As much as we are outside this season, those days when it’s too humid to leave the house are a great time to unleash our inner interior decorator. I get very ambitious about how I want my home to look, but the pockets and the DIY skills are not always matching the lengths of my desire. So for others like me, I want to share a few accessible ways to make your home feel more beautiful, homey, and restorative.
Pee On Your Plants
Yep. We’re starting out HOT. If you’re not leaking on your leeks, you are missing out on a valuable and free way to boost your plants nutrients. Not only do you save money on fertilizer, you also do your small part to protect the environment by preventing potentially toxic fertilizer runoff into the water supply. And baby did I mention it’s free, delivered daily fertilizer?? Have you seen how much Feed’n’Gro costs lately?
Here are the main benefits of peeing in your plants:
- You can ensure you’re eating organic
- You cultivate a closer relationship to the land (c’mon Indigenous wisdom)
- If used in a garden with edible food, your plants actually react to what’s missing in your urine and start to emit the nutrients you’re low in to keep you healthy
- Slightly lower water bill
- Nutrients in urine are more bio-available to plants than they are in some fertilizers
Alright so how much pee are we talking about? Dilute your sample to be between 5-10 parts water to 1 part urine. Add this homemade elixir to the soil, not the plant itself and certainly not any part you intend to eat. Sources are still out on the best frequency of ‘watering’, but many have seen success with using a small amount every other watering. You can read more about this here.
Spice Things up with Some Color
According to Ingrid Fetell Lee, author of Joy, color is one of the easiest ways to elevate your environment. Once when I was younger, someone asked me what people are supposed to do with their favorite colors once they decide on one. My reply is to surround yourself with it, so you can bask in its glory!
You can also use color psychology to decide what general tone you want different areas to have. Use green in spaces you want to feel grounded, and splashes of yellow in the parts of your home you want to be energized. Color isn’t just about paint on the walls, extend your imagination to furniture, small shelf items, flowers, books, and so much more.
The good news is, rather than getting acclimated or overwhelmed by color, what tends to happen is that we experience a new baseline of delight each time we view it. So the joy you feel looking at an accent wall doesn’t fade over time, it just lifts your emotional baseline to a higher starting point.
Play Around with Textures & Patterns
Textures are the most slept on aspect of vibe curation. A well placed crochet pillow or a fluffy rug can determine the energy of a space. This tip is especially useful for the autistic and ADHD baddies, as we tend to be sensitive to the tactile which can lead to a type of euphoria when you get the ‘right’ textures (right is dependent on what feels best for you). Textures add to both the visual and physical intrigue of your home. Everyone’s taste will be different for different moods, so think about what you’d want to absent-mindedly feel while you’re relaxing, having a hard conversation, and procrastinating.
Create Little Havens
Do you remember when you were a kid and you’d walk or bus home completely fine, UNTIL you saw your front door and then suddenly it felt like you were one wrong step away from wetting yourself? (pee pre ps. didn’t mean to have this much bladder talk in the article). This is a type of Pavlovian response. For many of us, the explanation for this is because we made a habit of using the bathroom as soon as we get home, the brain goes into autopilot as soon as it sees the door and tells the body it’s time to go. You can intentionally create your own spaces that cue an automatic response for something you care about.
For example during the pandemic, I created a hard boundary between the part of my room that had the desk and the part with my bed. I was deliberate to make sure that I never did work in bed, so that area of my room kept the energy of relaxation or entertainment.
Imagine what it would feel like to have a corner of your apartment that is crafted specifically with your peace in mind. Or imagine what you could accomplish if you had a dedicated creative focus space. Keep in mind that you don’t need completely different rooms or floors to use this tip. The boundary can be as much a mindset shift as it is a physical one.
Add Intentional Literature to your Place
Feed your mind as much as you feed your eyes! Yes this includes a coffee table book or a photobook. We also love a tasteful amount of Black feminist literature for your guests to peruse during visits. Maybe it’s the Virgo talking, but there’s something so satisfying about being surrounded by well-crafted, thought provoking ideas. With this tip, you don’t need an extensive library. Consider 4-5 books that inspire you, entertain you, or just open your mind to new perspectives. And by the way, it’s totally fine if you haven’t finished the book, or if you’ve only read it via audiobook.
There you go, 5 easy ways you can tailor your apartment to your emotional, physical, and aesthetic needs. Keep in mind that you don’t need the fanciest equipment or the newest furniture to create a space that feels like a home. More often than not, you have all the tools you need to create an environment that you love.
