A home should be a happy place, a place that you find peace, make happy memories and comforts you all the time. Building a home that delights you can impact your life in more ways than you can imagine. Figuring out how to make a house feel like home, more than anything, is figuring out how to make a place where you can be yourself.

A happy environment replaces stress and anxiety, you have more positive outlook on life and your overall mood increases.

How to make a home the ultimate retreat for yourself and people that live with you is easy and simple!

I am going to write about 8 small changes that you can find inspiration that’ll make your home happy and cozy.

Keep it relatively clean. Sometimes, bringing out the beauty in your home requires nothing more than a quick cleaning or dusting. It’s just as simple as that.

Let’s be honest now, college days are gone. Days where we didn’t give a shit about dirty socks on top of the mattress or empty beer cans all over the place, are just gone. Make it a priority to keep your home clean, relatively clean. It doesn’t mean that it has to be 100% spotless all the time. I know most of us have a busy schedule and work long hours. Cleaning is the last thing we want to do when we get back from work. But that can’t be an everyday excuse anymore.  Challenge yourself to keep one area of the house clean at a time, what that means is spending 10 minute tidying up or dusting something every day. Look at it this way; in less than 4 of your favorite songs you will create a space which will invite more joy into your life.

Fun facts: You can burn up to 200 calories by cleaning for two hours and this next one always blows my mind. Dust is mostly made up of dead skin cells. Roughly 70-80% of dust particles lying around are made up of dead skin cells! What, your dog sheds a lot? Hmm think again.

Did you know that the average American spends almost 55 minute a day – roughly 12 days a year, looking for things they know they own but cannot find! This doesn’t mean that you have to organize everything at once. Take baby steps, because sometimes organizing takes way more time than you thought, it can be overwhelming and that’s when you decide to just postpone it for next week. Leaving stuff unorganized, replacing old stuff with new ones because you simply can’t find it, creates clutter.  Anything that’s no longer essential, it’s clutter, or let’s just say its trash.

According to studies almost 80% of the things we keep, we never use! So why not just give it away. Clutter harms your health, increases stress levels and among other things it triggers respiratory issues.

A neat, tidy house feels inviting, both for people who live there and for the guests. A cluttered and an unorganized home may feel completely the opposite.

Natural light instantly makes a space feel more open and joyful. Natural sunlight stimulates appetite, improve digestion, the physical and psychological benefits are undisputed. Studies have shown that natural sunlight in a home can improves cognitive powers and can create energetic environment that is productive and very healthy. Open the curtains lift up the shades, paint the walls in light colors that have a light reflectance value, invite rugs or curtains that are lighter in fabric, keep tall items away from windows.

Just look around and be more creative, you will be amazed what natural light can do to your home.

Now that you have opened your shades, organized some of your stuff, got rid of clutter and did some cleaning, it’s time to bring in some fresh flowers to your nest. You can make any room in your house feel homier by placing a vase full of beautiful flowers in it. The gorgeous look and intoxicating aroma of fresh cut flowers will immediately brighten your day when you encounter them. Decorate your entry table with fresh flowers, coffee table, Kitchen Island, bathroom or any other place within your home in which you will spend most of your time and where they can be enjoyed fully.

And let’s not forget a very important thing, fresh flowers are not just for women.  Fresh flowers induce a very positive reaction to men as well. Having fresh flowers in one’s home does a lot more than simply enhance your living room’s aesthetic appeal. They can reduce stress and boost your mood. We all know that stress and anxiety do not recognize sex.

Hope you find some inspiration on these 4 small changes, to make your home feel happier. If you decide to try any of these steps, take baby steps and make it a routine after all it takes only a couple of songs to finish a task. Next week I will write about 4 more steps on how to make a home the ultimate retreat.