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Home Improvements to Help Boost Your Mental Health

A home is more than just a roof over your head; it plays an essential part in your life and wellbeing-. Happy and secure homes can make all the difference for those suffering from mental health issues. We've created a few home improvement tips for those wanting to boost their mental health, and they don't cost a fortune either!

So, let's look at how to improve mental health by following useful tips such as installing a home gym, changing your lighting and creating a happy kitchen.

Installing a Home Gym
Making Bath Time Relaxing
Decluttering
Changing Your Flooring
Getting a House Plant
Changing Your Lighting
Make Your Home Warm
Create a Happy Kitchen
FAQ
Sources

Installing a Home Gym

Home Gym exercise equipment weights and row machine

In this section, we will explore the benefits associated with installing a home gym. Exercise can enhance a person's mental health by bringing down anxiety levels, depression and negative moods. It can also improve cognitive function and self-esteem. Home gyms do not need to be particularly expensive, with budget versions possible for £100 or less. You'll need to find an ideal spot in your household to set up a home gym and then acquire the necessary equipment.

Some of the basic elements of a home gym you should consider are an Olympic barbell, a squat rack (which comes with a pull-up bar), weight plates (rubber or iron), a flat bench and a jump rope. Other equipment you could obtain on a budget includes resistance loop bands, an exercise mat, an upper body workout bar and a punching bag or boxing punching ball.

There are many spaces in a home that could be employed for a home gym. An office space, basement or spare room are good candidates, as are attics, garages and sheds. If you want to keep the costs low, the best approach is to find affordable online providers. Online shopping sites like eBay have plenty of home gym equipment, some of which will be cheaper if they're second-hand.

You still want to ensure good quality, so pay attention to the online reviews of the product and ratings of the seller before making a purchase.

It's recommended that a person does 30 minutes of exercise per day. This could be done in two 15-minute sessions or perhaps three 10-minute sessions. If you haven't done much exercise in a while, it's essential to warm up first so that you don't accidentally pull a muscle.

Making Bath Time Relaxing

We'll now look at mental health tips when taking a bath. While exercise is crucial for your wellbeing, so is relaxing. Naturally, most of us feel more relaxed when we're home. This makes it an ideal and essential place to destress as effectively as possible during our winding down hours. The benefits of relaxing include the release of feel-good hormones into our system, those being serotonin, oxytocin and prolactin, while stress hormone levels are reduced. To make your bathroom a more relaxing space, there are some steps to wellbeing you could take.

Adding a bubble bath or bath bomb, forms of aromatherapy can help to make the experience more relaxing. Pouring essential oils into your bath or adding Epsom salt can also prove beneficial. Epsom salt, essential oils, and aromatherapeutic substances should not be mixed. Decluttering, dimming the lights and adding candles are all examples of good mental health tips, as is playing relaxing music. Meditation, Zen or Gregorian music are some excellent examples.

A hot bath can improve blood flow and breathing, which can bring positive mental health benefits. This is on top of the wellbeing gains you'll earn from making the environment as tranquil as possible which, as mentioned earlier, will help to release positive hormones. Having a bath at night can help you wind down and feel more peaceful before going to bed.

Decluttering

For this section, we will look at the benefits of decluttering your home for your mental health. Clutter can increase stress and reduce the strength of your memory. The continuous presence of disorganisation and chaos will make it more difficult for your mind to focus. Increased anxiety levels can make you more likely to eat junk food (which is also bad for your mental health). Reducing the clutter around your home will bring down stress levels and allow you to feel more relaxed, which can declutter the mind.

Cleaning your house and putting things away that don't need to be out is a good first step. Using wall space, buying more storage units and finding other ways to put things out of sight can help. It might be worth getting rid of anything you no longer need or want. You could give these items away by donating them to charity shops, recycling them or selling such items through online stores.

By decluttering your home, you will create a space that will be more relaxing simply by having the aesthetic of organisation and allowing you to feel that you have things under control. This will reduce stress levels and make it a more relaxing environment to be in. The fact you will be able to focus better will also help to reduce stress levels as a secondary benefit.

Changing Your Flooring

decluttered bedroom with wooden floor bright

In this section, we will look at how changing your flooring can help with your health. Changing the flooring of rooms in your home is not just about the wellbeing benefits of having improved aesthetics in a room or rooms. If you suffer from allergies, changing your flooring to tiles, laminate, or hardwood floors can help, especially if you currently use carpet.

Carpets can be home to dust mites and other allergens, plus carpets can be more challenging to clean. Reduced allergens are, of course, primarily beneficial for your physical wellbeing, but this can also improve mental health. Having flooring that is easier to clean will also mean less stress in general, as it means less housecleaning and because you're more likely to be in a tidier environment.

Getting a House Plant

Getting a house plant can have a range of mental health benefits which we will look at in this section. Having a house plant can reduce stress, help alleviate symptoms of depression, and improve memory retention, creativity, and self-esteem. It can also be helpful to those with ADHD and PTSD. House plants can improve oxygen levels in the room they're based in, enhance air quality, and increase the room's aesthetics.

These factors can positively affect your mental health. There are also many additional benefits for your mind due to looking after a living thing and sticking to a routine. Having a routine can bring down your stress levels and make it easier to get into positive habits and routines in other areas of life, which, as a result, will benefit your wellbeing as a whole.

Changing Your Lighting

We will now look at how changing the lighting in your home can improve your health and wellbeing. Certain lighting in your home may be harmful. Artificial lights that are too bright can cause you to squint and lead to headaches. Research also points to artificial light at night, increasing the risk of obesity, depression, sleeping disorders, and other health problems. The use of red spectrum light bulbs at night for your bedroom can help make it easier to fall asleep before you decide to sleep.

LED lights are arguably the best option to use in other rooms, although there are still health and safety risks associated with them. The use of blue light filtering glasses can be a helpful addition to diminish the negative effects of LED light bulbs. The best way to improve lighting at home is to increase natural light during the day. Opening up the blinds and allowing as much natural light into your home as possible can increase your absorption of vitamin D (which has a wide range of physical and mental health benefits) and improve your mental wellbeing in general, such as by reducing the chances of seasonal depression.

Make Your Home Warm

In this section, we will look at the impacts of warmth or lack thereof on a person's wellbeing. Finding the right temperature balance is important for our physical health and, as a consequence, our mental health. On the one hand, too much heat can worsen pre-existing conditions and disease and increase the danger of dehydration and exhaustion. Health problems associated with the cold include reducing the strength of our immune system, negatively affecting the blood supply to certain parts of the body and increasing the risk of dehydration. The cold may heighten the risk of depression, too.

The ideal temperature for a home is somewhere between 18 and 21°C for most people. The best temperature for the unwell, old and young is more specific at 20°C while a range of 16°C to 20°C is the right temperature range for a newborn baby, and it should be neither too hot nor too cold. The elderly should heat their primary living area to 21°C and keep the rest of their home at 18°C.

Of course, heating may or may not be necessary during the warmer months of the year; it largely depends on what the outside temperature is and how in turn, this is affecting the temperature of your home, especially during the night. Aside from simply turning on the heating, shutting your curtains, keeping out draughts and improving insulation throughout your household are some additional ways to improve heat within the home. Having a warm and cosy space can increase happiness levels and reduce stress levels which include a decreased likelihood of cortisol spikes.

Create a Happy Kitchen

Creating a happy kitchen has a range of benefits for your mental health. In this section, we will look at how this can be achieved, such as through healthier eating and better organisation in your kitchen. Cooking and eating healthy, nutritious foods is, of course, primarily beneficial for your physical health. Such benefits include weight loss, the strengthening of bones and teeth as well as reducing the risks of cancer, stroke and diabetes.

These physical health benefits can indirectly improve your mental wellbeing, but such foods can also help with directly improving mental health. This includes increasing your mood and reducing the chances of depression and other mental health problems.

When it comes to organising a kitchen, as with decluttering, there are many potential advantages for your mental state. Not only will organising your kitchen make cooking easier (which in turn means it's more likely you'll eat healthy, nutritious foods which come with the list of aforementioned benefits) but it will directly lead to a reduction in stress levels and anxiety while improving memory.

Some of the ways you can better organise your kitchen are: using the back of cabinet doors for additional storage, arranging items in your kitchen in a particular order (i.e. giving your spices a specific arrangement) and figuring out what foods can go where and in what ways they can be arranged as to minimise empty space between food items.

Ultimately, storing items logically by having a particular place for everything and using up minimal space is one of the best ways to re-organise your kitchen. Such organisation will make for a happier kitchen so that you can begin to enjoy cooking, rather than see it as a chore. Mental health and wellbeing health and home organisation can all go hand-in-hand if approached correctly.

FAQ

What is mental health?

Mental health is in relation to your behavioural, cognitive and emotional welfare.

How many people suffer with mental health issues?

It is estimated that about half a billion people are suffering from mental health problems at any one time worldwide. Roughly 1 in 4 people will experience such issues at least once in their lifetime. Such statistics vary from country to country.

When is mental health awareness week?

In the UK, mental health awareness week will take place this year from Monday the 18th to Sunday the 24th of May.

What is good mental health?

Good mental health relates to an ability to learn as well as feel, express and manage emotions both positive and negative. Other aspects of positive mental health include the ability to deal with change and uncertainty, as well as having a good overall state of mental wellbeing.