10 Habits for a More Peaceful Home
Keep reading this post to learn:
⋒ The postive impacts a peaceful home can have on your mindset
⋒ 10 habits that help me have a more peaceful home
⋒ How you can take steps in figuring out what a peaceful home looks like for you
When I think about a peaceful home, I think about space that is calming to my senses… so what I see, what I smell, what I hear… these things need to evoke a sense of peace and calm in me.
And let me tell you – what calm is to me, may not mirror what calm is to you and that’s okay.
I don’t like clutter or loud noises because those kinds of things when constant, make me want to crawl out of my skin and make my fuse really short. I’m not able to relax in a space like that.
I personally like a light, bright, clutter-free space that smells vibrant and makes me feel cozy and comfortable.
So a lot of the habits that I’m going to share with y’all today help me achieve what my idea of a peaceful home is. Your job as the reader is to decide what a peaceful home is to you and to take what works from this blog post and leave the rest. Cool?
Here are the 10 habits that help me have a peaceful home!
01: Having signature scents for each room
Did you know there is actual science behind how scents can affect our mood? Certain smells evoke certain emotions in us. You can read more about it in this article!
I love having certain scents designated for certain rooms of our house because then my brain equates those scents with what I want to be doing and how I want to be feeling in each room.
I’m an essential oil girlie so I have certain oils that I like to diffuse in each room of our house. I use Simply Earth oils – I love them because they’re affordable, they have safety info for each oil on their website (like which ones are safe to use around kids and pets), and they give part of their profits to fight against human trafficking (you can get 10% off with my link and the code SIMPLY10).
Anyway, here are our home’s signature scents:
+ In my office: During my work days, I diffuse an oil called Good Vibes. It’s made up of lavender, lemon, ho wood, geranium, and clary sage
Whenever my brain smells this, I swear it clicks over into work mode, lol.
+ In Evvy’s room: About an hour before her bedtime, I start diffusing lavender in her room. I’ve been doing this since she was born!
+ In our bedroom: About 2 hours before I go to bed, I diffuse Downtime by Simply Earth. It’s got bergamot, frankincense, lavender, ho wood, and marjoram
+ In our living room: When I wake up in the mornings, I diffuse Happy Joy by Simply Earth or Lava by Simply Earth…both of these have a bright, citrus scent which is my favorite for our living space
02: Playing chill music throughout the day
We love having either lofi music playing or worship music playing on low throughout the day. Lofi is kinda like a jazz vibe if you’ve never heard of it.
We have a speaker in our living room that we can connect our phone to and we stream our favorite playlists from Spotify to the speaker.
Another thing that we do, especially during the holidays and on cold days is turn YouTube on on TV and play chill music that way. We search “chill cabin ambiance” and choose a pretty cabin scene that has chill jazz music playing over it. The only annoying thing with this is when the ads come on but ya know it is what it is.
We have music playing pretty much all day long. It keeps a calm undertone in the house and it honestly keeps us from mindlessly turning the TV on.
We would love to have a record player to use at dinner time but right now, Everly, my 1 year-old, would 10/10 destroy it sooooo the YouTube and Spotify vibes are good for this season, lol.
03: Making functional choices that elevate your space
Okay, what I mean by this is making your home work FOR you. If something in your space drives you absolutely nuts, do something about it to make it less of a pain point for you.
An example from my life – I used to get SO frustrated every time I was in my closet because I had plastic hangers. Yes they were ugly and that was annoying but what was really annoying was my clothes constantly sliding off of them. I would get so frustrated every time I was putting away laundry or flipping through my clothes to find an outfit.
So one day I decided to invest in velvet hangers and if I would’ve known how much more peace they bring me over the plastic ones I would’ve done it ages ago. I know it sounds so simple and kind of silly but these small shifts really do add up and make your home more peaceful.
Other examples that could fall under this one:
~ Getting Tupperware that matches and doesn’t have missing lids
~ Organizing your pantry or spice drawer in a way that allows you to easily grab things without things crashing and/or spilling everywhere
~ Having a shoe rack by the door so you’re not tripping over loose shoes
Again – make your home work for you! Pay attention to what annoys you in your house and come up with a solution.
04: Letting natural light in
During the day, we keep all of our lights off and all of the windows open. Well like the curtains open… it’s usually too hot in Florida to have the actual windows open, lol.
The natural light is way less harsh and it’s just so much cozier than artificial lighting.
And natural light also helps with our circadian rhythm…aka our sleep and wake cycles so that’s a plus!
We recently invested in a lamp for our living room and a new hanging light for our dining room with bulbs that are softer than our overhead lights that are built into our ceiling. We opt to use these lights at night and it’s so much more vibey than the regular overhead lights. It helps us wind down at night!
So yeah pay attention to the lighting situation in your home because it really can make your space more or less peaceful!
05: Using plants as decor
I have quite the collection of houseplants…somewhere around 50 and if I’m being totally honest, it’s not because I’m a super plant lover or have a green thumb (Adam and I joke that I have a brown thumb) but I just like how they make our space feel.
I was reading this article recently about the effect that plants as decor can have on us and it said that when we have plants in our space it:
~ Reduces stress and improves our mental health
~ Improves the air quality
~ Boosts productivity
~ Reduces illness
If you ask me, all of that = more peace
Plus, plants are just a vibe, you know? Being in nature brings me peace and having plants throughout my house mimics those feelings. I’ll link an article in the show notes with more info on the benefits of having plants in your home.
06: Surrounding yourself with things you love
This one might sound obvious but are you actually doing it?
Here’s how I think about this – there are certain items most of us need in our homes…like plates, cups, soap dispensers, light fixtures…you know those kinds of regular house items.
In 2023, I made it one of my goals to slowly change out these types of things for aesthetically pleasing versions and let me tell you, I love being in our home 10 times more.
I get actual true joy opening up our kitchen cabinets and seeing matching tupperware, 8 coffee mugs that are all so cute (rather than 20 that are just random cheap finds that I got at Target), and black flatware that matches our cabinet pulls.
I love seeing glass soap dispensers instead of the plastic containers I buy our soap in.
I get giddy every morning when I walk out into the dining room and see our hanging basket light and plant that I recently changed from a black pot to a terracotta one.
Maybe these kinds of things excite me because I’m in my 30s but I don’t care…I really do feel more peaceful when I’m excited to look at the things in our home.
Think about your “must haves” throughout your house and pay attention to whether you actually like them or not. Start to curate your home in a way that feels like you and that makes you excited to be there!
07: Choosing intentional decor
This one goes along with surrounding yourself with things you love honestly. And let me just call myself out here – I was watching some old YouTube videos of mine from a few years ago and I was cringing. I used to be the queen of HomeGoods and Target hauls… stocking up on random trinkets and knick-knacks because they were kinda cute and cheap. I didn’t pay attention to whether or not they were actually my style or whether or not I actually had a place to put it in our home.
I was constantly buying new throw pillows, coffee mugs, signs to hang on the wall, faux plants, etc.
I was not intentional about what I was buying and bringing into our home at all.
I impulse bought and wondered why our house was overflowing with stuff and why I felt like the rooms of our house didn’t flow well. There was so much random clutter that I called decor, lol.
Since those times in my life, I’ve gotten clear on what our home style is and now I try to buy quality over quantity when it comes to home decor-type stuff.
Some things I do to help:
~ I don’t buy things that I see that are cute just to buy them – I only buy things for our home if I notice a need for it when I’m at home first
~ I wait at least a week before buying any home decor type of stuff – this helps me to not impulse buy and it also helps me to shop around to make sure I’m buying the best fit for us of whatever item it is
Believe me, I know Target hauls can feel fun at the time of doing them but think about future you having to maintain all the little doodads you’re buying.
For a more peaceful home, less is more – be intentional in choosing your decor!
08: Having a decluttering routine
And this one is a good one to follow being intentional about your home decor. Having a decluttering routine has been so helpful in keeping our home less cluttered. A less cluttered home is a less overwhelming home and a less overwhelming home is a more peaceful home!
Y’all I hate to be a bubble buster but there is a lot of evidence pointing to how clutter affects our mental health. A messy home often leads to a messy mind. A tidy home often leads to a calm mind.
The more stuff you have in your home, the more stuff you have to manage and keep up with. Aka you’re spending more of your time tidying and cleaning up because there’s more stuff.
When you have a decluttering routine built into your life, you can make sure that the amount of stuff in your home doesn’t become too overwhelming.
Here’s my current decluttering routine:
~ Once a quarter, usually at the end of each season, I go through all of my clothes and all of Everly’s clothes and get rid of stuff that doesn’t fit or that we don’t wear. This usually takes me 30 minutes a quarter to do.
~ Once a quarter, I go through all of our kitchen cabinets and storage closets and get rid of expired things, things that are missing parts, or things that are just old and need to go. This usually takes me an hour a quarter to do.
~ Whenever Everly gets a new Loveevery box (it’s a subscription we have for developmentally appropriate toys that gets delivered every 3ish months) ) I go through and declutter her toys. This takes me like 5-10 minutes a quarter to do.
I used to try and do this all at once and it felt daunting. So now I do the 3 parts separately and it feels so much more manageable.
I also have a rule – almost every time I bring something new into our home, I have to get rid of something. This just keeps the amount of stuff from getting out of control. Now obviously I don’t do this for household items…like soap or toilet paper, lol. Just for extras like new clothing or jewelry or a water bottle or whatever.
09: Having a home-opening routine
10: Having a home-closing routine
Since becoming a mom, I’ve found it really helpful to have a home-opening routine and a home-closing routine to help keep our home tidy without feeling like I’m cleaning all day long.
They’re what they sound like – my home-opening routine is what I do in the morning to help our home be more peaceful and my home-closing routine is what I do in the evening to help our home be more peaceful.
Some examples of what I do in my home-opening routine:
~ Unload the dishwasher
~ Start a load of laundry
~ HS5 tidy for 15
Some examples of what I do in my home-closing routine:
~ Fluff the couch
~ Put away any loose items
~ Start the dishwasher
~ Swiffer the floors
So day-to-day I have my home-opening routine, my Hustle Sanely 5 tidy for 15 minutes which I usually do at the end of my home-opening routine, and my home-closing routine. Next week here on the show, I’m sharing my updated cleaning routine so make sure to tune in for that and I’ll go into this in more detail.
Alright y’all, those are 10 habits that I do to help make our home more peaceful! I hope you enjoyed this episode and that you’re inspired to adopt 1 or 2 of these habits to use in your home! If you enjoyed this blog post, I would love it if you shared it with a friend or posted it on your social media and tagged me @jessmmassey on Instagram! 🫶🏻
INTRODUCING
The Hustle Sanely Lifestyle Course
If you need support in building routines, you 100% need to sign up for The Hustle Sanely Lifestyle Course so I can coach you in creating a peacefully productive life! Use the code PEACEFULLIFE to save $50 on the course – this course is literally the entire Hustle Sanely Planning System broken down in one place. It’s all the tools and strategies you need to ditch overwhelm once and for all…not only am I teaching you the tools, but I’m also showing you how I do everything in my own life, annnd giving you exercises to put everything into practice in your life. I’m super proud of it and can’t wait to see you in there!
Loved this blog post? Tune into the full podcast episode below!
