Home Decor Is Excellent Mental Health Food

Have you ever felt trapped in your own space? You look around at the junk and clutter surrounding you and wonder what happened since the last time you went through and organized everything? Or maybe your home is clean, but the style just isn’t you. It’s dull, boring, and somebody else’s idea of decor, but it bothers you every time you see it. Guess what? Without you knowing it, you suddenly have a whole new stressor in your life.

Home decor can be a very important and deep expression of who you are. There are many people who are of the opinion that home decor simply isn’t worth it unless it’s your “forever home”, because renovations are costly and not worth doing on something you are going to leave behind. Unfortunately, this mentality potentially fails to consider a number of crucial things when it comes to interior decorating.

First, unless you absolutely despise the way the major parts of your home decor are put together, you shouldn’t feel obligated to rework them as part of your space makeover. If home pieces like walls, built-in cabinetry, or major pieces of heavy furniture aren’t causing a problem, then why change them? Home decor is as much about working with what you have to arrive at an outcome as it is the major renovations. Similarly, the piece that ties your room together might already be in your home! You might have the perfect bookshelf for your study sitting in your living room and you don’t even know it! Have a look at what you have and see if it fits with what you’re trying to accomplish. Finally, you don’t need super expensive pieces to make a home renovation a success. Some of the best pieces are often inexpensive things that, once again, you might already have. Garage sales, thrifting, and trading are often your best friends when it comes to finding new and interesting accents for your home.

Okay, so now that we have established how interior decorating is achievable on any budget, we have to ask ourselves why it is important and how it can be a huge boost to your mental health. Have you ever gone on vacation to some far away resort to relax and catch the new views? If you have, this is a prime reason for you why interior decorating could have massive gains on your mental health. Everyone needs a change of scenery once in a while, and it can often feel really difficult to concentrate or very stale as you trudge through day-by-day in the same walls with the same stuff. A fresh look can make your home feel new again and let you feel at peace in your space, just like you when you were on vacation.

“But it takes too much time,” I hear you say. Well, what if I told you that this in itself is a help to your mental health? By investing time in your personal space, you are undertaking a project designed to help you feel better. Not only should the outcome make you feel better, but the feeling of accomplishment when you finally finish is going to make you feel great when you finally sink into your clutter-free couch in your clutter-free living room.

Speaking of clutter, you are also given the opportunity to purge when you go through your things in this way. Tired of the piles of paper and junk mail accumulating on the floor? Maybe you bought a few things on a whim, or accumulated little trinkets and things that ended up being useless and only served to collect dust? Without even knowing it, you will passively notice these little things lying around wherever you go, and it will internally gnaw at you every time you look at it, knowing that someday, you’re going to have to deal with it.

By the time you’re through, you will have made the space your own. You can truly say that this space was crafted for you, by you, and you have morphed it into something that suits your needs. Imagine how much more comfortable and relaxing you will feel as a result, knowing that you have created your own little oasis that is just for you, away from the outside world. This is why I always suggest considering your surroundings and deciding if there is something you can do about them, because the more you do to help you, the more your brain will pay you back in productivity, relaxation, and general peace of mind.

So stop thinking that home decor is only for your “forever home.” Treat your space like it’s yours and make it your own: your brain and mental health will thank you for it later.