In this blog series, Sleep8 is branching out from sleep related topics to bring you fun activities that can be completed in about 60 minutes, the same duration as your Sleep8 cleaning cycle. These could be anything from recipes, crafts, DIY projects, skills to master, workouts, or more. Keep your eyes peeled to the Sleep8 blog to find your new favorite pastime.
Up next in our series is somewhere we’ve all been spending a lot more time in lately—our home. Given the current state of the world, especially if you are in a harder hit location like me, no time is like the present to embrace living your best life cozily at home. Whether you are in an apartment in the city, a farm out in the country, or a condo by the sea, every home has its own personal touches. If you are anything like me and have needed to relocate for a while but find yourself staying for a bit longer in the present moment, change is key. Here are a few ideas to keep your space fresh when everything in life is feeling a bit stale.
Organization. This year for me has been full of chaos. Despite the obvious woes of 2020, I am now sharing an old house meant for one, with another…and our four cats. That’s right; we are engaged and cohabiting until we can get married and move into our permanent residence, which means—a lot of stuff. He is an audio engineer and I am studying to get my captain’s license. We have all kinds of paperwork, production material, charts, equipment…and that is on top of all our normal items, not including planning a wedding. I recently have discovered two things, the importance of personal space and the supernatural feeling benefits of organization. I’m here to tell the world, here are some recent tips I’ve learned.
Break it up
This fits perfectly in our 60 minute series. When you first look around at all the things you may need to organize, the thought alone can seem overwhelming. Many experts recommend isolating areas for cleaning, I recommend this for organization as well. I found it incredibly helpful to not try to tackle the entire house in one day, as well as obtaining smaller sized containers to split up different items I stumbled across in my journey. The most important tip I can give is that everything needs a home. If you find something you haven’t seen in a while and are wondering why you still have it, where you are going to put it, or when the last time you used it was? Donate it, try to sell it on Facebook marketplace, do whatever you want with it—just get rid of it. Everything needs a home, but it doesn’t have to be yours. To help with this method I separated the for-mentioned bins into: paperwork I needed to keep, mementos, things I couldn’t live without, and miscellaneous. Anything in the miscellaneous pile was something I could most likely carry on my life not missing and I decided to list those items for sale. What doesn’t sell I most likely will end up donating, but for now it is a good start.
Think up
One of my best tips is to utilize the space you aren’t thinking of. For me this is wall/ceiling space. I have ten foot ceilings in my house and up until recently, almost zero shelving. Upon designating myself an office (hello personal space) I decided to try working with what I didn’t have. There are many different low cost and quick ways to give a boost to your storage all while making your space also esthetically pleasing. Spend a little time mounting shelves onto the wall, you can purchase almost anywhere, or try dyi. There are plenty of videos out there with tutorials, but if you are looking for something super cost efficient and not super challenging, this video is a great start:
Once you have shelves mounted try using it for décor as well as storage, mixing up books and pictures with knickknacks to create a pleasing display. Another fun use of wall or ceiling space is to buy or make a macramé plant hanger and hang those dolls from the ceiling. See a video here:
Your plants will like their new home closer to the sunlight and you will have cleared more desk space for your peace of mind--or all the upcoming tasks you have. Try mounting a screen you may need, your calendar, or mirror. You are able to increase your available space by utilizing previously vacant areas.
Décor
One of the other things I learned while setting up great organization habits and creating a personal space is that sometimes you get tired of your previous choices. Remember being a kid and reorganizing your room and how cool it felt to completely switch around all the furniture? Same philosophy applies to adults. Try moving around your furniture to see if it could look better in reverse, or by painting an accent wall. Find a cool object you already own or purchase something that makes you smile and try to incorporate that into the flow of the room. For myself, I recently found some framed vintage floral prints online. Instantly I decided I had to paint my office a different color and these floral prints would tie the whole room together. Fortunately paint is cheap and my office is incredibly small, however you could try doing an accent wall to add a pop of color, or even try some peel and stick wallpaper. Find what options work best for you and enjoy the little smile it will bring to your face when you see the changes you have made.
Written by: Mindi Flippen
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