Feeling bored with the same ol’ living room?
Are you finding your home set-up is anything but convenient or calming? Well, it might be time to start moving furniture around, aiming to find a new arrangement that works for you and uplifts your mood.
Coco Chanel even once said, “An interior is the natural projection of the soul.”
In other words, if you want to feel rejuvenated and more zen, it might all come down to the space you’re in and how you present yourself.
Inevitably, a messy and disorganized space indicates something deeper with the person occupying it. Yet, a clean, organized, and well-constructed space screams that this person not only has their life together but also that they might actually have improved mental health and well-being.
So, how can you get there? What should you do?
Before we offer up ideas about how you can improve your furniture setting, let’s take a closer look at why you should consider it.
The Psychology of Furniture Arrangement: How Rearranging Your Room Furniture Can Enhance Your Life
Alright, moving furniture isn’t exactly what most of us want to do, unless we’re moving house and home.
Yet, the benefits far outweigh the physical exertion. Plus, you can totally use this as an excuse to grab some friends or family and hang out. All in all, it’s a win-win.
You get a little physical exercise, maybe some socialization, and you improve your mental health. So, let’s explore how exactly moving furniture can help you feel mentally better!
1. Less Physical Clutter = Less Mental Clutter
Physical clutter is easy to collect.
It can happen with very little thought, especially after holidays like Christmas and New Years. Items start piling up. We kind of learn to ignore them. Yet, at the same time, this clutter is 100% weighing us down.
The New York Times indicated how clutter is actually linked to lower life satisfaction. It stresses you out, even though you might not realize it. It occupies your mind, even though you might not be thinking about it all that hard. It’s just inconvenient.
On top of this, your energy is valuable. You waste a ton of energy when it comes to having clutter floating around your home, leaving you feeling tired and mentally drained.
Rearranging your room furniture can help you get reorganized, making the best use of your space. Plus, having a set-up where clutter isn’t a thing helps your mental health by leaps and bounds.
Related Article: An Introduction To Simplicity: How Much Do You Really Need?
2. It Decreases Stress & Anxiety
How many times do you walk by that table only to stub your toe on the leg?
Or how many times in a day do you look at your living space and think the furniture could be set up a bit better? All of these tiny micro thoughts add up! It’s likely adding layers of stress and anxiety in your life that you really don’t need.
Rearranging your furniture can alleviate some of this stress and anxiety, making your space that much easier to use. In a way, this all relates back to Feng Shui.
“Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art of arranging buildings, objects, and space in an environment to achieve harmony and balance in a way that will bring peace and prosperity.” – National Geographic Society
Feng Shui refers to arranging your living space in a way that brings balance and harmony into your life. When it comes to Feng Shui, the idea is that you start with the area of the room where you spend the most time.
For example, in a living room, this might be your couch. Thus, you would determine the couch’s position before the other furniture.
When the concept of Feng Shui is used, you might even find you get better sleep and improved energy balance overall. Everything positioned in your home just makes sense, leaving you in a higher state of calm and serenity.
Related Article: 3 Easy and Simple Secrets for Relieving Morning Anxiety and Stress
3. It Helps You Embrace Change
If we’ve learned anything from the last year or two, it’s that change is inevitable.
It’s going to happen whether we like it or not. So, getting used to it isn’t a bad idea!
Moving furniture can help you become more mentally elastic. Things don’t always have to remain the same. In fact, for your mental health, they shouldn’t.
Experts even indicate that learning to cope and deal with change can decrease your risk of depression or anxiety disorders.
Plus, this change involving your room furniture doesn’t have to be drastic. It can be really simple, such as changing the lighting in the room or moving that one piece of furniture out of your house and home that you never use.
Yet, you might find yourself staring at your rooms and wondering what to change and how to change them. We’ve got a few ideas!
How Do I Rearrange the Furniture in My Room?
Again, rearranging the furniture in your room doesn’t mean you have to grab a ton of friends to help with moving furniture every which way. It can be really really simple or as complex as you desire. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Consider the function of the room.
What activities do you do here? What do you need the furniture set-up to support?
Center everything around one focal point, such as a window, the TV, a table, etc.
Don’t forget to consider traffic flow.
- How do you move throughout the room?
- Is this room necessary to get through to another room?
You’ll want to make traffic flow as easy as possible. In addition to this, don’t block windows or doors.
Try different angles.
Maybe your couch is slightly angled differently so you don’t get a sore neck. Or perhaps it’s easier to walk through a room with the table turned the other way.
Play around with lighting and different sized lamps.
Light can truly make all the difference! Experiment with it.
Rearranging Your Furniture Can Improve Your Mental Health!
Whether you’re just in a headspace to spring clean and declutter your space or you simply want to clear your mind, moving your furniture can transform your space and boost your mood.
Use the above as inspiration for room arrangement ideas, then get to work! Remember, it can be as simple or as complicated as you want it (or need it) to be.
Read Next: 7 Easy Ways to Stop Anxiety & Chronic Stress From Ruining Your Life
Editor’s note: This article was originally published Jan 6, 2022 and has been updated to improve reader experience.
