Let’s talk about how our messes can mess with our relaxation and peace. Do you ever come home from class or work to find that your space is not the welcoming, relaxing place that you want it to be? Do piles of clutter distract you from your prayers? It can also be difficult to relax in an empty space!
I always want my home to be like a sanctuary. Both a safe place from busy life and also a quiet place where I can seek the Lord. Keep reading to learn 8 ways I changed a messy, stressful house into a relaxing and peaceful home:
1. Do a 5×5 quick clean
If it’s a mess that keeps you from relaxing when you get home, you may feel overwhelmed by the amount of work it will take to clean everything up. Rather than feeling that you must tackle the whole project, set a timer and only work for a set amount of time. When the timer goes off, you get to put your feet up!
I am indebted to The Secret Slob on Youtube for this fantastic trick: the 5×5. You choose five areas to work on, and you only spend 5 minutes in each area. Watch Steph’s video here. This is totally customizable! You could do 5×3 and only spend fifteen minutes. 5 minutes is actually enough time to accomplish quite a bit, and it helps prevent overwhelm and giving up.
2. Use colors and decor you like.
You don’t have to paint walls and buy new furniture to make your space a little more aesthetically pleasing. Find a few decor items in colors that you like, and just a few things on the wall can go a long way. Surrounding yourself with colors or imagery you love will help you feel calmer. Some of my favorite easy decor items include:
- Artwork and frames from thrift stores
- Dollar store canvas prints
- Pretty birthday cards in a frame or on a display.
- Hanging penants made from upholstery fabric samples
- Framed postcards from a place you love (the national park ones are beautiful).
- Candles
- A houseplant or two, if you’re up for caring for them.
As you choose a few things to decorate with, keep in mind that a cohesive, unified aesthetic will likely be more relaxing than a random combination of things and colors you like. A few well placed items may work better than a hoard of stuff you like.
3. Replace harsh lights with soft lighting
It makes a huge difference to have options for the level of light in your room. Choose yellow or soft white instead of white for lights that don’t need to be bright and focused. String lights create a calm ambience. Standing lamps, small table lamps, and Himalayan salt lamps can all provide a softer light option. Place them around the room. In the morning and evening I like to just have the lamps on instead of the ceiling lights during my Bible, prayer, and journal time.
4. Tidy Up
If you find that you have an overwhelming amount of things, or no places to store them all, it may be time to try a decluttering method like KonMari. Decluttering helps you to own your possessions, rather than your possessions owning you. I cannot speak higher of “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo, the creator of the KonMari method. I found it at my local library – such a great read for free!
There is a peaceful freedom in knowing that you have what you need and want, and that each thing has its place. I’m not even very organized right now, but knowing Marie Kondo’s principles and knowing that I can go back to them at any time keeps me at ease. Fair warning, if you read her book, you’ll see some object-worship and other spiritual themes that don’t work for Christians. Pray to God instead, to thank him for each object that has served you well as you decide whether to keep, donate, or trash it.
5. Make a small space that’s just for you and God.
If you don’t have the time or resources to redo your whole room or home, you can choose a small part of your room to make it uniquely yours. Having your own space, however small, can help keep your sanity if you don’t have full control over your home environment. It could be a desk, a bookcase, a chair & side table, or one side of your closet. You may make this as a sort of private sanctuary where you seek the Lord, or this may just be your relaxing spot.
Once, when my whole family had to stay in one room for a year, I had half a bookcase & the top bunk to call my own. Even at 10 years old, I wasted no time creating a “me” space. I had my favorite books, my favorite stuffed animals, and my journal. Later, I had it set up so I could sit on my bunk and play with my fire station lego set on the top bookshelf.
Hopefully your situation isn’t so extreme, but you can apply the idea to whatever space you have. Clean it up & decorate however you like. Don’t forget to include God in the process – he can help you and meet you there during your quiet times with Him.
6. Keep a blanket nearby
Maybe my family is the only one that didn’t do this, but I’ve noticed many people keep a blanket near their favorite hangout areas. Usually it is kept in a basket or a storage ottoman. I seriously just didn’t know how nice it is to always have a soft blanket ready until I started going to other folks’ homes more often. So if you’re like me and didn’t have a clue how nice blankets are, trust me – go get one and keep it in an accessible place.
7. Have someone you care about over for a visit
Yes, even you introverts (btw, I am one of you)! You know how sometimes you can just feel that God is present in a place? Well, sometimes peoples’ presence can really affect the atmosphere, too. Having people you love over to visit will help create memories in your home or room that will linger and help you feel better when you’re on your own.
Trust me when I say I know that having people over can be more stressful than relaxing sometimes. When I was younger, any time someone came over I went through panic, shame, and embarrassment over our living situation. When I finally had my own space I continued to experience those feelings when I invited people over, but I’m so glad I pushed through it. Because now, the encouragement, laughter, and prayers with friends that have filled my home far outweigh the stress it sometimes causes.
8. Remember that every little improvement makes a difference.
Don’t feel like you have to climb the whole mountain of changing your home’s emotional atmosphere in one ginormous step. Transforming your space or home into a beautiful, relaxing place can have many small victory moments along the way. Maybe you take a short trek to one small peak and you’re satisfied; you have a small corner that’s perfectly you to relax, have fun, and pray in. And maybe that small peak motivates you to continue on to the next view, the next, and on to the mountaintop.
Conclusion
Hey, thanks for stopping in! That’s it for our 8 ways to make your home a more relaxing place to pray:
- Do a 5×5 quick clean.
- Use colors and decor you like.
- Replace harsh lights with soft lighting.
- Tidy Up
- Make a small space that’s just for you and God.
- Keep a blanket nearby
- Have someone you care about over for a visit.
- Remember, every little improvement makes a difference.
What do you do to make your home or room a calm, relaxing place you can pray in? Let me know down in the comments! Thanks so much for reading this post, and I hope you learned something from it. Make sure to join the email list so you won’t miss my next post!
Have a lovely day, beautiful people.
-Almost a Walrus
