Picture coming home at the end of a long exhaustive day. Imagine walking into your room, hanging up your bag, and beginning your evening routine to wind down and take your mind off things: a hot bath, journaling, yoga. Your room is uncluttered. You have plenty of space. A bouquet of flowers. A freshly made bed with clean sheets. Windows letting in the starlight. When you crawl into bed, you feel clean and warm and content.
A few weeks ago, when I wrote a post about hibernating during wintertime, I kept thinking, wait a minute, what about creating a space to hibernate in? Because the thing is, depending on where you live, these midwinter months are about when depression can settle in. You haven’t seen the blue sky in weeks, you fall into the regularity of your weekly routine, and it’s easy for the everyday magic to become mundane.
Your space—whether your dorm room, bedroom, or apartment—is your haven from the rest of the world, the place you return to at the end of each day. Especially in the wintertime, don’t we all want to make that space as cozy and refreshing as possible? For that reason, I put together a compilation of my favorite tips on making a comfortable hobbit hole of your own.
Get rid of what you don’t like or use.
Seriously. Get rid of any clothes that don’t fit you, books you’ll never read, random papers or notebooks, projects you feel like you used to finish, gifts people gave you that you don’t need. If you need help here, I’d recommend reading Marie Kondo’s The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up—it’s worth the hype, trust me. There’s a whole science behind this, but in a nutshell: make sure you get rid of possessions first (clothes, books, paperwork, etc). Save the nostalgia (journals, photos, memorabilia, etc) for last.
I remember hearing once that we keep things that represent who we wish we are. The only trouble with this is that we can’t be everything. When you look at your room, is it an expression of who you really are as a person?
Imagine your ideal room, down to every last detail. What kind of lighting, furniture, space, books, music, etc? Try to picture the feeling of coming home and opening the door to your own tidy little hobbit hole haven and picture what’s inside. Once you can visualize this, it’ll be easier to get rid of anything that doesn’t fit in that ideal. The best part? After you get rid of those black trash bags and look at how much space you have now, you’ll feel physically lighter and fresher.
Clean everything. EVERYTHING.
Now that you’ve gotten rid of all the junk in your soon-to-be haven, do a thorough cleaning of your room. Strip your bed and throw it all in the wash. Do all of your dirty clothes during the second wash. Dust everything: your ceiling fan, bookshelves, windowsills, nightstand, baseboards. Everything. When you’re finished, vacuum the floor, in all the corners, underneath furniture, etcetera.
Put away stuff you don’t use often.
Okay, so there will always be things we need that aren’t necessarily contributing to the aesthetic of our room, right? Case in point: charging cords, change of bedsheets, off-season clothes. Pick up some clear plastic boxes for storage under your bed. Clear out your drawers and only put things in them that you need on a regular basis. If you don’t need it often, put it out of sight.
Stick to a color scheme.
Use mainly neutrals with one or two accent colors, so that everything in your room coordinates. Try to buy all your accessories in the same color, like white or beige or black, so it’s all cohesive. My color scheme is white with dashes of rose pink and dusty blue, and that’s worked really well for me so far. I just buy everything in black—and voila, everything matches!
Lighting.
Listen closely. I am going to tell you a secret. Do you want your room to feel like a haven of magical glowing fairy dust? An instantaneous trick to make angels sing every time you walk into your room? A surefire way to make your room the coziest place in existence?
Fairy lights.
That’s it. That’s all. (My best tip is that they’re usually absurdly cheap immediately after Christmas—stock up then). Lighting makes such a difference in a room. Especially dorm rooms, because they are apparently illuminated with sorry-looking florescent bulbs that make your place feel like a prison camp. Get a lamp with soft lighting instead. And do not underestimate the power of fairy lights.
Fill it with nice smells.
Essential oil distiller, air freshener sprays, candles, fresh flowers, whatever you have. Pick one or two scents that you really like (may I recommend rose? It’s positively brilliant), or rotate seasonally (i.e. peppermint for winter, floral for spring, citrus for summer, cinnamon apple for autumn).
Showcase your interests.
What do you love? This is where you sprinkle your personality around and make the room your own. Books are my own true love, so they have the most space in my room, but there’s also a yoga mat, my wardrobe, notebooks for writing, and travel hints like a globe on my bookshelf and a map hung on the wall. Family photographs framed on the walls and put up next to my polaroid camera. If plants are your thing, bring your plants indoors and put them on the windowsill. Get a prominent rack to display your awesome wardrobe. Create a gallery wall of your own art pieces. Put up posters of your favorite movies or Broadway musicals. Create a musical corner with your instrument, sheet music, or a stand, etc. Surround yourself with the things you love.
Gather an arsenal of cozy things.
Your bedroom is your haven from the rest of the world. Make it as otherworldly as possible: fuzzy blankets, a favorite cardigan to wear over your pajamas, super comfy pillows, coasters to put your coffee mug on, a vase of fresh flowers on your dresser, art framed and hung up on the walls by your bed. Keep a pair of headphones in your nightstand so you can listen to music on the nights when you can’t sleep. Figure out your cozy essentials and surround yourself with them.
And with that, I wish you the coziest of weeks ahead. I hope you find some hours in your week to make a cup of something hot and rearrange your space. Enjoy designing your own personal hobbit hole!
<3 Olivia Grace
