how to REFRESH your space when you're low-energy.

in this video I'm talking to you at home and I'm also talking to Future me hey future Caroline depressed Caroline of the future I know you're going through a time you're eating a lot of peanut butter you look you look crazy right now your hair is is wild that's okay don't beat yourself up you're doing what you can you're surviving and I'm really proud of you in addition here are some tips that I think are going to make you feel a little bit lighter when you're in this low State any task feels insurmountable so we're going to make it all super bite-sized I'm going to cover some zero cost zero dollar upgrades I'm going to cover some upgrades you can do if you want to just buy one thing and then I'm also just gonna throw in some tips with dealing with depression because while I'm not in that place right now personally I've spent a lot of time there and I'll certainly be there again in the future okay here we go depression decorating tip number one go for a walk you heard me do a 15 minute walk that's all there is no goal at the end of the walk just do the walk and I know it sounds terrible the hardest part of going on the walk is thinking about going on the walk but you're gonna do it and that's it you're gonna do it and you're not gonna think about it and then we're gonna come back home and then we're gonna do the next step it's gonna be okay one of the easiest ways to make your space feel cohesive quickly intentionally minimize your color palette just pay attention to like which of these things does not belong which of these things like if I removed this bright pink thing and maybe put it in another room you don't have to get rid of it like maybe goes to another room does this room suddenly feel way more cohesive does it feel like way more visually easy to digest the other thing that I see a lot of the time is a room with just no color in it went recently someone's flushing the toilet upstairs went recently to Like A really lovely Hotel over the holidays and it was like a beautiful hotel but everything was gray and I was like God if they run in just like one color this would be a perfect space so um you may want to introduce some more colors go shopping in the rest of your house and see if there's like some accessory you can bring in to add a little color to your space too much color too little color both are going to leave you feeling a little stranded I feel like when I'm really disappointed with my home base or my space the next step is not to add more things it's actually first we need to do a little purging we need to clean it up or organize something I know that sounds overwhelming but we're going to do it in a super manageable accessible way I want you to pick one small thing that you want to clean or organize one junk drawer one surface area let's just clean the stuff off the couch dust something oh my God if you dust something dust one thing and I'm like oh I'm telling people about it for days pick up five pieces of clothing and put them away five pieces that's it you're not allowed to do more if you want to do more you can do more but just five that's it just doing that is a wildly difficult task when you're in this place it's like a really easy light way to get a little momentum under you to have a little sense of accomplishment let yourself feel proud and compassionate to yourself as you would a child or a younger sibling or that person in your life that you just want to like wrap up and protect them I'm sure you are that person for lots of other people in this moment be that person for yourself [Music] we've prepared a blank canvas that we can now paint on here are a couple things a single purchases that can make a big impact in your space if you're going to make one purchase make sure you have the right sized rug make sure a that you have a rug and make sure it's the right size I don't I don't like to say a lot of design rules because like there are no rules but here's a rule your rug in your living room should fit at least the front legs of your furniture on top of it it should fit at least the front legs don't let it be just like an a floating island in the middle of your furniture where am I going to put my toes down when they're cold where am I going to get my toes down when I'm coming off the couch they're going to be on the cold floor and I'm not gonna like it it'll make a big big coziness factor it helps to find a Zone a rug plays a big role in relating your furniture pieces to each other instead of just like there's a chair there's a couch it's like this is a sitting area I just see it that's one I see overlooked all the time in spaces and it's like one of the largest things in your space it'll make a big difference I promised next purchase you might consider a lamp lamps are great lamps are they're very good they're very good boys it's your mood lighting after 6 p.m let's forget the canned lights in the ceiling let's do mood lighting lamps are also like a sculptural piece of art in your space so get like a lamp that's a piece of art to you with a unique shape or something that's a little sculptural or a shade you love or a pleat that you love I love this guy this bulbous dude the big advice I will say let's make sure we're getting the size right it's proportions it's all about proportions I often see people going too small on the lamps you can do a lamp in the kitchen lamp on the counter lamp in the bathroom lamps on lamps where can you not put a lamp a lamp is a good time anywhere pretty much and you can move them around [Music] there's some somewhere in your space and in mine there's a mess of a bunch of knickknacks a bunch of magazines a bunch of papers like a bunch of perfumes whatever you don't have to get rid of them let's just Corral them corralling your crap it minimizes visual busyness when you Corral things by placing a bunch of disparate items on a tray together on a large Book on a cutting board it does this kind of like silly visual trickery of taking a bunch of items and turning it into one item it also kind of dedicates a Zone like this is the zone for these knickknacks instead of just like look at all these knickknacks it's very pleasing to do start corralling stuff you'll be addicted to it painting painting makes the biggest difference but don't do it you're not going to do it you're not gonna do it this is what you're gonna do so you're going to reach out to a couple of the people you love I would love to see you I'm having a hard time how about we all come over and paint together we'll eat some pizza and we'll spend time together it is a really nice way to let the people who love you like give them a way to take care of you in grief people do want to help you and like no one knows how no one knows how and people want to help but they truly don't know how so actually if you reach out and you're like this is something you can do people are so happy like the people who love you are so happy to hear that and it can be a really nice moment but you don't pick up a paintbrush you don't do the painting you can if you want but I'm going to say I wouldn't you can redecorate your whole home just by rearranging stuff just experiment with rearranging the stuff you already have you just move all your stuff like one side of the room and then stand back and look at your like empty clean canvas of a space now what do you want to add back in we're just going to have Like A New Perspective even if it's just a new perspective of looking at our living room and one thing to consider is like having a variety of heights of things if like all your furniture tables chairs of like the same height or all in one side of the room and there's like no height variation maybe you want to bring that tall floor lamp over to that side of the room to like get some hype going on up there or maybe you want to put like a taller artwork it's really nice to have height variation so that's one thing to think about as you rearrange things another thing that often blows people's minds is to think about how you're varying the legginess of your furniture it often looks very visually busy and kind of chaotic to have a bunch of leggy furniture all next to each other it's just like a lot of legs and a lot of lines and a lot of seeing through stuff often you want to put like the more grounded side table with the leggy couch or you want to put the more leggy side table with the grounded couch I do go into a lot of people's spaces and see that they already have a good balance of what's lugging what's grounded but that they maybe just haven't like um varied how they're placed next to each other so just see how you can experiment when you're moving through your space and like interacting with your space there's some processing that's going on some emotional processing especially in our homes that are so entrenched with like memory and emotional Association oh and rearrange your art people I think are so afraid of rearranging art they're often scared about just having holes in the wall there are so many holes in my wall it's it's just it's just not the end of the world it's just not it's okay I'm gonna show you I'm gonna show you how many holes there are behind my artwork side moving them all the time I'm varying the height or just like to mix stuff up and have a fresh take on life move the artwork around do not be afraid of putting holes in the wall I do it's like my favorite hobby is just like putting holes and stuff I'm gonna throw in a tip here that doesn't have much to do with decorating but helps me with my depression I find one of the most helpful things to do is to keep it's not quite a journal but just like a really simple really granular log of my mental state my emotional state so I'll have like a page just in my notes app or something it's like Thursday morning feeling like trash zero out of ten the trash is trash I've ever felt that's it it's not a whole journal entry it's just like a tiny log later that afternoon you're right I'm feeling like a two out of ten but like I pretty much still feel like I just want to go to sleep all the time and then the next morning feeling like a four out of ten that's a new feeling that's the highest I've felt in a while Friday evening back to a zero out of ten it's not gonna just go straight up it goes kind of like this it makes it much easier to notice um how quickly things change so when you're in that 0 out of 10 State you can just be in it and it's zero out of ten through and through and to be able to look back and be like I'm feeling the worst I've ever felt and factually by my own account I know that this feel only ever lasts Max for like two days and then I'm gonna be feeling like a three out of ten it doesn't release the weight of that zero out of ten feeling it releases the anxiety about this is forever because it's not and then long term keeping that kind of log has also helped me to notice how over time the lowest low I ever feel raises a little bit and then maybe the lowest I ever feel in a month or two maybe the lowest is a two out of ten and I still hit that too but it's I'm not getting to zero anymore and maybe in two or three months the lowest I'm hitting is like a four and a half out of ten I recommend if you want to just buy one thing if you want to just make one simple person purchase a fresh bedding set your bed is probably like the largest item in your bedroom visually commanding you don't have to spend a lot of money I'll link some I'll link some examples too of stuff that I like in the video description you've got like a bunch of mismatched sheets and pillows and one is torn one is stained doing something to take care of yourself and to say like this matters to me that is a huge achievement and it can look cute as hell we're going to get rid of five things five things they can be things of any size it could be a sweater some scrap paper that's lying on the table and bugging you and why is it there a pile of magazines that has been sitting there forever and why are we holding on to it I don't know it's hard to get rid of but every time I see it there it's kind of in the way we're kicking it out I always have stuff all over my TV console credenza in my head I'm like all of this has to stay just take it all off put it all on the floor and then replace things one at a time starting with like what you love most and what you love being up there and you're probably gonna be left with a couple things that you're like I guess this doesn't really need to be here or I guess I don't ever really use this or like this kind of annoys me I like don't want to put this back on the table five things five things you're doing a good job I'm also gonna say if you're gonna make one purchase consider upgrading your Hardware both lighting and Hardware they are the jewelry of your home it can change the whole outfit you know based on what kind of jewels you put on I love getting super unique Hardware cabinet knobs door knobs drawer pulls off of etsy especially and there's like a sensory experience there of like touching a cabinet knob that you just think is so cute and that you love I do this in a rental space yes you unscrew you re-screw I'll link some that I love one of the other most helpful tools for me when I'm really struggling mentally or emotionally a voice memo just to myself on my phone I'll bring out the voice memo app and just record it's kind of like halfway between journaling and a talk with a friend but it's much more stream of Consciousness and I can talk faster than I can write it's shocking how much you can discover stuff even just in conversation with yourself especially when it's like a confusing emotion and you're like why am I so furious at the way my sister like set the plate down this morning like I'm just furious about it very often I will have Revelations even in just spinning the wheels with myself when you can do it at any time you don't have to wait for a friend to be available you don't have to wait for a phone call and then the other thing I will do is then like months later you can go and revisit that voice memo to remember exactly what your mental state was it's wild to see like an emotion can have such total hold on you in one moment or one day and then weeks later it feels so foreign to you um and something about that watching how things change is really helpful to me and it also is just like a good expressive experience and of course there are lots of ways to do true self-care that don't involve purchases that don't involve going to the spa self-care can be like going for a walk honoring the very difficult emotions you may be feeling reaching out to a friend especially in the moments when it's the hardest to reach out it does feel like no one understands and it's just this feeling like there's glass between you and the rest of the world like I can see the world happening I could like see intellectually that it's a sunny beautiful day outside but there's just like glass keeping me from accessing it keeping me from feeling it so while that is like the experience of it I know there is something else awaiting you unimaginable as it may seem on the other end this video was inspired by a single comment from one subscriber my father passed away this week and the space feels really sad would you ever consider doing a video on easy tips to refresh your space when you're too depressed to redecorate So to that one subscriber you know who you are and we've never met but I am truly sorry for your and your mother's loss and grief and I know that those words don't mean much so instead I'm gonna make you a video it's kind of an emotional video today for me I don't know I'm sending you all a big hug first video of 2023 um whether it's been a really hard year or a really great year what's coming next is unknown and it's full of possibility either way [Music]

Channel: Caroline Winkler

Views: 477,671

Keywords: decor, interior design

Id: ABof7aqVSoQ

Length: 16min 2sec (962 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 07 2023