What COVID-19 Taught Me About Making My House a Home
Artwork from Society6
Hi Curl Friends! I’m excited to share my lessons learned about what COVID-19 taught me about making my house a home. Actually, stop and ask yourself, what makes your house a home? What does your house say about your values and what’s important to you?
When COVID-19 first appeared in March, nobody thought we would be in our home for three months, not to mention homeschooling our children. Yet, here we are in month four, still practicing social distancing with many school districts announcing plans for continued virtual learning throughout January 2021. I regularly reflect on this whole COVID-19 experience and what I’ve come to learn is that having a home space that is warm, comforting, organized, and inspiring is instrumental to my well being. This is even more important when consuming stressful triggers from Black Lives Matter, racism, the presidential election, crazy Kanye, COVID statistics, and much more. With this said, home should truly be our safe haven.
For me, I’ve realized that pre COVID I never had the time to sit down and do home improvement projects. I simply did not place value in having a home space that I loved because I thought, “I’m never here. Why would I put a whole bunch of money into a home that I’m never at?” My weekdays are filled with work, helping with homework, and being a taxi driver to my kids. Then on the weekends we travel for youth sports. In all honesty I’m not that into home decorating and beautiful spaces, but after being forced to stay in the house for months, I’ve come to the realization that my home is not a place I want to retreat or relax at. I relax and retreat outside my home. This is probably the reason why I had such a hard time at the beginning of quarantine. It wasn’t until I read a quote from Instagram saying,
“I don’t mind being quarantined, I love my house. It’s my favorite place.”
Seeing that struck a nerve with me and inspired me to focus on making my home a family oasis and retreat. Also, I saw very quickly that my kids also needed both a retreat and learning space as their virtual learning set-up was my kitchen island and our breakfast table. My home is big and fairly new, but being at home full time with four of us working on top of each other can make for a stressful environment. So in April I began a series of home projects and improvements as first steps to creating a home space that I love:
Artwork from Society6
Organized my kitchen pantry and all the cabinets.
Purchased artwork to decorate my walls.
Completed a morning room makeover including painting, refurbishing an old dresser, and putting up artwork.
Completed a dining room makeover including building new cabinetry, replacing a chandelier, a new rug, and artwork.
Purchased 5 new house plants
Needless to say, I’m loving how my home is transforming into a place that I want to be and most importantly, a place that I love. I love my little work-from-home nook. My morning room is bright and open. All my new plants help connect me to nature and air. Even the kids love chilling in the new living and dining room. My summer project is making over my 14yr and 11yr old rooms into a teenage learning oasis; that is a place where they can relax and be inspired to do their best virtual learning. More to come on that project.
What I’ve learned is that you do not have to be wealthy or have a large house to create a space that constantly reminds you of your family values or brings you peace and inspiration. Graham Rowels, a gerontology professor at the University of Kentucky states, “There is pretty strong evidence that the environment in which people live is closely linked to their well-being.” (Moeller, 2012). He adds, “home provides security, control, belonging, identity, and privacy, among other things.” (Moeller, 2012). It’s no wonder when I’m feeling stressed and overwhelmed, I can almost always look at my home and see that it's disorganized or needs to be cleaned. Our home environments are often reflections of our lives and embody how we see ourselves.
I want to make one thing clear, all you need to create a special and sacred home space is NOT money, but instead, things you already have like creativity, imagination, and inspiration. So as we prepare to be in our homes throughout 2020 and into the new year, here are a few tips that have helped me to start transforming my home into a safe, comfortable, relaxing, inspiring, and memory filled space for my entire family.
Take time to think about what inspires you, what relaxes and calms you? Think about your fondest home childhood memories. What makes those moments special?
Head to Pinterest, Instagram, and magazines for inspiration.
Start small. Complete a room at a time. No need to makeover your house in one weekend.
Take an inventory of what’s already in your home.
Use what’s in your home first, before purchasing something new (unless you have the money to buy new….I don’t live that life). LOL!
Remember that you’re creating YOUR home experience. Do what you like!