The COVID-19 Opportunity: Top 5 Things You Can do to Improve Your Home Life

There’s not a lot of optimism when it comes to something like a global pandemic. People are suffering. The economy is at a standstill. Governments are at a loss for how to handle the fallout. Social distancing has people stuck at home. It’s easy to get down and see negatives all around you in a time like this. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities for positivity.

If you’re stuck at home as a non-essential employee, trying hard to find positive ways to pass the day, it’s time to open your eyes to the COVID-19 opportunity. That’s right—this one big dark cloud has a silver lining. You may be stuck at home, but you have the opportunity to take stock of your lifestyle and make the changes you want to see in the world. What better place to start than with your home life?

Instead of looking at your home like a prison, start looking at it like your sanctuary! What can you do to improve your home life and make your indefinite stay-cation enjoyable? Here are five things that’ll bring you noticeable benefits.

1. Clean your abode

A clean home is a happy home! Whether it’s a deep clean that takes days to complete or a Marie Kondo-style sort-through of your belongings, cleaning is therapeutic. You may not like cleaning, but there’s no denying how good it feels to enjoy a living space that feels fresh and looks neat and tidy.

This quarantine is an opportunity to clean in ways you’ve been overlooking. Go through the fridge and cupboards and get rid of expired foods. Clean the basement or attic and find items you can donate when this is all over. Move the furniture and vacuum the floors thoroughly! A good clean is a great way to treat yourself and your home with respect.

2. Explore Feng-Shui

The ancient art of Feng Shui is all about balance. Aligning the many elements of a room to improve the flow of energy can introduce a brand-new aura to your most-used spaces. Feng Shui can be a hard concept to grasp without understanding the bagua (energy map), but it’s worth learning the basics to understand how to harness the mood and energy of a room to feed positivity into your life.

Start simple. Try to Feng Shui your bedroom or a home office before moving to the living room or other large areas. Pay attention to how the arrangement makes you feel and what elements stand out to you. Eventually, Feng Shui will become more natural to you and you’ll be able to feel the energy of a room as you arrange it. It can have a major impact on your everyday quality of life.

3. Communicate with people

Communicating with the people who live in your home is perhaps the most important pillar of improving your lifestyle. Whether it’s roommates, a significant other or your immediate family, make an effort to improve communication with them.

Strike up a conversation. Invite them to play a game with you. Cook a meal together. Your bonds with the people you share a living space with will grow stronger with interaction. You’ll grow more comfortable with their presence and find positive energy from these relationships—energy that balances your mood. If your home is your sanctuary, the people in it need to be your conspirators—people who positively contribute to your everyday existence.

4. Make little improvements

There are little annoyances we all face at home. A squeaky door. A shelf that’s crooked. A wobbly table. They’re simple, innocuous things, but they grate on us. Now’s the time to fix them. Make improvements throughout your home that eliminate these small points of friction from your life. You’ll be amazed at how smoothly your routine becomes when the little annoyances evaporate. You don’t have to be a handyman or a genius to fix them, either—just look up a solution online or apply a little creative genius to the problem!

5. Emphasize intangibles

Stand in the middle of your living room or bedroom. Close your eyes and take a few slow, deep breaths. What’s missing? Can you feel sunlight on your skin? Can you smell a subtle, pleasurable scent in the air? Do you feel comfortable? The intangibles are what make a house a home. Paying attention to them will drastically improve your home life in the simplest ways. Light a candle or pull back the curtains. Put a new filter in your furnace or plug in an air purifier. Hang a mirror. Bring elements like light, smell, sound and atmosphere together so that every space feels complete and comfortable.

With no end in sight for the COVID-19 pandemic, your home is going to serve as the backdrop for your life for the foreseeable future. Make it the place you’ve always wanted it to be! You may not be able to leave, but that’s no excuse for not taking advantage of the opportunity to turn your home into your sanctuary.