Love Your Home on a {Tight} Budget
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My husband and I have been on our debt payoff journey for the better part of 8 years now. You can read all about our story here. And one of the harder realities for me to grasp while on this journey has been not being able to decorate my home the way I want, or do work on our home since purchasing it two years ago.
I watch people tackle kitchen renovations, and landscaping projects, and I can’t help but feel a little…jealous.
I love home. Period. I am a homebody. I love cozy shit. I love hygge. I am a creature of comfort and nothing fills me up more than creating a cozy, warm, inviting space for people I love within the four walls of our home.
So over the course of the last 8 years, I have had to:
- remember why we are doing this
- stop comparing, and
- get really creative on how I can create the home I want on a {basically} non-existent budget.
The first few of these tips are more conceptual, taking it back to the studs, as you will. Then the latter part of the list will be more tactical and action oriented.
Gratitude for the basics
We fell deeply in love with our home the moment I saw it on Zillow. The house is located 30 minutes outside of Santa Barbara, and 30 minutes away from my husband’s office.
It was a hard sell to get him to move outside of Santa Barbara.
But then when I saw this house, I just knew it was meant for us. And after convincing him to make the drive up to wine country, the moment he walked in our home he literally said, “this is our home.”
If you are sleeping in a warm bed tonight, you have a roof over your head, food on the table, water in your pipes and electricity running through your home…
…you have so much to be grateful for.
But it’s so easy to forget these very fundamental basics, isn’t it?. Trust me when I say I’m talking to myself too.
Don’t Compare
If scrolling through Instagram makes you feel like what you have isn’t good enough, or enough at all, either stay off social media, or unfollow those who spark those feelings. Because my best guess is anyway, she would never want to make you feel that way.
If Target makes you lusty with all the things you MUST have, avoid that place like the plague while you’re in this season living on a tight budget.
It’s far easier to feel like you live a life of abundance when you’re not comparing yourself to everyone else out there.
Embrace Your Current Season
We have lived in our home for just over 2 years now, and we literally still don’t have curtains up in most of the windows of our house.
Our couch is an IKEA couch that is hard as a rock and has left over coffee stains on it that just don’t want to surrender.
Our laundry room looks like a jail cell with the ugliest yellow stick-on linoleum flooring.
BUT! The thing is, while we dream of dropping cash on custom roman shades and buying a big ole’ Restoration Hardware couch someday that practically swallows us whole when we sink into it…
...we are just not in that season right now.
We are in a season of little people running mad around our house, purposely trying to leave their mark on everything in the house. We will have many years where we can enjoy the “finer things”, but for now we are in a “young family” season and it’s not practical for us to drop a bunch of money on our house (even if we didn’t have any debt we were trying to pay off right now).
Open Your Home
My husband is an extrovert and I am an introvert. If you are in a relationship like this, you know that it can be challenging to say the least at times. If it were up to my husband, our home would be open 365 days of the year, and our guest room marked with a “no vacancy” sign at all times.
He just loves having buddies over.
While I love people as well (this is often a major misunderstanding of introverts), I recharge by being alone. So, this step doesn’t come as naturally to me. And to be honest, I frequently resist it.
My ideal weekend is one where I start the days slow with coffee and Chip n’ Jo while folding laundry; tinker around our house all weekend long, prep for the week, and go to church on Sunday.
However, I know that this would shrivel my extroverted husband (and son’s) poor soul to next to nothing.
Opening your home to friends and family has a two-fold winning effect:
- You keep your house clean and tie up projects you have been meaning to finish
- You create an energy of love, warmth and joy in your home from having meaningful connections created.
One of my friends once told me that her and her husband try to open their home as much as they possibly can to others because they were blessed with a home, and they feel called to share it and bless others with it also.
What a sweet perspective that is! And this is definitely one I am trying to adopt. Because when it comes down to it, after having guests in our home, I am always left feeling grateful, and filled up from that time we spent together.
Now let’s get to some of the more tactical ways we can love our home (even more)…
Declutter
We have probably most all heard of Marie Kondo by this point in time. “Does is spark joy?” is a household phrase now it seems.
Something magical happens when we release possessions in our home that no longer bring us joy.
Guilt, “should’s” and “maybe some days” are no reason to keep things in our home. They carry an energy that doesn’t do anything for you, friend. Let that shit go.
When you keep only that which “sparks joy” in your home, you can’t help but love your space so very much more.
Keep It Clean
Have you heard in every personal development book under the sun that most productive individuals begin their day the same way…by making his/her bed?
Let me just add to that chatter and say, I so agree with that. Making your dang bed everyday can change your life. For real.
But let’s go even a step further…
How do you think it would feel to come out of your bedroom every morning (after making your bed) and into a kitchen that is spotless? The sink is empty. The counters are clear. And the coffee machine is just waiting there, just for you, to push the start button and enjoy the fruits of it’s labor.
The room breaths calm into you. You light a candle, pour your coffee, and start your day.
Now imagine the opposite…
You come down the stairs and turn on the kitchen light. The sink is full of dishes caked with food from last night (or worse, yesterday’s breakfast). The counters are cluttered and crumb laden. And for the love of God, you forgot to put away the leftover food from dinner and you need to throw it out…again. (no? this doesn’t happen to you?)
How different do those two mornings feel? How do you think they would affect the rest of your day?
I get that keeping your house clean is hard. I am with you, sister. I have two little ones with a babe on the way, and most days I feel like screaming “what the hell is the point of this?! It will be dirty in less than 4 minutes anyway!”
I so feel that. And let me quickly add that my house is not clean all the time. No, no, not at all. HOWEVER, I have found little tricks that help keep me much more sane. Because truthfully, I have a messy mind, and when my outer space is messy, it makes me straight up looney!
Outer calm, inner calm.
The kitchen, for me, is one of the hardest rooms in my house to keep clean. It seems to be in a constant state of chaos, with a few short fleeting glimpses of peace and calm.
But something I have noticed is that if I can end the day with a clean kitchen, and wake up to a peaceful, calm beautiful space… I feel more on top of the day instead of starting the day “already behind”.
So to trick myself into this every night, I put a timer on for 15 minutes (if it’s just me, or 10 if my husband and I tag team), and bust ass cleaning. Most of the time I get most everything done, and if not, then definitely close enough.
Get Your Hands Dirty
We lived here for a full two years before we realized that we actually had to DO something to our yard. It had turned into a massive jungle. For the record, this is our first time being home owners, so excuse our naivety.
Instead of hiring a gardener to come and way his/her magic wand and make all the mess go away, we decided to start putting 20 minutes per day toward the yard and see where that took us.
20 minutes a day, friend, takes you a long way. And the best part? You begin feeling a deep sense of pride and accomplishment and can’t help but step back and feel the desire to lovingly admire your hand work.
It goes without saying, however, that this concept can move beyond your yard.
Paint some cupboards, paint a wall, build a table, reupholster a couch… etc etc.
Make your home your own, and you will find yourself loving your home more by the moment.
Rearrange
This is 100% free and can absolutely transform a space. I find myself doing this at least twice a year because I get bored really easily, haha. I mean, what’s the worst that can happen? You need to move it back?
Create an environment
I love created a mood in my home. Candles, music, lighting, etc. I mean, have you ever just wandered into Anthropologie to be sensually delighted? As in, the smells, the music, the displays?! Anthropologie has that shit down! I literally hardly ever buy anything in there, but will spend half an hour just touching, smelling, hearing and looking at everything beautiful in that store.
That’s how I want my home to feel. Like when you walk in it is an experience of the senses. There is nothing that makes me love home more than that.
Barter
My husband is a chiropractor and has recently started working with someone who is a painter. We desperately need to have our walls painted (especially recently since my son decided he wanted to be Picasso all over his walls, and the shit won’t come off!). However, knee deep in our debt payoff we cannot justify paying for a painter at this time.
So instead we are doing a trade!
This can be an amazing win-win if you have something you can offer someone that they really want, and vice versa. It is a creative way to save a lot of money and instead pay with your time and energy.
Swap
One of my sweet friends recently told me about how the women in her family, when they get sick and tired of their couch, will swap with other women in the family. I love this idea! Every few years you get a new (to you) couch at no cost at all.
Consider doing something similar to a clothing swap with your friends! Have everyone bring a piece of furniture or decor items they no longer love and let the swapping begin.
Second Hand Purchases
Last, but absolutely not least is buying second hand. Let me just say that 90% of the furniture in our home is second hand or found free on the side of the road.
I find nothing wrong with this whatsoever. Honestly, I think that even when we are out of debt and can afford to buy more expensive furniture, I’ll still get way too excited about finding free furniture on the side of the road.
Check out Facebook Marketplace, Craiglist, the side of the road, thrift stores, estate sales, garage sales, etc.
So, what would you add to this list? How do you find that you are able to fall more in love with your home?
