Having a calm & peaceful home should be a priority for all of us. Your home should be a sanctuary that you and your family can relax and recharge in. A place to wind down, have fun, plan adventures, regroup, enjoy each others company. Time for ease and relaxation as well as an environment conducive to creating the type of life you want. Creating a calm home is high on the list of ways to achieve that.

Having your home feel like a haven of calm is a gift you give to yourself and your family. Any visitors that come to your home also benefit from that and in my experience you’ll find your guests will love coming to your home for that very reason. Calm environments allow our central nervous systems to rest more easily. Being in fight or flight mode daily is terrible for our bodies and mental health. Being always ON, is not great for us either. If you’ve ever noticed our moods or agitation can rub off on others, as theirs can on us. Being around happy people is contagious. Being around anxious, angry or agitated people is also and while you can’t always pick the type of day you’re going to have at work or what state your kids or partner will come home in (if you have those) You can take steps to create a calmer, calming environment for you and them to come home to.

Here’s a few easy tips to help you along the path to a calmer home.

  1. Turn down the Volume.

Wherever possible turn off the competition or interruptions to quiet conversation. TV’s. Loud music. Pinging phones. Your volume. Screaming children – not always possible but we can encourage inside voices, calmer reactions and outdoors for loud play.

2. Remove the Clutter

Many of us would have heard the joke “If a cluttered home = a cluttered mind. What does an empty home equal?” Is doesn’t quite work like that fortunately. Visual clutter creates busy minds and overwhelm for many, often without the person even realising it. Cleaner, clearer spaces have been shown to promote more calm for most. Try it out and see how it feels. You can try the 4 part E.R.A.S.E posts on the site as a place to start.

3. Clean

Right along with clutter, cleaning jobs that need doing can overwhelm us. Overwhelm makes it hard to create an external calm environment when your internal world is not. Having a clean home generally provides a feeling of peace and calm. Everything in its place. Jobs done. Having a mile long cleaning to do list or even just keeping in your head all the jobs that need doing is not conducive to peace. Get them out of your head and onto a schedule so that you tackle them a bit at a time knowing everything will be got to in time. You miss it this week/month – you know when it’s going to roll around again and you’ll get it next time. Ahhh – cleaning overwhelm averted. Calm restored. If you’re looking for how to schedule that – the 4 part E.R.A.S.E posts on the site have you covered for that also.

4. Dim the lights

If you’ve ever read any books or posts on sleep you’ll know that dimming the lights of a night is recommended. We trick our bodies basically with bright artificial light in to staying up and being productive way past what our natural sleep/wake cycle would be. Dim your lights of a night and let your body wind down earlier. Dimming light (like the sun going down) signals to our bodies to slow down & prepare to rest. Dimming lights can also help children to wind down and make bedtimes easier and earlier. On that note also.

5. Sleeeep.

Most of us need more. Sleep helps burn off cortisol and reduce overwhelm and anxiety. Make it a priority. Your body will thank you for it and you’ll have more reserves to deal with life’s day to day. We all do better when we’re well rested.

6. Get some plants.

Seriously. Introduce some greenery into your home. Cleaner air is one of the benefits and nature has been shown to calm our systems. Being out and about in nature, gardens, parks etc is better but if even if you’re doing those things. Get some plants for the home. Even people with black thumbs will find it hard to kill a snake plant (aka Mother in Laws tongue) or an Agave. Ask your nurseryman for something sturdy and take some home.

7. Block out you time.

Take a minute or hour or day for yourself. We all need some time to ourselves. Bathing in peace, reading, a beach walk, an exercise class, tucked away in a corner in a coffee shop. Going to the Library. Time spent with your hobby. Time to daydream. An exercise class. Doing the grocery shopping of a night while your partner puts the kids to bed. Whatever it takes. Take some time to just be with yourself. Check in .. How you doin. No making conversation. Just quiet, calm time with you.

8. Get some sounds cancelling Headphones.

I vaccuum with mine on. I hate the noise. Most of my family are the same and over the years I’ve often waited till everyone was out to do it to save them the aggravation as well. This goes for any reason really that makes you want to pipe something more pleasing into your ears. Street maintenance outside. Headphones. Neighbours arguing. Headphones. Too quiet/noisy and you’re trying to meditate. Headphones. Your person is listening to something annoying (that they love). Headphones. Bring calm back to your self and your day by blocking out the noise.

What are you doing to create a calmer home. Share your own tips in the comments and help us all out.

Till next time friends

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