Decorating Ideas - Simple ideas
Are you in need of simple decorating ideas and don’t know where to look? Or have you been pouring over magazines, checking out books from the library and spending time at your favorite bookstore only to find great decorating ideas that seem impossible to attain and maintain? Here is the one tip you need to get you started.
The very first step in improving the looks of your home is to subtract before you add. This requires some serious consideration to the stuff you have in every room in your home. First and foremost, this is YOUR home. Therefore, you should love whatever is in it. This means going through one room at a time and keeping only what you love. Let me explain. This is not a quick fix. You did not gather all that stuff in one day or one month.
Lets for sake of simplicity say that you would love to do your living room and your bedroom. Take a look at the walls. Look at that picture or nic-knack. Do you really really love it? Are you just used to looking at it? Was it a gift given 20 years ago? You love the giver but don’t like the gift anymore? It is ok to get rid of it. Give it to someone who will use it. Is it a family heirloom but you don’t like it? Box it up carefully, label it and but it away. No room to put it. Stuff under the bed. Stuff everywhere? See, the point is to get rid of the stuff! Have 3 bags or boxes ready. Without a lot of thought take down what you don’t love, put it in the trash or goodwill bag, or the heirloom box. Leave what you love. Now, don’t wait too long. Get that bag of trash into the trash and the Goodwill bag to Goodwill. Don’t change your mind.
Now look at every flat surface. Look at it with new eyes. Look at each end table. Do you love the stuff on the end table? No? Get rid of it. Before you buy new furniture you might want to rid yourself of the pieces you don’t love. You may discover you have room to move. You may discover you don’t want to buy anything for the living room. Everyone loves the open spaces. The kids love. Your friends comment on it.
Do the same to your bedroom. Is it starting to look like a bed and breakfast bedroom? No stuff. This has simplified your decorating problem. The room can now be viewed. The color scheme may now present itself to you. An inexpensive bright rug may do the trick or new curtains and nothing more. Cleaning is a breeze. Time to play!
Go back and look at those decorating ideas in the magazines. Have you ever noticed how much stuff is in some of those gorgeous rooms? Beautifully balanced and completed covered end tables. Shelves and shelves of collections. Who lives there? Who cleans all that stuff?
Need help? There is an excellent website to help you free yourself of stuff. http://www.flylady.net/index.asp Try it.