SHOWER YOUR HOME WITH GRATITUDE

Springtime is rapidly approaching, and we’ll soon be opening windows and doors, inviting the fresh air and longer days to fill our home and our senses. This seems to be a perfect time to give our home some love. Below are some thoughtful ideas that will fill your home with joy and gratitude…    choose a few or choose them all, then watch your home return the love— over and over.

1. Invite friends over. Whether it is a holiday gathering, a housewarming, a home blessing, or just a neighborly drop-in, welcoming friends and family into our home is a meaningful event. It fills the rooms with laughter, love, and camaraderie. Sharing our home is a fun way to feed our home’s soul as well as our own soul. Those good vibes will be vibrating from start to finish as plans are excitedly made and prepared, as we welcome and visit with our friends, and as we clean up.
2. Display a guest book. This is a fun way to tell our friends we treasure their friendship — it doesn’t need to be fussy; maybe it’s a nicely bound journal or sketchbook. Have guests write a message in it when they visit your home. It can be replaced annually, giving a fresh start to every year. A guest book is such a lovely gesture that holds the energy of our friends and family, and it’s also a fun way of recording special occasions.
3. Make an “ever-changing” photo album for the coffee table. If a picture is worth a thousand words —then the words of gratitude found in a photo album would be priceless. Online photo sites make it easy to combine photos with our own text, making it personal and self-explanatory; or we may prefer to make it even more personal by creating a traditional album. Either is wonderful as long as it is created with joy and passion. The photos do not need to be professionally taken; make it informal, reflecting you and your family’s unique personalities. Capture the small, everyday details (like your child’s attempt at cleaning their room or potting flowers on the porch) to make this album a treasure and a conversation piece. Remember to keep it updated by replacing outdated pictures with current pictures. Outdated pictures freeze our perceptions, keeping us stuck in the past. Keeping the photos current keeps the album fresh and “ever-changing”, growing as we grow. Another idea for the album is that it’s a perfect place to include some snippets from your guest book.
4. Make a list of things you are thankful for about your home. This can simply be acknowledging the roof over your head, the warmth on a cold winter’s day, the way the front door welcomes you when you come home, the way light streams through a window or how a breeze dances with a curtain, even the bird’s nest on the porch — record it all. Taking a moment in your day to stop and admire the beauty around you not only lifts your spirit, it blesses the house with gratitude as well. Whether you make a list in writing or just share your observations with others, the house feels the love. And if you are inspired to capture the beauty with a photo, it, too, can be added to your coffee table photo album!

5. Uplift your home with fresh flowers and fresh scents. Pick up a bouquet from the market (it doesn’t need to be expensive to be lovely), or cut flowers from your garden or a country roadside ditch. Find your favorite containers and lovingly arrange them. The joy from your heart travels to your hands, which fills the flowers with joy as well. Once arranged, place them in locations that people frequently pass by, such as the kitchen or the bathroom for a cheerful start and end to the day, or the family room to enliven a movie night or game-night. Wherever you choose to showcase the flowers will create a beacon of cheer for whoever is passing by, whether people are aware or not. It’s interesting that even if people are consciously distracted their subconscious is quietly taking in everything around them, which means that those joy-filled flowers, their colors, and their fresh energy will inspire and lift every passerby’s emotions and spirit.

Now that the eyes have been tickled, take the delight to the next level by tickling the nose with a refreshing essential oil blend in a diffuser or with a natural room freshener. A natural room freshener can be simply adding eucalyptus stems to your flower arrangements or simmering cinnamon and orange zest in water. These simple gestures warm a home, making it feel loved, and you’ll feel its love in return.  (Note: Do not use manufactured room fresheners, plug-ins, or scented candles; these are toxic. Stay tuned for surprising details in a future article.)

6. Fix a decorating dilemma that’s been bugging you. From awkward spaces to the lack of storage, all homes have quirks. If something annoys you, get creative and fix it. Shoes piled by the door? Too much stuff on the counters? Big or small those annoyances compound over time and are well worth the effort of resolving them. If your house has a place that’s difficult to decorate, don’t turn a blind eye; tackle it immediately. You will be pleasantly surprised at the huge relief you will feel when it disappears, a relief much like removing a thorn from your finger. If you get stymied, invite a design-savvy friend over to help you brainstorm and move furniture, or connect with me for some fun and unbiased design inspirations. There’s always a solution for every puzzle. Don’t hesitate, though; just do what needs to be done to fix that slowly festering quirk. (click here to contact me)

7. Clean every nook. It’s normal to skim over corners when doing a quick cleaning — but there’s something symbolic about clearing the (real and metaphorical) cobwebs from your home. Springtime is the perfect time to eliminate the waning winter’s dust. Go straight to those nooks and crannies and thoroughly vacuum, mop or wipe down, and touch up paint if necessary. Often-neglected spots are: corners, baseboards, tops of picture frames, areas behind appliances, bed frames, underneath furniture, and ceiling fixtures (ceiling fans, too).
8. Stay home and enjoy. Making time to stay home to savor our home’s charm is a relaxing and heartfelt way to fill it with gratitude. Slowing down the busyness that distracts us and finding time to breathe is a lovely way to celebrate our home and our family. Whether listening to music, watching a movie, playing a game, or reading – it doesn’t matter. Taking time to bask in our home nurtures our mind, body, and spirit, and that also nurtures our home and it will embrace us in return. This is the utmost form of gratitude!
9. Give your house an honorable name. This is a lovely gesture of gratitude for your home. Maybe it feels like it should be named after a famous house, fictional or real, or maybe it should reflect its location or physical characteristics; just make it a respectful name because it will reflect not only the dignity of the home but also the people who live there. Once named, remember to include the newly deemed title in your photo album and guest book; you can even display it prominently in the entry, on a plaque outside the front door, or at the property’s entrance. But do not place it on the floor or on a door mat; give it a place of honor.

10. Hang a portrait of your home. Portraits are symbols of honor also — whether a photographer or an artist is commissioned, a portrait makes a lovely tribute to the home for being the vessel that holds and nurtures us and the lives of our family. It can include your family or just shine on its own. Consider labeling the portrait’s frame with the address or the name it has been deemed. If you don’t have a place of honor to hang it, place a framed tabletop version on a shelf in your living area or feature it in the coffee table album.

Our home is at the center of our lives — it holds the laughter, tears, joy, and the ups and downs of our ever-changing family, it is patiently waiting for us as we come and go, waiting for our voices and essence to fill its walls, and our thoughts to give it some appreciation. How thankful are you for your home? Have you been inspired to shower your home with gratitude? If so, what is the first thing you plan to do?