Reclaiming Your Home After Hoarding
Lately, we have been talking at length about the dangers of hoarding, the work required to remediate and clean a hoarding situation, and took a look at the psychology behind hoarding to try and answer ‘Why do people hoard?’ This time it’s time to look at the other side of it all, what happens when your home has been cleared of clutter and waste, and how you can reclaim your home!
Your Home – A Mental and Physical Space
Homes are symbolic. The physical space representative of our mental space, whether we know it or not. They are expressions and extensions of ourselves, again, whether we know it or not. And that link flows both ways! Our identity informs our spaces, and our spaces inform our identities. Or if you prefer, the external(home) informs the internal (mind). With that in mind, you can see how hoarding can be a vicious cycle to your mental wellbeing.
Once your home has been cleared and cleaned from hoarding, you are effectively getting a blank slate to start with so follow these tips to start off right!
First, Fix What’s Broken and Finish Projects
Further evidence of the connection between home and health – UCLA conducted a study that found families who lived in a home that had things in need of repair, unfinished home improvement projects, etc. were more likely to have weaker cortisol recovery rates than those without. Even if they don’t know they’re thinking about it, their bodies are holding on to that stress of an unfinished thing. So that’s the first step! Repair what needs fixing, finish lingering projects and you’ll have a good base to work from.
Create a Vibe with Color and Light
Color therapy is a pretty popular idea that suggests that certain colors equate with certain feelings. To put it at its most basic (we are a cleaning company not a chromotherapist after all!) it goes like this. The color of something can affect moods through the wavelength of light they reflect. For instance, red has the longest wavelength of light, that’s just science, but the next step is looking at that long wavelength and how it would require the eye to adjust more to capture it, thus stimulating the mind and energy. On the opposite side of the (color) spectrum are blues, a shorter wavelength that makes for a calmer vibe.
You can use lights to a similar effect! Natural light is great and does great things for our health when we’re able to soak up some Vitamin D. But too much can be a problem too! Use window coverings like shades to soften the light when there’s too much. You can even buy lightbulbs that mimic the exact type of light you’re looking for. Each lightbulb should have a kelvin rating from 1-10,000. The lower the rating, the softer the light will appear, allowing you to choose which rooms have a cozier feel and which are made to mimic the bright light of day.
Putting color and lighting to purposeful work for you might be just what the doctor ordered.
Furniture for Functions
After a hoarding situation, it’s likely you need new furniture entirely, so why not pick some pieces that will build and encourage something nurturing? For many people their living rooms are furnished with chairs and couches that are positioned around the TV. When you sit on the couch, the focus is placed on that, and without realizing it that becomes the sole purpose of that room. People can sit in the same room and never engage with each other. Sometimes that’s fine, but socialization, emotional connection, and bonding are hugely important (something we’ve all probably learned over the past year!)
With that in might, why not select and place furniture in a way that encourages what you want and love in life! If you enjoy chit chat over coffee, place couches facing each other with a table in the middle to hold your cup of Joe. Set up chairs on the patio to encourage sitting and talking. Figure out what you enjoy and what would make you happier, and how having the right set up of furniture could encourage that.
Not quite at this stage yet? Still have rooms of clutter that need to be tossed first? The BIOClean Team is here to help clear those spaces and give you a fresh start.