Great Escape: Create Your Very Own Oasis

If you’re like me you crawl out of bed, get dressed and make your way downstairs just in time to greet the kids.  Sometimes I leave my bedroom at 7 a.m. and don’t return until after my hubby is snoring.  Most of the time I don’t even make the bed and I’m ashamed to say that my dresser has long since been a resting place for a week’s worth of clothing, jewelry and random assortments of change, receipts, and coffee mugs.

It’s funny because the rest of my house can look more like organized chaos, but my own room is the first to be neglected.  Isn’t that such a microcosm of how we treat ourselves?  We put our wants, and sometimes our needs, dead last on the list of priorities.  When was the last time you defined getting dressed as more than throwing on a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, and maybe some lip gloss? 

Seriously!  I get to go to Annapolis once a week and work outside the home.  I didn’t realize how much something as simple as makeup could make me feel more like a woman.  However in order to pull off this maternal makeover, I have to get up at 5:30 am, which is kind of difficult when I don’t go to bed until midnight. 

Now I get that not all moms take on as much as I do.  However, before I became a work-at-home mom who never stays home, I still found it easy to neglect myself.  So what can we do about it?  It’s not like we can flip a switch and live in a world that all about us.  However, I do think that with a little bit of effort, we can create a retreat within our home, a place that is organized without the chaos, a place where our to-do list ceases to exist, where a glass of wine replaces a sippy cup.

Where better to do this than your own room?  Like I said, for most of us, it will take some effort, but the payoff will be grand.  Here are some tips for how you can make create your very own oasis without babysitters, expensive dinners, or a massage therapist (though that sounds so nice right about now).

1. Remove the toys: If you’re room is going to be a relaxing place, it must be free from kid clutter. Technically it should be free from all clutter, but let’s take this one step at a time.  Take five minutes, gather up all the toys, crayons, and sippy cups and return them to their rightful place in the house.  If it takes you longer than five minutes to purge your room of babydom, then we have a much bigger problem.

2. De-clog the clutter drain:  We’re all guilty of it; throwing our clothes onto a pile of things we’ll get to when we have time.  It might take you 15-30 minutes to de-clog your clutter drain the first time, but if you’re serious about making you’re a bedroom a retreat, then it shouldn’t be too much of a hindrance.  Just think of it as an investment.  So put it away and then bask in your cleanliness.

3. Create your oasis: Close your eyes and think about what you need to relax.  Is it a good book partnered with an even better glass of wine?  Is it journaling/blogging about your day?  Is it cozying up to your hubby and tuning into your favorite TV show?  Is it painting your toenails while listening to your iPod? Whatever it is, add the essential elements to your bedroom.  Make it easy for you to relax, because if it requires a ton of effort to do what we like, we simply won’t do it. 

4. Add the finishing touches:  I’m not one to tell you how to run your home.  So I’ll just tell you how we typically run ours.  Our room is off limits to the kids unless we’ve invited them in.  This does cut down on the amount of kid clutter, but it also helps me to feel like it’s my own space.

Just for fun, maybe treat yourself to a few fun accents or complete that improvement project you’ve been putting off since you moved in.  We still have pictures propped up against the wall just waiting to be hung.

5. Now enjoy:  Once you’ve created your oasis, go and enjoy it.  You deserve it.

I’ve decided it’s time to stop neglecting that part of the house just because I don’t spend much time there.  Actually I probably don’t spend much time there because I do in fact neglect it.  I’m not saying we have to invest a ton of time, energy, and money into this project.  It’s not like we’re creating a room at the plaza.  You’re simply allowing your space to be a reminder of how precious you are and how sometimes you deserve a place where you can escape to without having to leave the home.