Grow your own hygge
There’s an icy wind blowing in gusts outside and I’m stuck in my shoebox apartment, unable to even summon the chutzpah to go to the grocery store. It would be bleak and dreary here, if it wasn’t for one thing: hygge.
You’ve probably come across this term in recent months (after all, it was on the Oxford Dictionary’s shortlist for word of the year in 2016). Pronounced “hooga”, it’s a Danish term that loosely translates to “coziness.” More than that, though, hygge is an essential part of Danish culture and really comes into its own in the colder months. As the Danish tourism website, VisitDenmark, puts it, “Danish winters are long and dark, and so the Danes fight the darkness with their best weapon: hygge, and the millions of candles that go with it.”
For me, it’s the fairy lights hanging in our front windows, the soft white sheer curtains, piles of comfortable cushions and blankets, warm cups of tea, Japanese incense burning, and perhaps most important of all, plants. Our home is filled with plants, most of them tiny to match the scale of our home, but clustered together on every surface. Like cushions, curtains and blankets, they help to soften a space, which is the first important step to creating a cozy zone. They are also, importantly, alive (or they should be!), and anything living instantly transforms a house into a home (think cats, dogs, children). A living object shows that people live here and care about things, there is nurturing going on in this space.
Plants also freshen the air. You may have read NASA’s list of the best air-filtering plants, but in truth all plants will absorb CO2 and produce oxygen, making your home a healthier space. Some will also absorb toxic benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene.
Perhaps my favorite thing about indoor plants, though, is that they provide a much-needed connection to the outdoors through those months when we are mostly stuck inside. And connecting with nature seems very hygge to me. It’s a reminder of those warmer months when we can relax and socialize outdoors, and it’s about bringing that sense of conviviality into our homes. Socializing and connecting with others is at the very heart of hygge. According to Louisa Thomsen Brits, author of The Book Of Hygge: The Danish Art Of Living Well, “In the summer, Danes hygge together in public places, celebrating the light by spending as much time outside as possible, sitting together in gardens and parks with their faces turned to the sun.”
Plants also connect us to our pasts. My very first plant, which my mum bought me when I was about ten, was a maidenhair fern. These guys are notoriously hard to keep happy and healthy, but I was an earnest ten-year-old who took my role as plant-mum very seriously, and with regular watering and daily spritzing my fern thrived. Ever since then I have always had a maidenhair fern in my home because even their distinct earthy smell takes me back to my Australian childhood. This sense of nostalgia and finding comfort in childhood memories and connections is essential to hygge.
Filling your home with hygge needn’t descend into chaos, either, as long as you stick to the proverbial rule of “a place for everything and everything in its place.” And remember to only surround yourself with objects that have meaning to you, and only as many plants as you know you can care for.
We’ve got at least two more months of winter here in New York, so I suggest we make the most of it, pick up a couple of plant friends, and embrace the hygge.
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