While changing up your home’s decor won’t cure depression, it can help set an environment that is more conducive to better mental health. Thus, if you want to turn your home into a happier place, here are some things that you can try:
1. Let natural light enter
Stop pulling the drapes shut on your windows and aluminum glass-sliding doors. By letting in more natural light into your home, you can help improve your sleeping patterns, ward off depression, and boost your overall mood.
Aside from not closing your curtains all the time, also remember to wash your windows regularly, use lighter curtains, and install mirrors for the light to bounce off of.
2. Buy some indoor plants
There are many benefits that indoor plants can bring to your mental health. Plants can help relieve stress and anxiety, encourage positive moods, increase your self-esteem, and boost your concentration and productivity. Apart from those psychological benefits, having indoor plants helps improve the air quality in your house.
3. Hang art pieces
Art is not only just for decoration. Looking at art helps alleviate the symptoms of anxiety and depression. At the same time, it boosts your brainpower, which can help improve your creativity and productivity. So whether it’s a painting you found at a yard sale or your own piece of work, hang it in your home to encourage a more positive environment.
4. Repaint your walls
The color of your walls has a significant impact on your mood and overall well-being. Thus, if your walls are painted with dark colors, it might be contributing to your depression.
Repaint your walls with lighter colors or natural tones. However, if you live in an apartment that doesn’t allow repainting, consider installing peel-off wallpaper, which you can take off when the lease is up. Either way, you can improve your mental health by surrounding yourself with lighter, more positive colors.
5. Declutter your space
When you have too much clutter in your house, your mind can also be in the same state. That said, decluttering your home is an excellent way to ease your anxiety and depression.
Get rid of the stuff you no longer need, especially the things that hold specific bad memories. If you don’t want to throw them in the trash, consider donating them or giving them away to your friends or family. After you clear your space of unnecessary clutter, your home will feel much bigger, cleaner, and more organized.
6. Display the things you love
Do you have a family heirloom that you love looking at? Or a set of books that always make you feel happy? Why not display them so that you still get to see the things you love? It can be anything, from a small childhood toy to a picture of you and your friends. Whatever it is, the most important thing is that it reminds you of the best parts of your life.
We spend most of our time in our homes, so it should be our sanctuary. However, if your home is contributing to your negative feelings instead of alleviating them, then it’s time to turn it into a more positive space.
