The pandemic has changed our daily lives to varying degrees. If you’re lucky, you only have to contend with the adjustment of spending more time at home. Many of us are seizing this opportunity, as the fabled work-life balance rarely shifts towards the latter.
People can work from home and cut down on travel. Those hours can go to watching Netflix, playing games, and other online leisure activities. We get to spend more time with our families. The meaning of ‘enjoying the comforts of home’ now goes beyond merely getting eight hours of sleep.
Yet when you spend more time at home, it becomes the most influential environment in terms of your health. Regular duct cleaning, de-cluttering, and washing rugs or carpets will help set a baseline for indoor cleanliness. But you can go further than that. These simple improvements will turn your home into a living space for better health and well-being.
Set up a buffer zone
Even as some states have reopened, others are closing. Some never eased their lockdown measures. It’s difficult to predict when the pandemic will finally cease to be a threat. Until the experts and our leaders are in complete agreement and a vaccine becomes available to the public, going outside can put you at risk.
Yet people still need to go out at times. Emergencies happen. Sometimes you can’t get all the necessary supplies through online delivery. You might need to meet a client in person or report to the office for work.
Setting up a buffer zone at home can make it easier to observe safety procedures whenever you return home. Designate an entry point and the reception area as your disinfection station. This is where you can change into fresh clothes and discard or sanitize any items you were carrying. It maintains the rest of the house as a safe environment, so you only have to disinfect one specific area frequently.
Making healthy habits easier
Unfortunately, being confined to your home for most of the day reduces physical activity. Many people were already leading increasingly sedentary lifestyles in recent years. In general, we spend too much time sitting down, holding devices in our hands, and eating cheap processed foods.
Staying at home can end up reinforcing those habits. It’s easier to come up with excuses. You can’t hit the gym or head over to the park for a run. Dropping by your go-to restaurant for healthy meals might no longer be an option. Fighting these negative tendencies will take a deliberate, sustained effort on your part. And you can improve your home to make this daily battle easier.
A spare room can be converted into a fitness center. Remove all the clutter so that you have enough floor space to roll out your mat and do whole-body exercises. Bring in any other equipment you need, from dumbbells and medicine balls to a treadmill, stationary bike, or squat rack. When you just have to head downstairs to start exercising each morning, there are no more excuses.
In the same way, you can take steps to make cooking a much more convenient and pleasant activity. When you cook, you have full control over your nutrition. But many people think that it requires a lot of time, effort, and skill. Get out a cookbook of quick, healthy recipes and keep your essential cookware and ingredients handy. If you have everything accessible, it’s easier to get into the habit of preparing healthy meals each day.
Working nature inside
Mental health is an essential component of our well-being. And a sense of being connected with nature is enough to give anyone a daily mood boost. But with restricted outdoor access, a lot of people have to rely on whatever element of nature is in their yards. Especially for city-dwellers, that might not be much.
Your windows might not provide a great view, but keeping them clean and unobstructed brings more natural light inside. This helps to regulate your sleep cycles and energy levels. Start caring for some indoor plants. These can even be grown on a vertical garden to save floor space and transform one of your walls into a lush green area.
Even in a post-pandemic world, these alterations will continue to be worthwhile. Disinfection practices don’t just apply to Covid-19. The buffer zone will keep shielding your home from the spread of germs. And making lifestyle changes to boost your physical fitness, nutrition, and mental health will benefit you in the long term. Start these home improvements, and you’ll be reaping the rewards every day from now on.