ROOM TO MOVE
When I was a kid, my mother was in a constant state of rearranging the furniture. Things were always in a shuffle, tvs moved here and there, tables transferred from one room to another, plants taken inside or set outside. At the end of the day, once all the dust was settled and things were in their new place, I would sit in the new area and feel happy. I never understood why I felt happy, but I always did.
As I've gotten older, there have been some trends in home design that have caused people to have to orient their rooms in only one or two ways. To be honest, I think this is adding to a lot of the stress and unhappiness in our lives. You see, we should always be able to move the furniture around. It does add to the happies. Don't believe me? Let's look at some reasons why, shall we?
1. Rearranging a room is basically solving a puzzle. Solving puzzles makes us happy.
Sure, dealing with puzzle problems can be very stressful, but when we begin to truly focus on ways to solve, our brain starts producing the happies for us. There is a minor high that goes along with puzzle solving, which is why puzzles are sold along with other games.
2. Rearranging a room uses both sides of our brains. The logical, mathematical side is getting used in looking at how well the room will function. The artistic, creative side is getting used in seeing how well things will flow, where decorations should go, how the light will hit things, etc. Any time we can get the two lobes working together, we're going to be happier.
3. Rearranging the room gives you a chance to alter the math. I'm a strong believer in the mathematics of things. In any given room (and any given life), there are millions of equations going on and the nature of how these equations relate to each other produces a level of energy. When you begin to mess with the equations, you allow yourself to change the energy of the room, and in many cases, produce more energy, at least for a short time.
4. Chasing down the dust bunnies. Okay, this is a slightly more practical note, but important nevertheless. Dust and other bits of fluff and nasty gets to gather in places like baseboards and behind couches and other heavy pieces of furniture. It can gather on tops of mirrors and artwork and always, always on the knit-knacks. When you rearrange things, you can do a quick dusting/vacuuming over neglected spaces. Less dust is always good for your health.
5. Clutter assessment. Speaking of the dust collectors, when you change up a room, you have a chance to decide if you want to keep out all the things you have just sitting on other stuff. Recently when we rearranged part of the living room, we gave the ax to several old baskets and some candle holders. They'd far outlived any usefulness and were just taking up space.
6. Personal assessment. Rearranging a room gives you a chance to really look at your life, your wants, and how you orient your life. This isn't a value judgment. You see, all too often, we do things because we think we're supposed to without considering what we really need.
For example, let's say you have a couch, two chairs, a large stereo, and a large TV in your room. You know it's too much stuff and you need to make changes. The best way to do this is to decide what you truly do in this room most of the time.
If you never listen to music, remove the stereo. Take it to another room in the house, one where you are more likely to use it.
If you never have guests, consider removing some of the places to sit. Just taking out one of the chairs will give you a lot more room. Or, if the couch is never ever used, take it out. Suddenly the space will feel huge.
Or, say, you only watch TV before going to sleep. You have this big TV in your living room but only a small one in your bedroom.....how do this make sense? Find a way to move the larger TV into the room where you actually use it.
In conclusion, I'd like to state that the opposite of this is true as well. When you are in a room or a house where you can't really move things around, it begins to wear on you. Sometimes (dorms, campers, prison), there isn't a damned thing you can do about this. You just have to make the best of it.
Other times, however, you need to think about the decisions that lead to your room being impossible to move and consider if those reasons justify your unhappiness.
All of my life, one of the fixtures of furniture has been this oak ball and claw occasional table my grandparents owned. When I was really young, they kept their record player on it. Gran and I would play her old Bob Wills albums and dance to them. I'd play my Jungle Book album and sing all the songs (except "Trust in Me" because it scared me).
When they moved, they took the table with them, so while I lost the house I had as a kid, I had this table to remind me. It was moved from point to point in the living room, sometimes serving to hold lamps, sometimes to hold pictures or as a mail drop off. However, during these years, it wasn't well maintained. It's grown more and more rickety and parts of it are being held together by wire.
I set it in the corner of the room when we moved into the house. I had to do this because I could use the wall as support on two sides. It held a lamp, those candle holders and baskets, and our internet stuff. Whenever a cat would get on it, it would wobble.
I had to make some changes in my room so I could have better access to fans. This required me moving a piece of furniture out and really the only logical place for it was where the ball and claw table sat. I did not want to do this, so I hesitated, continuing to sleep in a hot room while I considered what to do about the table.......that was wobbly.....and served no real purpose.....but I loved.
Finally I realized the only logical and reasonable choice was to have the table safely put in storage. We did so (thanks to my roommate), and then did what rearrangement we needed on my bedroom and the living room.
And it has made all the difference in the world. My room is cooler now, the living room feels less cluttered, and everything has a higher level of functionality.
The best part? Changed energy means more contentment. This leads to more happiness and that is, after all, our goal.
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