Why should we keep our homes (no matter what they are) clean and pleasant looking? Because there is a reciprocal relationship between us. The condition of our home environments affect the way we feel and think…and the way we think and feel affects the condition of our homes. “Look around you,” a mentor told me years ago. “When you see a home that is cluttered and chaotic, there is something going on with the people that live there. They may need help.”
Time and experience have shown me my mentor’s words were true. Yes, the initial reasons why a home may become cluttered and chaotic are many (the homemaker may have been sick for a while, or had a new baby to care for, or other people in the home weren’t helping with the work), but the effects remained. The unpleasant condition of the external environment would begin to have a negative effect on the internal “environments” (the minds and feelings) of the people who lived in the home. They would start to feel overwhelmed, cranky, and pulled down. The worse they felt, the worse they thought, and the less they did to make the home look and feel better. It’s a downward spiral that can easily happen to anyone of us.
What to do?
My mother used to say that the worse you felt, the better you ought to make yourself look. For example, if you are sick and trying to feel better, then get up, take a shower, put on clean pajamas, put clean sheets on the bed, and then get back into a bed. Your body may still not feel well, but the-you-that-is-you will feel much better.
Morale is a resource.
If a cluttered home can make you feel “bad” and if you are recognizing that you’re feeling depressed, then help your home feel “good” so your home can help you feel better. Make some small part of it as clean and beautiful as you can and notice how you feel. Make your bed with clean sheets and bedding and don’t stop until you’ve made it beautiful. Get a bouquet of flowers, take the time to arrange them in a vase in a way you like, then put them in the middle of a table that has been thoroughly cleaned and beautified. This isn’t a frivolous thing to do.
It’s a necessary thing to do.
Try it. You’ll be glad you did.
Feeling overwhelmed or hopeless? Your success in managing your home matters. Personal coaching sessions and lessons now available via Zoom. Contact poguebeverly@gmail.com for more info.
