Designed for Wellness: Creating a Home that Supports Healthy Habits

So you have a new health plan you’re following that has you cooking new and different meals, taking a variety of supplements, and doing some upgrading of your lifestyle habits? 

This plan is tailor made for you and you’re so excited about finally feeling better…

But your kitchen counters are cluttered and you struggle to make those delicious meals with ease.

You invested in high-quality supplements that were selected just for you and what your body needs, but you always forget to take them when you’re supposed to!  

Getting in movement… Who has time for a walk after dinner when there’s laundry that needs to be done?! 

And figuring out how to solve all these roadblocks sure would be easier if you weren’t so darn tired, right?

In the fast-paced world we live in, achieving and maintaining wellness often feels like an elusive goal. However, the secret to a healthier lifestyle may lie within the very walls of our homes. By thoughtfully designing our living spaces and the systems within them, we can cultivate an environment that promotes productivity, peace, creativity, and overall well-being. This concept I like to refer to as “wellness by design” involves making deliberate choices in our home setup to foster healthy habits. 

Here are a few ideas to get you started on transforming your home into a sanctuary of health…

The Hub of the Home

A well-organized kitchen can be a powerful ally in making healthy eating choices. It is the “Grand Central Station” of the home, after all! 

• Declutter Your Pantry and Countertops – Keep only the essentials and healthy options within reach. I get enamored by all the clear bins and baskets at Target just like the next person, but you don’t have to spend any money to make sure your food and supplements are organized and visible. Grouping items by category and making sure the healthy options are easily visible is the key!
• Create a Meal Prep Station – Designate a space for meal preparation with all the necessary tools and ingredients at hand. This encourages cooking at home rather than opting for takeout.
• Healthy Snack Zone – We have a couple of inexpensive baskets in our pantry that we fill with beef sticks, bars, and olive packs. When we get snacky, we have this dedicated area to grab something from. Having fruit out on the counter is another great strategy. When you see it, you’re more inclined to grab it. The first line of defense though, try to minimize the junk coming in! 

Breathe Easy

According to the EPA, “…indoor air within homes and other buildings can be more seriously polluted than the outdoor air…”, and because we spend so much time in our homes, we’re exposed for longer periods of time. Not only is good indoor air quality crucial for reducing asthma and allergy symptoms, it can also impact other health symptoms. Ask me all about mold exposure! 

• Use Air Purifiers – One of our kiddos has pretty gnarly allergies from time to time, but after we invested in high-quality air purifiers, we saw a huge improvement in his symptoms. Even if you don’t have allergies, a good purifier can remove other pollutants and allergens from the air that could be doing harm to your body. Again, ask me about that mold! 😉 
• Houseplants – Incorporate houseplants known for their air-purifying properties, such as spider plants, snake plants, and peace lilies. Just be sure the ones you choose are safe for your pets! Be sure they drain properly to avoid mold and other fungus growth in the soil. 
• Proper Ventilation – Ensure your home is well-ventilated by using exhaust fans in kitchens and bathrooms and opening windows regularly. Come fall and spring, our windows are open as much as possible to let fresh air in! 

Goodbye Screens, Hello Connection

Creating a home environment that minimizes screen time and encourages personal connections can enhance mental health and relationships. 

• Screen-Free Zones – Designate certain areas, such as the dining room, as screen-free zones to encourage face-to-face interactions. 
• Activity Stations – Set up areas for non-screen activities, such as a reading nook or a game table. We have a whole cabinet of games in our upstairs loft, and because it’s very visible, we are always reminded that this is an option instead of screen time. We also keep a couple of small games – a deck of cards, Scrabble Flash (my favorite!), a wooden tic tac toe board, Uno – in a drawer in our living room so that a quick family game is easily accessible. 
• Weekly meetings – Schedule a weekly family meeting or just a meeting with your partner. If you’re solo, this is still important! Schedule some planning time for yourself every week. Looking ahead at the coming week, or beyond, and being proactive about what you want to accomplish, how you’re going to make it happen, and when is a game changer. Not only that, but it gives you an opportunity to discuss things that are going well and things that need some additional focus. It also fosters communication within the household, ensuring everyone is on the same page and reducing miscommunications that can result in stressful situations. 

You’ve Got to Move It Move It

For a lot of people, finding time for exercise is a challenge. There are a lot of factors that contribute to this, but designing your environment so that movement isn’t an afterthought is one thing that can help it become a habit. 

• Standing Desk – It’s so cliche, but they say that sitting is the new smoking. We sit so much more these days than ever before in human history, and we’re just not built for that. We’re built for movement! If you work from home, consider adding a riser to your desk so that you can alternate between sitting and standing throughout the day. If it’s in the budget, consider a standing desk.
• Exercise Equipment – Just like that fruit on the counter, if it’s visible, you’re more likely to do it. Keep weights, resistance bands, a yoga mat, an exercise ball, or a step bench (if you’re a stepper like me!) in plain sight. Try putting them in your office or near the TV to encourage regular movement. I often recommend that my clients set a “movement timer” for the last five minutes of every hour of their work day (you can do this at home or in the office). If you do this over the course of an 8-hour workday, that equals 40 minutes of movement. Accumulating exercise throughout the day has been shown to be quite beneficial; it doesn’t always have to be a huge commitment to matter. Out with that all-or-nothing thinking! 
• Gardening – If it’s your thing, this is a great way to combine a hobby with movement. Tending to flower beds, planting, raking, weeding, mulching – all of these require our bodies to move in a variety of ways that help keep us strong and limber. And then you can enjoy the beautiful fruits of your labor afterward, which can help reduce stress. I know my flower garden is one of my favorite areas of my home, as it’s slows me down and allows me to appreciate the beauty around me. 
• Music – Set up Bluetooth speakers around your home so that you can easily play music and dance whenever the mood strikes. I love a good dance party! Maybe you make it a pre-dinner ritual with your partner or kids to boogie before you eat.

Worthy Purchases

In the age of social media and things being so overly curated, it can feel like everything has to be just right or you have to have specific products. This can make things feel inaccessible. A great strategy is to focus on activities or products that you do or use frequently – this is the idea of “impact per touchpoint.” The more you interact with something, the greater the cumulative effect it has on your health and well-being. Therefore, investing in healthier options for these high-touchpoint items can have a significant positive impact.

• Water Filtration – Hopefully you’re drinking ample amounts of water every day. If not, start there! It’s also important to ensure your drinking water doesn’t contain contaminants, and unfortunately, most municipal water and basic filters just don’t cut it. Consider a high-quality water filtration system or even a water bottle with a built-in filter. My personal favorite is the products from Clearly Filtered. 
• Non-Toxic Products – We use an average of 12 personal care products per day, which isn’t even counting cleaning products like detergents and surface sprays. The can be chock full of harmful chemicals that accumulate in our bodies over time. Again, this doesn’t mean you have to go out and replace all of them at once – start by focusing on the products you use daily. A great resource for this is the EWG. 
• Healthy Cookware and Food Storage – Plastics and forever chemicals abound! And the research just continues to pour out about how these things are toxic to human health. For cooking, opt for stainless steel or cast iron cookware, and for storage, glass containers are the way to go. At the bare minimum, get rid of your old Teflon-coated pans that are all scratched up, and DO NOT heat your food in or on plastic. 

Systematize!

A well-organized household reduces stress and creates a more pleasant living environment. It’s not just about how orderly or cabinets are; it’s also about how well your home functions. I can simply think back to the mounds of clean laundry needing to be put away and a little pang of dread shoots through my body! Okay, okay, that may be a little dramatic, but in all seriousness, my clients tell me frequently that it’s the “operation” of their homes that adds to their stress and detracts from the time they might spend doing things that will move their health forward. 

• Chore Schedule – You don’t need to do it all yourself! Not only do many hands make light work, but I firmly believe we’re doing a great disservice to our youth by not involving them in the operations of the household. Is it harder and does it take longer initially? Yep. Is it worth it when your kids know how to clean toilets and do their own laundry? One thousand times YES. Try creating a daily and weekly chore schedule to distribute tasks evenly and ensure consistency. If you’re feeling up for seeing how AI can help, this is a great way to use it! Simply tell it all the chores you want done in a week and how many people they should be divided between, and then tell it to create a spreadsheet for you that you can import into Excel or Google sheets and print. You can even get as specific as adjusting chores for certain ages! 
• Laundry schedule – Consider a weekly laundry schedule where everyone has their own day. This means the only laundry happening on that day is for that one person (clothes and sheets) and it gets washed, dried, and put away 100%. No laundry hangovers! We also built in a catch-up day and a towels day too. I CAN NOT tell you how big of a game-changer this system was. My husband still talks about it and we’ve been doing it for 8 or more years! 
• Meal planning – It really is so powerful if you know ahead of time what you’re eating or what you’ll be preparing. So many of us scramble last minute to figure out what to eat, but this often results in eating convenience food or takeout, neither of which is typically all that good for us. We work with clients on this all the time. We start out by providing them with meal plans but with the goal of them transitioning into doing it themselves. It’s not only about knowing what to eat but also about how to consistently fit this habit into your weekly routine.

Build a Better Bedroom

Creating an environment conducive to sleep is essential for overall health, and I would argue that this is one of the most important things you can do to set yourself up for healthy habits in other areas of your life. If you’re tired, you’re not motivated, you’re moodier, and you have more cravings. All things that sabotage building healthy habits. 

• No Screens – Keep TVs and phones out of the bedroom to minimize distractions and blue light exposure. I know a lot of people still have TVs in their bedrooms – get them out! Many of us also put our phones on the nightstand at night, making it way too easy to scroll before bedtime when we could be avoiding blue light, connecting with a partner, reading, or sleeping. If you can’t keep your phone out of your room, at least put it on a dresser or other piece of furniture across the room. Also, consider using the sleep feature on your smartphone. Mine turns on at a set time every night! 
• Keep things on your nightstand that support your healthy habits. A glass of water, books, an eye mask, a red light face wand, and a notepad are always on mine. 
• Sunlight Alarm Clock – Use a sunlight alarm clock to wake up gradually with natural light.
• Comfortable Bedding – We spend so much time in bed! This is another one of those high touchpoint items, so consider investing in high-quality, comfortable bedding to ensure a restful sleep. Mattresses, pillows, sheets – they all matter! 
• Make your bed every morning. There’s just something about it that makes you feel like you’ve already slayed the day! 

Good Vibes

I couldn’t write this post without also mentioning the influence of the aesthetics in the home. Color Theory was one of my absolute favorite classes in college, and research shows that humans are impacted both psychologically and physiologically by color. Additionally, our surroundings and the setup of our spaces can impact our health. 

• Color Theory – Use colors strategically to influence mood. For example, blue and green hues can create a calming atmosphere, while yellow can energize and uplift.
• Feng Shui – While there are other design philosophies besides this one, it’s arguably the most well-known, and for good reason – the principles focus on balancing the energy in your home by positioning furniture to allow free flow of movement and using natural materials to create harmony.
• Art and Decor – Choose artwork and decor that inspire and uplift you. Personal touches and meaningful items can create a positive and nurturing environment.
• Natural Light – Try allowing as much natural light in as possible, as exposure helps regulate circadian rhythms, improves sleep patterns, and encourages a better mood.    

By embracing these principles, you can create a home that aligns with your health goals and supports and enhances your well-being. Thoughtful organization, mindful purchases, strategic design choices, and efficient systems can transform your living space into a powerful tool for nurturing your body, mind, and spirit. Start making some of these small changes today to experience the profound impact of a well-designed home on your health.