Why your Home could be Overwhelming You.

Are you ever sat in your house feeling antsy, or perhaps the thought of going back home secretly fills you with a bit of dread? You could be faced with a home that is overwhelming you. 

It’s totally normal and something that happens either during busy periods when we aren’t able to maintain the space as we would like, or in those big moments when we realise our life has changed but our home hasn’t caught up with us yet. 

If any of this sounds familiar, then stay with me as I walk you through some easy fixes that will leave you with a space that is calmer and works with you not against you! 

You have too much stuff 

We all do. And it sounds pretty obvious, but having a lot of visual clutter has been proved to cause us stress and overwhelm. While I am certainly not a minimalist I can feel when the house is in need of a good clear out. 

So spend some time going through cupboards and drawers clearing out all those bits that you honestly don’t need (and didn’t even know you had!) The Marie Kondo method is a great place to start if you don’t quite know where to begin - although be prepared for things to look worse before they look better! 

It’s definitely not the answer that you wanted to hear but likely it’s the one you needed to hear. 

Everything needs a home

This will be the phrase that my children mock me for over future decades as I seem to say it until I am blue in the face, but it’s true!

Once you’ve completed your clear out you need to make sure everything in your home has a home and not only a home, but a home that makes sense. 

Constantly losing your keys? Pop a hook or a bowl by the front door. Not sure where all your life admin paperwork should go? Create a dedicated folder for it all to go together. 

And if you are going to tell me that your shoes have a home, but you are constantly tripping over a pile of them by the front door even though you have a perfectly good shoe basket in the hall cupboard. Move the basket to where the pile is. Stop fighting it, you will never win! The home has to make sense. 

Clue in to your colours 

Now all the bits and bobs of life have been sorted and take a step back. If the room is still feeling a bit much it could be your décor. For instance, the colours in your room may not be working together . Now this isn’t necessarily a disaster or me telling you you need to redecorate, for a quick fix try and find a piece that ties all the colours in your room together. This could be a rug, a cushion or even a piece of art work. You’ll be amazed at what a simple anchor piece like this can achieve in a busy space. 

Similarly with patterns, have you got a lot of the same scale of pattern in the space, or the same kind of patterns (e.g. a lot of florals) it may be worth balancing the space with a mixture of small and larger scale prints, throw in a stripe with your florals - it sounds counterintuitive but done well this mix will actually make everything sing rather than shout.  

A bigger issue may be that the colour you’ve used in your space isn’t working for the activities taking place in there. A red or yellow living room may have seemed like a bright, warm choice - however certain shades can be highly energetic colours, just as blue can be calming, but also very cold - you aren’t going to be able to relax at the end of the day in a space that is too energetically charged or a room that leaves you feeling cold. Unfortunately this is where you’d need to pull out the old paint brush - however I believe that painting a room (especially DIY) can be the cheapest way to totally transform a space, just think about what you will be doing in the room and try to tie in the soft furnishings you already have so it doesn’t become a massive project. 

Give it a shuffle 

If you’re happy with your colours and all else has failed try a reshuffle. Perhaps the flow of the room isn’t quite right, or you’ve got too much going on in and it needs pairing back - again I am not preaching minimalism, it’s about having a critical eye on what is no longer serving the space.  Try different pieces in different rooms to save on buying anything new or feeling like you need to get rid of something you like. Even re styling a shelf or changing your art around can quickly change the energy in a space. 

Hopefully these tips should help you to love your space again, calm the overwhelm and appreciate it as your cosy oasis. And know that it’s not that you’ve necessarily done anything wrong, occasionally a space just needs editing to fit the life it is now serving