My home is safe and it’s tucked away on a peaceful road. It’s very small with a tiny kitchen but I love it. It has a little garden at the back and I’m near to a cricket ground which is lovely to hear when the games are on. I have a low fence at the back but the neighbours are nice and I can have a little chat. I too hope I can always live here. It’s a little sanctuary and I don’t want to ever leave it.

I like my flat because it's large, on the first floor, so safe from flooding and not many stairs to climb.

Outside I have a woodland area, a stream going past, a pond a couple of minutes away. Plenty of wildlife, foxes, squirrels, a grey Heron, kingfishers, ducks, moor hens.

The neighbors are neither nosy or noisy.

A good bus route, shops within ten minutes.

I am on the edge of town so countryside nearby. I too love watching birds in the garden. That is one way of making me relax. I also find pegging out washing enjoyable as I breathe in the fresh air and watch birds going to and fro.

Apart from that I like everything being familiar, from the bed, sofa, to my own kitchen and bathroom and having everything I need. Familiar smells are important too.

I like the following:

• I've always been here and it holds many special memories.
• It's my sanctuary and safe space where I don't have to mask and can be "real".
• It's private. On its own with no one nearby.
• There's a lake behind it and sometimes I see ducks and geese fly in.
• The garden is quite big and full of flowers and beautiful bushes. It smells lovely in the summer.

Thanks Kate! Those houses behind have flat roofs too (like my own), so there's this illusion of a millpond sheen on some of them (the ones that angle away) after a heavy downpour. Combine that with the golden light and longer shadows of Autumn and you get an almost picture-book quality at times. I don't want to overstate my view as something objectively incredible (I'm sure some people would just shrug) but it's special to me. One part of the 'vista' was recently cut off though. I used to have a view to the right of the mountain of the hill on which our devolved government's home, Stormont, sits. It glitters most beautifully at night, but now my neighbours have put a big shed between me and that. They're nice people and it's their right to do so, it's just knowing what I'm missing... I can still see it if I stand on tiptoes on the decking, but that just makes me look like a nosy neighbour so I ration that a lot. 

Sounds idyllic, Kate. Lovely description. Hot water bottle is a good call too, I love getting into the time of year where that's needed and appreciated. Though I've just acquired an electric blanket, so that might take its place.

That sounds really lovely Shardovan - the view sounds really beautiful. I love the image of the gentle wisps of smoke from the chimneys of the houses below your window. I love walks at dusk too - and in the autumn it can be especially nice. I don’t like intensely hot weather - so I really enjoy the beginning of autumn and that chill in the air. I’m glad you love your home - it lovely to read about how happy it makes you. 

It’s a really interesting question isn’t it? It’s a nice thing to think about - so thanks for posting it on here

My home is in the countryside too - in a village. The windows at the back of my house look out on to fields and trees and I feel really lucky to have that. Home should be a place of safety and comfort - and much of the time it feels that way to me. However when my anxiety is really bad I sometimes feel the need to get out as my home can feel like a place where I’m stuck in a ‘groove’ of thinking that I cannot break free of - so getting out is also important to me when I feel like that. And then by the time I come home again I’m very tired and glad to get home and rest - so it can get that restless feeling out of my system. 

Like you I have lots of favourite things in my home that make me happy - things I’ve collected over the years from antique fairs etc - I enjoy having them around me. My husband and son live with me and they’re the best thing about my home - without them I would not feel so safe and cosy in my home. I love my radio as it keeps me company if I wake up in the night - I learn a lot and discover new things from listening to the radio. I love having access to music too through Apple Music and I connect it to my stereo so that the sound is really rich and beautiful. I have paintings on my wall that I’ve done too - I enjoy having them around me as it reminds me that I can be productive and make something that’s worthwhile (it’s very important to be reminded of this when I’m feeling low). I also love my bed of course! And on my bedside table I have a selection of books that I can turn to for all sorts of interesting and soothing things. I have some Buddha statues that are there to remind me what’s important in life, and what’s not really important too. I love my hot water bottle too - it’s very comforting to have that. 

I also have a garden and love watching the birds in the garden. I realise how fortunate I am to have a garden and even like pegging out the washing on the line because it’s very peaceful as beyond the garden there is only a farm so it’s really quiet most of the time. 

You say not a lot, but in a way it's everything. Simplifying to what's important, and meaningful, and grounding. And cutting off the churn of the world, the poison of comparison. 

“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” (Pascal)

I think a rare few of us might be ahead of the curve on that one. 

Home is sanctuary. That's the most fundamental thing. No matter how saturated with sensory overload, crippling self awareness, and stress I can get in the wilds beyond the walls (everywhere from the office to streets to shops to.... any number of environments), there is always that moment of closing the front door behind me and feeling at last shielded from the cumulative bombardment of ambient complexity. Not that I immediately relax, but the quiet and the privacy and the sense of (as you said as well) familiar things, and a space I have control over and ownership of do begin to get me into a better and less dysregulated mental/emotional state. I live alone, and some solitude in the day is generally crucial to my staying well, even if I see the importance of balance in that too. 

I moved into my home a year ago. It is a bungalow in a quiet cul de sac, and (for a house in the city suburbs) has a surprisingly therapeutic view. The houses behind fall away on a lower level (it's nice to have the gentle wisp of smoke from their chimneys just in the periphery of vision) so I have a massive bit of sky, and a clear view out to a mountain that takes on many hues over any given day. My sofa is next to a big floor to ceiling picture window affording a great view of all of it. A neighbour's apple tree overhangs my side and softens the edges of the border between. There is a little bit of gentle wild in my garden - brambles, and ivy, and I let the grass grow fairly long as the birds seem to like the cover. It's a little bit of mindfulness to watch them and try and suspend rumination as I do so. I have a lovely old piano too, that I can turn my head to watch the view from as I play. I have a tiny kitchen, with little wooden double doors that can seal it off at an angle but just as often sit open. I have no plans to expand it. it's the last surviving 'as it was' kitchen in the street (the houses were built in the Sixties) and I like it that way. The lounge is, accordingly, generously proportioned but still cosy in its way. 

I'm a homebird by nature, quite indoorsy really, but I sometimes like to take a walk around dusk or after dark, in the autumnal chill, and then step back into the comforting warmth. I hope I spend the rest of my days in my house, however long that turns out to be.