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The doormat in the photo reads: “Rental Sweet Rental.” No matter how humble, your home is your castle, and you should treat it as such. Look about your home as if you were a stranger and ask yourself, “What kind of person lives here?” The answer should reflect who you are. Just as there are times when we need to travel, there are other times when we need the sanctuary of an appropriate home.
I’ve lived in many non-ideal homes, including a dozen years in an 18′ RV with less interior space than most bathrooms. Nevertheless, I used creativity and adaptability to make that small space into a comfortable home for myself and my friends. Whether your home is a single room or a tent, it is still your sanctuary and, therefore, sacred space.
Small or large, however, I cannot enjoy any home once it gets messy and chaotic. Keeping your space orderly and aesthetically pleasing is empowering and improves quality of life. If you feel anxious or depressed, you are still capable of cleaning up your space, a task that usually doesn’t take a lot of mental focus. When you work on cleaning up your space, there are very tangible results that improve morale.
In dreams, houses often represent the self. When you take care of your home, you’re also taking care of your self and anyone else who shares the space. House cleaning, ordering, and beautifying are magical and psychological rituals as well as practical tasks. It can be a form of self-love and love for anyone else sharing the space. On the other hand, a messy home can be a malign influence, lowering morale and setting the tone for a messy, neglectful life.
We live in a world overflowing with info clutter, but at the same time, it is also a world where we can inexpensively access almost infinite media. Manual tasks that were once mind-numbing now can be enriching because almost everyone has a device that can bring them an endless abundance of audiobooks and podcasts. Time spent bringing order to the material part of your life can also be time spent enriching yourself culturally. Instead of viewing cleaning time as merely burdensome, reinterpret it as an opportunity to improve your quality of life.
Some may prefer to do household chores mindfully as a form of meditation. You can make consciousness work out of any activity by aiming to do it as efficiently as possible.
Most people have to work hard to keep a roof over their heads. Since a home is usually a major investment of time and money, get the most from it by keeping it in pleasing order. Most homes now have capacities that homes never had in the past. With an internet connection, you have interactive contact with much of the world’s information. Movie theaters have become less necessary when many can watch high-definition movies in the comfort of their homes. We may have less space than we want, but most homes have resources that kings and heads of state couldn’t dream of a hundred years ago. Value your personal sanctuary by caring for the space and the people in it, including you. Consider this an auspicious time to improve the quality of life you have in your home, no matter how small, limited, or temporary that sanctuary might be.
Is the messiness, complexity and mechanical resistance of modern life getting to you?
Read: Mechanical Resistance Matrix
