It doesn't take expensive items or a big house to make your home a happy place, and according to experts, having these five elements below will do the trick:
1) Paint your walls yellow. Colors can affect emotions, and for walls at home, the brighter and bolder these colors are, the happier the environment will appear, according to a study from Amsterdam's Vrije University.
2) Always have fresh flowers. Rutgers professors conducted a study that determined how flowers can affect mood changes, and the results have been immediate, long-term and positive overall. "Flowers bring about positive emotional feelings in those who enter a room," said study author Jeanette Haviland-Jones, via About Flowers. "They make the space more welcoming and create a sharing atmosphere."
3) Complement the room with floral scents. If flowers are visually stimulating, their scents can also elicit happy feelings and memories. "It [the floral smell] actually is a mood manipulator," said Patricia Wilson, a researcher from La Salle University in Philadelphia, via Live Science. "So your mood is better, and given that your mood is better, you are looking for things in your memory bank that match that mood." You can stimulate floral scents with candles, air diffusers and humidifiers.
4) Avoid clutter and do cleanups regularly. A messy house can trigger depression, as experts from the UCLA's Center on Everyday Lives and Families (CELF) learned, according to House Logic. Their research also saw that having more stuff to clean or fix leads to anxiety and stress. The design concept that less is more is actually good to follow in this case.
5) Make your bed in the morning and keep it presentable. A survey done among 68,000 people revealed that 71 percent of bed makers are generally happy, while 62 percent of non-bed makers are generally unhappy, according to Mother Nature Network. So take those five minutes folding blankets and tucking sheets when you wake up, and keep your bed neat and orderly when no one is sleeping on it.
