Feeling good while staying at home

Home may be where the heart is but, if you’ve been trapped within the same four walls for the past three months, it might also be the place where you end up losing your mind.

It’s all too easy to lose touch with your gratitude and then turn against your space when you’re (unsurprisingly) feeling a little sick to death of it. But it’s important to remember that your home is a wonderful place, that you should take both pride and delight in. With this in mind, we’d recommend embracing some home care practices, geared towards achieving a more positive state of mindfulness.

Your aim should always be working towards making your home a happy space, and being content within it. Social distancing (while it’s not always going to be a picture-perfect postcard experience) can actually be something you enjoy doing - after all, haven’t you heard, staying in is the new going out. Admittedly, wearing your comfies all day every day can get a little old, and the novelty of breakfast in bed wasn’t meant to last for a whole 12 weeks, but revitalising your space and working towards getting back in touch with your love of home can only ever be a good thing.

In this blog, you’ll find some great lockdown tips that are all designed, through this home transformative mindset, to keep your mind healthy. We wanted to provide you with a few small tips and ideas to bring this concept to life, and make an evening in (or a full three weeks in, as the case may be) an even more wholesome, joyful experience, that you appreciate to the full.

Throw yourself in at the home cooking deep end

You want to look back on lockdown and think of all the great things that you finally made the time to do. Cooking is, surely, high up on that priority list for all of us. Take the time to try out some of the dishes that you didn’t think you’d ever get round to doing. ,,Rich fudge or ,,tasty vegan cookies (you can find recipes for both of these treats on our blog), sourdough starters, homemade pizzas or a full Sunday roast - all of these hearty, soul-warming foods are a great way to help you appreciate the comforts of home.

Yoga

Set your own rituals

Fill your day at home with little bits of routine, whatever works for you, that you can happily look forward to. This could be anything from something as simple as a daily afternoon chat in the garden with your partner, to a specific type of homebrew herbal tea (check out our ,,boost your immunity and ,,yoga tea recipe blog posts for some more home ritual inspo) to kill the hour just before lunch.

Revamp your garden

Make your garden an amazing private oasis to be in. Introducing bird feeders is a great way to keep the garden lively and full of wildlife to watch. You could also invest in some outdoor cushions that you can quickly grab, run out with and plonk on the ground to opportunistically make the most out of any sudden changes in the weather.

Treat yourself to some gourmet snacks

Because life is too short to cheap out on crisps. There are countless independent companies that have taken to selling their services online, so now you can order any manner of delicious, speciality snacks that are sure to hit the spot. You can order everything from a parcel of moreish little delights from Graze, right through to a full afternoon tea kit online. It’s the little things in life that make all the difference, and we know just how much your afternoon snack break at home will be boosted by a treat of this calibre.

Make your own long-lasting store cupboard essentials

Food makes up a considerable part of this list, with good reason. You could invest your extra leisure hours into making things like oils, pickles, jams and chutneys to top up your store cupboard with tasty, homemade staples. Not only will these save for ages, but they will also have a transformative effect on your home cooking and dining experiences - if you’d like a few more ideas on key things that you can start stocking up on, ,,we’d recommend having a read of our handy pantry essentials blog post.

Music is always the way forward

Fill your kitchen with positive, soulful and jazzy radio stations, or playlists brimming with songs that the whole family can have a singalong (or a boogie) to. Create a few different Spotify playlists with your family - one for casual background music during the daytime, one for cooking, one that’s full of fab hits you can’t help but dance along to, the possibilities are endless.

Keeping communal spaces lively and upbeat is a great way to remind everyone just how much they enjoy being at home together. Plus, this is ideal as a casual way to make everyone feel involved in the home dynamic, without the formality of scheduling in a board game.

Have a good clean

How to clean your kettle

Groan. But you know it’ll be worth it. Really have a good go at sprucing up your home, tackling all of those jobs that have repeatedly sunk to the bottom of your to-do list. For the only downside of a bit of short-term effort, clean living is a great way to cash in on some real long-term pride in your surroundings. A great place to get started on this spick and span ethos is having a read of our dedicated kettle cleaning blog post. It’ll make you far more appreciative of your home, as a space that you are pleased with, proud of and happy to be in.

Grow houseplants

Not only are they a sweet and stylish addition to your home decor, but house plants are widely known to be a great little mood booster. Whether it be a mini succulent or a gorgeous big swiss cheese plant, they are something that you can take pride in nurturing and watching them thrive under your care.

Or, you could even take this one step further, and start a new hobby by growing your own indoor kitchen herb garden. Don’t fret, this isn’t a challenge only suited to the green-fingered - it is easy for the whole family to get involved with. It’s also very rewarding, both for your own personal sense of achievement and taking your yummy, fresh home cooking to a whole new level.

Switch up your decor

Don’t go bursting the bank or anything, but take this as an opportunity to indulge in a bit of online shopping, and invest in some funky new style features or additions to your current home decor. This is a great way to help you to reconnect with your space, and take pride in your surroundings once more. Take inspiration from sites like Pinterest, where you can spend a good few hours having a nosy through a huge network of ideas.

The best things about doing it right now are that, a) there’s no rush (you can really, properly, take your time to make these tweaks), and b) when’s the next time you’ll be around so much to appreciate it all? So, what better time than the present to consider updating your kitchen with a few stylish mod-cons. We reckon we can help you out with this bit.

If there’s one thing that our Smarter product range can provide you with, it’s classy kitchen gadgets to give your home a luxe revamp - once you’ve introduced our technology to your kitchen, we challenge you to find a better spot to have your home office coffee break.

Take our Smarter Coffee and iKettle; these smarter appliances are designed to make your home brewing experience a thing of beauty. They’re stunning to look at, and have modern living at the heart of both their design and function.

Both pieces of technology utilise our Smarter app to give you a huge amount of flexibility, precision and control over your home hot drinks. They’re the perfect way to add a touch of affordable luxury to your kitchen. By introducing these pieces of kit to your home, it’s a sure-fire way to help you better savour the wonderful little moments that can only be offered by your home.

So, if you’re ready to get started on improving your experience of staying at home, ready for the next few weeks of lockdown, visit our online shop where you can check out our full range of Smarter gadgets to help you on your way. Right now, we’re offering a rapid 72-hour turnaround delivery service for our UK and EU customers, so while you get started reading through the recipe books and cleaning out your broom cupboard, we’ll get cracking delivering your new range of innovative kitchen gadgets.