space for energy to move and flow, it’s challenging to find clarity in any area of your life. You feel like you’re life is stuck on the spin cycle. Your progress towards goals seem to be at a standstill. You carry a sense of heaviness with you.  In other words, clutter adds to feeling stuck or stagnant in your life.

I know that one of the biggest challenges to shedding stuff is guilt. You don’t want to ditch a beloved Aunt’s heirloom china, despite hating the pattern. You don’t want to get rid of leather you hate because you spent too much money on it. And you So, all the emotional attachments you have to things exacerbate the feeling of heaviness around all that clutter.

Darling, that’s no way to make your home to shelter you and become a haven.

We humans white space – margin – and without it, there is no opening for energy to move through our spaces with fluidity and ease. Similar to what multitasking does to your brain, physical clutter overloads your senses, making you feel stressed, and impairs your ability to think creatively or clearly.

Decluttering your space is much more powerful than most people realize. You shift the intention of your space from house to haven when you begin shedding the stuff that has been weighing you down mentally, physically and emotionally.

I know from experience how stressful it is to come home from the end of a long day and see piles of papers, stacks of dishes, and toys strewn everywhere. Sometimes, getting to the core of how you desire to feel in your space can help you through the overwhelm of making it happen.

If you’re unsure of how to discover your intended feelings to make transform your home into a haven, ask questions like this to help you zone in:

• • When you come home, does your home soothe, nourish, and/or welcome you?
  • What three things could help you feel more nourished at home?
  • What one room needs to be a haven?
  • What five things can you ditch in order for that room to be a haven or sanctuary?
  • How do you desire to feel in your bedroom?
  • What two things can you do to experience that feeling in your bedroom?
  • What feeling would you like to experience when you enter your kitchen?
  • What would it take to feel that way in your kitchen by next month? Brainstorm ten action items.
  • Does your living room make you feel relaxed and ready for company?
  • What three things could you do to make your living room feel like a respite to visitors – and yourself?

See, darling, it simply requires you take one tiny step at a time. Choose a room that you most need as a haven and work from there. Magic happens as you declutter your home. My wish for you, my darling, is that instead of feeling the need to put blinders on, your home becomes a place of sanctuary. Regardless of how large or small, your home can be one filled with beautiful objects, openness, and lots of space for good energy to flow.

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If you need a little help clearing your clutter (both big and small), allow me to help you.

Getting clear in your life by dealing with your physical clutter (big clutter and small clutter) will allow you to direct your precious energy towards creating the clear path to living your best possible life.

Join me for 30 Days to Clarity: Clutter Busting Edition

2022 Course Dates:

• Beginning Sunday, October 30, 2022

(*Note: As of 2018, this course is lifetime access. That means, you’re IN at no additional cost anytime the class runs.)

Course Investment: $21.

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Click here to read more inspiring tips for making your home a haven by decluttering it.