You Ask, We Answer: How Can I Manage Home Renovation Anxiety?
If you’re in the midst of renovating your Connecticut home, you may be feeling the all-too-common stress and anxiety that comes with such a huge lifestyle disruption. In fact, renovating a home is a major life stressor–so take heart; you’re not alone! While you’re creating your dream house, why not try these simple tips to manage your renovation anxiety? You may be surprised just how helpful they are–and how they can see you through until the last nail is hammered.
Why is renovating a house so stressful?
Home renovations are bound to be stressful. No matter how laid back your personality is, the disruption to your daily life can add up, even if you’re not living in the house while the improvements are going on. There are contractors to manage, budgets to keep track of, permits to pull, and inspections to undergo–not to mention the “fun” parts of actually designing and choosing your new interior or exterior touches!
What are simple tips to help manage home renovation anxiety?
Get out and about
Whether you’re living in the house while it’s being renovated or staying elsewhere during the process, it’s important to take a break from living in, or thinking about, your Connecticut home renovation. A change of scenery can do wonders to help ease stress and anxiety, even helping you compartmentalize what’s happening in your home. Focusing solely on the project will only feed the flames of stress and anxiety; try to get away for the day or even overnight to recharge and relax before turning your thoughts to your renovation once more.
Keep talking
As with anything important in life, keeping the lines of communication open during your home renovation is crucial to success and less stress. Talking to your partner about your concerns and making decisions together can help keep arguments from brewing and exploding when you least expect it.
And, communicating with your project manager and other contractors helps ensure you understand what’s being worked on, how long it will take, how much it will cost, and what you can expect from each step. Having calm, productive conversations is the goal here; doing so will keep everyone, including your contractors, feeling more relaxed–and that means the work can continue without tempers flaring.
Relinquish (a bit) of control
Covid-19 has taught us many things over the past 2 years, but when it comes to renovating your Connecticut home, perhaps Covid’s most important lesson is to relinquish control. To be clear: We’re not suggesting you give over all control all together! But learning to roll with the punches can be invaluable when renovating your Connecticut home.
Delays are now a normal part of our lives, from that refrigerator you need for the kitchen to the vanity you’ve ordered for the bathroom. While it’s not ideal, chances are, you’ll probably experience a delay (or four) in your home renovation project. Allotting extra time in your renovation schedule, having backup choices for materials or appliances, and learning to live with your reality vs. your expectations can all help lessen anxiety in the long run.
Keep your routine
We know, we know. It sounds so much easier said than done! But hear us out. When your home is undergoing changes, be they in the kitchen, in the bathroom, or all over (!), your life is thrown into turmoil–even if you aren’t living at the property at the time. Sticking to your everyday routine can help mitigate the stress and anxiety of all this change, because you have it to fall back on for security and time management. If you love to go for a run early in the morning, do that. If you have a habit of sitting down to mealtimes as a family, don’t let your renovation get in the way of this important time. Sure, you may be eating takeout on milk crates for a while, but if you can still find time to connect with one another, focus on that. These small routine actions can help you keep your sanity until your Connecticut dream home becomes reality!
