EP78 Simple Things We Can Do At Home When The World Feels Overwhelming

I'm back and in this episode, I’m sharing a personal update on why the podcast returned a little later than planned… and where it’s heading next. 

Life, business, a new renovation project, RenoVersity updates, and even a book in the works have all been bubbling away behind the scenes.

But more than that, I wanted to talk about something many of us are quietly carrying right now: the weight of the world.

When global news cycles feel relentless, economic pressures build, when identity and belonging feel fragile, it can all feel very overwhelming. 

Inside I look at some small, simple things we can all do at home to gently reset and find a moment of sanctuary from the outside world, and these cold, dark months of the year.
From simple rituals to finding reasons to celebrate, lets explore what can we do inside our homes to feel steady again?

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Hi I'm your host, Tash South I'm an Interior Designer and Renovation Consultant, and I'm here to help you design, renovate and style your home better. Let's create your dream home together. 

Each episode of How To Renovate is short, but brimming with practical advice to help you manage your renovation project with confidence and success.

Grab some more renovation advice & free resources and become part of the South Place Studio Renovation Community at
https://www.southplacestudio.com/freebies

Everything I teach about renovation falls within my Five Pillar Process for A Successful Renovation, to learn more about the process, head to
https://www.southplacestudio.com/pillars 

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Transcript

A Heavy Start To The Year

Why The Podcast Is Pivoting

Fewer Episodes, Deeper Content

Guests, Formats And Video Changes

Big Life Update: New Projects

Flat Renovation And Freeholder Lessons

Rethinking The Online Course

Writing A Book On Home And Healing

Simple Ways To Feel Better At Home

Rituals: Corners, Light And Music

Switching Off News And Social

Calm Spaces, Clutter And Control

Finding Joy In Seasonal Celebrations

Hosting When You Do Not Feel Like It

Surround Yourself With Meaning

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, hello everybody. I cannot believe that we are more than halfway through February, and I did promise that I would be bringing the podcast back around the middle of January. But to be honest, life has been life hard and so much has been happening. I have been really busy with projects, but I've also been reconsidering so many different things about my business and this podcast and just everything in general. And I have lots of updates for you, but at the same time, whilst all of this is going on, hasn't the world just felt completely overwhelming? I don't know if you are feeling it, but I feel like so many people I'm speaking to right now, with all of the news cycles, the social media, global events, economic pressure, certain files that are being released. The extent of how many people are involved in to be honest, such evil acts have all just completely overwhelmed me. And it's taken me a while to kind of settle back into the new year, including having a very, very busy few weeks as well as we've come into 2026. And I find that to manage all of these things while the world feels really quite big and scary at the moment, really does affect me quite badly. I do find I am quite sensitive to world news and world events, and I think that is particularly because they do somehow turn out to affect me in real life. I am a woman, I am a woman of colour, I am an immigrant, I am a mother of two daughters, and so all of the world events in terms of all the news, immigration, and how immigrants are portrayed so negatively in the press and online, on ice in America, on what is happening in the UK, it all kind of comes into my life in a way, and I find it's probably not always the best way to be, and I sometimes wish I could be a little bit different and less sensitive about these things, but these things do come and affect me, and I feel like they do affect many other people as well, from the friends I've been speaking to. You know, it's it's really hard to some days just guess up and go and carry on with your regular life and all of your responsibilities when the world just feels heavy. So in this episode today, I just wanted to come back to you first of all in this new year and welcome you back to the podcast and just give you some updates on what's been happening with me, but also what the future holds for the podcast, because of course I want to keep it going, but I want to make some changes as well. So let's start there. So the podcast has been going for about two years now, just over two years, I think, and I have been releasing an episode every week. So, in the vein of trying to slow things down a bit, spend more time on some other parts of the business and some other things in life, I wanted to slow down the podcast a bit in a way so only have two episodes a month, so every two weeks I'll release an episode. But the episodes are going to start being a lot more intentional. I feel like I've covered so much to do with renovation that you can almost revisit all the previous episodes and see it as a mini course because there's so much information in there, so much practical advice, and how I would like to take the podcast forwards is to make the content a little bit deeper and talk more about what our homes mean to us. I want to invite more guests onto the podcast, and I want to talk more about how they make their homes. I want to have various types of guests on, and I want it to be more conversational from this point onwards. And of course, those episodes will take a lot more work, finding the guests, interviewing them, going to them perhaps. So those episodes will take a lot more time to produce and to pull together. That's why I think it will be great to take it down to one episode every two weeks rather than an episode every single week. Because then I can spend more time on putting deeper content into every episode. So that's the direction I am looking to take the podcast in in 2026. I have a couple of great guests lined up already, and there are so many more I'd like to approach and bring on. And also on the podcast, every single week I have been recording on videos. I don't know if you've watched ever on YouTube. I know most people listen to the audio. If you don't know, every episode has been video so far and released on YouTube as well. So the solo episodes are going to be from now on mostly audio only. I will, of course, still produce YouTube videos, but in terms of videos of myself, I think it just makes it a little bit easier to sometimes do that on audio and provide graphics and images and inspiration on the video rather than me just speaking. So in terms of having a video episode every single week, that also takes a lot of pressure off me, and I can then focus on having the video episodes solely for the guest episodes. So, in terms of changes to the podcast, those are along the lines I'm thinking at the moment, but watch this space, I might change my mind, but I think if I do it that way, I will be able to bring you much deeper content, much better content, some great conversations with guests about how they make their homes. I'll be bringing on some other industry experts, and so I want to just make it into a much wider range of topics for you. So that kind of covers where the podcast is heading. But in terms of what I've been up to and why I've only just brought you the first episode of the podcast in February and not January as I promised, is because life and business have been just going 100 miles an hour. I have a few projects on the go. I've just bought a little property, a one-bedroom flat, which needs complete renovation in London. So that has been taking up a lot of my time and is throwing a lot of challenges my way. And I will definitely do an episode about that because, like with every single project that I talk about on the podcast, every single project will send you some different and unique challenges that you may not have had to deal with before. And as many projects as I've done, every single project has got some new challenge to throw at me. So this little project has thrown many challenges my way, including having to damp proof the entire building, suddenly becoming a freeholder, which I hadn't done before, so that's been a massive learning curve. Taking on freeholder responsibilities for other leaseholders in the building and discovering what that means, the extra work I have to do. And of course, I want to do a good job at that. So I've been spending a lot of my time researching, speaking with various professionals and experts in the field to find out how I can be the best freeholder I can be. So all of those things have taken up a huge amount of my time. And also, I have been working on my online home renovation course for university. It's going to be relaunched soon. I've been making some changes to that. There have, again, been some huge challenges in terms of online courses. With AI, with everything changing so quickly, it's been really difficult to keep up with what people want online, what they are willing to pay for, how I can best help them with their renovation projects within the course. And so I'm looking at the course as a whole, looking at how I can make it better, how I can make it more affordable for people to be able to manage paying for it, perhaps in a different way. So all of that is coming soon. I've been working really hard on that, trying to figure out where to take it next, and you will receive updates on that really soon. So if you're not on our mailing list and you want to keep in touch on how Reniversity is going and how you can join the course, you can go onto my website at southplacestudio.com forward slash reniversity. Get on the wait list there, and you'll receive all the updates about the course. And also on top of everything else, I have been working on the most exciting project. I've been actually working on my first book and I've written enough to start approaching publishers. This is very exciting for me. It's something I've been wanting to do since around about 2019-2020. I've been working on the content and the ideas for a book. And the book is going to be about interior design. But much like the podcast is doing a bit of a pivot, I want the book to be along those same lines where it go really goes deeper into our well-being, our heritage, really what home means to us, how we can make our homes reflect that, how our homes can help heal us and protect us if we've ever been exposed to any sort of trauma or childhood trauma, how we can make our homes so that they can help to heal us. So, watch this space. I'm in the very early stages, and I am really hoping that a publisher will take it on and I'll be able to get this work out there into the world and to you as well. So, really exciting news there, and I really, really hope and will be working hard to try and bring that into reality. So, that is all I've been up to. So it's quite a lot, and I hope you'll forgive me for only bringing you this episode a little bit late now in February. But this episode is all about the simple things and what we can do at home when the world just feels so big, so scary, so overwhelming, and to be honest, just a bit out of control. And I know that affects us as humans. I know it affects me for sure. So I just wanted to do a short episode on this topic and what we can do at home to basically just make us feel a bit better about things, make us feel better about the world, make us feel better about ourselves, and just you know, small things we can do at home, simple things we can do once a day, once a week, when everything outside just feels so chaotic. What can we do within our homes to make it feel like a calm and supportive place? So let's get into the episode. So, number one, let's talk about some rituals we can do at home. And I think you know, small things that we build into our day or build into our week can really be a lovely thing to make our homes feel calm, to make ourselves feel calm, and it can make our homes just feel like that safe space that we need right now, where we can be ourselves, where we can escape everything, where we can have our homes as a little sanctuary to just for a moment escape what is happening in the world. And I have to admit, with everything I've just told you about how busy things have been, I have not had much time myself to build some rituals into my home and into my life. And to be honest, I've really felt that. I've felt that the business and the stress of the world have have affected me, and I will be making an effort myself to do some of these things. So little rituals you can build into your home, they don't have to be massive things, they can be small things like preparing a room or a corner one at a time, making it calm, clearing it out, putting a lovely cozy chair where you could have a reading corner with some books and a candle or a particular spot in your home where you might like where the how the light comes in. It might be a certain time of day where you notice some gorgeous light comes into your home, and you've always thought about putting a chair there or putting a cozy spot there where you could just take a few moments and actually sit and enjoy that, maybe with a book, maybe with a a tea or a coffee or a drink, and just somewhere to take a moment to sit and to do something for five minutes for you to have your me time in a particular spot every day or every couple of days. Believe me, I I know how difficult it is to build in these things into your daily life. Sometimes I even struggle to do th these things once a week, but I do think if we prepare a place and we put effort into preparing a place, it will give us a reason to use that spot or that place. And it could be really something as simple as placing a chair in a nice spot. It could be something really lovely like playing some music while you cook. I have started doing this actually. I always used to light some candles, put some music on, and then start cooking, and the kids would be around doing their homework, or they might be having a moment watching TV while I was preparing the dinner. And I always found that just taking 30 seconds to light a candle and pop some music on while you're cooking, it just resets the mind from busy daytime to switching it over to now you're relaxing into your evening time and doing something that you're you actually enjoy. I really enjoy cooking, I love trying new recipes, and so for me that's just something that I can just switch off for a minute and just enjoy the process of cooking a really nice meal. So it doesn't have to be a major thing, these can be small rituals that you fit into your daily life. It could be to do around relaxing, it could be to do around exercise, it could be around having time to take a bath, a really nice bath a couple of times a week, and making sure that your bathroom is really nice for that once a week when you do that. It's clean, it's tidy, it's got everything you need. You can light a candle, you can play some music, watch something on Netflix, you know, it could be anything really, really simple that just gives you a moment to reset. Number two, the next thing I'd like to speak about is to be able to control what's within your four walls. And I have to say, I actually used to get annoyed at people when they used to tell me this. I've always not been privileged enough to not have to pay attention to the news, to the world, to what was happening. I grew up during segregation in South Africa, during the 80s and the 90s, and politics was everywhere. It it wasn't almost a choice that you could even switch off from it. It it almost felt like a privilege to me to know that people were just living in the world and they were privileged enough not to have to pay attention to what was going on in the world. So when people used to say to me, when I used to get upset about what's happening in the world or you know, a certain news story, people used to always say to me, you know, don't take it to heart so much. You can focus just on yourself, focus just on your family with what's going on in your own home because that's all you can control. And I have to be completely honest, that used to annoy me quite a lot. But at the moment, with how much is actually happening in the world, I'm finding that I'm leaning more towards that type of thinking. And I am seeing the benefits of sometimes just not watching the news or not looking at social media for two to three days in a row, and just to switch off for a bit, not look at it, and just focus on what is happening in within my own home and with my own friends. And that has actually really helped me because you don't need to know every single angle and news story. You can get a general sense of what is happening in the world if you check in every few days or once a week. And I find that has really helped me to try and focus on my own home, whether it's just making it especially lovely if we have guests coming over, whether it's making it cozy in the evenings by dimming the lights, making it calm, making a really nice atmosphere for when we're going to sit down and watch a family film together, or even just have a meal, just the four of us. And so I think those little things like just keeping your own space calm, in control, clear, clean, and with a good atmosphere that makes you feel good, I think that really can help us with just feeling calmer, you know, resetting our nervous system a little bit and making it feel like that there is something you can be in control of, and that is generally within our own homes and our own decisions and our own choices. If you've been listening for a while, you know I've talked quite a lot about clutter and the mental load that clutter brings and the visual chaos which increases stress in our brains and in our lives, and so I think this has really helped me as well. It's just trying to keep everything calm, clear, uncluttered always helps me. I know that's not for everybody, some people it doesn't bother them, but I do know that there have been studies carried out where visual clutter and overwhelm really does affect us. Whether we recognize it or feel it or not, our brains don't really like it. So having some time just to clear surfaces, put stuff away, have a clear-up, take some stuff to charity. Even that, even just taking some stuff to charity, is something that can make you feel good and makes you feel like you're you're helping someone else. And I feel like that even gives me a tiny little boost is just to be able to have a clear space and makes you feel like you're helping someone else who may be in need, even if it's in a tiny, tiny little way. And number three, something I want to talk about, which is something quite lovely, and I've noticed that particularly one or two of my friends do. So in January here in the UK, I mean the weather is usually quite atrocious. It's dark, it's generally quite rainy, it's obviously cold, and in February as well, the same. But this year has been particularly bad for rain. It just feels like it's been raining forever. And we were lucky enough to go to Cape Town over Christmas and New Year, and we had a lovely time in the sunshine, and then we came back to London only for it to rain constantly, I think almost every single day since we've been back. So, personally, coming from the southern hemisphere, that has been a lot to deal with as well. But I have a few friends who also find the weather quite difficult here at this time of year, and they have started celebrating every single holiday or occasion that they can find across the world calendar just to bring some joy into these two months, and so I went to my friend's house a few weeks ago. We had Burns Night, which is a Scottish holiday celebrating the writer and poet, which I didn't even really know about, but they said come over for Burns Night, we had Scottish activities, we had Scottish food, which my friend excelled at making taste really delicious, and we just had a random night where we all got together, we celebrated Burns Night, even though none of us are Scottish, but it was so interesting to learn about why this day existed, a bit of history about it, some fun games to do around the subject. We had some really great food. Um, all our kids went and they joined in. We had a really, really great night. And then, of course, this week it's Chinese New Year, so we'll be going to a different friend's house. We're going to be celebrating Chinese New Year, we're going to be having amazing Chinese food and learning a bit more about Chinese New Year. And so I feel like these friends have really opened my eyes to just finding things to celebrate. I mean, you don't have to be Chinese or to be Scottish to appreciate the culture, to appreciate the history, to learn more about why they celebrate it, and of course to enjoy the food. You know, sometimes it's just all about having a reason to get together and to celebrate. And that just brings so much joy and so much light to these two months that can, to be honest, just sometimes feel really depressing. Especially this year with everything I've just talked about. So those have really opened my eyes into what we can do in our homes to make us feel a little bit more joy when things are feeling a bit heavy. And I know sometimes we don't feel like it. Honestly, we just don't feel like inviting people over. It's cold, it's rainy, it's dark, we want to hibernate in our own homes, shut the curtains, shut the world out, and just wait until everything improves before we come back out again. But sometimes that's not the best thing to. Do and we have to just be intentional, take those first steps, reach out to somebody and say, Come over, let's let's celebrate this, let's do something where we can get together and we can enjoy one another's company and hopefully feel better by the end of it. And then lastly, number four, I just wanted to end off with this. It's just to surround yourself with some meaning. When the world feels big and scary, you can really draw down into what means something to you. And like this whole episode, all of these things are really simple things that we can do. I wanted it to be simple things we can do to make ourselves feel better. And this point is no different. So we can bring things into our homes that bring meaning to us and remind us why we need to get through to better weather, to better news, to a better time. We can bring family photos into our home. Perhaps, like a lot of us, all your family photos are still sitting on your laptop or sitting on your phone. Why not take one evening to sort through some, have them printed, or send them off to be printed in a photo book, or have them printed and put them in frames around your house. So many of the renovations I do, people don't really have many family photos up, and they almost bring that in as part of the renovation where they say we'd really love to just get the space done nicely so that we can finally put some family photos up, or put some of the pieces we've collected on our travels out in a nice space and showcase those, or they might have a family piece like an heirloom or something that's been handed down to them, like a piece of furniture or a piece of art that they want to have in their homes. So these little things that we can put into our homes that just kind of ground us again into our own story and our own experiences and our own lives. I think just doing little things like this can really bring some joy back into our own homes. It's that sense of something being familiar, whether it's a family photo, whether it's an heirloom, or something from your travels that you remember finding and buying. It could even be something familiar which triggers your other senses, like a familiar smell of something baking or cooking, or coffee, or a candle, something that takes you back to a happier place or a good memory. I think all of these things, when they come together, just creates almost a almost intangible sense of your home being a place that is supporting you, a sanctuary, a place that just makes you feel a little bit better when you step into it or when you spend time in it. I just think our homes can be so powerful in this way. And so I think that's it. That's where I would like to end this episode today. Thank you as always for listening. And yes, I look forward to the new format, the new episodes, having guests on, and everything else I've updated you on. And so I hope you'll stay with me on this roller coaster that 2026 is likely to be of renovation projects, client projects, the podcast changing, reniversity changing, and hopefully everything crossed, a book that will um hopefully come into fruition at some point this year. So wish me luck and I wish you all the best of luck. I hope that you can take a couple of points from this episode and bring it into your home and just bring it back to simplicity. You know, we can't always change the world outside, unfortunately, as much as we would love to, but we can change how it feels when we walk through our front door and when we spend time in our own homes with our own people that we invite into them. So I'll say bye for now and I will see you in the next episode. For more information on my five-pillar process for successful renovation, you can go directly to southplacestudio.com forward slash pillars, where you'll find an introduction to the process which covers each of the pillars and what they cover. We also have a number of other free renovation resources. Go now to southplacestudio.com forward slash freebies. I have created some amazing freebies for you there. There is one on the process, like we just said. There is one on um planning permission, there is one on kitchen design, there is another one on lighting planning. Go and check those out. There's so much free information there to help you with your innovations.