Love Your Home Again with Decluttered Spaces

Valentine’s Day might have already gone by already (yay for half-price chocolate), but it’s never the wrong season to fall in love with your home again.

Have you been feeling out of love with your home lately? Do you dream of greener yards and rearrange your furniture hoping it will feel different, only to get stuck feeling the same? You might think that it’s time for a move, or a bigger house. You think you need something to change. You’d be right that something needs to change, but it doesn’t have to be your city or where your home is; you can make change right inside your home in the rooms you already live in, without having to move a single couch. Sometimes, all you need to fall back in love with your home is a bit of organizing and decluttering. Think about it: what’s really making you want a different home? 

Understanding What’s Bothering You

The first thing to do when falling back in love with your home is to figure out what’s really bothering you. Put away the real estate advertisements and close Instagram. Really take a look at your house and think about what you wish were different. Do you wish you had more space? Do you want your living room to feel more open, or your closets to be organized? Do you just want more peace? Often, what’s bothering you about your home can be fixed without moving, selling, or burning the place down. 

Understanding what you really want for you and not just looking towards the next glamorous image on the internet can help you determine what needs fixing so you can figure out how.

Remember What You Love

Even if you’re not feeling in love with your home now, you’re here for a reason. At one point you chose this home. Take another walk through, but this time try to remember what you love about your home. Remember why you wanted this home and the visions you had for it when you moved in. Maybe you had less stuff when you moved in; you might have even had less people. What were you looking for in a home that you don’t have now? Not only will this help you determine what’s missing, but it might even remind you that this is actually a space you still love.

Take Time to Declutter

One of the biggest reasons people get a new home is because they need a bigger space. Wanting a newer and larger house or apartment is the #1 reason why people move. What if you didn’t need to move to have a bigger space though? Decluttering is the best way to create space in your home without going anywhere. The truth is, most of us own tons of stuff that we don’t actually need. You have the three blenders you got from your wedding; you have old clothes that don’t fit that you’re saving for someday maybe; you have broken equipment from last year’s sport season. 

All of these things that you don’t use and maybe don’t even remember about, and they just sit. They sit in your attic, your basement, on your shelves and in your garage. They take up all the space that you’re yearning for and ready to move for. So instead of moving out, move back in. Taking it one room at a time, go through what you own and really think: is this something I need, want, and use? Is this something that really makes a difference in my life? You’ll quickly find that there’s a lot you own that you don’t need to own anymore. You can donate items and recycle or upcycle them. No matter what you do with it, don’t keep it in your home. It will take time, but you’ll find that the more you declutter, the more your space grows. You don’t need to move to reclaim the space that you deserve. 

Give It Time

Falling back in love with your space takes time. It won’t happen overnight, and that’s okay. The more time you give yourself to really explore your space, the more you’ll learn about what you want out of your home. Through this you’ll be able to make decisions about what you want and take action to make it happen. 

Loving your home is a process, and it’ll be different for everyone. How you view your home in the first five years you live there is entirely different after you’ve lived there for twenty. In either case, however, there is an opportunity to fall back in love with your home without leaving it behind. You don’t have to make huge changes in your surroundings to create a space that brings joy to you and your family. You may only feel like you have a house right now, but soon, you’ll have a home.