How to fine tune your Home to suit your Ayurvedic Life
For many of us, our home is the space where we spend the majority of our time. And if not, it’s at least the space where we return to for rest, comfort, rejuvenation, and joy. That’s why it's essential for overall wellness that the home is styled in a way that energetically supports the activity intended for the space. When it comes to wellness, where we go to rest and recover at the end of each day is vital.
There have been countless research studies showing the benefits of having a clear and calm space. Some of the top benefits are brain health and stress reduction. According to a study from Cornell University, stress triggered by clutter may also trigger negative coping patterns such as eating junk food, oversleeping, or binge-watching TV! So, not only will having an organized space help you be more productive, but it might help to minimize some of the bad habits you’ve been trying to break. When our homes are in harmony with our heart + health it can really affect how we show up in our day to day lives.
Jumpstarting Your Design Room by Room
1. The Bedroom: Make your Bed!
Making your bed plays a huge role in your overall health and how you set the intention for the day. It’s also the first step to keeping your bedroom free from clutter. Not making your bed in the morning can really set you up for adding more mess to the room throughout the day with the attitude of “I’ll get to it later…” This is the attitude you want to avoid. As much as possible try to do little things throughout the day that add to the organization or cleanliness of your space.
Studies show that simply making your bed every morning can have a huge impact on sleep, your mood, and your productivity. The same study demonstrated how sleep was dramatically improved when the sheets were clean. So, the first step for getting organized is to always start the day by making your bed (with clean sheets—I aim to wash them once a week).
For spaces to be in alignment with your Ayurvedic life (or to feel more in balance) it should easily welcome the activity intended for the space. The bedroom should be the space that is only for rest, sleep, and intimate activity. To support these activities, the bedroom should make you feel calm. Try to minimize any excess clutter in this room, keep it clean (especially free of dust to promote a healthy sex life), and choose colors that are more muted to promote rest and ease. Neutral shades like creams, beiges, antique white, and light pink are perfect colors for a bedroom. Or, if you don’t like white, go for the softer tones of your favorite colors.
For objects in the bedroom, keep it minimalistic. You really only need some beeswax candles, possibly a couple of plants to purify the air, and whatever book you’re nighttime reading calls for at your bedside table. When it comes to art, try to find something that makes you feel at ease and sparks joy, but isn’t too overstated.
2. The Living Room: Display only what you LOVE and what gives LIFE
The living room is the area where you welcome guests. This is the space that can be more vibrant, active, and entertaining when it comes to your decor. But, at the same time you still want to minimize clutter (that goes for every area of the house). This doesn’t mean you can’t have your favorite sculpture sitting out or other relics and treasures, but the key is for everything in the room to have a life and to be something you love. Otherwise, objects will hold dullness and that will be expressed into the energy of the room. The living room is an area where you may have more pops of color: a citrus green pillow, eclectic art, or your favorite purple chair. When creating a space that’s more active and welcoming it’s still important to balance the elements. If you have a lot of modern pieces, try to focus more on adding some natural elements to the space like a wooden sculpture, a beautiful pottery piece filled with sticks, or a handwoven textile.
3. The Kitchen: Merging Function and Inspiration
The kitchen is one of my favorite spaces in the house. Similarly to the living room, this room should also be welcoming, warm and spark inspiration. The kitchen is often where we begin and end each day. For many people it's not only the space where we are fed and nourished physically, but emotionally as well. It can be the key place for conversation, for networking, the blossoming of ideas, friendships and more. Cooking requires that you use your imagination, your creativity, and that you are careful. It is because of that that the kitchen must invite you to express yourself!
Many designers refer to the kitchen as the “hearth” of the house, or even the “womb” of the house. The kitchen plays such an important role to the health and harmony of the entire home, it is SO important to keep the kitchen clean. When your kitchen is clean and organized it makes cooking easier and more fun.
If you don’t have a problem staying organized, open shelving can be a beautiful way to display your favorite dishes and can give them more life. We've found that open shelving leads us to use so much of the kitchen that was once hidden behind a door. However, if keeping things tidy really is difficult for you or if your kitchen already has a lot going on, it might be best to keep your cabinet doors on. 🙂
For centuries human beings have thrived off of food and connecting to the nature that provided sustenance, so bringing more elements that invoke nature will be beneficial in keeping that connection alive. Try adding materials like wood, stone, and greenery to the space. Items like wooden spoons, decorative wooden platters hung on the wall, stone bowls filled with brightly colored fruit, or even hang your own potted herb garden.
4. The Entrance: Make It Special
The entrance, or foyer, of the house stems from the Latin word focarium, which means the "center of focus.” When you are greeted by the foyer of your home after a long day it’s best to be greeted with the feeling of opening arms, ease, and comfort. Your entrance should invoke a sense of happy relief to be home, not a reminder of the chores on your to-do list. Try to keep it a “dumping” free zone. Don’t let your bags, shoes, and coats pile up. Put them in a closet or an armoire as soon as you arrive through the door.
This is a great area of the house to keep fresh flowers. It’s such a sweet reminder of how little things can spark joy and gratitude. The foyer is also a fun place to be a little more expressive with your colors. This is the perfect space to paint the ceiling turquoise or display your favorite piece of art.
5. The Bathroom: Keep It Extra Clean!
We all know what the bathroom is intended for. There’s a lot that takes place in the bathroom that is vital for our health (we won’t get into that here). But, it is perhaps the most important area of the house with the potential to create bliss. Because of that the bathroom should always be kept clean. The bathroom is one of the easiest places to clean as you go: wipe down the sink after every use, take the trash out more often, keep a natural all-purpose cleaner in your shower to spray between uses (you can transfer it to a minimal glass jar to create an aesthetically pleasing look), keep your favorite hand towel out and refold it between uses.
I also love adding additional items that smell of my favorite bright essential oils. Keeping a candle lit in the bathroom (when you’re home) can be an easy way to maintain a nice fresh smell. Or, find your favorite space mist to keep the area feeling cleansed. This is also a great space for fresh flowers!
6. The Inbetween Spaces: One Step At A time
Creating the perfect design tweaks and establishing more order in your home is a process. When it comes to design, don’t try to change up the entire house all at once. It's best to start with one room at a time. Take time to make each room special. This is also helpful when it comes to organizing, but as for cleanliness, that’s something you can do right away. In fact, I would encourage you to first clean your house, then organize, then do the designing. You may find just through cleaning your house and getting rid of some unused objects that it enliven the space enough that it feels like a completely new home!
Key Tips To Takeaway
- Move things around every once in a while to give it a fresh look and allow for your relics to have new life!
- Be mindful of cleanliness throughout the day to avoid a huge task at the end of the week
- Open the windows to invite fresh air into your home and to help circulate the air
- Splurge on fresh flowers every once in a while or if you’re lucky pick them from your yard as often as the weather permits
- Organize hidden nooks and crannies to alleviate hidden to-do tasks filling your brain space throughout the day
- Most importantly, create a space that you LOVE!
Products We Love For The Home
Paavani Aromatherapy Space Mist
References