How does rearranging your furniture relate to creativity and mood elevation?
Psychology experts argue that an impact on your environment—whether an imprint or a removal—lifts your mood, provides concrete satisfaction, and instills a sense of effectiveness. Inner and outer harmony happen when pieces are placed in a way that makes sense for you. Think about feng shui: “What feng shui decorating means is that you create an environment that has the best energy to support the specific activity, or activities, intended for that space.” (Rodika Tchi). Wikipedia defines feng shui as harmonizing human existence with the surrounding environment.
Designing a new space provides an opportunity of artistry as well as comfort. As you re-arrange your personal space, you hone your aesthetic and identify what you truly love, want, or need. Such specificity brings relief, and re-purposing what’s there is a feel-good option opposed to buying new things. Improvement occurs without buyer’s remorse and additional objects to manage. You’ll feel clever, creative, and resourceful, and the removal of clutter spurs energy and sparks joy in you.
And as if that wasn’t enough reason to rearrange your room, here are a few other, practical ones:
You get to clean under heavy pieces.
That sofa that hasn't moved in millennia? Unless you're diligent about cleaning under it – all the way under it – it's probably hiding an amalgamation of cat toys, crumbs and dust bunnies.
You avoid awkward tan lines.
No doubt you've noticed that one arm of your favorite upholstered chair is looking a little more faded than the other. Natural light is a good thing, but not always to fabric. Moving your layout around gives those pieces a chance to even out their tan lines.
You get to even out carpet dents.
The longer your layout is stagnant, the worse those rug divots get. Move things around periodically and use the ice cube trick to fluff up those dents.
It's a chance to purge.
The minute you start to rearrange furniture, you'll begin to move things out of the way – a stack of magazines, a bunch of kick-knacks – which gives you a chance to evaluate what you want to keep in your home. If you're moving a storage unit like a bookshelf or chest of drawers, you'll likely end up cleaning those out, too, to make them easier to move around the room.
It extends the life of your flooring.
If your new layout changes the flow of your room, you're also altering traffic patterns and evening out the natural way the floor wears down. A new layout also gives you a chance to hide scuffs or other uglies on the old pathways, which psychologically buys you more time to live with your old floors as well.