Love Your Home
(even when it's not your dream home)
Part 2
This is Part 2 of the “How to Love Your Home” series. If you have yet to read Part 1, where we discuss how to Make a Vision, you can read it here.
If you have already created your vision, and are ready to explore the rest of the “Make” of your home, then keep reading!
The 6 “Makes”
To recap, here are the 6 “Makes” to live by:
-Make a Vision (covered here in Part 1)
-Make it Cozy
-Make it Relaxing
-Make it Organized
-Make it Over
– Make it Welcoming
Make it Cozy
A cozy home is not bare, nor is it cluttered. It is perfectly balanced in a way that allows your house to be a homey sanctuary for you and all who enter.
Take a look at your list in exercise #3 from Part 1 of this post for That Dream Home Feeling. What things on this list fit in to a cozy home? And how can you make your home even cozier?
Simple elements you can add are pillows or throws for cozy texture. Having the right scented candles that make you feel at home. Those are all basic yet wonderful elements to any cozy home. But let’s not stop there.
That Homey Feeling
You want a homey home. A place where you can add your personal touch and style. Be mindful of the decorations you have in your home. Do you like them? Do they bring a smile to your face or happy memories to mind? These are the kinds of items you should have in your home.
Walk through your house and look at what you have. Are they fitting for what you want your home to be? Or are they simply things purchased to fill empty space? Think about how you can change the feeling the items in your home give you. Here are some simple ideas to start.
Display Your Favorite Memories
Pictures. I don’t mean the staged professional photos, where you’re posing in some studio or slapping on a fake smile. I am talking about the ones where you are really enjoying where you are in life. Those warm-your-heart photos. The one where you have the messy beach hair and your husband is giving you that I love you look. Or the one where you are laughing-out-loud at the joke your friend just told you. Display the real-life pictures that capture true in-the-moment happiness.
Decorate with the Seasons
Decorating with the seasons is one of my all-time favorite ways bring a cozy feeling to any home. By embracing the current time of year, you add fresh changes and new excitement with each and every season. Do this by taking the things that you love about each, and bring them into your home (read this post to learn more).
Our living room, complete with fireplace & books for a cozy & relaxing space.
Make it Relaxing
A key element to loving you home is making it relaxing. A cozy and relaxing home often go hand in hand. A relaxing home just adds that little extra touch to help reduce stress. Less stress at home means more happiness and love for that home!
So, how can you make your place more relaxing? Simple examples are having a small stack of books on the coffee table or keeping a pair of slippers by the door to change into as soon as you get home. Do you love baths or a good foot soak? Have a basket with bath essentials or a small bucket under the sink to soothe your tired feet in.
Keep a robe on the back of your bathroom door. Now when you sit down at the couch, you’ll be encouraged to read a few pages of your book. You can even soak your feet while you relax in that plush robe of yours.
Visible Relaxation
The point of this is to keep noticeable, easy-to-access items in your home to encourage you to take time to relax. Just like how putting fresh fruit on your counter can encourage you to eat healthier, setting out things that encourage relaxation will help you to unwind and de-stress.
For me fireplaces are the definition of relaxing and feeling cozy. Well, our townhome didn’t come with a fireplace. So, when we needed a tv stand, we got one with a fireplace built in. This was one of the best purchases we have ever made! That fireplace is turned on year-round, almost every time we are sitting on the couch. It triggers the feeling of instant relaxation in our home! And yes, we keep those slippers by our front door too.
Make it Organized
One of easiest way to dislike your home is actually something you can control. It’s having a messy and unorganized home. Likely, you have at least one thing in that Dream Home Feeling exercise that has to do with organization, tidiness, or cleanliness. Let’s cover the basics. (I have a whole article here on cleaning routines if you are looking for a more in-depth process).
A Place for Everything
Many of us struggle with liking our houses because we feel that we don’t have enough space. Often you can improve the lack of space immensely by having proper organization. The key to this is making sure everything has its place.
Everything in your home should have a spot where it lives. If there is no “home” for it, it should be stored or given away. Too much stuff in our homes leads to clutter and disorganization.
Take it Room by Room
A thorough cleaning and reorganizing of your home will help to resolve this issue. While it takes time and dedication, you will see that it’s well worth the effort.
This does not need to be done all at once, you can easily pick one room to deep clean at a time. Even if it’s one room a month, that’s still progress. Focus on getting rid of what you do not use and organizing what you do use. You will see a big change in your home life stress levels.
Let’s take the living area for example. Keys, mail, remotes, they all need a space where they are not sitting out adding to the clutter. A small basket or tray can be used for your keys and kept on the counter, remotes can be stores in the entertainment stand, and mail can be put in a drawer in the kitchen or moved to the office.
Remember, if there is no need or place for the item in that room, take it to another room or remove it entirely.
Store it Away
Unused décor, holiday decorations, and out-of-season clothes should be stored away. Whether this is in a shed, attic or garage, or you make use of some spare closet space. You can even elevate a bed and use the space underneath. Anything that does not fit in your home in the current season or is just adding to the clutter should be removed. Your home will look more organized, and more spacious, as a result.
Invest in bins, baskets, and organizers for those messy cabinets, closets, and drawers. This keeps everything organized, easy to find, and provides you with more space than you had when everything was just thrown about.
Make it Over
Think about the things you listed for Elements of you Dream Home in our first exercise in Part 1. How can you make some of these a reality in your current home? I am not talking about expensive remodeling, I mean the small things you can do to the aesthetics of any place.
Of course, you cannot make your .25 acres into 25 acres. But what would you do with that land? Were you looking to make a backyard area for entertaining? Is that something you can achieve, at least on a small scale, in your current yard? Even if you are renting you can string up some lights and get some cozy seating arrangements, perhaps add in a moveable firepit. Even a small patio or balcony in an apartment can be made into a mini oasis that even guests can enjoy! You just have to get creative.
Your Home, Your Style
Focus on your own personal style, not what’s “in style”. What’s in style is constantly changing, and most importantly, it’s not you. If your home is too trendy it can feel detached, because you are not decorating it to reflect what you like. You are decorating it for who everyone else says you should be. Instead, you want your house to feel like your home, a place that is perfect for you and your family.
Please don’t style your home for anyone else. Your house is where you live. Use your home as a way to reflect who you are and what brings you joy. This will make for a homey home that even your guests will see as being so you.
Give Decor a Facelift
Many items we own can look outdated before a fresh coat of paint. Look at the things in your home that you would like if only they received a nice make-over. Perhaps a new color of paint or a different lampshade is all you need to turn that boring lamp into one of your favorite pieces in your home. The same goes for those walls and furniture. Freshen them up and make them stand out in a new and exciting way.
Buy What Your Home Needs
Is there a piece of décor you have been dying to add to your home? Well, unless it’s going to break the bank, just buy it! If you know purchasing it will make your home look that much closer to your dream home, by all means do it.
Get that fuzzy accent rug you’ve been dying to sink your toes into every time you touch it. Buy that matching set of white dishes so you can finally replace the ones you’ve had since college. We all need things in our homes that make us excited. Excited to cook a meal because you can use your new dishes. Excited to sit on your worn-in couch because that new rug made it the happiest spot in the house. Excited because we are that much closer to our dream.
Make it Welcoming
I think that the most wonderful way to love your home is by making it into an inviting space. A place that welcomes you and your family home every single day. A place that welcomes guests and invites them to share their time with you.
Now, there are physical things you can add to your home to make it welcoming. Like decorating your front door to invite guests as soon as the arrive. Having some snacks and drinks on hand to show that you are a thoughtful host. But there is a lot more to an inviting home than food, drink, and décor.
(I have an entire post on how to make your home more welcoming if you are looking for more on this subject.)
An Inviting Home
If you begin hosting in your home, I guarantee you will grow to love it even more. Making your home a place where people like to gather, where they feel invited and loved, that will turn your home into a place that you and your guests are happy to be in.
Because when it comes down to it, what is a home, really? It’s a gift, a safe place for you and your family to live. Somewhere you build memories together and share your lives. Were you can host and entertain, have fun, and just enjoy each other’s company.
Any home is a blessing, no matter how small or outdated it may be. So even if it’s not your dream home, it is your home. And you are exactly where you should be right now in your life. Make the most of it, have fun with it, and love all the joys this home can bring.
