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Ten Steps To Harmony At Home
1. Clear Out
William Morris said over a hundred years ago "Have nothing in your home you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."
Apply this rule to your home as you make an inventory of every room. If you've hoarded and held on to things, enlist the help of a forthright friend to coach you through this. This clearing out task alone is marvellous and will leave you feeling thoroughly uplifted.
You should also be ready to throw out all your unwanted Christmas presents by now. Give them to a charity shop, so you don't feel wasteful. Avoid feeling overwhelmed by all of this by tackling one room at a time. Detoxing never felt so good!
2. Clean Up
A good clearout deserves a thorough cleanup. We're talking cupboards, inside and out, skirting boards and walls. Pull out all the furniture and vacuum, turn the mattresses. Throw open the windows as you dislodge cobwebs and sweep away dust.
Wash windows, front and back, as a clean window lets in so much more light. Don't neglect the outside of your home, even the pathway leading to it. Your objective is to end up with a home that sparkles, looks immaculate, cared for and cherished.
3. Address your Wardrobe
Getting ready for a new start and a new year naturally includes your wardrobe. Have an immediate clearout of your wardrobe disposing of everything that obviously needs to go, that's worn out or you haven't worn in the last year.
Now is the time to re-evaluate your personal style and what you want to project. Your appearance and choice of dress speak volumes about you. Take control of the message. Decide now what you want to say. To make this easier, identify other individuals whose style and personality impresses you, cut out pictures from magazines and hone in on
the best look for you.
Now, revisit your wardrobe. With your enhanced clarity, what else needs to go, that no longer represents the new you? Now, you can have fun putting together your look and listing the items you'll buy to show you off to best effect.
When shopping, buy less but buy better. You never want to end up with a wardrobe that's so full, it's difficult to see at a glance what you've actually got. Remember the theory that we end up wearing less that 20% of what we own? Ensure that's not the case for you!
4. Does it work?
Inspect all your electrical goods and appliances. Do any of them need replacing or repairing? Does your boiler need servicing? Is the central heating reliable? Check the washing machine or dishwasher? These are the basics in your life that, when they are neglected and break down, can cause havoc.
Ensure their good working order now. Which reminds me, check your home insurance is up to date too!
5. Get creative
Now that you have a cleaned-up space to work on, you can have fun and begin to create your ideal home. Your goal is to turn your home, or at least parts of it, into "a glimpse of heaven" - somewhere so beautiful and uplifting that it raises your spirits to be there.
Begin with your bedroom and bathroom. These are your closed-to-the-public areas and where you will retreat to for rest and reflection. Ensure work is kept away from these areas and you have as much clear space as possible.
Piles of crumpled clothes, for example, will make it impossible to switch off, as you're constantly reminded of what you haven't done. In the bathroom chuck out all those almost-empty bottles that you havenąt used and tidy away cosmetics and make-up other than everyday essentials.
Your aim is to be able to repose in a bath and soothe your senses with your gaze taking in only truly aesthetically pleasing images. A beautiful photograph, a small vase of tulips, a scented candle is ideal.
6. Don't be a martyr
All dynamic, effective people understand the importance of delegation. In creating your ideal home, and keeping it that way, you may need help. There's nothing glamorous or fun about feeling exhausted or put upon. Domestic bliss is not the same as domestic drudgery.
If you share your home with others, get them involved and signed up to a regular rota of shared responsibility. Motivate them by baking a fabulous Victoria sponge cake in your new Cath Kidson apron, while they vacuum the place from top to bottom.
Pull the family together on a Saturday morning with a collective clean. Put some upbeat music on and get going. Intriguingly, Japanese companies often insist that the actual employees clean the workplace rather than using separate cleaners. They feel that this fosters a better company spirit and workers are more likely to care for and keep their environment pristine if they are the ones doing the cleaning!
If you live alone and have a demanding job, don't hesitate to employ a cleaner. You can do the finishing touches once the basics have been handled. Get organised. Under no circumstances should creating an ideal home lead to you being a martyr.
7. Establish Your Style
It's important to that your home reflects who you are and how you want to be seen. Is your style funky and edgy or elegant country home? Or do you like the idea of a mixture of styles to create a confident, individual look? Expose yourself to great designs and ideas.
Look through interiors magazines, visit home styling shops. Begin to identify your signature style. Develop your taste and appreciation for what works and harmonises together. Be your very own connoisseur of what is beautiful to you. Take one room at a time and make a plan of how it could be best improved.
8. Allocate a budget
List all work to be done, materials to be used and any items of furniture, fabric, appliances and accessories to be purchased. Have a plan of action and an overview of the cost. This is the key to making it all happen and, remember, you donąt have to buy everything at once.
Far better to wait and save up to get exactly what you want than make do with something you'll never really love.
9. Don't be a hermit
Making your home a delightful place to be shouldn't mean that you rarely venture outdoors! If you're relying on your home to protect you from outside pressures, or finding friends, be careful. You may need to reassess the amount of stress you are living with in your work or whether a lack of confidence is keeping you indoors.
Guard against using your four walls to keep people at a distance. It's all too easy, especially if you live alone, to isolate yourself from others. Your home should not feel like a prison, nor should it feel like a fortress from a harsh world.
Look at how you spend your leisure time and ensure you have a healthy balance of "me-time" and social-time. Bring in fun and friends by having a monthly dinner party. Your home will take on an atmosphere of lightness and laughter as a result.
Get involved with a neighbourhood activity that gets you meeting and mixing with neighbours and local people. This is vitally important if you live alone. We all need to feel rooted and "at home" in our neighbourhood.
10. Location, location.
Do you love where you live? Does your neighbourhood feel safe? Are your neighbours pleasant and friendly? These are all vitally important to the smooth running of your life.
It never ceases to amaze me when I read of neighbours who have been feuding for years. Ongoing, unrelenting tension like this causes tremendous stress, taking a terrible toll on your health, even if you do get used to it.
Think about moving to an area you'd prefer to live in, make peace with the neighbours, or make plans to move. If you're in the city and long for the countryside, make this year the one to make your move. And, if you feel the need for some stimulation and bright lights, come to town. Find the place that's right for you. If you're planning to reinvent yourself, it may be hard to do it without moving.
Changing yourself and staying in the same place rarely works. A change in you may include a change of home.
