If you were to pick your favorite escape, the place you’d go to feel refreshed, more fully alive, and in touch with what you most love, where would you go? Close your eyes and picture yourself heading there right now. Perhaps you would head to a local coffeehouse or travel to a charming seaside inn. Maybe your mind travels through time to a place you used to love.

So often the highlight of the year is our vacation, the time we leave our home to go to a different place to rest and rejuvenate. Those getaways from everyday stress and routine are important, but our home is where we spend most of our time. It should be the place that nurtures us and enhances our life, perhaps as much or more than any other place on earth. With some attention to detail and a few extra touches, we can create the mood we long for right where we eat, sleep, live life, and daydream.

The real secret to creating a beautiful space isn’t found in just buying the right things or even in having a perfect house to begin with. Everything may not be perfect, in fact, it WON’T BE PERFECT no matter how hard we try. But our home is what we make of it. It’s in knowing how to create a place that evokes a feeling.

Here are eight tips that can help you be on your way to a happy home:

1. Fall in love with one corner. If your home seems as if it’s falling apart, create one happy corner in your study, dining room, or bedroom.
2. Go back to basic routines. As you do laundry, cook, or empty the dishwasher, think about how you are improving your home and state of mind. Tidy, putter, relax. Remind yourself of the simple routines, habits, and rhythms that give you peace.
3. Let home be the centerpiece of your joy. What are 20 things you look forward to doing in your home? Sort books, create a new display of accessories, rearrange furniture, and place inspiring quotes and photos of people you love around your home. Being optimistic today ensures more joy tomorrow.
4. Reset the day. Step away from a stressful house project to change your disposition. Take a walk, sip coffee on the porch, or window-shop to reset the day toward happiness.
5. Dream. Imagine the things you would do to your home if time or money were unlimited. Then decide how to make one of those dreams come true soon with a little creativity.
6. Count those blessings. Thankfulness for the home you have is an important part of loving life. If you are frustrated by a lack of progress, count the things you love about your home as is.
7. Treat yourself. What would make you happy right now? A new pillow in your reading nook chair? A fresh doormat? Pretty, plush towels? A woven basket for your mail? Simple treats can make a big difference in your mood, motivation, and creativity.
8. Share your home. Invite friends over to enjoy a space you recently saved from clutter. Gather neighbors on your porch for an impromptu dessert. Hospitality, laughter, and shared moments will remind you of all that makes you happy.

It’s a choice to create and express happiness with what we have and savor it in every way we can. Your home can spark happiness and comfort, joy and peace—whatever you envision as the perfect mood for your escape from the world right there in your own sanctuary.

A happy home is worth passionately pursuing and guarding, both in our attitude and our actions. While safe, calm, peaceful or relaxing are all great words to inspire our home environment, the desire to create a happy home should be one of our top goals as a homemaker.

Adapted from: Simple Decorating: 50 Ways to Inspire Your Home. Copyright © 2017 by Melissa Michaels. Published by Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, Oregon. www.harvesthousepublishers.com. Used by Permission.