How to Create an Intentional Home
Featuring: Britnee Tanner
Interview & video by: Catie Menke
Copy by: Shannon Holt
Whether we like it or not, spending the majority of our time at home has become the new normal. No more going into the office for work or out to dinner for date night or booking a last minute weekend getaway. All these things we would normally leave the house for are now things we do within our own space.
With that being our reality these days, it makes sense to start a conversation around intention where we are spending our time...at home.
Art Direction by: Catie Menke. Photograph by: Shannon Holt. Location: SMoCA.
In last week’s monthly video, Catie explained that the theme for June was “intentional”. To get the conversation going, Catie recently sat down with Britnee Tanner to discuss how we can incorporate intentional living into our lives by simply starting at home.
Intentional living is all about being aware, staying present and being mindful of our choices and decisions. It’s about asking yourself if your choices thus far have led you to living the life you truly want. Your home might not seem like the most obvious place to start when wanting to become more mindful, but as Britnee explains in the conversation with Catie, your home can play a huge role in how you feel on a daily basis.
Art Direction by: Catie Menke. Photograph by: Shannon Holt. Location: SMoCA.
The first step in creating a more intentional home, is truly understanding what an intentional home is. Britnee explains “when you walk through your door take notice of the feelings you have as you look around.” Pay close attention to those feelings and notice any sense of disconnect between what the reality of your space is and what you truly want it to be like.
Again, intentional living is about paying close attention to how your choices and decisions make you feel. If your home is not filled with pieces and things you love, it will affect how you feel, and “how you feel is everything.”
After you’ve taken stock of how your home makes you feel, it’s time to start focusing on how to make it a more intentional space. Britnee breaks this down into two steps:
Walk through your door as a guest or a stranger and pay attention to what your eyes or feelings are drawn to. By identifying these things, you will be able to identify the things you need to add more of or the things you need to discard.
Take notice of both the seen and unseen. The seen being your paint colors, your furniture and decor choices. The unseen are things like the way your house smells or the cleanliness of the air within your home.
Just as important as cleanliness is to keeping and maintaining an intentional home, organization plays just as an important role. Britnee recommends really paying attention to how things are organized within your home and how that makes you feel. Does the lack or organization impact your mood negatively? Does a certain space always seem to collect the clutter and stress you out? Those are the spaces you need to focus on according to Britnee.
Britnee recommends starting with one space a week and more specifically to start with the one space that seems to affect your mood the most. As a way to keep momentum and motivation in the organization of your home, Britnee has her clients take before and afters. Seeing progress pictures can really help to keep you motivated and prepared to continue your journey to a more intentional home.
At a time when our homes are everything to us, where we work, where we play, where we have date nights, we need to understand how powerful our home environment really is. Britnee explains that while it’s often overlooked, being intentional about what we fill our spaces with (both seen and unseen) and how we organize our things, can really have a positive impact in our lives.
Follow Britnee at
Website: britneetanner.com
Instagram: @britneetanner
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