Not quite sure how to get there? Try the 6 ideas below and you’ll be well on your way to creating the peaceful, stress-free home you’ve always wanted.

1. Keep the Entrance Clean

Having a clean entranceway is a great place to start! Not only will you appreciate walking into a relaxing environment, but as an important first point of interaction, so will your guests.

Work to eliminate any debris around the front door and allow it to open freely. Instead of positioning a shoe rack or a large piece of furniture next to the door, try adding mirrors or flowers for a less-cluttered feel. This little space is the quickest way to lift the overall mood of the home and create a peaceful, more welcoming atmosphere.

2. Declutter From Top to Bottom

Decluttering your entire home goes a long way toward creating a more stress-free environment. It helps to remove toxic energy and encourages a sense of balance and relaxation. Try minimizing furniture and home decor (do you really need 6 vases?) and replace any worn-out pieces. Aim to create space, which will allow peaceful energy to flow through your home.

3. Incorporate Memories

Think about incorporating items from the past into your current surroundings; things that have always brought you joy and made you feel at home. Sometimes it can be as simple as hanging a picture of people who make you smile every time you look at them. You may want to experiment with different frames, particularly for memories like a sentimental tour in another country or a beautiful family wedding. Hanging custom canvas prints on your wall can help you preserve those beautiful memories and promote the stress-free environment you’re looking for.

Canvaspop canvas print – mom and daughter

4. Add Some Greenery

Plants play a significant role in generating good energy in our homes. Not artificial energy, but true energy. A bouquet of flowers, a collection of branches or several household plants will all add freshness to your space. Bringing plants into your home cleanses and oxygenates the air and creates a wonderful therapeutic effect. They bring a sense of vitality to the home, and combine seamlessly with all types of architecture. Not to mention, they look great! Consider plants like bonsai, bamboo and even basil. These plants are known to radiate positive energy in addition to adding a decorative feel.

5. Use Scent

One of the best ways to de-stress your home is with scented candles or incense. Scent has a significant effect on how you feel and can help boost your mood. A pleasant scent can also help eliminate cooking odors and allow for positive energy to flow in the home.

Studies have shown that olfaction and emotion are closely linked. With this in mind, you may want to consider using scents such as lavender and citrus which are believed to produce endorphins in the body, allowing for a more peaceful and comfortable state.

6. Rearrange the Furniture

Furniture offers comfort, but how you arrange it also plays a major role. You should be able to navigate easily and freely through your home, removing anything that obstructs your sight. Being able to move through your home safely contributes to the home’s peaceful atmosphere.

Another thing to keep in mind when choosing a location for your furniture is to strive for a harmonious feel on each side of the space you’re working with. Remove any sharp-edged, angular furniture and replace with a softer, more rounded style. For example, a round coffee table as opposed to a square or rectangular one immediately signals a more inviting atmosphere.

Just by making a few changes, you can quickly transform your home into a peaceful oasis and it doesn’t have to be hard on the pocketbook. So if you’re feeling the need to de-stress your surroundings, try these simple ideas and watch your home transform into a place you love to come home to.  Leave me a comment and let me know which ones really worked for you!

Photo Credits

Furniture image by Stencil
Canvaspop canvas print – from Canvaspop

Guest Author Bio
Trenton J. Smith

Trenton is an aspiring writer who loves to research and write about a wide variety of topics. When he is not writing, he enjoys gardening and long walks with his dog Boomer.

I settled in my favourite chair and put my feet up. After heaving a deep sigh, I took a sip of the drink, savouring all the flavour as it landed on my palate. It was then that I realized something.

I realized I wanted beer instead.

Now my wife doesn’t drink all that much, but this type of drink was out o bounds for her. So I got up from my chair, headed to the kitchen, and promptly dumped the concoction down the drain. Then I grabbed a beer from the fridge and returned to my seat. Man, that beer was good.

Had this happened in my younger days, I’d have downed that cocktail and moved on to the beer afterward. Either that, or I’d have simply drank the drink while grinning and bearing it. The bottom line: I wouldn’t have wasted bourbon – higher-end or bottom of the barrel.

You know, sometimes it’s okay to toss aside something you’ve got for what you really want. Clearly you have to think about it, but don’t be afraid to do it because you just don’t want to waste it. Because you actually wind up wasting regardless, so you might as well waste what you don’t want rather than an opportunity to get what you do want.

Photo Credit

Bourbon by Dan4th on flickr.com – Some Rights Reserved

Judging by what is thrown out in the University town where I live, a great many Americans treat clothing and bedding almost as disposable commodities, tossing them in the trash when they show the least sign of wear, or have simply ceased to be new. I begin to suspect that throwing a perfectly usable item in the dumpster, rather than selling it or giving it away, is part of the syndrome of shopping addiction. Evaluating the old item as worthless may somehow reinforce a person’s perception that it is necessary to buy a new one to replace it.

I am quite the opposite when it comes to clothing, bedding, and household linens. For the most part, I acquire such things second hand – sometimes from resale shops, but often from people who know that I can and will use them. I use things in their original form until they are conspicuously worn and cannot easily be repaired. At that point the buttons go in the button box and the remains of the garment go in the rag bag, or rather bags, because in my household economy the final destination of a rag depends on its weight and fiber content.

I make tote bags out of old jeans, and in theory I make rugs out of old wool. I say in theory, because I have not actually made a rug, and that accumulation may end up being given away. Old sheets have a myriad of uses. I remember my mother cutting very worn cotton sheets down the middle and sewing the edges together to get a bit more wear out of them, before cutting them up for cleaning rags. This was not a matter of economic necessity for her, but old habits of frugality die hard. In my house, the cotton sheets are converted directly to cleaning rags. The ones with high polyester content, which never seem to actually wear out but become dingy and threadbare, are used as lining for totes and interfacing for various clothing items.

Worn-out t-shirts and towels make wonderful cleaning rags. I do not understand the person who will scrupulously buy the “green” brand of paper towels and think himself environmentally conscious as he tosses wads of dirty paper into the trash alongside a worn or damaged t-shirt. It would be far more environmentally conscious to wipe up the spill with the t-shirt. Most personal and household applications employing disposable paper goods can just as well use rags, and in many cases the cloth option is superior. Of course, one must then wash the rags. That’s no big deal if you’re wiping up spilled milk, but most people would balk at substituting a rag bag for the toilet paper roll.

I find there is something homely and comforting about a rag bag. Digging into it brings back memories of childhood in a less throwaway culture, when pop bottles were actually refilled, and patches put on clothing to extend its wear rather than as a fashion statement, and the butcher paid us five cents a pound for the cans of bacon fat. It’s nice when nostalgia has a practical application too, providing tools to cope with a changing world in which the sorts of thrift that were second nature to our grandparents, and still a part of life in our parents’ generation, are experiencing a revival as environmental responsibility and may soon become a necessity.

Photo Credit

Photo by Martha Sherwood – All Rights Reserved

Don’t look now, but there’s something else you need to do.

The problem is there is always one more thing to do, one more task to add to the endless list of tasks to be completed in any one given life span. Are we really meant to do so much in a progressively smaller and smaller window of time?

This week I read an intriguing article in The New Atlantis by Christine Rosen entitled “The Myth of Multitasking.” It was written a few years ago, but I can’t help feeling that the urgency of its message is more profound today than ever before. I know myself that I have proudly boasted my multitasking prowess at every job interview for the last couple of decades and I seriously thought I was accomplishing more than one thing at a time as I answered phone calls, typed email messages and passed off pantomime instructions to nearby co-workers.

Truth be told, there’s no such thing as multitasking. Really. It’s physically and psychologically impossible. Attempts at multitasking carry with them their own litany of risks. Driving while using a cell phone is one. Mounting stress to do more and more is another. The constant shifting from one activity to another has fostered a new condition called “attention deficit trait”. One writer believes multitasking is leading us into an attention deficit recession  and in a 2005 research study funded by Hewlett-Packard and conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London, it was found that “Workers distracted by e-mail and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers.”

When I first drafted this article I included 10 steps to aid in unplugging ourselves from the Machiavellian multitasking machine. For better or worse its turns out I’m not a 10 steps kind of woman. I just don’t think life’s answers are that easy. I don’t have a checklist of the perfect mate or the ideal job or what will make me happy. I suppose that goes back to my Buddhist leanings, realizing that there will always be something else beyond the list to be craved, to be yearned for, something in the future that is pushing its way into the present.

With that in mind and shifting our view of multitasking as a myriad of future tasks vying for our present attention, try to treat them as a buffet of choices. If there are too many things screaming for your immediate attention then stop, take a few breaths and sort them by time-lines and priorities. If 12 things must be completed today, which of those tasks need to be done before lunch, before 10am, and so on. Can something be delegated to someone else or wait until tomorrow? Is there a way to combine the tasks or even eliminate a few? Some things, after all, don’t really even need to be done. Many are leftover from the “we’ve always done it that way”closet and they just don’t fit anymore. Wish them well and send them to the appropriate refuse container.

More than anything, be gentle on yourself. Make space in your day for a good heartfelt chat with a friend, a replenishing walk in nature or time spent in reflection and meditation. And never forget the power of a long, relaxing bath. It will set multitasking on its ear, and that’s not such a bad thing.

Additional Reading & References:

The Myth of Multitasking by Christine Rosen, The New Atlantis, Spring 2008.

The Autumn of the Multitaskers by Walter Kirn, The Atlantic, November 2007.

Study funded by Hewlett-Packard and conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London – source BBC News, April 22, 2005.

Definition of “human multitasking from Wikipedia.

Photo Credit

Hands of Worker by Victor Bezrukov

With age we have upsized – same weight but different distribution so although Laura Ashley style dresses are ‘in’ again and I am sure wide-legged patchwork jeans won’t be far behind, we just can’t get the fat butts into them any more. I am going to have to throw them out, after all these years of careful hoarding and moving them around the world with us.

With age we have also down-sized, our house that is, and so the usual problem of what to do with our precious collections has become paramount. Cleaning the old seventeenth century house had got beyond me – all full of old world furniture needing kilos of wax and gallons of elbow grease. We had renovated a tiny old farm building into a bijou residence. The original idea was to use this charming little cottage for summer rentals and much needed cash but we did such a good job that we couldn’t bear not to live there ourselves.

We moved 4 beds and one sofa and the rest was to be moved by us as needed. We had – well, I, as principal hoarder – had three double wardrobes of clothes; original Laura Ashley outfits from 1968, plus tights bought in France in 1960, all ‘sir’s’ business suits, sailing gear and my Casa Loma cocktail/Charity ball outfits plus London film premiere dresses. These all necessitated matching shoes and bags, of course. I have one ensemble I wore when flirting with James Bond (aka Timothy Dalton) at a film Premiere. I have menus from super nova dinners at famous restaurants in Paris plus a Duck Card from ‘La Tour d’Argent’. For the uninitiated, this is a numbered card telling you what number duck you ate since the inauguration of the Duck Rouennais dish in 1890. I have theatre programmes galore– one signed by Richard Burton which is definitely un-throw-outable.

I have had to give away books, prints, old paintings of mine but am at a loss about what to do with old family photos of all those Irish cousins who emigrated to the US, my Mum’s 100th birthday cards, my dad’s pewter beer tankard Golf trophies, my brother’s school reports and letter from his headmaster accusing him of holding up a train! My mother-in-law’s crochet throws she made us when we were first married went to a Canadian lad who is running a Rickshaw service in Amsterdam and he was thrilled to have blankets to cover his passengers!

Most of my copper pots and pans are still in the other house as I now have a dream kitchen with an induction top, black granite work-tops, black sink and hand-made tiles with the names of our apples on – tres chic but no room for creative cooking. I have no room for my jams and chutneys so haven’t made any this year. I have a tiny under the counter fridge and a big one in the store room with the heating tanks.

My sets of matching porcelain, clothes and napkins, with the obligatory three glasses and arsenal of cutlery, pewter serving platters, my hand-made pottery plates and cups, candle-holders and table decorations, are all languishing in the old house unneeded and unloved. There is a moral in there somewhere.

We haven’t had a full winter here yet as the heating system broke down as soon as bad weather hit last winter so we had to move back again to the old house. Unlike the old house, where we had gas heating and electrical back-up, this one didn’t have reliable emergency heating systems. We had installed a Franklin stove but it wasn’t as efficient as a big Inglenook at throwing out the heat.

So it is back to basics – hot water bottles, double duvets and sleeping socks. Think Polar and you’ve got it!

 Photo Credits:

“Duck card from La Tour d’Argent in Paris.” © Julia McLean 

“Postcard from Los Caracoles in Barcelona.” © Julia McLean 

“My penfriend and me at 14-15 with Mum and my elder sister.” © Julia McLean 

“My pen friend at 21 getting married.” © Julia McLean 

It was the final frontier. The last outpost.

This summer we have been clearing out our home of almost 25 years, preparing to put it on the market. While we are not hoarders, over that many years things accumulate. What took years to gather around us has been largely dispersed in about three weeks.

The house looks great. Even the garage is swept, organized and spacious-feeling.

We left the shed till the last, on two assumptions. One, potential buyers care less about sheds. And two, it would be nasty.

I know we were right on the second point. On a recent day I got to it. I slid the doors open wide – or attempted to.

One was actually braced by a heavy ladder from inside and never meant to move. The other slides but has no handle. So my first challenge was to figure out how to rig these doors so that they might work for a potential buyer.

I failed at that and went to plan B: I plastered large notes on the doors apologizing for their dysfunctionality. So lesson one is that we forget what we know. Especially when it’s inconvenient and broken.

Next, everything came out onto the lawn. Planters, gardening tools, potions to make things grow and potions to stop them from growing. Parts from a long-abondoned water fountain. Planting soil. Some motor oil for a gas mower (we now have electric). Mesh to keep things from growing up through rockery. Mesh to keep birds from eating all the berries. More flower pots – clay ones, plastic ones, styrocrete (heavy looking but light) ones.

A broken hoe, its truncated wooden handle painted orange, that I had kept purely for nostalgia. One year my dad had painted all his garden implements orange because he had some extra house paint. OK, there it is: a short, orange memory.

Snow shovels. You know you live in a northern climate when you pull out six shovels and one industrial looking ice chipper.

The sundry items were then sorted into four piles: stuff for a friend who is heavily into urban gardening, stuff he didn’t want that would be donated elsewhere, stuff for the landfill, and a very small pile of items to go back in the shed.

That last category leads to learning number two: what one actually needs (in a shed, in a home, in life) is always a very small subset of what one accumulates. Later, when I had put these items back, the shed looked positively cavernous. The shed itself, I realized, was way too big. Learning number three: stuff will accumulate to fill the available spaces, so build / own / rent smaller spaces.

Lesson four was a personal one. I’m sure this doesn’t apply to you. But I was embarrassed, in surveying my piles on the lawn, by my lazy disorganization. You see, among the piles were three different little bags of lawn seed, one of which I had bought just days before (not having actually gone out to the shed to see if I already had seed). Similarly with those small hand shovels and unopened containers of fertilizer. So lesson four: waste not. Look before you buy.

Before re-equipping the shed, I needed to clean it. Lesson five: we are not the only critters on the planet. Many small beings can find a shed quite cozy, evidence the cob webs, the little piles of dirt, the nibbled garden gloves, the cocoons and indistinguishable (to me) nests.

When I saw all the lively activity that had been going on in the dark, forgotten shed, I thought of Lorna Crozier’s wonderful book of poems, The Garden Going On Without Us. Perhaps this is lesson six: life goes on, whether we are paying attention, or even there, or not.

And the final lesson: a garden shed ain’t a bad metaphor for the way our lives accumulate layers of meaning through the years.

Photo Credit

“Shadows on the Shed” egefan – Suzan Almond @ Flickr.com. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved.

I created a short video on the impact of mental-physical clutter on my life and offered a challenge to do some de-cluttering of your own. Let us know what you think.

Steve Goldberg is the co-author of Finding the Upside:  Practical Wisdom for Challenging Times.  You can read more about and purchase the book at:  www.findingtheupside.org

The possibilities perplex me.

I have a few hours available – a little clearing. I’ve snacked my way through the morning and early afternoon while chasing the usual scatter gun of emails and Tweets and blog posts – edited or read. Piecemeal. Pieces. I could use something substantial. Some soup. A colourful crunchy salad. Vibrant nutrition.

I’ll stroll down to Bubby Rose’s, or maybe Tooks on Cook across the street where they do varied entrees cafeteria style. I’ll stroll, yes. No rush.

Take the travel mug in case I decide to grab a java and window shop. Might as well sling the backpack over my shoulder, throw the mug in an outside pocket. Grab some gloves and a toque. It’s winter.

Maybe the camera, too, just in case an image jumps out at me.

My journal and a pen would be a good idea. Make some notes. And those two envelopes I need to mail. There are many possibilities in one casual afternoon walk.

For this couple hours in this afternoon, I am wandering free. Yet not free from decisions or free from questions. The questions abound. How many thousands of little decisions do I make in a day?

I make my way up Trutch, over to Cook, west on Richardson. I’ll swing across the street mid-block, but there’s traffic. Not heavy. All from the east. Between these two? Or after that white van? Sometimes I dither. Indecisive agitation.

The world is a cosmos of infinite choices. We want freedom in our lives but are easily paralyzed by choice.

Barry Schwartz writes about this in The Paradox of Choice: why less is more. Consider the box of chocolates – do you want a large box from which to choose your chocolate, or a smaller box? Research shows we are actually happier with our chocolate when we have chosen from the smaller box. The large box just leads us to agonize over our options: dark, milk, white, striped, round, square, nut-topped. It can drive a person nutty.

I spot a red Canada Post box across Cook, consider crossing this way then that, pick a spot in the traffic, make my way over, drop the letters in. So now I’m on the Bubby Rose side of Cook and try to recall their menu, wonder about today’s specials. Great pastries but do they do much green? A few strides away I instinctively pat my hip pocket: no wallet. Left it behind. Brought the gloves, the camera, the journal, the letters, all for their possibilities. No wallet. Well, I’m not turning around and racing back for it. This was to be a leisurely amble, not a rushed scramble.

Now my lunch possibilities depend on the jingle of change in my front pocket. I count a bit over two bucks. I peak in Bubby Rose’s but aside from water and a pastry I don’t think my change is getting me far. So it’s across to Tooks, where I find a substantial looking banana bread and a regular coffee. No green but I had no choice. I find a big round table by the window, pull out the journal and camera and start recording. Bubby Rose’s across the way, with its bright tattoo shop next door, is quite the picture. The graphic art on its block walls has pushed aside my thoughts of lively salads and soups. Greens. Bursts of orange. Pinks and yellows. A bee. A buzz.

Full of possibilities.

Photo Credit

“Graphic Mural-Cook Street in Victoria, BC” © Lorne Daniel 2011. All Rights Reserved.

It’s the holiday season again. For some it is the happiest time of the year, but for others it’s a time of stress. No matter what category you fall into, I’d like to suggest that you start a new tradition this year, and that is to follow your heart and only do those things that bring you joy. Now I know that is a huge order because the universal energy is an extreme force during this time of year. It seems the universal focus is buy, buy, buy and that energy sucks us into a holiday black hole.

One way to curtail the madness is to recognize and truly observe the spirit of the holiday. Please don’t think I’m not asking to give up the bountiful smorgasbord that awaits that special day. Lord knows you’ve been waiting for Aunt Sadie’s cornbread dressing for a year and heaven forbid that I would suggest eliminating anyone from being “The Biggest Loser”.

I’m talking about really taking some quiet reflective time to love and appreciate your life and all of the blessings received throughout the year: the sustenance of family and friends that adds to the enrichment of your existence and praying for those whose relatives and friends have passed away, leaving them here to define loneliness and fight off feelings of abandonment. Be grateful for the food and shelter you possess and maintain while you pray for the people of Haiti as they endure the toughest trials they have ever had to face.

Starting the season off in this way sets the precedent for an open heart to thrive in the peace on earth, goodwill towards men theme.

Another age old tradition that needs reconsideration is the retail shopping frenzy. Every year we fall prey to the retailer’s ploy to get us into the stores at the crack of dawn for those so called “super bargains”. They believe it will put them in the “black” financially. By cutting a few prices, their stockholders can celebrate the season without thoughts of cutting a lot of staff. They advertise a fantastic bargain for the “stuff” that shoppers want most. But much to shoppers’ dismay, they find that the item is sold out because there were only one or two items for sale at that price. Just to keep from going home empty handed and getting some rest (after all, it is 4am), the shopper decides to stay and see what other deals may be found, while “visions of sugar plums dance in the heads” of the retailer.

Now I’ve never experienced one of these early morning sales, but I can’t imagine receiving the ultimate in customer service at that time of the morning. I would think excessive crowds would bring out the worst in salespeople who are operating on limited sleep, because most retail employees are pushed to the brink during the holiday season. They work a tireless amount of hours to be there for the last-minute shoppers, the professional returners and the gift card redeemers. Many times the only memories some of them have of the holiday season is watching the boxing match over the last X-box or WII system in the last store in a 50 mile radius.

So please have a heart for those who are there to serve. If you’re going out, be kind and play nice with the others — or better yet, just stay home and rest.

Photo Credit

“Holiday shoppers” AP Photo/ The Tennessean, John Partipilo

#1 Rowdy Kittens

I love Rowdy Kittens, the blog about social change through simple living. Tammy Strobel, author of Simply Car-free and Smalltopia, created RowdyKittens mostly to keep friends updated on her life but it has since grown into a community. Tammy writes about downsizing, entrepreneurship, living without a car, and simple, minimalist living.

#2 Be more with less

Be more with less is about simplifying your life, getting rid of stress, and “more time and less stuff, and more joy with less obligation.” Courtney Carver makes no secret about the fact that she’s made mistakes: “I have made a bunch of money and spent even more. I have been too busy, too tired, too full, too stressed and too overworked for too long and I am changing my ways.” Courtney makes minimalism seem very doable — and she has an engaging way of inspiring others.

#3 365 Less Things

One woman’s 365 day resolution to “declutter every wardrobe, bench, shelf, under bed, pantry and garage space in my home by giving away, throwing away or selling one item everyday for the next twelve months.” It’s a good approach — bite-sized pieces of clutter. I had to follow her RSS to find out if she can do it…it’s like a minimalist soap opera!

#4 Marc and Angel Hack Life

Mark and Angel started a blog to share practical thoughts on  life, hacks, productivity, aspirations, health, work, tech and general self improvement and more. They promise you will not find “a regurgitation of someone else’s point of view on our site. This is the ultimate site for lists like “50 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do”. The only puzzling part is the ad link for Russian Brides. Doesn’t seem to fit with the brand.

#5 Squawkfox

This blog bills itself as the site where “frugal living is sexy, delicious, and fun.” It features tips to live creatively and frugally whether you’re interested in travel, home and organizing, holidays, recipes…whatever. With the holiday season coming up, this site is the perfect place to get ideas that will only add to the fun and leave your credit cards a bit less stressed.

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