I'm starting to see what people mean when they say de-cluttering and focusing on beautifying your home environment makes a real difference in your life. It's been a project for me for the past 4 months since we moved to a new house -- to make it into a home. I'm still a ways away from fully getting there, but I'm finally starting to feel like it's coming together. Our bedroom has an area by the bay window that we wanted to make into a sitting area. And I have FINALLY gotten all the pieces together, and it looks great! I like going into my bedroom now because it's one of the first things you see, and it's beautiful. Soft colors and textures, warm light, and now a plant as well, and it looks like somewhere I want to hang out in my house.
I also just found joy in going to HomeGoods and coming out with a few bags of items to create a "tablescape" on our new dining table. I bought candle holders, a serving platter that's serving as a centerpiece, filled with autumn leaves, flowers, greens and more candles. It's pretty, and also one of the first things you see when you walk into our front door. It makes me proud! I started decluttering in the kitchen by buying a mail holder, and now I'm forced to throw out extra magazines and mail rather than keeping them in a big pile on the kitchen counter. Unless it fits in my organizer, it's getting chucked out. It's a good new rule to minimize clutter. I also just put away extra baby bottles and cups, and cleared off the counter space, and it's amazing how all of a sudden, my mind feels clearer.
Making your home a clean, special place is so important to optimizing overall health - your home is where you should feel safest, the most comfortable, as well as the most calm and creative. I recently read an article about how partitioning the space is important, so that each person feels like they have their own space to do what they love to do. For example, I am trying hard to keep the kids' toys and arts & crafts from taking over the entire family room and kitchen. Although they need their toys in the space we hang out in as a family, I need my kitchen to be a space where I cook and create in order to nourish my family, and where we eat, not play with toys and do arts & crafts. Having this separation helps keep things in order and more calm in terms of my peace of mind.
The house is still a work in progress (one room is completely unfurnished), but at least it's feeling more and more like the place I love to call Home.