A home means something different to everyone, but apart from being ‘the place where one resides permanently’ it is also used to denote a place where one feels safe, where one’s roots can be found, where one goes to rest and recharge to be ready for new challenges. Some people are apparently lucky enough to find a home wherever they lay their hat, but most of us, I presume, have slightly more specific requirements for naming a place a Home.
At the present time I’m in the process of looking for a new home, and I tell you, looking for a new place sure opens one’s eyes, both to the prospect of wonderful new aspects of ‘home’ and to the luxuries already present in my current living situation (seriously, how do some people let their homes get to such a messy state!)
I’m sure, if everyone had huge houses with space for separate rooms for cooking and eating and lounging and computer work and housework and relaxing and sleeping (yes, two separate things), we’d all be bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, funky, hip and cool. But the reality is, most of us have to make do with a little less space than that.
So how to make space for all those areas of our life without the country mansion? I usually start by designating areas for each activity. For me, these activities are sleeping, working, cooking, formal eating (with guests), informal eating (Sunday morning breakfast while watching The Big Bang Theory) and relaxing. And then the bathroom, of course.
The sleeping is usually easy, just a bed and a bedside surface for books, glass of water, notebook, lip balm. Just enough stuff to keep you comfortable but not so much it gets cluttered. This feels scary to begin with, especially when moving from a bedsit or anywhere where your whole home has been one bedroom, but it’s worth it, trust me. If an uncluttered bedroom is too much (i.e. too little) to begin with, start by removing stuff one by one, to ease your mind into calmness. ‘But I don’t like calm and quiet, I need my life active’ I hear you saying. Just try it for a year, if you still prefer sleeping to the sound of ACDC in a room covered in all and every imaginable things known to man, then that is your way. However, I believe we would all get much more done during the day if we slept properly during the night.
A working space usually requires at least a desk. I was a fan of the ‘my bed is my office’ method – hey, what’s nicer than being able to lounge on a bed and still do work! My back’s paying me back for it now… And I find I work better when actually sitting upright, at least when it’s active kind of work, reading still works fine on a sofa! The benefit of a desk is also in that you have everything at hand, pens, paper, documents etc, and psychologically it helps by giving your brain the signals of ‘work time’ when you sit down, so you don’t slip into ‘check Facebook’ mode as easily. The working space should preferably take up a considerable amount of your field of vision when seated, so as to avoid distractions from elsewhere. This does not mean having a whole separate office, a corner of a living room works just as well, although unless you’re an incredibly tidy person, some form of barrier might be needed in the shape of a divider or shelf, to avoid having to tidy your desk every time you have visitors.
Regarding the cooking space one usually has less say when living in a rented flat, as the kitchen is usually pretty set as it is. The thing once can affect is the functions in the kitchen, from food preparation to washing dishes, but that part would (and possibly will) take up a whole other entry.
Eating however, I find best divided into two parts – eating with friends and guests, which requires a dining table and chairs, and ornaments to your own taste, and informal eating which, in my case, requires the addition of something to either watch or read. The informal space I usually combine with the relaxing space, as it’s rather difficult to draw a line between Sunday morning breakfast and relaxing time, as one so easily floats into the other.
The relaxing space usually requires a sofa and/or an armchair, a reading light, a coffee table or alike for snacks and hot beverages or a glass of wine, easy access to books and magazines, and a convenient space for a laptop. Bonus points if located near a window with a nice view. For easy connection between the eating and relaxing activities, you just need a tray, somewhere to place said tray and the willingness to plan your eating needs in advance to avoid unnecessary subsequent trips to the kitchen and back. Except as a limbering exercise after too much sitting.
All this should not be new to anyone, but sometimes we forget to set aside space for some areas of our lives – either we don’t have a designated work area and we find it hard to get things done, or we neglect the relaxing area and end up thinking it’s perfectly fine to jump straight from stressful work to complete relaxation without moving an inch. And as reports on burnout and stress related illnesses increase I have a distinct feeling most of us could do with a little redefining of the spaces in our homes, to train ourselves to move quickly into work-mode, and what seems to be the more difficult move, from work-mode to relaxing-mode.