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In a world of constantly evolving trends, the whole process of decorating your home can soon start to feel overwhelming. Just as you’ve begun to nail one trend, it can feel as if it’s already out of style.
But fear not, decorating your home doesn’t need to mean abiding by all the rules of the latest trends. In fact, a more considered approach can result in a far more timeless scheme that doesn’t quickly date and withstands the test of time.
happy rooms, that turn to the natural world for inspiration, while also prioritizing conscious consumption – steering clear of fast decor.
5 ways to mindfully decorate your home
The core and underlying message of the following home decor ideas is that your home should be personal to you, ensuring first and foremost that it’s a space that speaks to your own interests, rather than the latest interior design trends.
‘The most important thing when going about home decor is to prioritize making your space feel most like you: designing a space that is functional while having a personality,’ says interior designer Nicole Lanteri.
design a home that feels like you.
‘Creating a mindful approach to home decor involves a deliberate and thoughtful selection process for each item that enters your space,’ says interior designer Jennifer Davis. ‘Start by considering the purpose of each piece, ensuring that it serves a functional need or adds aesthetic value without cluttering your surroundings. Quality over quantity is key, prioritize well-made items that will endure over time and appreciate craftsmanship.’
‘Practice mindful consumption by selecting sustainable and ethically produced products, considering their environmental and social impact. Pay attention to the intentional placement of decor items, creating a balanced and harmonious arrangement that enhances the flow of your space. Ultimately, approach home decor with the question of whether each item brings you genuine happiness and contributes positively to your living space.’
decorating with art that means something and practical items are going to serve you well and make your space feel balanced. For example, if you’re styling your coffee table, you might want a decorative tray that holds a framed family photo, a cool sculpture, and daily use items like a scented candle and your TV remotes.’
3. Choose biophilic design
For a mindful home that’s filled with soothing decor ideas and wellness-boosting designs, one of the most important things you can do is embrace biophilic design, which is all about referencing nature through the elements you interact with.
‘Incorporating biophilic design elements can contribute to creating a mindful home,’ explains Sarah Barnard, founder of wellness-led design studio Sarah Barnard Design. ‘Nature-inspired patterns, color palettes, and materials connect interior spaces with the landscape outside, mirroring the sense of calm and wellbeing we experience in the natural world.’
Another way you can reference nature in your home decor is by opting for natural materials, which will instantly bring a feeling of nature indoors while withstanding daily wear and tear. Designer Cinzia Moretti, Creative Director at Moretti Interior Design explains: ‘My top tip is to start by paying attention to the details around and introducing more natural elements such as wood, stone, wool, cotton and rattan. Integrating these into furniture and decor items can help to get us connected harmoniously with nature and help us to get close to our environment.’
4. Embrace minimalism
‘Embrace minimalism by de-cluttering and simplifying your space, focusing on a few key pieces that bring you joy and contribute positively to the atmosphere,’ suggests Jennifer Davis.
Of course, you don’t need to be a true minimalist to follow a mindful approach throughout your home decor. Whether you’re a fan of pared-back schemes or you love decorating with patterns and color, make sure to maintain a calm environment by de-cluttering items that no longer serve a purpose or add to your home’s visual appeal. A clean home that’s free from excessive amounts of decorative items is bound to positively affect your mood and help establish a feeling of order and calm, especially important in rooms such as the bedroom.
As a starting point, consider how you can improve your storage ideas to ensure a sense of order throughout your home, which will make this concept a lot easier to follow: ‘Think about what storage options work best for you, a clutter-free home promotes calm and mindfulness,’ advises Sarah Barnard.
5. Maximize natural light
And lastly, when prioritizing mindfulness throughout your home decor, make sure to always pay close attention to lighting ideas. Maximizing natural light will further connect your home to the natural world, in turn having a positive impact on your mood. And while the dream is for each room throughout our homes to have lovely light streaming in throughout the day, this isn’t always the case. If you’re relying on artificial lighting to create a restful atmosphere, incorporate different sources for a more relaxed look, as Lauren Sullivan suggests:
‘Access to natural light is a must, but if this isn’t a feasible option, be sure to incorporate lighting from multiple sources for ambiance and a sense of coziness. Don’t ever rely solely on overhead lighting to illuminate a room. Decorate with mirrors to reflect light about a space.’
Decorating a home mindfully isn’t something that can be rushed. It’s about slowly curating a home over time that naturally evolves to reflect personality and a style that lasts beyond trend cycles. By keeping these five ideas front of mind when decorating your home, over time you’ll create a calming space that feels both personality-led and considered.
Source: homesandgardens.com
Apache is functioning normally
One of my goals for the next two years is to write a book about personal finance. I want it to be a practical volume filled with great tips, while also exploring the personal side of money issues. The real trick is that I want it to be a short book — no quizzes, no jargon, no padding — and that’s not something that appeals to most publishers. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), Michael Mihalik has already written a book similar to the one I have in mind!
The body of Debt is Slavery (and 9 Other Things I Wish My Dad Had Taught Me About Money) is just 88 pages packed with sensible advice about money. Like me, Mihalik made some dumb financial choices when he was young, and he spent years struggling to recover from his mistakes. Debt is Slavery is the distillation of all that he has learned about personal finance. If you’ve been reading Get Rich Slowly for a while, Mihalik’s lessons won’t be new, but he does an excellent job of presenting each point.
Related >> How Do You Budget for Experiences After Debt?
Here are the 10lessons the author wishes he had learned when he was younger:
- Debt is slavery. Mihalik discusses secured debt and unsecured debt, credit cards, mortgages, and more. He explains how working to pay off debt is little more than slavery: you’re working because you have to.
- Money is time. Those who have read Your Money or Your Life will be familiar with this concept, the trade-off between work and dollars. Whenever you buy something, you’re not just spending money on it — you’re literally spending time. Money is a representation of hours worked, and when you buy frivolous things, you’re squandering hours of your life.
- Possessions are a prison. This is a concept that I’ve only recently begun to understand. Kris and I have been on a de-cluttering kick lately. Slowly, and in stages, we’ve been purging much of what we own. This was painful at first, but has become more liberating with time. Mihalik has a few simple rules for controlling the stuff in your life — they’re excellent.
- Don’t let advertising brainwash you. I’ve written before about the insidious power of marketing. (And I have another entry on this subject coming soon.) Mihalik decries the Great Marketing Machine and its drive to hook us on status and fashion. Related >> Beware the Insidious Power of Marketing
- Money buys freedom. Money cannot buy happiness, but it can buy freedom. Money can give you more options. This concept is closely tied to “possessions are a prison.”
- Don’t sell your soul for a salary. Money should not be your primary motive for choosing a career. Consider job fulfillment, educational opportunities, and personal values. Try to find work you love.
- Own. Mihalik admits this advice might seem to contradict his previous notion that possessions are a prison. “Income-consuming assets can imprison us, he writes (echoing the good part of Robert Kiyosaki’s advice). “Income-producing assets set us free.” Don’t buy Stuff — instead, invest your money in things like mutual funds and real estate, things that make money and not consume it.
- Spend less than you earn. What can I say about this? It’s the fundamental law of wealth. Mihalik explains how to meet this objective by controlling your expenses. Related >> The Most Important Money Tip
- Save 50% of your salary. This is the most ambitious advice in the book, but I like it. Mihalik writes, “Have you ever asked yourself how people who immigrate to the United States can come here, get a low-paying job, and open their own business five years later? How can they do that, making around minimum wage, when you can’t, making more than minimum wage? They save. They save 50 percent or more of their salary. They don’t go into debt, they work hard and make other sacrifices, so they can buy their own business and control their financial destinies.”
- Control your money. In the book’s final chapter, Mihalik lays down an approach to making all of these goals workable. He explains how to eliminate debt, minimize expenses, and create a financial plan.
Finally, Mihalik admonishes his readers to start now!
Debt is Slavery is a great personal finance book, one of the best I’ve read. But I’m not the first personal finance blogger to have found it.
This book isn’t meant for those who are already debt-free. It’s meant for people who are in the early stages of their personal finance journey. If you’re struggling to make ends meet, if you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck, then this book is perfect. I also think it’s a great choice for recent high school or college graduates.
Source: getrichslowly.org
Apache is functioning normally
Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend.
We didn’t do a whole lot, but it was a nice relaxing weekend.
Our good friends (W has been good friends with the guy since first grade) are getting married this Friday and decided to plan a quick wedding so we have a lot to do this week to get ready for that and it’ll be a lot of fun!
I booked our engagement photography last week. She takes great photos and I’ve been stalking her wedding website and Facebook for years now so I’m glad I was able to book with her! We are of course taking our engagement photos with our dogs too and I’m really looking forward to it. W is really not looking forward to taking photos. Anyone else had this problem? I feel like I can’t convince him to do this at all haha. I’ve already paid though and it’s $400 for the engagement photos so he will for sure be coming.
Lately I’ve been talking a lot about how we want a new house. We figured that until we actually find the house and are 100% about to buy, then we really need to be doing little things around our house until then to prepare and not be overwhelmed at one time. Also, why not make our house perfect for while we’re leaving here? So we have a long list of things that we need to do. This past weekend I cleaned out my closet and had 2 large trash bags full of garbage to throw away. And this was pure trash: receipts, plastic bags, tags, paper, etc.
This upcoming weekend I plan on de-cluttering everything and getting rid of clothes in my closet. Hopefully I can actually get rid of some clothes and possibly make some extra money too!
So, quick question for all of you: What thing around your house did you improve before you tried selling it? I’m looking for all tips as we want to sell our house for as much as we can and also as quickly as we can. I have a long post dedicated to this in the future but am wondering if there’s anything that I’m leaving out!
I paid off one of my student loans, and it was my only private student loan! Back in 2007 I took out the loan and it totaled $6,000. I paid off the rest the other day and it looks like I accidentally overpaid by $0.01! It’s a nice feeling and I never honestly thought that eliminating student loans would be this exhilarating haha.
Spending
I don’t think we bought anything in the past week, at least nothing that I can think of. We have been doing really good with this and I’m proud. I guess you could of course count for engagement photography that I paid for, but I did budget for that awhile ago.
Also, we have some major expenses coming up. We are paying for W’s parents to go on a vacation. It’s going to be a present to them for being such great people and we’re really hoping that they enjoy it. We’ve saved up for quite some time and are covering the airfare and all-inclusive hotel. I don’t think they’ve ever been to the Caribbean so I’m super excited for them!
Extra Income (does not include salary from our jobs)
I received $823 in payments in the past week. Still waiting on some more payments so I hope they come through soon.
Affiliate income is still my number 1 goal right now. I’m really working on that and hopefully it’ll be around 50% or more of my total extra income each month. Eventually though, my new side hustle will completely take over and hopefully become a larger part of my income. This side hustle will eventually take up a ton of time.
I wish I could tell you guys more! A couple of you asked me if it’s related to blogging, and it’s not at all. It is not related to writing, blogging, advertising, etc. Something completely new! If anyone wants to guess, I’ll take all guesses and confess if someone actually does come up with the right answer. And, if you already know what the new plan is, please don’t tell! I already told a couple of you. 🙂
Food
We haven’t had a meal plan in forever, but we have been doing great with eating at home. We made dinner 5 days last week. The two days that we did eat out were super cheap. Thankfully our 2 favorite restaurants are right next door to each other and just right down the street. They are both super cheap and we spent a total of $35 on going out to restaurants to eat. That’s pretty cheap to me, less than $20 for each night!
We want to continue to eat in as much as we can. We have really enjoyed it. We have more time to relax and hang out since we aren’t in a busy restaurant.
Wedding
As I said above, we booked our engagement photography to be done. We’re not taking them until May because we want everything to be blooming and colorful. Our photos will be a start park with lots of great hiking and pretty cliffs. Sounds like a disaster once you mix heels, dresses and 2 dogs but oh well 🙂
Being healthy
Having the treadmill in our basement has been great so far. I’ve run on it three times in the past week and it’s been great. I’m going to try and at least fit in a couple of miles here and there whenever I have 10 or 20 minutes to spare also.
How’s your spending, working out and extra income going?
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Source: makingsenseofcents.com
The daycare debate: A double-edged sword
As many of you know, my husband had a career crisis that left him unemployed for several months last summer. It was scary, but we learned a lot from the experience — including the fact that ;the grass isn’t always greener and that we really needed to learn to be happy with what we had. And, beyond that, we now feel blessed that he found a new job he likes, even though it required us to move to a pricier area.
Downsizing to Save
But moving isn’t always all fun and games. In fact, buying and selling a home can have serious financial consequences that last for years or even decades. Since we knew that ahead of time, we thought long and hard about what we could do to ensure the move was good for us not only emotionally, but also financially. So, to diminish any financial consequences caused by the move, we used the opportunity to downsize into a reasonably-priced, smaller home.
That tradeoff has been well worth it in my eyes. I hardly notice that we lost 400 square feet when we moved, and I mostly made up for it by de-cluttering and being smart with the space we do have. However, I did stress at first about how our monthly expenses might change. What would the utility bills be like? And would our grocery bill be comparable to what it was before? Those kinds of questions caused many sleepless nights in my house for some time — as if the move itself wasn’t stressful enough.
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Apps To Help De-Clutter Your Apartment (& Your Life)
Around here, we believe in the power of a well-organized, clutter-free home and workspace. Luckily there are a number of apps to help de-clutter your apartment – here are our top picks to get you started.
Read Apps To Help De-Clutter Your Apartment (& Your Life) on Apartminty.
Tips for De-Cluttering Your House and Getting Paid for it
When youâre trying not to spend money, thereâs no better way to spend your time than making money. And you know what my favorite way to make money is? De-cluttering. I couldnât make a living off of it but itâs…
The post Tips for De-Cluttering Your House and Getting Paid for it appeared first on Modern Frugality.