The key to Loving the Home You Have starts with looking at our heart. Let’s remember that comparison is the thief of joy. So I challenge you to– Stop that! Now onto other things.
One year I tried to do copy the magazine style homes with white walls and basic solid hues but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I quickly realized it’s not my style. I love splashes of color to accent my walls or my decor, just plain white was NOT my thing. When I finally finished decorating our living room I ended up with a red accent wall. Now that was me!
How to Love the Home You Have
For the past 9 years, I have lived in a rental. In those 9 years we have moved 5 times and one of those was an international move. With each move we have made I always try to make the rental, our home–a safe haven. It’s always a challenge but I find ways to either paint accent walls, change light fixtures, hang up art… simple things. It has to be simple and inexpensive.
We recently moved over the summer into a transitional home that’s semi-furnitured it was the move before we make another international move. This last move has been the most challenging for me. Our new home is smaller and it doesn’t have a patio. I love being outdoors and though we have a shared communal green space it’s not private so I rarely use it. The house is partially furnished so many of the things that were already here would not have been my choice of decor. So as the months have gone by I’ve had to put into practice once again these tips to remind myself that I can love this home that I find myself complaining about and make it my own.
Start off by writing down what matters the most to you in YOUR home not in the home you wished you had or just move from, nor the home you’re saving up for, but your present home. Now keep this in mind as you decorate your home for the holidays. As you get ready for guest. As you sit around your home. For me, it’s my family and the people that enter through our doors. That my home is inviting and practical. That our walls reflect what we love, family photos, art, inspired quotes… A clean home not spotless just mess-free. These are some of the things I would say matter to me about the physical aspect of our home.
Embracing what you have. As you may know, we love to travel and one of things I love about visiting Latin American countries is walking down the streets of lower income neighborhoods. The home owners are always sweeping their front door. in and around their house, ignoring the dust being blown from the big buses going by. They take pride in what they have however little it may seem to us. That’s such a wonderful reminder to me to “embrace what I have”. It screams–Be content with what you have. Love what you have.
Embrace your style. For me my home is a reflection of who I am, not my neighbor, not my favorite blogger but what I like. Just like we make statements with our clothing we also make statements of who we are with our home. I want my home to say, “You’re loved. You’re welcome. You’re safe.” As I mentioned above the white pristine style homes are not my style and when I tried copying that style, I didn’t like it. Find your style and if you don’t have one make one up. Just know that laundry all over your couch is not a style. Ahem, as I look over to my living room.
Finding Beauty in the mundane.— Look around your home and find the beauty in the ordinary. Our home is yellow, the walls are yellow, the curtains are yellow per the owners choice and it’s my least favorite color. I like splashes of yellow but not everything yellow. One day I was sitting around thinking about how much I dislike it and then I decided to change the grumbles into gratitude. So I thought about how happy the color yellow is and that’s how I try to see it now–a happy color in our home.
Declutter– Sometimes too much of a beautiful thing, is too much. You’ll be amazed how decluttering will help you see and appreciate what you have. You may not even know you have it because it’s lost in the basket of clutter.
interior scene of pink modern chair on a green wall
On a more practical level the things I do to make our home more cozy and doesn’t cost a lot of money is I add accent pillows, hang up pictures and art and I decorate our buffet table with items that either represent the season or neutral items that I can have out throughout the year. Oh and I recently made our front door entrance a bit more cozy by adding a rug and hung our initial on it.
I have a friend who decided to move her family into an RV as they prepare to head overseas and when I saw how they remodeled the RV I simply thought–This! This is loving the home you are in and making the best of the situation you are in. This RV is a temporary home for them but she made it her own by adding accent pillows and rugs, painting the wooden cabinets and walls. If you want to see more pictures you can see them on Instagram.
Here’s a peak of her RV! Doesn’t it just look cozy!
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This article is Day 3 of 21 Days: (Re)Discovering the Heart of Your Home series! As we consider our house let’s think beyond making beds, cleaning dishes and doing laundry. As we think about homemaking let’s look beyond whether we work outside the home, work in the home, are single, empty nesters or don’t have children… Let’s put all of that aside and let’s view it through the lens of relationships and let that guide us. What is the purpose of the space between these four walls? What do I want to overflow from our home and from my heart to my children, my spouse, my guests, my neighbors…? Cultivating a home is so much more than keeping a clean house, making food from scratch, having an organized and tidy home it’s about cultivating beauty, laughter, peace and love in my family and in my relationships. Follow along HERE to get updates on the latest homemaking, parenting and recipe blog post!
