When you come home at the end of a long workday, the last thing you want to feel is stress in your own home, which is why I’m going to share with you exactly how to reduce stress at home with a few routines.
You should feel calm, at peace, and, most importantly, welcomed by your own home.
The beautiful thing about creating a welcoming environment within your home is that it is SIMPLE to do.
Before I share the routines with you, it is important that you identify the changes that need to be made.
Work through each of these exercises to see what needs to change, then I’ll share with you the routines that will help you make these changes.
First, Identify Your Stressors
What is causing you to feel stressed? Walk around your home and notice what shifts how you feel in your body.
As you walk through your home think of how to reduce stress at home, in your home, and within yourself.
Is clutter causing you stress?
Things not being in their home not only clutters your home but can create stress in your mind.
Is an inconsistent routine causing you stress?
Being inconsistent with your routine can create a lot of stress in your life, whether you realize it or not.
Starting the week off on a high note and then letting it go halfway through can really affect your stress levels.
Is it due to a lack of sleep?
Sleep is very important for your health. Getting too little sleep can shift your mood a lot and hurt your mental health.
If you’re not getting 7-9 hours of sleep every night, you need to adjust your schedule. If you’re a mom to a baby who doesn’t sleep all throughout the night, grab those power naps where possible.
Does something else cause you to stress?
Whatever causes you to stress, you need to bring attention to it so that you can figure out what needs to be done to change that.
Second, Identify Your Mood
Identifying your mood is necessary when trying to reduce stress because it can help you figure out what form of self-care you need to do to reduce your stress.
Are you moody?
Do you go from happy to aggravated without cause or warning? Are you feeling a lot of things but aren’t sure why?
The more inconsistent your mood is, the more you need to focus on what is causing it. Oftentimes, moodiness is due to lack of sleep, so taking a nap may be the very next thing you do today.
Are you emotional?
Is it easy to cry or scream out loud? Is the smallest thing hurting your feelings?
This is a sign that you are stressed, and you need to make changes. Everything will be okay as long as you make a few adjustments to your routines.
Are you eating your feelings?
Whether you are bored or agitated, if you’re eating your feelings, you need to make some adjustments. You should only eat when you are hungry.
If you’re eating your feelings, I have a few things you can replace them with so that you can stop doing this.
[I’m completely guilty of this as well… It isn’t just you.]
Third, Start with Your Commitments
What are you committed to doing each week for other people? Is your schedule full of commitments you dread? What do you do each week that you enjoy doing?
Evaluate all the things you’re committed to during the week
What are you doing during the week that causes you to stress?
Could you eliminate these things from your schedule? I bet you can!
What would your week look like if you only did things you enjoyed? How much would you eliminate from what you’re currently doing?
Remove any unnecessary commitments
Your evaluation pointed out the things you don’t enjoy and caused you to stress. It is time to remove these commitments from your schedule.
You don’t owe anyone an explanation, so don’t worry about what you’re going to say.
All you have to say is that you can no longer commit to doing it and a time frame by which you’re letting it go [only give a time frame if necessary].
For example, if you’re a part of a committee that you don’t want to be a part of anymore, tell them you can no longer commit to doing it and that they have X amount of time to find a replacement.
If a replacement isn’t needed, then all you have to tell them is that you need to remove yourself from the committee.
It is as easy as it sounds to remove commitments that you no longer wish to do. Don’t overthink it, because that will only cause you to stress more, which is the opposite of what you’re working to do.
Learn to say “no”
When someone asks something of you, take time to think about if it is something you can commit to doing and if you want to commit to doing it.
When you decide it isn’t something you can or want to do, say “no”.
Fourth, Give Yourself Time to Relax
Take some time for yourself.
Take a few days to focus on what you enjoy and relax!
Allow things to pile up or not get done.
Over these next few days, think about the things that cause you stress. What have you identified from the first and second steps above and want to change?
How can you change these things? What are you not doing to take care of yourself that you want to start doing?
What can you release from your plate so that you have more time to do the things you want?
How to Reduce Stress at Home with 5 Simple Routines
You have to work at filling your cup of self-love before you can see outwardly at what is actually creating stress within your home, which is why I want you to take a few days to focus on yourself before diving into these routines to help you learn how to reduce stress at home and in your life.
The routines I’m sharing with you aren’t your average “systems” approach. I’ve incorporated self-love into each and every one of them.
They are very simple and easy to accomplish. However, with this particular approach, you’ll learn to love yourself more, which reduces your stress significantly.
1 // Self-Care Routine
Schedule your self-care BEFORE you schedule anything else on your calendar.
You have to take care of yourself before you can do anything for anyone else, which is why learning how to reduce your stress with a self-care routine is first on the list.
Where can you find time for self-care?
Start with creating self-care time in the morning and/or evening. By starting and ending the day with self-care, you are telling yourself that you matter.
Things a Self-Care Morning Routine includes:
- Moving to wake up your body
- An activity to wake up your mind
- An exercise to wake up your spirit
We will get into more specifics of this further down in this post.
Things a Self-Care Evening Routine includes:
- Things that make your morning easier
- Something that relaxes your mind
Again, we will get into more specifics further down in this post.
Self-Care Activities You Need to Incorporate into Your Schedule
While the above are great examples of morning and evening routines you can do, there are specific things you need to do daily to make sure you’re giving yourself the best self-care possible.
These things reduce stress significantly, so make sure you’re doing each of these.
Exercise
Moving your body daily is a must! Whether you’re taking a walk or running a marathon, you need to move your body.
Don’t worry if going to the gym isn’t your thing. There are many things you can do at home. YouTube is a great resource for exercise videos, and you’re bound to find something you enjoy.
Here are a few exercises you can do daily that will reduce your stress:
- Go for a 20-minute walk
- Yoga
- Pilates
- Do a HIIT workout
- Lift weights
- Train for a marathon
- Biking
- Kickboxing
- Swimming
- Kayaking or Canoeing
Of course, the possibilities are endless when it comes to moving your body. Just make sure you’re doing some form of exercise for 20 minutes every day.
Sleep for 7-9 Hours Every Night
Getting enough sleep drastically improves your mental health and is very effective at reducing your stress.
Do whatever you have to do to ensure you get at least 7 hours of sleep each night. If that means taking a nap during the day, then do it.
Journal
Journaling is a great exercise for releasing stress. You can spend 5-15 minutes writing out your thoughts and releasing them once you are done.
Journaling is how you get your mind to stop repeating the same thoughts over and over again. It allows you to process them and move on to other things that you either need or choose to give your attention.
You can also use journaling prompts that will help you learn how to reduce stress at home. Here are a few examples:
- What is causing me to stress?
- How can I reduce my stress?
- What would I do if I weren’t stressed?
By journaling about each of these, you can solve a lot of your stress problems and start to figure out ways to solve them.
Meditation
There are so many forms of meditation, but how I specifically recommend you use this isn’t woo-woo by any means.
Use meditation as a way to move from one activity to the next.
For example, when you get home from work, sit in your car for 1-5 minutes in silence and focus on taking slow and deep breaths.
This resets your mind and allows you to free anything that happens during your workday. You will be amazed at how much different you feel entering your home in the evening.
Relaxation
Simply sitting and doing nothing is a great way to let go of stress. Yes, it can result in the feeling of boredom, but the space you create in your mind frees you from overthinking and the stress you’ve felt during the day.
Sitting still and drinking water is a great way to care for your mind and reduce your stress.
For more ideas, check out my Mental Cleanse Challenge!
2 // Cleaning Routine
When you set up a cleaning routine that makes all the cleaning tasks second nature, you significantly reduce your stress. It removes the hesitation or dreadful feeling of cleaning your home.
It takes less than 30 minutes a day to keep a home clean, which is great if you normally spend the majority of one of your off days cleaning your entire home.
By doing something each day to keep your home clean, you are creating cleaning habits that work subconsciously, which means less thinking about them.
To set up an effective cleaning routine, you need to establish daily, weekly, and monthly tasks that you’ll dive up accordingly.
Daily Cleaning Routine
Things that need to be done daily are always the top priority of any cleaning routine. They include the following:
- Doing the dishes
- One load of laundry
- Sweeping/vacuuming
- Making the bed
- Wiping down countertops
- Cleaning out car
- Dealing with paperwork as soon as it enters the home
By keeping up with these things, your home will be much easier to keep clean.
Weekly Cleaning Routine
Things that need to be done weekly help improve the quality of your breathing because most of them deal with removing dust.
When you focus on removing dust, you can breathe deeper and better, which helps reduce stress. This includes:
- Washing all bedding
- Mopping
- Dusting all furniture
- Cleaning blinds and windows
- Dust/clean throw pillows and blankets
- Cleaning out the refrigerator
Monthly Cleaning Routine
Two things that are commonly forgotten about but are important to do are:
- Cleaning the curtains
- Cleaning the carpet
Both get dusty and gross over time, so by cleaning them at least monthly, you can enjoy an entirely clean home!
3 // Decluttering Routine
One of the best things you can learn about how to reduce stress at home is by learning how and when to declutter!
The things you own not only take up physical space, but they also take up mental space. By having a decluttering routine, you easily combat the overwhelming feeling that creeps up when you accumulate too much.
Decluttering is a process, which is why having a decluttering routine is necessary. The more consistent you are with it, the better.
Declutter when things bother you
When you look around your home, and something is bothering you, you need to tackle it immediately.
It doesn’t matter if it is an untidy living room or a pile of paper on the counter. When you declutter the things that bother you, it reduces the amount of time you spend looking and thinking about it.
Declutter as the seasons change
Decluttering as the seasons change allows you to regularly evaluate what you have in your home.
This prevents an excess of clutter by rotating in and out of the things you do and don’t need.
When it comes to clothing, you can easily declutter the things you didn’t wear in that season and things you aren’t excited to bring back into your wardrobe.
Everything in your home should be evaluated on at least a semi-annual basis to ensure you actually need that item.
Declutter to stay organized
It is easy to accumulate things and become disorganized. One way to stay organized is to continuously evaluate what you do and do not need.
While always questioning what you do and do not have can seem mundane, it is the mundane that keeps you organized and less stressed.
The biggest key to organization is to be ruthless with decluttering your things and then organizing them in a way that works for you.
Organizing before decluttering only leads to a never-ending organizing loop that is forever on repeat, which is not what you want.
4 // Morning Routine
Earlier in this post, I briefly mentioned three things you need to include within your morning routine to reduce stress, but now we are going to dive in and discuss what to do with each one to help you reduce your stress.
Before we do, there are two rules I want you to set up that will really transform your morning routine to help you get the most out of it.
- Wake up before everyone else to enjoy a peaceful morning routine that is just for YOU!
- Give yourself adequate time to enjoy your morning routine, and don’t rush through it.
Moving to Wake Up Your Body
The first thing you want to do in the morning is wake up your body. It doesn’t take much, and you may already do some of these things to wake your body.
Choose at least one of these things to do each morning:
- Stretch your body
- Shower
- Exercise
They don’t take much effort and are perfect for when you first roll out of bed.
I personally enjoy a morning shower to wake up my body with some light stretching afterward.
An Activity to Wake Up Your Mind
Once you wake up your body, you need to wake up your mind. This is where you get to focus on the peaceful part of your morning.
Choose at least one of these to do each morning:
- Enjoy a cup of coffee or tea
- Read a self-care book
- Listen to a podcast
- Listen to your favorite music
My favorite thing about my morning is a warm cup of coffee. Sometimes I accompany it with listening to a podcast [these are my favorite simple living podcasts].
An Exercise to Wake Up Your Spirit
Regardless of your beliefs, doing something for your spirit is what sets the tone for the day. It is what helps you to have the best, stressless day possible.
If you do nothing else in your morning routine, do something within this list:
- Pray
- Meditate
- Journal
- Envision the future
I honestly do a combination of all of these. I start with meditating on a Bible verse and in prayer. Then I envision my future and what it will feel like once I accomplish whichever goal I’m working towards at the time.
I finish my morning routine by journaling about how I will conquer my day and how I can solve any problems I’ve had. It is a powerful part of my morning routine.
Bringing it all together
When you combine each piece of the morning routine, don’t worry about how long it takes. Some days you may get through your routine in 15 minutes, and some days it may take an hour.
The important thing is to make sure you work through a morning routine that helps you stress less. If something doesn’t work for you, change it.
Morning routines aren’t set in stone, so enjoy the process of finding what works for you.
5 // Evening Routine
An evening routine is just as important as a morning routine. It helps you establish your mindset for going to sleep and how the next day will unfold.
Here are a few things I do each evening to help my mind relax:
- Name 3 things I’m grateful for today
- Read a book
- Wash my face and enjoy a face mask
Here are a few things I do each evening to set up my next for success:
- Plan out my day
- Prepare my coffee
- Choose what I am going to wear for the next day
An evening routine doesn’t need to be extensive. Its purpose is to help you go to bed peacefully so that you can rest well, which is how to reduce stress at home in a very nurturing way.
Final Thoughts About How to Reduce Stress at Home
Learning how to reduce stress at home takes practice. Give yourself time to try out different things.
Journal about the things you try and rate them on a scale of 1 to 10. One is that you hated it, and ten meaning you cannot wait to do that again!
Give yourself grace as you learn how to reduce stress at home versus just anywhere. I truly believe that your home is where you can make the biggest impact on your mental health and where you should keep the focus on reducing stress.
Get to fill your cup, then pour into others and your home, and live the life of your dreams! You are meant for much more than stressing over your life. You are meant to thrive!
If you want more suggestions for reducing your stress, be sure to check out my Mental Cleanse Challenge, which walks you through 28 days of different self-care activities!
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