What Made My Life at Home a Little More Bearable During the Pandemic
The current pandemic has been hard enough on most of us up to this point. Winter is definitely not going to help. I live in Scandinavia and it’s already pretty damn cold, dark, and depressing in here, and even though I could technically go out, I’m bundled up at home instead. I’ve been setting up some good habits to help me stay sane over the next few months and improve my well-being over the long term. Here is what I’ve been doing to make the best of my living situation.
I decluttered and sorted everything I own.
When I was working at the office every day, the status of my apartment didn’t really matter to me. I could simply decide to leave a mess behind every morning when I left for work, and deal with it sometime later. However, that’s no longer an option. Working when surrounded by clutter is extremely distracting for me, so I decided to set aside some time and declutter everything.
The first step was recycling, donating, or otherwise getting rid of old belongings that I no longer used. Then, I sorted everything I owned using some extra IKEA boxes that I had lying around — basically pulling a Marie Kondo all over the apartment. I also decided to sort my books by color. It made my bookshelf look ten times cooler.
I was surprised at how well I managed to maintain my new clutter-free apartment. I didn’t end up recreating the original mess over time. An added bonus is that cleaning up goes a lot faster now, and actually became a pretty relaxing activity in and of itself. And, as I had anticipated, I can focus on work a lot better now that everything looks neat.
I bought a few plants.
After cleaning up and sorting everything in my living space to perfection, it was time to redecorate a little bit. Sure, a decluttered space helps my attention, but taking care of aesthetics is also important. Plants can be a relatively cheap way to decorate.
Some plants even have the ability to get rid of various kinds of nasties commonly found in indoor air, which is an especially nice perk if you don’t own an air purifier. We’re spending so much time at home…
