Moving into a new apartment can be a rocky time, especially if it’s something that you do frequently. Though we go the extra mile to make sure all our apartments feel like home as soon as you open the door, it’s the personal touches that are often the cherry on top. Studies have shown that taking steps toward making your living space more homely is essential to emotional wellbeing - and that goes double for those who travel for work or move around a lot! Here are six ideas for how you can make your apartment feel like home.
Separate Your Spaces
On those days when you work remotely, it’s key to have a clear mental and physical separation between your workspace and your relaxation space. It helps in preventing your work life and home life from blurring into one, meaning that your apartment still feels like a place where you can have a break from work. Harvard Business Review says that ‘unless you are careful to maintain boundaries, you may start to feel you’re always at work and losing a place to come home to’. Wellington properties such as Contemporary Charm and Cuba View provide fantastic environments for you to find the perfect work/home balance.
Cook Your Own Food
One of the benefits of choosing an apartment as a home base on your extended holiday/work placement is the freedom to get creative in the kitchen. Aside from being the healthier option when it comes to regular meals, cooking food at your apartment can make you feel like you’re really at home in your place. Preparing a meal is a visceral exercise that can take you out of your brain and help you relax after a long day.
Make it Yours
One of the freedoms often not afforded in short term accommodation options is the ability to make the space your own. Hang your own style of art on the walls, store utensils and household items in places that make sense to you, organise your wardrobe to perfection and decorate the space to your own individual taste. Long term HiAtlas residents even go the extra mile and adapt the apartment’s furnishings to their taste. There’s nothing like coming home from work to an apartment that’s really you.
Let the Nature In
No matter who you are, science suggests that having flowers or houseplants in your living space makes you happier! The chemicals in our brains that make positive associations are intimately linked with flowers and greenery. Even if you’re not the type to have plants around the house, it’s at least worth considering to make your apartment feel that little bit more ‘lived in’.
Keep it Spick and Span
It seems obvious, but even the best of us can let our living spaces get a little out of hand during busy times. Whether it’s papers strewn on every surface, pencil shavings on the floor or that growing graveyard of mugs and cups that creeps up from day to day - it’s always worth taking a minute to tidy, and it makes all the difference in making your apartment more homely.
HiAtlas apartments are of course equipped for residents to do their own cleaning, but services can be arranged for apartment servicing and laundry depending on the resident’s preference. De-cluttering your space can serve to de-clutter your mind, and it’s these small things that can make us all the more productive in the long run.
Get Out of the House
Though at first, it seems counter-intuitive, a huge part of having your apartment feel like home is having it be a place that you come back to. There’s nothing better than the feeling of looking forward to coming home, and as the famous idiom goes, ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’. This is less applicable to those who go out to work for long days at the office, but for those working from home, it can be very important - go out, stretch your legs, and take comfort it the thought of your safe and
welcoming apartment waiting for you when you get home.