Do you want to love your home?
I think I've found the secret to house love: stop comparing your house to other homes...just pay attention to your house, wherever you may be right now, whatever it might look like, and work at turning it into the
coziest, cleanest home it can be.
In a little book of "rules" for life I once wrote these things:
-Clean and everything will look better to you.
-Order=sanity.
-Less toys, furniture, clothing, junk is always better...keep a SIMPLE house...get rid of stuff
constantly. Or better yet, don't buy it!
-Don't ask for endless opinions...you'll get too many ideas...stick with what YOU love.
-A small change, that usually costs pennies... flowers, a pretty plant, etc...makes a big difference.
-Don't copy anyone's style...find your own and stick to it.
add now- blogs!)...I find for me that it is a waste of time to constantly be on the search for the perfect idea, or to constantly want/need change. I want to be content! I find that when I mind my own home, with what I have on hand I achieve contentment.
Sometimes this means: I NEED TO STOP LOOKING!
Sometimes I feel we have so many, TOO many, chances to want, want, want. Or to wish, wish, wish.
What if we just tried contentment? What if we accepted our homes as they are, linoleum, old cabinets,
tiny closets, squeaky doors, hand-me-down sofa, and worked with and learned to love what we have right
in front of us? I think our grandparents did this much better than we have ever done. Most of them lived
in the same home for their lifetimes, and took such good care of what they had, whether it was the "in"
thing or not.
I really have found if I clean, everything looks fresh and new to me. It's a little miracle I feel, with no money and some elbow grease I can transform my home and my attitude towards it.
Sometimes I catch myself thinking, "Oh, I need a change in here." And that change always means more money, more searching (time wasting searching), maybe an errand, something new.
BUT I find when I just give that room a good old fashioned cleaning I feel so differently...that's all that was needed. Dust those shelves, buy some tulips or pick some branches from outside to put in a vase, scrub, scrub, scrub, wash the windows, move things around, and purge all that clutter. Fill the air with the fresh scent of 'clean' and I love my home again.
Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
be it ever so humble,
there's no place like Home.
- T. Howard Payne
I saw on a blog once, Use What You Have, (i keep buying the same versions of stuff anyway it seems!)
ReplyDeletebut sometimes, you can put stuff in other rooms....i love moving stuff around too....
I also buy most stuff on craigslist...antiques are timeless, most people just want good homes for them too, so much cheaper than stores, we have met some really nice people on craigslist actually.