There's No Place Like ...

You know that thing that Oprah perpetuates about how "your home should rise up to meet you"? I want to agree with that but first of all I'm not entirely sure what it actually means and secondly I think it sets up some unfortunately unrealistic expectations. It's always sounded so aspirational to me, like your home should be full of only the best whatever, and I don't know about you but a rather large percentage of the stuff in my living space came from Target. And I LOVE Target, but you know Oprah's not about shopping there. Why in the hell do I keep talking about Oprah? Whatever, back to the point, I do think that it's important for one's home to be a comfortable, cozy haven, whatever that means for you. My apartment is tiny, in a not-great building, with hideous dropped ceilings and at least 40 years' worth of peeling paint and I currently only have enough comfortable seating for myself (I haven't found another armchair that suits me and I do not believe there to be a sofa in existence that's small enough to fit up my narrow-ass staircase). But my apartment also has huge windows and glorious light and pretty wood floors, and everything in it follows the William Morris principle of being either beautiful or useful or both. Walking through the door and up the stairs usually makes me happy, and when it doesn't it's pretty easy to figure out why (usually it has to do with clutter that's been allowed to roam free or a garbage can that's due to be emptied). 

So here we are with the next thing you can do to create positive change for yourself: how do you feel about your home? I'm not even talking about decorating or anything, just one gut-level thing: how do you feel when you're about to walk in your own front door?

If you love coming home every day, that's fantastic. Share your secrets in the comments!

If you're more ambivalent about your living space, try to identify why. Is it messy? Does the paint color or furniture arrangement just not work for you? Do you have a whole art collection waiting to be framed or hung? Does it smell weird? Is it just ... stale, somehow? Find one thing you can change, easily and cheaply, in the next few days and see what happens to your mindset when you make it happen. That one thing might be enough or it might lead you to more little changes, but either way be proud of yourself. And enjoy your "new" home!

Tomorrow is Feel-Good Friday! I'm looking forward to it and so should you.
- Sarah