Like many Americans, I spent a majority of my time indoors, the majority of which is within our home. With the recent rise of minimalism and slow living appearing in headlines I have also noticed the increased discussion of how your surrounding may affect you. As a person who’s career is centered on health and wellness I have to say I’m quite appalled it took me so long to consider the impact our home may be having on my overall wellbeing. Since I was a young girl I have loved interior design and these stunning Pinterest-worthy homes. It wasn’t until recently I began to question if these homes would not only look beautiful but would bring about the sense of peace, comfort, rejuvenation, inspiration, and security I long for in a home.

In the process of selling our current home our realtor staged out home. One of the styling pieces being a book called Restoration House by Kennesha Buycks. It was the title of the book alone that prompted even further exploration of what it means to create a restorative home. So what is a restorative home? Kennesha Buycks describes a restorative home a place “that gives life and connection to all who enter.” I would define a restorative home as a place that is a sanctuary to all who enter allowing them to feel at peace and open to the beauty and inspiration that is life.

A restorative home is less about what you put in the home but more so what can the home bring about. It is a place that is rejuvenating and can be a light in the darkness during hard days that are unfortunately inevitable. Peace and rest are possible as you aren’t constantly tending to the organization of items you may not even want or need. It is a place where everything has a place and a purpose. Even if that purpose is simply to bring about happiness. By not constantly having to tend to the never-ending to-do list that has seems to come with a rather cluttered home that needs tidying and even the Pinterest-worthy home that needs a fulltime housekeeper and interior designer to be kept at this seemingly unreachable standard.

I believe by creating a home that pours back into you opposed to you constantly pouring all of your labor into it is imperative to living a life so many of us desire. A life where we have the time to explore curiosities and chase our dreams. It took us undertaking the process that is selling our first home to realize it was simply draining all of my spare energy to maintain. We unknowingly had collected or allowed ourselves to accumulate so much unneeded or undesired items. Between us moving in together upon being married and items inherited from family and friends we had managed to own 3 can openers and 4 pizza cutters. We had well over 20 mix matched coffee cups. Not even one of which do I believe we bought or intentionally brought into our home. This is what I call clutter creep. Not only had the clutter crept up on us but so did the time of maintain and managing said clutter. Wasting even just 2 minutes in the morning digging though coffee cups to find the one I prefer had wasted just over 12 hours of life in this past year alone.

I hope this simple example from our own home shows you how much time and energy your clutter may be costing you. If only for the time I would reclaim in my life I found that this concept of creating a restorative home would be a worthwhile endeavor. Not only could my time be reclaimed but this newfound time would allow me to pour into others. I’m now able to spend more time with friends and family. I am able to invite someone into our home without the stress of whether everything is clean and tidy because I no longer have to spend as much time organizing and cleaning the unwanted clutter. I can invest this time into my passion and hope for inspiring others to create a wholesome life for themselves. This is what a restorative home is representative of for me.

If this sounds intriguing to you please tell me your thoughts in the comments!

~ I hope you have a lovely day! ~

Madison Eran