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You want to walk in your door and feel a sense of relief, a calm, and happiness. Read on to find 11 ways to optimize your home for ultimate happiness!

11 Ways to Optimize Your Home for Ultimate Happiness

A while ago, I wrote about how to make your community happier, but if you simply don’t have time to create a grassroots happiness movement in your community, don’t worry. There are also ways you can optimize your home for ultimate happiness right now.

Surprisingly, your home has a lot to do with your own happiness. In the book The Blue Zones of Happiness author Dan Buettner discovers the happiest places in the world, and identifies the commonalities. What’s interesting is that it doesn’t take that much effort to make your own home happier.

Buettner outlines 11 ways to optimize happiness in your home. I also include changes I’ve made in our home to make it a happier space. 

1. Declutter

It’s no surprise that  “Americans spend 1.2 trillion a year on nonessential stuff” (192). Furthermore, “a house full of clutter has a negative effect on your mood” (195).  The book that opened my eyes to minimalism is The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. It’s a game changer for messy people, and provides direction for a minimalist lifestyle. If you don’t know where to start to declutter, read that book!

2.Plant

The next way to optimize happiness in your home is to start a garden or bring plants inside. Evidence shows that “time spent in nature is known to have mood-boosting effects” (195). Apparently “indoor plants can increase productivity, lower blood pressure, and improve well-being” (195).

3.Let the Light In

Let natural light into you home. Optimize the windows that are already in your home. Capture natural light by placing a mirror opposite a window. Use natural light when you can instead of turning on the lights. Let the morning sunshine stream in! We recently purchased a mirror to set up opposite our windows downstairs. Mirrors also create an illusion of more space.

4.Optimize a Room for Flow

Choose a room in your house where the family will engage in “flow” activities. Author Dr. Csikszentmihalyi outlines in his book Flow that activities spent creatively engaged and challenged are the most satisfying. Create a room that encourages these types of activities.

Our “flow” room is our living space next to our kitchen. It’s rather small, but we’ve creatively put all furniture by the wall so a large space forms. We also have a small coffee table for writing, building, or drawing.

5. Play or Listen to Music

Some of my fondest memories from childhood include listening to my dad play the piano after dinner. Sometimes my mother would sing, and my grandmother loved to sing as well. Both my brothers played the drums, and would jam out from our basement or in their garage band.

I’m not musically gifted, but I do like to dance. My daughter loves to move to the music and sing with my husband. We don’t have any musical instruments currently in our home, but we do have a small bluetooth speaker set up in our kitchen. The dance parties that form are phenomenal. I have hope that in the future my daughter will want to learn to play an instrument as well.

6. Cut Screen Time

Turning off screens actually boosts your mood and helps you remain more productive. Obviously, creating a space that discourages screen time can optimize your happiness.

We have a couch that sometimes doesn’t even face our T.V. That choice was intentional. We try to spend most days with the T.V. off to encourage family interaction. We also only have one T.V..

7. Create a Space to Meditate

Meditation has been proven to improve concentration and relieve stress (199). Create a space that encourages this. It might be a little nook with a comfy chair and a window. It could also be your kitchen table. Anything where you set up the habit for quiet. I have a lovely space right next to our window where I can sit with a cup of tea, journal, write, or read.

8.Get in Your Front Yard

Research shows that “the happiest Americans interact socially 6 hours every day” (198). In Washington, I see my neighbors more after snow has fallen than any other time of year. That’s because we are all out shoveling snow. Setting up habits to meet and chat with your neighbors builds community and positively affects your happiness. So perhaps, spend time on your front porch instead of in your back yard.

9. Adopt a Pet

Research shows that “pet owners tend to be healthier and happier than people without pets” (198). We don’t have the space for a full-time pet, but you can seek out ways to volunteer with animals through your local Humane Society.

10. Share Values Visually

Another way to optimize happiness in the home is to visually portray shared values or achievements. This often becomes the refrigerator door, but can also be a compilation of pictures with family members and various activities done together.

11. Prioritize Sleep

Bedrooms have now become extra family rooms with T.V’s, and electronics scattered throughout. Research shows that “A consistent lack of sleep has been linked to obesity, memory impairment, and depression” (199). Make your bedroom electronic free, if possible. We also wrote an excellent post on natural ways to fall asleep faster.

Mel Robins, author of The 5 Second Rule, suggests leaving your cell phone in a different room with an alarm so that you are forced to get out of bed in the morning instead of hitting snooze repeatedly. Electronics outside of the bedroom also provide less distraction when falling asleep is your top priority. It took me a long time to understand that I am my best and happiest self when I’ve had a full night’s sleep, which for me and most of the population, means 8 or more hours.

Final Words

Optimizing your home or your local community for happiness can be easier than you think with a few changes. Before you get started, highlight a few that you want to focus on this next month and make the changes gradually.

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Join the Discussion

What is your favorite way to optimize your home for ultimate happiness?

Author

-Maria Halcumb
B.A. in Secondary Education, English, and Physical Education
M.A. Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction and Reading Specialist

Source

Buettner, Dan. BLUE ZONES OF HAPPINESS: Lessons from the Worlds Happiest People.National Geographic Soc, 2019.