Time to clean the house? Put on your comfy clothes and turn up that nu-disco! Loud music that grooves makes pushing that vacuum, wiping down the cupboards and swiffering the floor that much easier! Hook into this soundtrack and let the base help you shake that booty!
In our last post we gave you some tips on how to unwind in your home. We posed the question to ourselves and came up with the following. Some you will know and some may be fun to add to your repertoire.
My favourite thing to do in my home is be still… my favourite place to be still is in what my brother in law Billy calls the “Tea Time with Dwaina Set.” An imaginary interview program where I share cozy chats with my guests over a cup of tea… which is not far from the truth about this spot. I meditate here, I read here and I do in fact have cozy chats with my family and friends here.
My favourite thing to do at home is to have a relaxing, candlelit soak in my bathtub. ~Lauren
My favorite thing to do in my home is get cozy in my bed where I read, watch TV or sometimes just sit in silence. My super soft bedding and my inclining bed make it the Ferrari of all beds for reading or watching TV. I even hang out in my bed with friends and watch TV because it’s such a cozy room. ~Josephina
I make terrariums with my boyfriend; we have taught ourselves essentially and really enjoy it. Our home is filled with them. ~Molly
Stepping inside your front door should take a load off. At Good Space we have compiled a list of 10 tips to help you do just that.
Declutter: Chaos makes you anxious. Take a look around your room. What really needs to be there? Can you get rid of things? It doesn’t have to be a painful experience either. One of our favourite blogs, ‘becoming minimalist,’ has a fantastic post on this with 10 of the top techniques to declutter your home. 
Great Cleaning Products (or Cleaning Service): There is something about a clean home that gives you a sense of calm. A great cleaning service visiting is comparable to hearing angels singing. Check out Craigslist, ask friends and always ask for 3 or more references. For those of us who like to roll up our sleeves, it starts with the products. Our tip? White vinegar not only absorbs smells and is inexpensive, it is one of the best cleaning products out there. From bathrooms and stainless steel to unwaxed floors and laundry White Vinegar can pretty much do it all. Although it’s always good to spot test first. This environmentally friendly miracle liquid was discovered over 10,000 years ago is still working its magic. For uses and tips check out this great piece from versatilevinegar.org
Comfortable Furniture: Does your sofa invite you to lie on it. Could you ‘accidently’ fall asleep in your chair? What is the texture of the fabric like? Are the cushions sinkable? All things you should consider. Maybe you might have a sitting room where you prefer to keep things a little more formal, but there should always be one seating room in your home where it’s ok to take your shoes off and unwind. Comfortable furniture is key.Time to Relax! Everything is in place and your home feels good. Now is the time to:
6. Meditate: All cultures and religions have their own forms of meditation and reflection. The interesting thing is that most share the fundamental steps to get you into the zone. Here are the basics: Find a place that you like to be. Light a candle and focus on it if you find it helps. Sit cross legged or in a chair. Remember that it works best if you pay attention to your posture. Count your breaths, enable your gaze to be soft. Don’t let your thoughts overpower you, try to always pay attention to your breath and let thoughts go. Start with 10 min in the early morning and see if you can make it longer. Overall, meditation is about connecting your mind and body and relaxing.
7. Soak: One of the first documented medicinal uses of a bath was when Hippocrates talked to other healers encouraging them to get their patients to soak in sea water to relieve their symptoms. Not only will a good soak do wonders for your skin but add some Epsom Salts and the water will help with your disposition and your health. Today’s epsom salt formulations are similar to natural hot springs or mineral waters evoking the same healing properties. Add your favourite natural oil to the salts like lavender or citrus and you can help elevate your mood or alleviate stress. Close the shower curtain or the bathroom door to take advantage of the steam and try to stay in for longer than 10 minutes.
8. Watch: There is nothing like setting in with a great series. Binge watching is the new norm so don’t feel guilty if you find yourself still watching at midnight. Some of our recent favourites include
9. Cook: For those that don’t like to cook. Get a roast chicken from the supermarket add a store-bought salad and some garlic bread and voilà – easy-peasy dinner that feels home-made. If you like to cook try Ina Garten’s recipe for perfect roast chicken. Add in some peeled potatoes with the roast and make an easy green salad. Cooking for or with friends can be fun and stress-reducing. Try this kitchen playlist to add to your mood.
10. Cuddle: A good cuddle releases oxytocin, commonly referred to as the ‘bonding hormone’. Oxytocin is known to help heal wounds, reduce stress, increase trust, reduce fear and aid in bonding. Not to mention it just feels good! If you live solo, having a cuddle with your pet can have most of the same benefits.
Every time I experience a vacation or business trip in a furnished vacation rental I feel a call to action. I am just not sure what the action should be. Writing reviews is a good start but what I want to say would take pages and pages and maybe some spandex and leather…
Lately I have been watching an American Netflix series called Arrow
– don’t judge me. The premise is the hero brings to justice those that have “failed this city”. Aside from the fun of seeing my beautiful city of Vancouver in most of the scenes; I love the fantasy… and honestly who doesn’t thrill at the idea of donning a super hero persona and cleaning up the bad guys, and the bad stuff, etc.?
Flash Decora. Thanks to Marvel.com who has a great ‘create your own superhero’ game…
I imagine my super hero persona, Flash Decora. Oh she is fierce! With her feathery fresh pillows, dust mite resistant pillow protectors, downy duvets, pristine clean sheets, dimmable reading lamps, side tables – with cell phone chargers, pristine towels, full sets of dishes, sharp kitchen knives, gourmet cook ware and a caboodle of kitchen gadgets; she would clean up this furnished rental. She would lob out dusty teddy bears, rip out random junky broken uncomfortable furniture, dumpster the crispy decorative toss pillows, and toss a lamp beside every chair, sofa and bed… both sides! She would tear down strange and confusing relics from shelves and walls – every bedroom would receive a sturdy empty dresser with drawers that work and hangers in every closet, matching hangers! Audio visual equipment would be whipped into shape and simple to use. She would find the owners and agents, tie them to comfortable chairs and ask them, “aside from making money, what do you think the purpose of your furnished rental property is”? Do you think you would make more if you knew the answer?
A travel experience that offers the comfort of home is a really great idea. As a home body this concept totally fits for me. There are several sites to book with, Home Away, Vacation Rental by Owner and Air B&B to name a few. What appears to me to be missing is an awareness or concern for the comfort of the paying guest. Rather than how the space functions for the guest who is renting the home for the experience of feeling “at home”, the focus is on how it looks on website photos or worse for the exclusive enjoyment of the owner. The owner might not mind their old furniture or dishes. They might find joy in their personal collection of velvet cat paintings, but most everyone else does not. The owner may have to sacrifice a bit of this personal clutter to ensure their guests are comfortable. As an interior designer I see comfort as one of the most important things about designing a living space. Despite what appears to be the case in most furnished rentals, comfort can be beautiful.
So, what makes a person comfortable??
In 2013 Good Space did a furnished rental project in Palm Springs California.
Twenty-Seven Palms. Furnished rental property by Good Space
Recent review on vacationpalmsprings.com
The focus was on guest comfort and convenience. Although the look of the kitchen is not a perfect fit for the style of the home, there wasn’t a budget to renovate it. Instead, we put great effort into outfitting it for cooking and guest comfort.
When I arrive at a thoughtlessly set up furnished rental the message sent to me is this; the owner is doing me a favour, my value is similar to the guest who drank too much at the party and should not expect more than a night on the sofa or rug. I will be subjected to their unique personal taste, crappy old furniture and dishes because this is their house not mine. Except, that is simply not true, for the time I am paying to be there, it is my home. I want to “live” there, not just endure my time there struggling to find a lamp that works or a knife that is sharp enough to cut my vegetables for dinner. I don’t think I am unique in this point of view. So, shape up owners and furnished rental agents, Flash Decora is out there, watching and ready to take action.
For more information and some compelling figures on why it might be worth investing in a vacation property check out the reputable vacation rental website Homeaway.com’s article on key findings on Vacation Rental profits . Contact us to discuss what our Good Space Plan could be for your vacation rental.
In light of the New Year and the likelihood that improvements to your home are on your list of resolutions, I offer that starting from a place of love and appreciation rather than disappointment and disgust will give a better perspective. Loathing or resenting what we feel we can’t change flows freely when thinking about our homes. We often forget to see our home as a vital part of our support network. Similar to when you make changes and improvements to yourself, success is more likely when you approach your goals from a place of reward rather than punishment.
Many years ago when I quit smoking after numerous failures, it was a shift in how I thought about it that finally worked. Rather than focusing my mind on the loss of my beloved habit (and I did love it), I focused on what I was gaining. For example; social acceptance by not having to stand outside the party shivering and freezing in my platform shoes while I watched the merriment through the window, more money for more platform shoes and oh yes, better health.
When we first meet our clients we always ask them to identify what they love about their home and what they like in general as far as décor goes. They often falter and struggle with these questions. Many say they would rather show us what they don’t like. They find this easier and believe that as design professionals we should be able to extrapolate what they like from what they don’t. It is assumed that from this negative view we would make their home look beautiful and work beautifully thus making them happy in their home.
Neuropsychologist, and New York Times best-selling author Rick Hanson’s latest book Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence tells us our brain has a bias to the negative and to some extent this might explain it. The same research shows that redirecting our brains to recall positive experiences can rewire how we think. I believe the thoughts we apply to our homes can be shifted using the same methods used to change how we think about health, relationships, work and other important happiness issues.
As interior designers we create beautiful spaces. The flow of this process and the outcomes are enhanced by the mindset of the client. When we guide people in this way they discover the things they love about their homes, but most important, they are able to identify how they want to feel in their homes. No matter what the scope of the project, knowing our clients and their desires for “living” in their home is the foundation to our design work and planning
Shining a positive light on what works, what you love and how you want to feel at home creates a healthy contrast to what doesn’t work for you and what needs to change. Planning for changes from this point of view becomes an act of love and kindness to you and your home. Then we www.goodspaceplan.com can take it from there.
