How To Eliminate Stress From Your Home


Life can be stressful. Dealing with work, education, friends, relationships, and responsibilities can be enough to overload anyone. In fact, statistically, everyone deals with chronic stress for at least once in their life. When life is tough, you don’t want that toughness to follow you home. You want a sanctuary to relax, spread out, and enjoy peace, quiet, and harmony. Here are some ways to make sure that you leave the stress at the front door by creating a home that helps you achieve your balance once more.

Sleep is priority number one
A lack of sleep or a lack of restful sleep is one of the biggest causes of stress. The stress hormone, cortisol, is one of the many things that a good night’s rest helps us regulate. A high-quality mattress and a bedroom free of distraction can make a huge difference. Even if you don’t have the cash to splash, finding the best budget mattresses is much better than sleeping in a bed that offers no support or one that the springs are starting to wear through. Make sure you have a proper nighttime routine and a set bedtime, too. Your body clock keeps your mental wellbeing in check, not just the physical.

Make it yours
The stress-busting qualities of the home extend outside the bedroom. One reason your home might feel a little more stressful or more unwelcoming is that it doesn’t feel quite like your own home. This is especially true if you have moved recently. Even if you’re not majorly into interior décor, finding opportunities to add some personality can make your home feel much more welcoming. Line the shelves with photos of friends, family, and happy memories. Create displays of your hobbies and interests on the walls. Take a little more time to identify styles that engage, excite, or relax you and start incorporating them into your home style.

Clear the clutter
On the other hand, you don’t want to add too much. Clutter has long been shown to have a very close relationship with stress. This is true not just of the mess of clothes, paper, and other things you can leave lying around the home. It’s also true of people who tend to over-decorate and have too much in the home. Make a day out of tidying the whole house, clearing up not just the mess, but the décor that you are no longer quite as fond of. Don’t be afraid of wiping the slate clean, either. Minimalist décor has been shown to have positive effects on mental and emotional health, including clearing away feelings of stress.

Have that one spot you can rely on
You would hope that your whole home can help believe your stress, but it may not always be the case. A home office might not be the best place to relax since you often associate it with work. If you share your home with others, then you need to find somewhere that you can enjoy a little peace and solitude. The garden is a great option since it has fresh air and the sights of nature have organically calming effects on the mind. If you don’t have much of a garden,  try creating a reading nook for yourself. Whatever it is, you need to create some space that is purely dedicated to your own relaxation. Even the thought of getting back to it can help you curb a bad mood on the rise.

Let the sun shine
One of the reasons that spending time outside can help fight stress is because of the presence of natural light. Natural light has many positive effects on the mind, from helping to regulate our internal clock to make us feel more energized and motivated. A poorly lit home can feel more cluttered and messier, increasing feelings of stress. So, maximizing natural light by exposing  windows or using mirrors to reflect it better throughout the home can have a genuinely profound impact. Where you have the opportunity, let the sun shine in.

Get the computer out of the bedroom
When you use it to relax or just to sleep and get ready for the day, having electronics in the bedroom can cause all kinds of problems. It’s best to try and relegate the room to it's true purpose as much as possible. If you use your bedroom to study or to do work, it can be harder to switch out of that mode when it’s time to go to bed. What’s more, all electronics produce blue light. While blue light has some positive effects in helping us focus and be more alert, these can be exactly what we don’t want when we’re trying to get to sleep. Electronics can disrupt sleep, which can lead to further stress in your own home.

Follow your nose
A relaxing landscape isn’t created by just style and visual stimuli alone. It’s created by all senses working together. Just as bad odors can make you feel less at ease, pleasant smells created through scent diffusers and candles can help you relax a lot more, and even help you sleep with scents like lavender. Focus more on what kind of scents are in the home. Try to get rid of the smells of cooking once you’ve finished. While you might not notice after having eaten a meal, later in the evening, those lingering scents can become a distraction and can genuinely be quite nauseating. Aromatherapy also makes it a lot easier to meditate or to try a breathing exercise. Both are highly effective methods for fighting stress.

If you’re having serious problems with stress, it might be worth talking about it. Talking through your problems is a great way to get them out of your own mind and to give yourself some distance from them. However, for managing your daily stress levels, the tips above can make a difference.

This is a contributed post and may contain affiliate links.

16 comments

Beauty Unearthly said...

wonderful review dear, thanks for sharing, xo

Jackie Harrison said...

These are wonderful tips and I love the sleep I always lack of it need to follow this thanks. Have a lovely weekend.

Blackswan said...

Love every bit of it! xoxo

Doctor Anne said...

My home is my castle, isn't that how the saying goes?

Anne - Linda, Libra, Loca

Emmylou said...

I so agree about the lack of sleep, chingu. Every time I start getting cranky, the kiddos always tell me, "Mom...it's time for your nap." And I really must start de-cluttering again. Having a minimalist space does contribute to feeling more relaxed IMO.
Have a lovely weekend ahead:)

Ivana Split said...

This is such a well though post! Feeling relaxed at home is so important, everything you say here makes perfect sense. For most of us, our home is (or should be) our sanctuary. It is a place where we should relax. Making is feel just right, making it feel 'our own' is always a time well spent. Excellently written post!

I do agree that sleep is important. My skin never looks better than after a 7 or 8 night sleep. No product in this world can (at least in my experience) hide tired skin. When I sleep only for 5 or 6 hours, it always shows on my skin. We all need sleep, it is not something we can compromise on, especially not all the time.

Having a peaceful room to sleep in helps. I've read many times that we shouldn't take our work or our laptop to us bedroom. We should keep it reserved for a sleep in a way. That makes sense. A comfortable bed is also a good investment.

I couldn't agree more about making a place feel our own. I still struggle with feeling 'at home' in my new home. I was thinking about why it is so, it's been a while since we moved. I think we all to really think how to make something look 'homey'. Even if our house looks like one from a designer interior magazine, it can still feel alien. It is all about finding those little touches that will make it feel our own. I still need to work on that.

Light is so important! I'm fortunate to live in a climate abundant in sunny days so I do get a lot of natural light but lighting is always something to be considered. Even if a person doesn't have access to a lot of natural light or can't afford new windows, there are still lighting options that can be helpful.

Decluttering is important. It is something I still occasionally struggle with. It is so easy to just let go and hold onto things. It sometimes takes a lot of will power to start decluttering but afterwards we always feel better.

Shireen L. Platt said...

There is no tv or computer in our bedroom, that is a huge no no for us. I've been telling my husband that we need to print more family photos for display, we're guilty of having almost none and everything is stored in memory card.

Shireen⎜Reflection of Sanity

Deb C. said...

Clutter is always the things I struggle with and get stressed over.

Debbie P said...

This is a really good article. Sleep is always on the top of my list,along with a couple of great smelling candles. Getting rid of clutter is my biggest pain in the butt.

Valerie said...

I love these tips! I struggle with removing electronics from the bedroom, but I definitely agree that it helps reduce stress!

http://roadesque.com

Corinne said...

I think smell really does help! Having a scented candle or oils burning can really change the atmosphere of a room!

Corinne x
www.skinnedcartree.com

Denise Low said...

Thank you for sharing. I could sure us these tips.

Mica said...

These are good tips! I do feel a lot calmer at home when things aren't so messy, it's a constant battle with the little ones trying to make sure there aren't too many toys all over the place, haha!

Hope you had a nice weekend :) We had the little one's birthday party so that was a lot of fun! Good way to end a busy week!

Away From The Blue Blog

Gabrielle said...

Maximising natural light is very good advice; it's near impossible to feel super stressed when sunlight is streaming in through the windows! :)

aglassofice.com x

Pilar said...

These are great tips for eliminating stress in the home! Too much clutter causes me to have anxiety, so I try reduce clutter as much as possible. Have a great week Rowena!

A Very Sweet Blog said...

I love the clear the clutter one! It makes a world of difference. I've never been one to have a whole lot of stuff (except for my makeup room), but I can think and just overall feel better when things are in place and orderly. I also believe in aromatherapy. Scents can really make a difference in your mood.
http://www.averysweetblog.com/