Delight your senses (31 days to Love the Home You Have)

This post is part of a 31 day series – 31 days to Love the Home You Have.  I am blogging through the 31 day challenge in the back of the book “Love the Home You Have” by Melissa Michaels of The Inspired Room.  You can read all the posts in the series so far here.  And to make sure you don’t miss a post you can sign up to have every post delivered to your inbox , or follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram to get even more home decorating ideas and inspiration to help you fall in love with your home.

You may have worked hard the last few days decluttering, cleaning off surfaces, and making your kitchen pretty.    But your sense of sight is not the only thing that helps you feel at home and love the home you have – your sense of smell does too!  

Sure every home has dirty socks, smelly trash cans, the lingering smells of dinner, etc.  But find some ways to freshen up your home – open the windows on one of these cooler fall days we are having and let some fresh air in, wash your sheets, vacuum, light a candle, put some potpourri on the stove, or bake some cookies! 

I loved this part of Melissa’s book where she talks about our homes being a BEAUTIFUL mess – yes they can be beautiful and daily lived in as well.  If we take that approach. “Real life seems to get labeled as messy while anything romantic, such as a table set with the good dishes (especially if you have kids), or anything clean, such as a tidy family room, gets the bump rap as being out of reach and out of touch for everyday living.”  She then states how her home has smelly socks, dirty dishes, and messes daily just like everyone else does.  “But are unsightly things the only standards by which we can measure what is true about who we are?   Please, no.  I don’t limit the extent of my creative experience and appreciation for my home to my clever techniques for piling the dirty dishes on the counter as high as I can without them crashing to the floor.” – Love the Home you Have, p. 76-77.

So don’t think you can’t light a candle at dinner tonight because you are just having spaghetti on plastic plates– just do it!  Even if you have kids – just make sure it is out of reach or use something like a lantern – they will think it is special and fun.  Last year one of our countdown to Christmas traditions we did with my nieces and nephew one weekend was to have a pancakes in pj’s candlelit dinner and they LOVED it.  They have already asked if we can do it again this year.   Don’t save pretty candles just for when guests are over – make your home special for your family too.

A friend recently inspired me to get one of these wax burners and I have it in my kitchen with fall apple spice scent in it. 

And I found this battery operated candle on clearance at Target last week and love that it is on a timer.    I have it set to come on every night at 7 pm and it stays on for 4 hours.  It is relaxing to enjoy the soft flickering light every evening and not have to remember to light/blow out a candle. 

And on some fall/winter evenings when we are just home for the evening and spending time together playing games or watching tv in the living room, I will light all the candles in the fireplace.  We don’t burn a fire or have gas logs but this gives the ambiance of having a fire lit in the fireplace.  You can see all the details on my fall mantel here.

Delight in making your home special for your family with a favorite scent (the smell of cookies or pumpkin pie in the oven) or by doing a simple thing like lighting a candle.

Challenge for today:  Delight all of your senses in your home.   Make your home smell good in whatever way works for your family as you work to keep it clean.  

I would love to know your favorite scent in your home – is it a candle, the breeze coming through the windows, or something baking in the oven?