How to Make the Best Use of Your Space in Lockdown

The prospect of entering another lockdown and having to spend the majority of your time at home may seem daunting to some. But this is the best time to reflect on what you didn’t enjoy about staying in so much, and endeavour to make it a more pleasurable experience this time round. One of the most common ways to ensure this is adapting your home to your new lifestyle, and adjusting the space for a healthier living arrangement, for both your physical and mental state.

Though some of you might not believe in the concept of feng shui, arranging your furniture in a manner which aids both the practicality of your home and its aestheticism are definite methods of improving the effect your living space has on your wellbeing. This article provides different ways to improve your space for the needs of lockdown living, from small changes to big investments.

Separate Your Space

This is simple, although it might be harder for smaller living arrangements or those living with many people. The worst thing you can do this lockdown is attempt everything from your bed. Eating, working, winding down – these all should be done in different areas to stop your home feeling stagnant and sluggish. Even if you are at a desk, you have a whole home to explore! Why waste away in one spot, becoming stressed out and muddled from not knowing its function, and then being resentful of it?

You need to utilise different spaces and assign them reasons for engaging with them. Separate your bedroom into a room for relaxing and private introspection. The kitchen is known as the heart of the home, so use it for cooking and eating, as well as a social space if you don’t live alone. This space will recharge you. If you have an office, brilliant, if you don’t, create a seat or table from which you work from, and move to a different one after you finish. The point of this is to create movement in the home, and stop you from becoming stagnant.

For Smaller Homes

If you have kids, live with other people, or simply live in a cosier property, the above suggestion might feel a little moot. But the essence and argument can still be translated to smaller areas. Even if you feel restricted to your bedroom, don’t give in to the temptation of doing everything from one spot. Get up from bed in the morning and work from a desk. Buy a small beanbag or chair and use that as your winding down area. If you simply sit in bed with your laptop to try and work, your brain won’t differentiate between the function of the space – you might feel distracted and lethargic when working, and conversely stressed and tense when trying to sleep.

Your living environment is a big factor in your productivity and quality of rest, so take this into consideration and think about how you can alter your habits to accommodate your needs.

Interior Decorations

Lockdown really makes a person look at their home in a new light. Having to spend a lot of time indoors confronts you with the aspects of your home which you don’t necessarily like anymore, or niggles you with the unfinished projects and ideas you were so excited to pursue, but have since lost the motivation to complete.

Now is the perfect time to thoroughly inspect your living space and realise what you like or want to change. The colours, the use of light, the arrangement of furniture – these are easy ways to change your space and transform your home. Do you want new pictures and memories on the walls? Does the carpet look rough and dull? Are your random holiday trinkets and gifts all piled away somewhere because you haven’t had the time to place them where they look nice? This is the time to experiment! This can be a really exciting period for your home, and a great way to bring out your inner designer.

Use Your Garden

Not all homes may have a garden, but if you do, it is just as much of an important (though often neglected) space as your interior. Beyond simple upkeep (which is a great form of light exercise in lockdown) and aesthetic enjoyment (a very rewarding process which is a source of pride for many), the garden is a space to use for many different practices. You can sit outside for a breath of fresh air and some private time, and as the months get colder, bundle up with blankets and hot chocolate with a book or a new podcast, and really relax in the open air. Additionally, yoga, jump rope, and HIIT training are great exercises even if your space is relatively small.

Another thing to consider is the garden shed. It is a staple item for any garden, but it’s often used as a dirty store cupboard – a glorified hotel for spiders and unused rakes and spades. A great project this lockdown would be to really clean up this space, organise it for maximum capacity, and maybe even consider it as a personal space. A growing trend at the moment is to repurpose high quality sheds into personal spaces – maybe put a gaming system or some exercise equipment like weights, a treadmill, cycling machine or a simple mat.

These lovely sheds from shedstore.co.uk offer a huge range available online at which you can peruse for whichever purpose you think is best for you or your family as a whole. This is also great for creating more private spaces if you find lockdown a tense period, and find yourself having difficulty gaining some alone time. If you have kids who often disrupt you when you are trying to work from home, a shed can even double as a play-shed, where they can play safely and loudly as they desire, with easy supervision.

Brighten the Place Up!

While it may be difficult sometimes to keep up a sunny disposition, having a home that lifts your mood is genuinely the lowest effort way to passively improve your demeanour. As the days get darker following a second lockdown, it’s easy just to let your home dim and dull with the sun – but getting yourself some cheap and cheery fair lights, or scented candles, even just cleaning the windows to get more light (it works – trust us!) are great ways to brighten up the house. Especially coming into the holiday season, perking up the house and making the space feel more festive and exciting is well worth the effort. Consider oil diffusers too to make your home smell more appealing, and change up the scents so you don’t go nose-blind to the effects.

These are all brilliant ways to make the most of your living arrangements for the coming period, and the great thing about these tips is that they are not just temporary changes to cope with lockdown – they are real investments into your home (which for many, is the place you want to settle into for years and years). Improving your space is a really rewarding practice which we commend to everyone, and hope you take on board and enjoy the process!