How to Decorate Your Home to Decrease Stress

Jolly

This post was developed via a partnership with BetterHelp.

Your home is your safe space. It is a location where you should feel comfortable relaxing and unwinding after a long day in the outside world. You want it to be cozy in the cooler months and cool and clean in the warmer months. Did you know that your home can also impact your mental health?

Depending on how you decorate and arrange your house, you can either feel more stress or less. We’ve come up with a few tips to help you reduce stress by decorating your home differently.

Less Is More

When decorating a home to reduce stress, you’ll want to remember that less is more. You don’t need to create an entirely minimalistic sterile environment, as that might also stress you. However, you don’t want to have clutter everywhere.

Even a bunch of knick-knacks or objects with no home are not great for your mind. When your house has tons of colors, items, and things without a spot, your mind will constantly be subconsciously focusing on them. You may have a deep connection with the items you own, but it doesn’t mean that they’re serving you well.

It’s best to have a lot of storage options if you want to keep many small items. Leave the things in their spot and bring them out when you want to look at them or use them. Display a couple of larger items or art pieces that match the theme of your overall design.

You’ll also want to:

Clean up any clothes off the floor or surfaces
Have a spot for your dirty clothing (a hamper)
Have an area for all of your food items
Have trash cans in every room of the house where you could have trash present
Make your bed

Reducing clutter is the number one secret to a stress-free home.

Warm Colors

Warm colors are known to be more inviting and calming. When choosing a color for your main living spaces, such as the living room and bedroom, you want to select a scheme that involves the following colors:

Red
Brown
Tan
Orange
Purple
Deep pink

You can mix these colors with cool tones like black, white, grey, green, and blue to create a balanced look. Make sure your colors all go together well.

Dim lighting and warm lighting can also make a cooler-toned home look more inviting and comfortable. Candles are always a great choice for warming up a room. A chandelier can also make the room comfier.

Colors that evoke a feeling of “I’m home” are colors that will make you feel less stressed on a day-to-day basis.

Soft and Comfortable Furniture

If your house is sterile and looks like it could come out of a museum, you’re most likely not going to feel less stressed. Your furniture needs to be functional and comfortable. If your couch feels like you’re sitting on a piece of wood when you sit down, that’s not going to call you.

Choose a couch that is soft, large, and comfortable. It should be clean and match the rest of your home. You can add an armchair, loveseat, or poof if you want to add style to the room. However, your main sitting chair should be comfortable to sit on.

Your bed should also be comfortable. A good mattress is important not only for your mental health but your physical health as well. It can keep your back in the proper position and soothe your muscles.

Nighttime exhaustion always makes people more stressed, choose comfortable silky sheets laid on the bed, the gentle feeling of relaxation, sleep a good night is the most stress-free way.

At Least One Area Dedicated to Stress Relief

In your home, you should have one area where you can go when you’re stressed. It is different for everyone, but this could be:

Your bedroom
A small reading nook by the window
An office
A library
Your video gaming desk or station
A hammock by the window

No matter what it is, make sure it’s only used for calming activities. Don’t bring stress into that area.

A Good Smell

Smell is another important sense that impacts stress. A house with a bad or no scent will have no effect on your mood or a negative one.

However, a home with a delicious, calming, or warming scent will allow you to feel calm and content when you’re at home. Make sure the scent is not too strong, or it might have the opposite effect.

Conclusion

Want to learn more about how-to topics? Check out BetterHelp. They’re the leading online provider of online mental health care and have plenty of tips for reducing stress and feeling calm in your space.