Love your home more than ever

Love your home more than ever

The current coronavirus outbreak in the United States means that many of us are remaining at home.  Navigating working from home along with distance learning for children while staying in the same space takes a bit of creativity and planning.  We’re here to help you find ways to love your home more than ever while making it work for you!

Create zones

To encourage productivity and keep things feeling organized, we suggest you create zones for both work and downtime.  This accomplishes two things.  First, having a designated spot for work and schoolwork helps to maintain focus when you are in that space; second, it ensures that you aren’t misplacing things like reading glasses, files, or books.  If it helps, draw a mental curtain around the space, both when you’re inside and out of it.  Compartmentalization is key for managing work and maintaining a balance.

If you have the space for a home office, then you can use that.  We understand, however, that not everyone has the space or setup, which is where creativity comes in.  The kitchen or dining room table makes a great “productivity zone” between meals, with the added bonus of helping you schedule work and school time.   If you have a rec room, spare bedroom, finished basement, or playroom, look at the ways you can establish your temporary work area in these spaces.

Home = sanctuary

By following those tips, the rest of your home will feel like it should: a sanctuary.  Pulling that mental curtain means that your bedroom and family room are for downtime and relaxation.  Since we’re all spending a lot of time indoors, suggestions that we had for beating the winter blues apply now too!   Think of the time you’re saving while not commuting or rushing from activity to activity as bonus time.  Play games, do puzzles, or have a dance party.  Disconnect from social media and read those books you’ve been putting off instead.  Pretend to host a cooking show in your kitchen, then eat by candlelight.  While this is certainly not what any of us want, it’s a moment to hit pause and appreciate what really matters.   Bringing a sense of calm and positivity to these next couple of weeks will make an enormous difference.  Most importantly, by staying home we are helping everyone, and coming together for a common goal of health and safety is one of the most positive and human things that we can do.

Think laterally

In order to keep moving forward, we’ve had to employ lateral thinking in how we work.  Our projects require meetings, site visits, and face to face contact both internally and externally.  Right now, we have to put that on hold, and so we’re working from home, utilizing conference calls and Zoom meetings, and sending samples and mood boards to clients instead of reviewing in office.  On the personal side, we’re also finding creative ways to stay close to friends and family.  FaceTime, Google Hangouts, and good old fashioned phone calls keep us connected.  Everyone loves a fun delivery, too.  We’re mailing packets to clients, and my daughter is making friendship bracelets to send to her friends! This is a great time to go back to the days of pen pals; sending letters is a tangible way of keeping in touch and feeling connected.  Have the kids exercise their artistic side by making cards to mail.  Forget Snapchat streaks.  Start a snail mail streak instead!

Need to work on fractions with your kids?  Bake something and talk about the measurements.  Since we can’t go to the gym or participate in sports, keeping active at home is really important for mental and physical health.  You can’t go to the playground or have play dates, but you can play “red light, green light” or “Simon says” in the backyard or driveway.  Need time away from everyone?  Carve out 30 minutes for the workout of your choice and hang a mental “do not disturb” sign.

Thinking laterally will probably have you looking around with fresh eyes, and you might find yourself wanting to rearrange your furniture, categorize your books, or come up with a different way to organize the pantry.  Go for it!  You should love your home, and this is a great opportunity to make changes you’ve been considering or putting off.  You can always move the sofa back to where it was.

By staying positive and flexible, we can make the most of this time and lift each other up.  Remember, we’re all in this together.

Header image: Center City den by Glenna Stone Interior Design; Photo by Rebecca McAlpin

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Glenna Stone Interior Design is an award-winning Philadelphia interior design firm serving Philadelphia, the Main Line, and surrounding cities. Utilizing her background and training in interior design, architecture, and engineering, Glenna specializes in creating interiors for residential and commercial design settings. We invite you to visit our website, view our portfolio, and catch up on the latest interior design concepts on our blog!