As we navigate sheltering in place, it’s a great time to embrace your space and environment. Our home is very much front and center in our lives right now – we are in it 24/7. For many of us, this is something new. With work, social life and family events, we aren’t often home this much or this long at one time. Taking the time to slow down and look around your home is the new normal and it can make you and your house better for it! How can we keep ourselves sane and use this time constructively to love our space?

Here are 5 ideas that can make staying at home more fun and more productive!

Create a new space for yourself. A dining room can become an art studio, the guest room (who has guests now?) can be your personal yoga studio. It just takes a bit of imagination and ingenuity. We all have rooms and areas that don’t get much use. For example, in my house, the formal dining room mostly collects dust. I found the light streaming in the window in the mornings to be very inviting so it’s now a new home office.

Reassess your art. For many of us, we frame a favorite piece of art or family photo, hang it on the wall and there it sits for 20 years – fading, sad and forgotten. Art framers are opening up a whole new concept these days. Send them a picture of your art, they send back options for matting and framing. They pick the piece up and in a couple weeks it’s delivered back to your doorstep. Pay online and voila! You’ve freshened the wall and still social distanced!

Channel your inner bartender. Instead of sticking to the same old drink recipes, challenge yourself with some trickier (and more exciting) cocktail recipes. Learn about wines – for those of us who don’t know anything beyond Merlot and Chardonnay there is so much out there to discover. Everyone will thank you— then pull out the good wine glasses and appetizers and share a virtual wine tasting with your friends.

Rediscover your environment. We live our lives so fast and so hectic, we hardly ever slow down to look at our home. Now is the time to really see it. Work with what you have – move accessories around, rearrange the furniture, pull down those dusty old drapes. Now is a great time to make that list of what you would love to refresh and when this is over, call your designer and say “I’m ready to make a change”!

Make it green. This is the perfect time to give your neglected plants some love. Re-pot those root bound ones. Start an herb garden in the kitchen window. Spring is here and flowers are in bloom – try your hand at flower arranging or learn online how to plant a succulent garden.

This is your opportunity to not only find new love and appreciation for your home but to see potential changes and be creative. Your home will thank you for it and soon you can look back and feel the great energy that comes from being proactive!