Ed, however, always seems to feel charitable. He steps right over the parade of disorder, his mood not suffering in the least. Pamela Peeke, MD, MPH, an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, is not surprised. “Studies show women are more sensitive to their surroundings than men. For us, everything is a potential source of distress.” My special stress point: chaos on the floor, which creates chaos in my head. Yours might be the noise in your den from semis rolling down a nearby freeway or the nauseating color of the bedroom walls. But you can find peace without relocating to a Zen garden. A smidgen of motivation and some spare time (very little!) are all you need to transform a hectic house into a calming abode. Declutter your home For some, “clutter is a reminder of things that should be getting done but aren’t,” says Elaine Aron, PhD, author of The Highly Sensitive Person. “It can make you feel like a failure.” Who, me? Quick fixStraighten up a few surfaces in the areas of the house you’re in most, Aron says: “It’s when every bit of space is messy that it’s most disturbing to your mind.” Don’t bother to organize unless you have a chunk of time. Instead, arrange papers, books, and other detritus of daily living in neat piles or store them in baskets. “Just the illusion of order is enough to ease the mind,” she says. When you have more time De-stress your entryway. “The first thing you see after a long day at work sets your mood. It should be something pretty and serene,” says Kathryn Robyn, coauthor of The Emotional House. Her suggestion: Place a bouquet of flowers in the foyer; studies have found that the mere presence of plants reduces anxiety. “Also, if you have room, add a bench with hidden storage to avoid the jumble of shoes, umbrellas, and whatnots that often land on the floor here,” Robyn says. Finally, get a wall-mounted or desktop mail sorter to keep bills, letters, and the like from finding their way to the clutter pile; adding labels such as Needs Immediate Attention, Can Wait, and Magazines/Newspapers will help even more. [pagebreak]Soothe your soul with colorA few years ago, I painted my dining area peach. Big mistake: I felt my blood pressure rise every time I walked by it. “Studies show color can spark physiological reactions,” says Leatrice Eiseman, founder and director of the Eiseman Center for Color Information and Training in Bainbridge Island, WA. For instance, researchers found that heart rate and adrenaline increased in people sitting in a red room; meanwhile, shades of blue soothed them. Quick fix Scavenge the rest of your house for accessories that will tone down the offending color. Got ruby walls? Pepper the room with warm brown pillows and artwork, Eiseman suggests. The best dilution strategy, she says, is to choose a neighboring hue from the color wheel; say, soften yellows with caramel tones. When you have more time Pick up a bunch of paint chips, look at the colors one by one, and write down the first word that pops into your head. Note whether you had a positive or negative reaction. Next, take each chip you liked and use its word-association label to match it to a room. But before you coat the walls in a new shade, try out the color by painting a 10-by-10-inch square in the room; that’s big enough to let you see whether you’ll like living with it. P.S. My dining area is now a very appetizing yellow–flax, in the parlance of decorators. Lighten your moodRobyn says she once transformed a vicious boss into a pussycat by trading the low-watt fluorescent bulb in her office for a pale purple incandescent one. “It changed her whole personality,” she laughs. The reason: These bulbs mimic daylight, which has been shown to boost mood. Other aspects of lighting can affect you, as well: Too-bright and direct lighting can cause eyestrain and headaches. When you have more time Change out the direct or overhead lighting in the living room and bedrooms. “It not only creates glare, but it also casts shadows that make the room gloomy,” says Mariana Figueiro, PhD, an assistant professor of architecture at the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Instead, use fixtures that bounce light off surfaces. Lower decibels, raise spiritsNoise can kill. Seriously. A perpetually clamorous home increases a woman’s risk of heart attack up to threefold, found researchers at Charité University Medical Centre in Berlin, Germany. The 3-year study looked at women consistently exposed to irregular 50- to 70-decibel noise (that’s about as loud as a vacuum). Quick fix Try a white noise machine. (You can get one for less than $60.) “Most people are bothered by intermittent noises, like barking dogs, but at a low level, consistent sound can be quite soothing,” says James K. Wyatt, PhD, director of the Sleep Disorders Service and Research Center of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. When you have more time Hang curtains or lay down carpet if the echo off your bare floors and walls is the problem; they’ll help absorb sound. If you have noisy appliances, look for replacements with a single-digit sone rating–that measures perceived sound. (Check the label for numbers.) Finally, if loud traffic is the bane of your existence, consider putting in an 8-foot-tall wooden barrier. “While street noise is very hard to stop, a fence with a lot of angles will help break up the sound waves,” says Roger Cook, landscaper on TV’s This Old House.
