Our home environment is intimately linked with our stress levels, as anyone who has come home to a cluttered hallway will understand. Interiors therapist Suzanne Roynon has teamed up with Homebase to support Stress Awareness Month, and shared a brilliant tip to help de-stress your home.
A tidy home filled with treasured items - although perhaps not too many - helps us deal with the daily challenges life throws at us. Suzanne’s advice involves examining every single one of them.
The one method to de-stress your home
‘Identify anything you don’t like,’ Suzanne begins. ‘Whether it’s a chipped mug or the dusty fitness equipment in the corner. If it generates a negative response, it is causing you hidden stress,’ she says. While this might seem extreme, she definitely has a point. We can see the value in a ‘no stone left unturned’ approach to our belongings.
Why shouldn’t we be meticulous? We spend so much of our lives in our homes, it makes sense for us to be discerning. ‘By keeping only items that are genuinely needed, loved, or bring you pleasure, you’ll create an infinitely happier home,’ Suzanne says.
This logic can also be applied to what we bring into our homes. We can avoid a cluttered environment by only buying items we're confident we’ll love or at least use for a long time. Whether it's picking the best sofa we can afford or getting good quality shoe storage solutions.
Looking around your home, you’re bound to see items that don’t exactly fill you with joy. If Suzanne’s advice has left you motivated to have a clear out, check out our decluttering tips. Or take a look at our piece on the 15-minute declutter method if you need some guidance on where on earth to begin.
Having a routine clear-out can free up space in our homes as well as being hugely therapeutic. It’s no surprise that having a good old-fashioned spring clean makes us feel better. We’re constantly taking in our surroundings on a subconscious level. So a working-from-home setup with artwork we love, some fresh flowers, and a candle are bound to make us more productive, for example.
- See also: Three things you should never throw away when decluttering - according to Suzanne Roynon
Suzanne Roynon's book Welcome Home, How stuff makes or breaks your relationshipis available on Amazon. She has shared her tips as part of her work with Homebase.
It may not be realistic to banish everything in our home that we’re not quite happy with from a financial perspective. However, if we notice every little thing in our home that bothers us, we work towards creating a space we can truly relax in, and, by default, we take care of ourselves.
