LIVID Magazine, Living it Daily CHRISTINE BLANCHETTE

Unsure where to begin to have less clutter in your home, and more of a harmonious space? Charisse Marei, an eco-conscious lifestyle expert offers her tips on how to create a healthy home.

Here is our Q&A

Q: What are there some ways to make your home cozier?

CM: Creating simple DIY mini compositions is a quick and doable way to shift the energy in every room of your home. To eliminate overwhelm, start with ‘one room at a time’. This is a highly effective approach that supports the home and well-being connection. It also provides clarity and eliminates overwhelm.

• Create an itemized list for each room!
• What do you need to bring into the space to embrace the cozy feeling?
• What do you need to remove? Toss it? Relocate?
• Consider color, texture, lighting, scent, and accent pieces.

Simplicity is key. One example is the use of color. It is an intricate design tool that characterizes interior spaces and projects emotion to inspire and uplift, harmonize, and balance your home and well-being.

Color invokes a room’s tone. Note the body, mind, and spirit connection of color.

• Red stimulates
• Orange energizes
• Yellow uplifts
• Green balances
• Blue calms
• Lighter neutral colors open and expand the space
• Dark colors create the opposite feel

Before deciding on the color, ask yourself what feeling you want to promote for yourself, others, and the room.

• Energizing, calm, subtle, bold?
• Your choices for the space will ultimately reflect your personal style story.
• Perhaps a simple application of painting one wall an accent color is an ideal solution.

Q: What are some healthy home tips?

CM: Cleansing tips to stay healthy:

Remove shoes before entering interior living spaces.

Use organic, plant-based, therapeutic-grade household cleaners.

Avoid synthetic chemical-laden products such as air fresheners, fragrances, body products, candles, and laundry products. Replace with pure, natural, organic products.

Open the windows and let the fresh, clean air in. It’s rich in oxygen and ions.

Q: With sports equipment how do you store properly?

CM: Accessibility with ease is key to keeping you in balance and your home clutter-free. An all-in-one entry storage cabinet with open and/or closed cabinetry satisfies your quest. To create more space within the cabinet add storage baskets to the open shelf areas. When applicable, utilize the open space between the side(s) of the cabinet and the wall to store tall, oddly shaped, and bulky equipment. Add hooks with mollies to the back wall to store items such as laced shoes, drawstring bags, and leashes. Cabinet placement locations—main entry, garage entry, rear entry, laundry room, garage. Keep odors at bay with all-natural plant-based options such as a transportable diffuser, therapeutic grade essential oils, or my personally designed mini gem diffuser.

Q: Do diffusers help clear the air?

CM: Yes, many options are available for the home and for travel. There are multiple diffusers within my home and on each level. I most often recommend diffusers to my design clients and Young Living customers. The type of diffuser and essential oils to use varies and is dependent upon square footage, user, age, and purpose. The most recommended methods for cleansing the air from harmful particulates are lime, thieves, and purification. You will find a bottle in my home office, laundry room, and extras in a designated kitchen drawer.

CM: Bring a touch of beauty and healthy living nature into your home with fresh greenery and splashes of rich flowery color. Consider cleansing plants to remove air-borne toxins and improve indoor air quality (IAQ) such as aloe, bamboo palm, and Gerber daisy. Arrangements include air plants in salt holders, hanging string gardens, wall pockets in airy mesh pouches, and decorative terra-cotta clay pots. Accent compositions with small stones, bamboo sticks, old drink stir, and secure wispy greens with mini hair clamps.

Q: In your opinion, which room should be the main space to give that comfortable feeling?

CM: The bedroom is one of the most important rooms in the home regardless of gender and age. It’s your private mini sanctuary, your special place to release, renew, revitalize—3Rs, in a comfy and oh so healthy environment. When you apply these essential transformational steps you will feel an upward shift in health, vitality, comfort, and clarity.

The Overall Bedroom:

1. Circulate clean, breathe-able air with a transportable air purifier.
2. Remove excess “stuff” to embrace calm and tidiness.
3. Promote tranquility through the use of soft hues, textures, and patterns on walls, windows, and floors.

The Bed

1. Choose beds without metal to improve the quality of sleep.

2. Ditch chemical-laden mattresses that off-gas while awake and asleep. Look for natural, certified organic mattresses made with materials such as cotton, wool, and natural latex.

3. To maximize health, seek pure, organic, or organic Gots-certified bedding. Be mindful of layering up a connection where natural beauty meets comfy. To outfit the bed, start with a pillow and mattress protectors and a mattress pad or topper, embellish with irresistibly plush 300 thread count sheets, a cozy blanket that wears well, and a top with an invitingly subtle duvet comforter. Place two or three European pillows in front of the headboard, sleeping pillows, and decorative pillows in splashes of color to complete the look.

Learn more at Charisse Marei and Follow me on insta! @charissemarei