One of the main aspects about becoming an independent adult is setting up your own place and manage it on your own. Depending on your lifestyle, your home may not be the place where you spend most of your time, but it is the place where you start and finish your day, where you get ready for a productive day and where you go to unwind and relax at the end of the day. Whether you’re living with roomates or entirely by yourself, here are 4 practical tips that will help you create an amazing space in your home.
1. Functionality
Every single space in your home should be practical and functional, to help you develop your activities in the best way. Focusing on the functionality and practicality of spaces will help you increase your productivity and focus, have better organization, and reduce your stress. It can also positively impact your health and safety, as well as helping you save some money.
In order to create a functional space, it’s important to consider the next few things:
Storage Optimization
As a young adult, it’s most likely that you’re living in a small apartment and/or you live in a shared or private room and share the common areas with other flatmates. No matter the case, optimizing the storage spaces will help you maintain clutter-free and cleaner spaces where you can find everything easily. For this, take advantage of vertical storage by using wall-mounted shelves or stackable organizers. You can also take advantage of under-bed storage. For the common areas, you can get furniture with shelves, containers, or drawers in them, like stools, coffee tables, bookshelves, etcetera.
Multifunctional furniture
Small spaces can benefit from multifunctional furniture since they help you optimize the space and keep it versatile and functional. However, these types of furniture can be expensive, and you need to consider whether you’ll actually use all of its functions or not.
For example, a sofa bed is useful when you have occasional visitors and don’t have enough space or budget for your living room and for another guest room. But, would you convert your bed to a sofa bed every single day?
Getting a sofa bed for your room to save money or have more space during the day, will eventually become impractical. Imagine getting back home after a long day at work, you enter your room and you realize…you don’t have a bed to lay in. Sure, you can lay on top of the sofa, but after a while it may be uncomfortable.
Sometimes, having multifunctional furniture can be the least practical thing, so before you invest in any, consider your lifestyle and time available to see whether it would be beneficial for you.
Here are some examples of multifunctional furniture that don’t require a lot of time or effort:
Lift top coffee table
Multifunctional sofa
2. Separate activity areas
Have you ever heard people advise against working in bed because it can reduce the quality of your sleep since your brain may struggle to fully associate your bed with rest? Well, the same logic can be applied to the rest of activities and areas in your home.
Behavioral Conditioning
Having a delimited space for specific activities like work, relaxation, and sleep can help reduce stress and create boundaries between work and personal time. This delimitation of areas helps increase productivity since it reduces distractions, improves focus, and helps keep everything organized.
Additionally, this delimitation allows you to create tailored environments depending on what you need, like proper lighting and seating for work, and soft lighting and cozy furniture for relaxation. Plus, it will help you establish routines.
But how can you separate spaces in a small apartment or room?
One of the easiest ways is to use room dividers, but if you don’t have enough space, try to arrange your bedroom in a way that you’ll have space for your bed, closet, night table, and a desk on another end so you have a designated work space. If possible, try getting storage for that space specific to your work or study activities so it’s all organized in the same area.
3. Form good habits
Forming good habits is the key to successfully managing your home. Good cleaning habits will lead to sanitary living conditions, contributing to your health and well-being. Avoiding clutters and always putting away objects where they belong can help you keep your home efficiently organized, reducing stress and anxiety. Additionally, good habits will help you prioritize tasks and make sure they are completed.
Now, forming good habits is easier said than done! The secret is to focus on one habit at a time. Don’t try to form multiple good habits at once, because you’ll probably end up overwhelmed and will most likely fail. Choose the one that would benefit you the most and start from there. Don’t be hard on yourself! Consistency is the key, but beating yourself up for missing a day is not going to be beneficial either! You simply gotta keep trying.
You can start by creating a schedule, using checklists, setting reminders, and delegating tasks between all the flatmates.
4. Incorporate your personal style
Self-expression, a sense of ownership, and a sense of belonging are the main benefits you get when you incorporate your personal style into your apartment or room!
It develops an emotional bond with your place and it turns into a place where you can express your creativity and be yourself. This makes you want to share your home with others and motivates you to take better care of it. Your space becomes pleasant and functional when your style complements your needs and lifestyle.
You can incorporate your personal style by using sentimental items, your favorite colors, and do-it-yourself crafts to accomplish this.
