It’s that famed time of year again, when we kiss away one year and welcome another. With every gracious goodbye of the previous year we take on a new year with hope, new ideas and inspiration. Each stroke and ding of the new year’s clock brings us closer to a new year, new us! 

From day one of the new lease on life, most of us make some new changes in our life, or how our lives will be lived. Some make internal changes to be more kind, or loving and others tackle household organization and living space. 

Before you can make your house a home, more organized or use the space you have to the best of your ability you need some simple ideas to help you. I can offer you just a few, as a DIY gal, this is my forte! 

In fact, more of us take on ways to organize and live our lives better starting January 1, than any other day of the year. Lavishly live life out loud and welcome in the new year with these simple ideas to make your house a home! 

Simple Ideas To Make Your House A Home

The Walk Through

What I learned at one of my first big ‘official corporate jobs’was to use a punch list. A punch list is a list that keeps things working and organized.

In fact it streamlines an area and it will help you make a list of what you need to buy or keep stocked when you are out and about. From burned out light bulbs to paint that needs to be updated, this list will get you started. 

Your list can include simple things like clean windows, or no boxes shoved in corners, to unkept and unorganized spaces. Once you get a working list, you are off and running. The list can be added to but will never be shortened. 

For instance, every room needs one clutter space that is hidden, from storage footstools to creative cupboards and boxes that serve as decoration. We all have ‘crap’ it’s how we store it that matters. Then, you will look at cleanliness, and use of space. Let’s look at this a bit more shall we? 

Starting To Turn A House Into A Home 

First, let’s start by taking a walk through your home, both indoor, outdoor and through storage spaces you have. Eyeball each area, and notice images on the wall, or lack of them.  Do you see corners shoved with ‘stuff’?  

In any given room, if you were to enter to locate something could you? Open up drawers in every room, are they a mess? Or are the drawers sorted? Does each room have a theme? Does you home offer areas for kids and adults? Are there spaces to just retreat to? 

Remember. your home should be the safest, most comfortable space in the world is it? Homes, don’t happen they are created and that is what we are about to start working on.  

 It’s Not About Slapping Stuff Up – Don’t Touch That Hammer…..Yet! 

This is not a course on walking through a home and just slapping photos on walls. Everything you put up should reflect who you are, and what your family is about. From favorite vacation photos to family photos, its important to properly showcase these in the right places. 

Eyeball Wall Space, Rooms and How They Flow! 

Do you have hallways? Stairways? Bathrooms and bedrooms? Well there’s your starting point. You really don’t want family photos in the bathroom, staring at you, in your most private moments right? Or do you want others staring at them when they borrow your bathrooms? After all, placement is everything. 

Next, frames matter. Choose frames you love, that not only fit the photo, but the room’s style. which is where we will spend a bit of time now! 

How Do You Turn 4 Walls and A Ceiling Into A Retreat For Your Family? 

Trust me, it doesn’t just happen by accident. You can’t just move in, and on day one suddenly your house feels like the perfect place for you and your family. Instead, it’s up to you to turn that house into a real home for you and your family. 

But how do you do that? How do you turn four walls and a ceiling into the kind of place where you and your family can escape from the world? First, consider about everyone’s personalities. A home is not just yours its theirs too! A home must reflect everyone that lives there or it is just a house!

Tackle this whole project room by room, AFTER you have walked through every inch of your property. You will fix it all, but small steps lead to big changes. You can’t do this all it once or it will get to be helter skelter! 

The Decorator! 

The most important thing to remember when creating a home for you and your family is that it shouldn’t just reflect one of you. Far too often the task of decorating gets left to one person, and then the house has far more of their personality in it than anyone else.

Working together as a family, creates an atmosphere that reflects each and every one of you, not only as individuals but as a family. The kids will obviously want to decorate their rooms but why not get everyone involved when it comes to the living room and kitchen?

By discussing things like color palettes and designs as a family, you’re far more likely to end up with a home that everyone feels as happy and comfortable in as possible.  In the end, the adults will make the decisions, and the kids will have felt like they were part of the planning. 

Grown-up space vs. kid space

That being said, there are plenty of good reasons to keep at least a little bit of the house as a grown-up space. However, that’s not to say that the kids should be banned from it, nothing could be further from the truth.

Kids are little artists, but far too many family homes end up getting overrun by school drawings and all of the other mess that kids tend to make. In the grown-up space, think about how to bring a little bit of class to the decorations. Special frames, your images sitting properly on a fireplace mantle rather than hanging, etc. 

Conversely, your kids might have posters up on their walls but why not take the more mature route with some framed prints. If your kids have some drawings that they really want to show off, you could even frame them too!

Sure, there’s nothing wrong with bringing a little bit of the fun and color of your kid’s spaces into the rest of the house.  However, there is a fine line between a home where you all get to feel happy and comfortable, and feeling like you’re running a daycare that you just happen to sleep in every single night.

Make it personal

Your job is to turn the house into somewhere that really reflects the personalities of you and your family. Every piece of decor should say something about you. Make sure that the house is filled with family pictures and memories so that no matter where you are, there’s always a very clear sense of exactly whose home it is.  

A home without pictures of a family is a home without a life! Simple, and easy to figure out. Families are the heartbeat of a home! Light it up with warmth! 

There are few things worse than the moment that you walk into someone’s home and it just ends up feeling like a showroom, completely devoid of any real personality at all. The truth is that it’s your home and people should be able to get a sense of who you and your family are the moment that they step through the front door.

Stop Neglecting Usable Space 

There are plenty of places in a lot of people’s homes that they end up giving a lot less attention to or ignoring entirely. One of the most obvious of these spaces is the bathroom. After all, most of us think of our bathroom purely in terms of how useful it is.

Consider this, the bathroom is the place you shower in the morning or relax in the bath, but do you ever think about it in the same way you might think of your living room or bedroom? There’s a good chance you don’t and that can lead to your bathroom feeling bland and even a little dirty.

Clean It Up 

Things like limescale and mold are far more rampant in a bathroom.  Lack of attention to this, will brood a horrible space that lacks the aesthetics of welcoming! f you’re not keeping them clean as thoroughly as you can, it’s never going to be the most pleasant space it can be. 

Shower Heads Matter 

If you’re looking for a long read, you can check out this article on different kinds of shower heads. When you get into that shower, steep in the water and the clean walls! It’s pure bliss. 

That way you can get an idea of just how many options there are to help you get more out of your bathroom. Check out my article on a simple bathroom renovation!  

Mirrors Matter

Now, in any given bathroom, there are mirrors. Perhaps one of the things we look into the most, but never really reflect on the impact they might have. Let’s change this shall we? Here are some simple mirror suggestions that will help you make the most of that big reflective space! 

Room Clumping! 

Of course, your bathroom is far from the only room that has the potential to end up like this. If you have a spare room or an office it can often just end up as little more than a dumping ground for stuff that you don’t need.

I call this room clumping. The toss it and forget about it zone, but that’s pathetic. Step up your game, stop wasting space and use it for every day life! Give these spaces and rooms the kind of  love it deserves.

Why would you do this? A room that is not organized can lead to anxiousness or feelings of frustration every time you set foot in it. Organize, donate, declutter, and suddenly life is more positive. Use the space on your desk for photo displays and an organizing rack. Use your wall space for family images. There’s space around you, cheer it up! 

Out Of Sight, Not Out Of Mind 

Perhaps you are blessed to have an attic. A blessing and a curse at the same time. For you, tossing everything you don’t use is the best use of space, but review my rules. Now, give some thought to your attic.

Your attic might just be a place for boxes and things you haven’t gotten around to throwing away.  However, have you considered creating a loft conversion? A loft conversion makes a formerly stack and go space a fully usable, and even pleasant space to spend your time. More space to thrive in and enjoy. Use every nook and cranny of your house! 

Own The Outdoor Space 

One of the most common mistakes that a lot of people make when they’re trying to improve their home is to focus entirely on the interior of it. Doing this is actually pretty understandable.  First we focus inside but you HAVE to go beyond the interior walls, these are just borders to more of what you have! 

Certainly, we do spend the bulk of our time on the interior of our homes.  However, you should also remember that your outdoor spaces are just as much as part of your home as anything else. Start with fixing up the curb appeal. Let others see your home in its truest spirit, its a home, not a house. 

Gardening, Flower Beds & Outdoor Living Spaces

Gardening can be a little intimidating for a lot of people.  A lot of people feel as though they don’t know how to get the most out of their garden but the truth is that it’s actually surprisingly easy to improve it.

Simple things like keeping the lawn trimmed and pulling up weeds can make a huge difference. Not only that but planting things like flowers and even your own vegetables is a lot easier than you might think at first glance.

Want to learn how to dig in a garden bed? Use my article for creating a DIY Garden Bed, I promise it’s easy! It’s incredibly useful that there are so many resources online to help you figure out what you want to do with your garden and how to go about turning that into a reality.

Outdoor Living Spaces. 

Create a space that you can retreat to. A place to sip wine or watch the kids run around bare feet. Spaces that allow you to gather and enjoy the outside extend your space. Always a great idea! 

Give it a real sense of consistent style, and use pieces that are functional. Outdoor furniture, lighting and perhaps toss in a grilll? 

How To Capture Your Style

If you look at your home and it’s just not quite like any of the things that you normally see in magazines or on the internet, that could be down to one specific thing: it could just be because it doesn’t have a consistent style that pervades the entire property.

Most of us tend to think about our home in terms of individual rooms, rather than considering that those rooms are all part of one single space. If you want to bring more life and style into your home, picking an aesthetic or era to invoke can be a great way of doing that.

If you want something slightly rustic then there are plenty of things that you can do to add that countryside flair to your home. Or perhaps you want something more classical. If that’s the case then European style furnishings can make a massive difference.

No matter what kind of style you’re going for with your home, making it consistent throughout the entire property can help to make the whole thing feel much more stylish.

House to Home – It Can Happen

The truth is that the only ones who are going to be able to fully understand what your home really needs in order to feel happier, cozier, and more comfortable, is you and your family. Sure, there’s tons of advice online.  Use these items ONLY as a springboard. You are not the person who wrote them, they are not you! You are you, be you! 

Truly, if you really want to get the most out of your home then it’s essential that you don’t fall into the trap of just following other people’s advice without putting your own spin on things. Sit with your family and decide exactly what it is that you all want from your home. 

What is the best version of all of you? Is it a pillow? A renovation of a piece of furniture? Simple new lighting, or light-bulbs? Make a punch list for your home. Once you get it formed, keep up on it. Consider how to make it the best place possible for all of you to live.

Only when you do that are you going to be able to turn your house into the perfect home. Trying to follow someone else’s ideas to the letter is just going to leave you feeling as though there’s no real space for your own personality and ideas. Be all of you, as you re a team. 

Families makes homes, and don’t just live in houses. Museums are good to look at, but homes let you live, feel, create and enjoy! What do you want to live in a house or a home? ~ DANA XO 

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