Victoria (A Tidy Mind – Midlands) shares the below blog & it’s all about using colour as an organisational tool. Being purposeful with colour could be the best thing you could do to improve habits, increase productivity & enhance motivation.
I have been spending these recent grey days thinking of how we use colour in our homes, and how we might use it during a decluttering and organising project to help us in creating calm in the chaos. I wanted to share with you what I have learnt.
Most of us have a favourite colour, a go to one that makes us feel good and gives us confidence. We use it to create a mood or feeling, but do we think about how it can affect our behaviour? Karen Haller (who has the most wonderful sounding job as a colour psychologist), has researched just how colour affects our behaviour. She states the following for the 4 biggest colour groups.
- Blue affects our intellect and our mental responses,
- Red affects us physically, triggering physical responses within us,
- Yellow affects our emotions, impacting on our nervous system and
- Green is the colour of balance and harmony. A balance between the mind, body and emotional self.
Her book “The little book of Colour” brilliantly explains how colour light waves affect both our conscious and subconscious when we are around them. This can be either in our clothes, homes or in nature or urban landscapes. It does not only affect our mood but in turn our behaviour.
When we are in the countryside the greens of the plants and trees make us breath more deeply.
Red is used for warning signals to grab our attention and encourage both a conscious and subconscious decision to behave as instructed.
It’s a truly fascinating topic, and got me thinking how could we use colour in our homes more directly for organising and reducing overwhelm.
Not just in interior design which is well documented at creating moods and feelings with colour.
But in specific areas we need support and assistance with.
To create behaviour in ourselves that will help us achieve our goal of a home that works for us and not against us.
So here are my top tips to get you started!
Top Tips
- When organising paperwork, try using blue files or dividers for any financial information you have. It’s no secret that many banks use blue in their colour schemes. It should help you to stay focused on the tasks which you want to be switched on for the most. If you work from home try introducing blue into your office area. Blue here should have a positive affect on your intellect and productivity.
- Give red labels ago for a burst of attention grabbing energy on your action tray or “to do” lists. Just don’t go to far. Too much red will raise your anxiety and create an internal panic. We want to create a “Hi I’m over here please come and get started with me” sort of vibe, not a screaming sergeant major in the corner of your home.
- We want to start our days with hope and optimism or stay positive during a challenging decluttering project? Introduce yellow, the colour that affects our emotions into your morning routine. A yellow mug for your morning tea or coffee, or yellow coat and bag hooks for children’s school things. If you like to keep affirmations around you to help your confidence and self esteem, have them in yellow to promote these behaviours in you.
- Laundry is a constant battle for many of us. If you know this is an areas that you avoid because is creates stress in you, try introducing green where you can. Think of green laundry baskets, and green tins or holders for your laundry powders and liquids. Using green as a way to feed in some balance and harmony will stop you dreading these tasks and go some way to motivating you to get the laundry done. However if you find green pixies and fairies that will do it all for you then I believe you have a moral duty to tell us all where to get some from!
If you want to know more about colour and how you can use in it your whole life you could try the books I’ve loved the most on this topic;
The Little Book of Colour by Karen Haller and The Secret Lives of Colour by Kassia St Clair.
I hope you find these thoughts on colour as fascinating and transformative as I have.
Thank you so much for reading x