How Housing Environment Affects Your Well Being

You know when we have a very busy day and we just want to get home and relax, but when we finally get there, we find the house all messed up and we feel even more tired and angry? Yes.. it sucks. Now, imagine you arriving at home and you find a very cozy environment, clean and decorated the way you like, with your style, you sit on your sofa, full of very soft and fluffy cushions..

Now you feel much different than the other situation, don’t you?  Yeah, I’m sure you already know that the kind of environment you have at home, can have a direct impact on your well being, but unfortunately, most of us don’t pay attention to how much it can affect us. So.. let’s talk about it?

The link between Housing Environment and Well Being

Even though it is not easy to analyze the link between housing environment and our mental and physical health, because of many variables that are associated with our wellbeing, we know, for personal experiences, like the two different situations I mentioned above, that the kind of conditions we have at our home and/or at work, can really change how we feel.

We spend a considerable amount of time at our homes and offices, and it forms an essential aspect of our daily life. So, it makes sense to take a close look at how a clean and organized environment affects our well being and productivity. And what further steps we can take to make our surrounding clean and aesthetic that could be better for us both physically and mentally.

Physical Environmental Factors

Physical environmental factors can lead to creating an ill environment, which can impact you negatively. Some of those factors include: smoking, sleep deprivation, pollution, mess and dirt.

Shilagh Mirgain, a UW health psychologist (https://www.uwhealth.org/news/the-connection-between-your-home-and-your-sense-of-well-being), says that “Your home and work environment is an important influence on your sense of well-being, but they are often overlooked”. In these environments, we spend most of the time, and it definitely impacts us.  It has been proven that bright rooms help to improve anxiety and depression.

Small plants also influence our physical health.  But even though we know that making positive changes on our home will influence us positively, most of the time we don’t give much thought about what we can do to improve our personal environment. So now, I’m going to give you some tips on how you can create a better and healthier environment in your home, that will make you feel better and more productive.

7 Tips on How to Create a Better and Healthier Housing Environment

1. Create Comfort

There are a lot of things you can use to create a more comfortable environment in your home, even small changes can help you to transform your home into a cozier space. Decorative cushions, candles and a soft blanket for example, are a very simple, fast, easy and affordable way you can use, that can literally transform your home into the coziest space you’ll want to spend all day long!

2. Clean the Mess

I know sometimes it can be hard to keep the house clean, but having a clean and organized house, makes a lot of difference! So let’s try our best to keep the house clean so we can have a better atmosphere. Try to start by throwing away everything you never use.

3. Add Brighter Lights

Did you know that even the lights on your house can have a direct impact on your well being and on your productivity? Psychologists say that people who live in a dark environment tend to feel more anxious, more tired, less motivated and even depressed. So, let’s try to open more windows, change the lights, put a brighter light on the rooms and let the sun in, especially in the morning!

4. Decorate In Your Own Style

Decoration doesn’t need to be expensive, in most cases, we just need to be a bit creative, even some small adjustments can make a lot of difference! Try to redecorate your space the way you like, according to your own style, this will definitively help improve your well being, motivation and productivity.

I think using decorative cushions, on your couch or bed or even on the floor, is a great, easy and affordable way to transform any space the way you like, because you can buy different cushion covers and change the covers, changing the style, the colors, etc when you want! They’re also great to create this cozy atmosphere, since they are very comfy and soft. You can discover some really cool cushion covers at coolcushioncovers.co.uk.

5. Let Nature in

Flowers and plants in general have the power to bring life to any space! They’re not just used as a decoration item, but they can also improve your mood and help you relax. Actually some studies have shown (https://www.uwhealth.org/news/the-connection-between-your-home-and-your-sense-of-well-being) that people that are in contact with nature, tend to be less stressed and have more positive feelings. So, if you didn’t adopt any plants yet, maybe it’s time to reconsider.. Try to add some fresh flowers and even a small aquarium!

6. Avoid Noise

There is nothing more annoying than trying to relax and at the same time listen to unnecessary noise.. it can be the traffic, the TV on, loud music, etc.. When it comes to relax, silence is gold! So everything that you can avoid, do it. Try to save some time to make meditation or just use some minutes of your day to stay alone, in complete silence and reflect about your day.

7. Create Your Own Sanctuary

Do you have a hobby? Something that you really enjoy? If possible, try to create a space just for you, where you can do whatever you like to do, it can be play a guitar, paint, draw or just read a book. The important thing is to separate and create a space where you can feel safe, comfortable and relax doing whatever you like to do. Plus, it will definitely help to improve your creativity!

Recharge Your Internal Batteries

There is a good deal of evidence that people are more productive, creative, and achieve more when they get a decent relaxing environment. Having a cozy home or workspace environment aids in unwinding and counterbalance your hard work with some much-needed rest.

Hence, this can make you more productive when you are back to work after a weekend.  When a home is clean, well decorated, and cozy, it makes sense to assume that everyone will be more comfortable in it. The environments humans inhabit and spend time in really do have a significant impact on how they feel and interact with others and even on how they study and/or work.

People in dark, damp, cell-like homes just aren’t as happy and cheerful as they could be. Having elements of lights and pleasant smells in your home can significantly improve your mood and mental health.

Cosy Environment Makes You Happier

When someone comes home from a busy day at work, he feels comfort in knowing that he will relax on his porch in on his couch because those places are comfortable to him. Life can be difficult and frustrating, but it can also be highly positive and rewarding to have those spaces.

Having a home that actually contains many “simple pleasures” can help you develop and explore that sense of gratitude. It makes you happy to have a bunch of soft cushions surrounding you, you will love that your cats love the carpet and roll around on it to play, and you love being able to turn on your salt lamp and light a candle to relax every night.

Conclusion

So, we saw that the environment is a combination of both physical and mental factors. For instance, where you live, people around you, and what things you are using to create a healthier environment – all have an immense importance on our daily lives.

Several scientific studies have proven that a clean and healthy housing environment promotes better mental health and a better sense of well being and even can have an impact on our productivity, especially if we work at home. So because of this, it’s important to implement some changes, especially in our home environment, like we talked about, so we can start to see improvements in our day-to-day lives.