What is "home", to you?

Fluther.

My Mom’s house when she was alive, no matter where it was, and my own home. A close 2nd would be my son’s home.
It’s not the sights and sounds so much as the people that make it home.

The house that I’ve now bought from my Ex and had raised my kids in is home to me. The sounds of the cabinet doors slamming as someone looks for food reminds me of them. The first winter or so it was almost unbearable for me to be here without my family but now I feel cozy and safe here – the ghosts are benign ones. And I have started using a chair in my bedroom as a new reading area and look around at all the improvements I’ve made and I am very proud of myself and what I’ve been able to accomplish in the past three years.

Wherever my husband and I live.

As far as a specific location, Florida feels most like home to me out of all the states I have lived in.

Funny, I was thinking about adding “people” – but to me, a home is very much connected to a specific place. I wonder whether that’s related to being an introvert.

Sounds of cabinet doors slamming is a good one!

^^ Mine have a particular reverb that means “boy looking for food” to me.

In my new house I am going to have soft close drawers. Something I never was keen on. I’m curious to see if I’ll get used to it. I didn’t even think about missing the noise the drawers make until this Q. I just might miss it. I like hearing my husband stirring in the house.

^ My parents installed soft close cabinet doors in my last childhood home, and I actually missed those, for a while. You’ll love them soon, I’m sure!

Where my heart is. So cliche, but it’s really the best explanation.

Home is where I have always laid my head down to sleep. I had a great “home” as a kid and have fought tooth and nail to replicate that same feeling when I cut the cord and set out on my own. Now each night I can grab my pillow and snuggle up close to my wife and feel that same homey feeling I felt as a child and then some.

My own room, and my imaginary world. They are places where I can be myself and by myself. I can talk without being judged, rearrange things in my head and relax. Sometimes there are things that only I can understand and my imaginary world is the best place to share them.

My house. It’s where my husband is and my dogs and cat and now my two daughters. It has my own bed, with my own favourite pillow, my books, my music and familiar things I love. It has my big, wide sofa that I can snuggle with my husband on with plenty of room. The noises and smells of my house and garden are familiar and make me feel at home. The smell of jasmine or honeysuckle blowing in from the garden. Bird noises in the morning. Possums and rain hitting the roof. I love lying in my bed listening to the rain on the metal roof.

Though my family owned a total of four houses when I was growing up, the one that holds the most memories for me and comes back most vividly in my dreams—the one I think of as my home—is the one we lived in between my 4th or 5th grade and high school. So many firsts for me in that house! I still drive past it from time to time when I’m back in my home town.

For me it is region, I think. I can be home sleeping under the stars, if it is a familiar part of the world.

@Earthbound_Misfit Possums hitting on the roof??

Well yes. By hitting the roof, I mean with their paws. They jump out of trees onto the roof. Sometimes they follow that up by running up and down our metal roof and it sounds like a herd of elephants are up there. I swear they wear hobnailed boots.

You Aussies have all the fun!

@janbb, our possums aren’t like your possums. They’re cute. Noisy and naughty, but cute.

They are cute! I’m a bit afraid of the claws though.

The house I’m living in now has been in the family for almost 25 years. My parents bought it when I was three. Different members of the family have been living here ever since. It’s currently me and my aunt.

My dad’s place with his girlfriend has a very homey feel to it, too. At Christmas we were all hanging out in the living room after dinner. My little brother and sister were playing on their playstations or whatever the kids have these days, and I was curled up with a glass of adult eggnog and a book. My dad and his GF were on the other couch with a blanket around their feet and their dog between them. Puggles have these wrinkled little old man faces, and they always look seriously concerned. I told them their dog looks like a baby angel, and a potato. That night I crashed in the guest bedroom. There’s a terrifying troll doll on the bedside table that just stares at you. Ahhh, it’s so great.

Its funny. The term home has no meaning to me. I could be staying at a hotel and refer to it as home. I’m not sure if its because I relocate often or find myself in various residences for different reasons short or long term…

I like to think it is because I’m such an introvert. The place I sleep the place I go to recharge has to be a refuge. I don’t require much. I’m adaptable. Maybe its a way to take possession of a place like calling it home makes it such. What I require is simply a way to shut people out unless I feel intimate with them, physically or otherwise, even then I need some breathing room.

To sleep I need a cool space. Unless I’m laying in a pool of sunlight. I like things neat and clean. Everything else is a treat.

@Haleth and @Earthbound_Misfit Lovely descriptions, thanks!

@Unbroken Being able to shut other people out is important to me, too! I need to be around humans, but home is where I can recharge.

family

A house is just our shell, a building & shelter.
A home is our own, a base that brings comfort.