K 😃

Thriving is a strong word. Just a person. Existing incorrectly.

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Psychologists recreated the bare white room on the right, sat people down to work in it, and watched them lose to a decorated room on every score they measured.

That was a 2010 University of Exeter experiment. People were split across different offices: a bare minimal one, one that someone else had filled with plants and pictures, or one they decorated themselves. The bare version came last on everything. People in the decorated one worked 17% harder. People who hung their own things worked 32% harder, and made no extra mistakes.

There's a fair point sitting in the before photo, though. A 2010 UCLA study followed 30 couples and found that women who called their homes cluttered had higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol through the day, a pattern tied to worse health. Mess carries a cost, and the old basement had plenty of it. Clearing it out was worth doing.

Look at what left with the clutter. The family portraits, the paintings someone chose, the objects that took decades to gather. A psychologist named Sam Gosling spent years proving that a room full of personal objects lets total strangers read your values and habits and mostly get it right. The things on your walls are a running record of who lives there. Wipe them, and the room goes quiet.

Then there's the one artwork still hanging. Roger Ulrich gave 160 heart-surgery patients different images at the foot of the bed: a nature scene, an abstract print, or a blank panel. The nature-scene patients needed less pain medication and felt calmer. The ones facing a hard-edged abstract print recovered worse than patients given a blank wall. That single grey abstract on the white wall is close to the worst option the study tested.

The before room was cluttered and overdue for a redo. Clearing it fixed that. But the same pass wiped out the identity, every photo and chosen object gone at once. Every experiment here points one way: the rooms that leave people calmer and sharper are the ones filled with the things the owner picked over the years.

[K 😃 @OkayMsK]

@Technimentals I did that one time too... Maybe I should shoot for that again. Because that was the most relaxed Christmas I have ever had 😂

[K 😃 @OkayMsK]

My Christmas tree is here!!! I'm debating putting it up to make sure it is working... But even putting it up for a few minutes seems insane 😂

[K 😃 @OkayMsK]

@Technimentals 😂😂😂😂.

Don't tempt me, because I just might. I love Christmas so much. ESPECIALLY the lights and the tree 😂

[K 😃 @OkayMsK]

I finished all of the important stuff on my to do list yesterday. So now I need to decide if I want to take it easy today or work on painting and outside projects...

[K 😃 @OkayMsK]

I just bought a Christmas tree... In June...

BUT Walmart has a bunch of them on major sale if you need one ❤️❤️

[K 😃 @OkayMsK]

@Technimentals Thank you!! It really did! It's so much more inviting!!

[K 😃 @OkayMsK]

Got my new chairs put together!

I can't believe I was procrastinating because I was scared it would be hard to do 🤦🏼‍♀️🤣

[K 😃 @OkayMsK]

@keto_canadian Thank you!!! I can't stop looking at it!

[K 😃 @OkayMsK]

@Technimentals Thank you!! I definitely am! It is definitely what I worked so hard for the past year. It's small, but it's perfect ❤️❤️

[K 😃 @OkayMsK]

My dining room is a reminder of how grateful I am for this life. After a few rough patches, it's nice to enjoy some smooth roads.

It's starting to come together.

Now I just need to put together my new chairs... stop procrastinating because I'm terrified I'll mess them up. 😫😂

[K 😃 @OkayMsK]

@TheMarkMathur

[K 😃 @OkayMsK]

All of the painting I have been doing is paying off. My before and after!!

[K 😃 @OkayMsK]

@Technimentals Thank you! I wish I could say it's been fun 🤣🤣. But it's been worth it for sure

[K 😃 @OkayMsK]

@Technimentals I never thought about it that way 😲

[K 😃 @OkayMsK]

@Technimentals I wish to be on the receiving end of the greatest software in the world 😜🤣🤣

[K 😃 @OkayMsK]

@Technimentals Thank you! It's so hard to not feel guilty about it!!

[K 😃 @OkayMsK]

I'm in the process of breaking my people pleasing tendencies. I have to say that it's pretty nice being able to live my own life and not revolve around other people.

[sweet tooth @sweetsawtooth]

I used to be a people pleaser and then I realized I never got anything I actually wanted and that my relationships were based on mutual unspoken resentment. So I pivoted to a life of asking for what I want and being seen as an often disagreeable and difficult woman. Much better

[K 😃 @OkayMsK]

@maisieproff Thank you! I need that reminder sometimes 🥰

Hope you're doing well!!