Our home is the backdrop of our daily lives, influencing our emotions, sense of self and overall wellbeing. A welcoming space invites a feeling of ease and serves as a respite from the outside world. Like our home, our environment and social connections also make a profound impact on our lives. They influence our mood, productivity, energy and happiness. When you know how much your environment effects your life, you can feel empowered to make intentional choices to refine each area to better suit your needs, goals and desires.

Is it time to audit your home and environment?

Below are some areas that you might consider auditing this year.

Each of these areas has a key role in how you approach all other areas of your life – I like to call these keystone areas – meaning that once you update or redefine one of these areas, other can more easily fall into place in a way that supports who you are and how you want to show up for yourself.

Home

• Rearrange furniture for feng shui
• Declutter so that you can see what you’re working with in each room
• Clean to free up mental space and allow room for more blessings
• Donate gently used items to charity
• Consider a capsule wardrobe to reduce your closet to only clothes you like and actually wear

Kitchen

• Dispose of any foods that don’t make you feel your best
• Check all labels and trash all expired foods
• Organize and clearly label all ingredients, taking inventory to prevent over shopping
• Move foods that you enjoy and that make you feel your best to the front of the fridge
• Invest in reusable and vacuum sealable packaging to prevent food waste

Social media

• Unfollow accounts that don’t inspire your journey
• Remove all pity follows – followers out of guilt like following friends whose content you don’t enjoy but you think you have to because they’re your friends
• Curate your own experience by following inspiring accounts

Relationships

• Take inventory of friends by default – have you been friends for a while but don’t have anything in common?
• Seek out opportunities to find friends for this season in your life – we talk a lot about childhood friends but forget that we need friends who came into our lives during this season, too
• Reconsider one-sided relationships with people who use you to air their grievances or ask for favors

Social connections

• When was the last time you had a solo date?
• Look up events in your area and mark your calendar – try something new every month
• Be a local tourist and try new restaurants, especially if you’ve lived in the same area for a while

Home office

• Tidy up your desk to inspire creativity and productivity
• Invest in ergonomic furniture for your comfort
• Add fragrances that calm you
• Add pictures and other trinkets that inspire your work
• Invest in softer lighting like a salt lamp or move closer to a window for natural light whenever possible

Which of these areas are you in the process of auditing? Which of these areas is next on your list?