Creating a healthy home isn’t always a straight shot to the end. In fact, there really is no end because what we’re looking at is more of a lifestyle change than anything else.
But as you get going on your healthy home journey, I guarantee you’ll hit road bumps and get stuck now and then. I know I have over the past several years. But the good news is I’ve always gotten myself unstuck. I’ve always found a way to begin again, whether it was by choice or necessity.
Every healthy home will likely have a different transformation it goes through as we all do what works best for our home, our family and our lifestyle. The order of changes we’ve made in our house and how we implement those changes is going to look different than yours. And that’s a good thing! Choosing your own priorities based on your preferences or health needs is going to change how you reduce toxins at home.
But what do you do when you get to a place where you’re stuck moving forward? We’ll all hit a little bump where we don’t know what to tackle next. Or maybe we do know what we want to improve but there are hindrances like budget or time constraining our choice.
No matter at what spot you’re stuck in, it’s important to remember to keep up with the habits and changes you’ve already made in your healthy home. There’s a difference between getting stuck and backsliding. And sometimes this spot of not knowing where to go next as we improve our home to be less toxic is just what we need to solidify our habits and make them stick for life.
So whether you’re trying to get the ball rolling or whether you’re just maintaining the positive changes you’ve already made, I’m here to help you through getting started again. Here are the three ways you can get unstuck when working to create a healthy home:
#1: Deep Clean, Rearrange & Declutter
Clutter can make anyone feel completely stuck and stagnant. Too much stuff inside a home can leave you feeling overwhelmed with little room to move forward. The trick here is not to completely purge your entire healthy home (well, maybe in the long run it is). But instead, choose just one small area to work on at a time.
When I’m feeling frustrated with where I am and I’ve completely stopped, still in my tracks, I know that it’s time to pick a spot that needs some extra attention and work my way through it, slowly. Sometimes it takes just this exercise of thinking about spaces in my home to realize that there are some areas that are an underlying point of annoyance. My linen closet is a BIG one for me. (If you live with more than just yourself in your home, you know how quickly areas you’ve cleaned up and detoxed can end up right back to the state they were in before.)
What I recommend is creating a list of spaces in your home that need a GOOD going through. Closets, storage rooms, and cabinets often make the top of the list. By going through these spaces, I guarantee you’ll find products you need to swap out, you’ll remove excess items (and toxins) from your home and you’ll be given a chance to decide if there’s a better use for your space.
The same is true for a deep cleaning. A healthy home requires a deep cleaning of dusty areas. I’m not always great about this as I get so caught up with the day to day cleaning. But it’s important to remove dust and dirt in spaces that it can collect (behind furniture, in corners and on vents and grates). We know that dust is a toxic part of our home and by removing it we can improve the indoor air quality immensely while supporting our health and wellness in an extremely natural way.
And finally, rearrange a room or two. One of my FAVORITE things to do is to actually move furniture and rugs from rooms into other areas of my home. Not only does this get me thinking about the furniture I have, but it is a great excuse to clean out some spaces that may have filled up with stuff or dust and dirt.
It can also help you come up with a big goal or plan for your home as you’re thinking about future projects of either home improvements or replacing items. Once you have this list or plan or new improvements, all you have to do is make them a healthy project by using low toxin materials and furnishings.
And just like that you have new momentum moving you forward.
#2: Turn to New Sources (Books, Podcasts & Blogs)
There is just nothing like a new podcast, book or blog about a healthy home to give you fresh ideas. I share some of my absolute favorite podcasts and health books in this post, which is a great place to start.
New sources have new ideas. They may also spur new habits that you can latch onto and implement in your own home. Every healthy home professional has their own take on just how to make a home healthy and what order changes should be made in. I love taking bits of advice from different sources and then making them into a plan for myself and my family.
While I don’t believe in cherry-picking information in most cases, I think that the changes you make in a healthy home can be done this way. If the goal is to reduce toxins through habits and product changes, then choosing a few of the ideas that work for your family and home from a variety of sources is the way to go.
In general podcasts and blogs will have the newest ideas and the more trendy changes you can make in your home, and a book will likely give you some tried and true ideas to create a healthier home.
Sometimes you can also find new sources from professionals you already trust, or you can find a recommendation for a new source from someone you already trust for advice. Podcasts that feature guests on their shows can be a GREAT way for finding new professionals that can give you excellent advice about your home and home changes.
I also love finding new ideas from trusted sources. If you follow a healthy home expert either by their email list or on a social media platform, you’ll likely get a lot more ideas and tips coming to you in a steady stream rather than having to week out the information.
And every now and then head to their website and see if they have any free downloads or starting guides to get you going again. Sometimes content is created and while it’s relevant and helpful, it doesn’t get mentioned and can be information you have to seek out.
#3: Make a BIG Goal with Mini Steps to Get There
THIS is my FAVORITE way to get back on the right track with your healthy home. Big planning is an excellent way to start moving forward if you’ve got a really good handle on your day to day habits and products. Once you’ve solidified a healthy daily and weekly routine of reducing toxins in your home, it’s time to move on to the BIG things.
A big goal could be something like a remodel, or it could be something like replacing furniture or even creating a REALLY healthy sleep area in your home. Whatever space you choose, there are likely going to be MANY steps to this project. By breaking down your big goal into these mini steps, you’ll create a series of little movements forward in your healthy home. Each little step is another way that you’ll be reducing toxins and bringing in healthy materials as well as creating the healthiest habits.
For example, if your healthy home goal is to pay attention to your sleep area and reduce toxins there, you could make mini steps forward like:
- Replace sheets with organic sheets
- Upgrade to a toxin free mattress
- Get electronics out of your bedroom
- Add a houseplant that is good for sleep
And so on. The list could be MANY things or just a few of the main ideas depending on how you want to take your bedroom. But the idea here is that you just created several ways you can improve your space and now you can work on moving forward in your healthy home to accomplish those little steps.
You could truly take a set aside time period and walk through your home doing this in each room. Another thing I like to do once I’ve created a list of improvements is to add a price tag to each one. This not only helps me see a bigger picture of how much I’m going to need to budget for, but it also helps me in determining WHEN I will be implementing this healthy home change.
My Project Planning Worksheet is absolutely perfect for planning out anything from small changes to big projects in your home.
An important thing to remember with this is that these are just formulated plans, and they’re not set in stone. They can be changed and modified as you change your home and learn about new ideas. But it’s an incredible way to keep you moving forward with little steps you can accomplish every day or week.
SPECIFIC PLACES TO GET STARTED AGAIN:
There’s nothing like the feeling of getting unstuck when you’re on a habit changing and home transforming journey. The stagnant, stuck feeling can leave you feeling overwhelmed and unable to move forward in a positive direction. With these three ideas you can get going again and move past any road block you face.
