A HAPPY HOME
Try installing family photos on the wall or keeping chargers in the basement
Adding framed family photos and kids’ art to your main living space strengthens the family bonds,
We are all little birds living in nests.
We’re collecting little twigs and doing our bests.
Now, you’ve got to make your nest a cosy, comfy, happy little place. And in that spirit, here are seven small things my wife Leslie and I do in our house: 7. Install a family photo wall How much space is left in your camera roll? I mean, I know we need 17 pictures of the tacos we’re about to eat to make sure there’s perfect lighting on the guacamole and all. But while our phones are holding thousands of pictures, what are we really doing with them? I’m not a “living in the cloud” kind of guy. I think pictures need to be printed and seen to be truly felt. So we have an image of every single member of our family up on a big giant wall near our kitchen. Grandma playing with the kids. A nostalgic paddle boat family photo from the ’80s. It’s impossible not to glance at it a few times a day and feel a sense of belonging. We like to keep it fresh and changing. 6. TV downstairs, bookshelf upstairs We cancelled cable and dropped the TV to the basement. Sure, Netflix continues to seep into the cracks and corners, but there is something magical about putting a bookshelf right by our front door. You know I’m passionate about books. My new podcast 3 Books with Neil Pasricha is all about discussing the formative books of inspiring people like Judy Blume, Seth Godin and Mitch Albom. So I figure if I’m going to talk the talk, I have to walk the walk. What happens when you put a bookshelf near your front door? It shifts from a nice looking thing collecting dust to a dynamic organism living and breathing in the room. You add a book here, prune a book there, lend them more casually to people visiting. It’s beautiful, it’s messy, it’s organized, it’s shape-shifting … just like us. 5. Chargers in the basement You know what else goes in the basement? Our cellphone chargers. Building in that 20-second buffer from your bedroom prevents sending 11 p.m. late night emails you always regret in the morning. Plus, you don’t jar your brain senseless with urgent news alerts the moment you wake up. New research shows when we expose our brains to bright screens an hour before bed our brains produce less melatonin — the sleep hormone. Buy a $10 alarm clock and toss the chargers downstairs. 4. The five-minute before-bed tidyup Who likes cleaning up? Not me. Who cleans up for five minutes before bed every night? Me. Why? Because I sleep better without ketchup-smeared dishes in the sink or sweaty gym clothes on the floor by the dresser. Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, writes a lot on this practice and uses the phrase “Outer order contributes to inner calm.” 3. Handwritten notes inside cupboard doors
What’s pasted on the inside of your cupboard doors? I’m guessing nothing. Yet this is perfect intimate little canvas space. So next time your partner leaves you a little love letter or note around the house, grab some tape, and stick it inside a kitchen or bathroom cupboard door. Why? Well, it will serve as a little surprise you when you see it … and encourage more notes to follow. 2. Give, spend and save jars Every month I send out a newsletter to about 35,000 people simply containing a list of what books I read and enjoyed that month. Recently, I highlighted the book The Opposite of Spoiled: Raising Kids Who Are Grounded, Generous, and Smart About Money by Ron Lieber.
One of the big ideas in the book is that there are problems linking chores to allowance. First, you erase intrinsic motivation kids should have for a job well done and instead teach them to scrub toilets for cash. Second, you’re trying to teach hard work — a skill they already learn at school. But you know what they usually never learn? Financial literacy. So the book suggests giving your children three large glass jars labelled “Give” “Save” and “Spend.”
Each week you give your child the allowance and allow them to split money between jars. And you can pay interest on the Save jar. It’s a fun practice and provokes conversations around money early in life. 1. Framed kid’s art at the front door We have a big wall of children’s art in the house, but the piece de resistance is a giant framed piece at the front door complete with one of those little art gallery labels with the tile and description of the piece. They’re always colourful! And it’s re-grounding when you walk in the front door about what’s important. Neil Pasricha is the bestselling author of The Book of Awesome and The Happiness Equation. His new podcast 3 Books with Neil Pasricha is a Top 100 Ranked iTunes podcast where each chapter uncovers and discusses the three most formative books of an inspiring individual. Check it out at 3books.co.