I usually leave dirty socks, t-shirts and briefings on the floor. This along with a well-placed bowl of soggy cereals, one or two almost empty wine glasses and the usual opened envelopes make it a very homely place for me and random people who visit from time to time
I also take some used needles and a singular crack pipe and orderly lay them on the cigarette-burned rug. My family would say they really tie the basement together.
If you want to add personality then start buying stuff or collecting things from where you enjoy going.
UpstairsOne wall is dedicated to pictures of family. Son’s bedroom is tractor themed and has one wall in John Deere green, another wall has a large laser cut tractor cling on it. Daughter’s bedroom is horse themed with a mural that a friend’s daughter painted, opposite wall is purple. Laundry room is clothing themed, kidding ;). Master bedroom and bath is beach themed with pictures from Hawaii and our favorite OBX beach and bed wall is teal. Loft is music themed with a piano and flute + things.
Main FloorOther walls in the house have bamboo cutting boards of the states we have family in, our state flag on wood, a large picture of our a bunch of doors in our hometown that our friend took and we framed, flags hanging vertically in my office (it has high ceilings), a wood laser cutting of my wife’s profession, a painting my father made in our dining room. Opposite wall has a massive picture of one of our favorite places . Entryway has a 4 shelf unit that has beer steins, Lladro sculptures, a piece of wood from the log home my father in law built (and we helped with), a large heart shaped price of granite rock from a friend’s property in the Rockies, lots of Tinkerbell stuff (wife’s mother loved her), lots of Hawaiian themed things (we love Kauai).
BasementMovie themed. Wife’s craft room is Harry Potter themed. Theater has movie posters and a large Disney castle picture over the couch. We also have a movie popcorn maker on an electric fireplace which is a lot of fun. Son’s bedroom is space themed since he loves that.
All of that took us ~20 years to collect. My wife looks at Pinterest and other places for ideas others have done and then incorporates what we like. Don’t worry about what other people will think of what you do. They want to see your personality, that’s the fun part!
Thank you so much for the breakdown of all the different rooms! Really helps set some perspective for the variety of examples and how that can work! We definitely have some stuff we’ve accumulated but could never decide where they should go. I think I’ll have to take a weekend and just start putting stuff up here and there and see how we like it. The worst thing we’ve done so far is really not attempt anything so we don’t even know if we’d like something.
when i ask for Christmas presents its usually please buy me this item specifically and if you dont want to buy that specific thing please tell me ill just get it myself no harm done.
but i nowadays need to know whats gotten and not gotten so i know what i can get myself versus outsource to better off family members.
Curtains. Even if you have blinds, curtains really helps dress up the place. They don’t have to be super expensive. Just something that looks nice from your local home goods store.
Hanging pictures is super easy. As long as they’re not huge, you can nail the picture hangers right into the drywall/plaster and it will hold up just fine.
If you want to spend a little more money, you can have large prints made of pictures and have them framed. The framing is the expensive part. I have a handful of pictures I’ve taken over the years, mostly of nature, that turned out really, really good. I had some of them framed and they are hanging throughout our house. I like them because I feel like it adds a personal touch.
I know credit cards can be a slippery slope for some, so learn how to practice financial discipline before getting one.
That said, if you’re not paying with a credit card, you’re paying at least 2 percent too much for everything you buy except the things that can’t easily be paid for with a credit card.
Any place to get a proper gist of what financially literate means in this context? I know maybe a few basics but always wondered about the best way to utilize credit to a long term benefit.
Basically use any credit card as you would any debit card. That means never spend any money you don’t already have in your account. And always pay the full statement balance every month on time to avoid paying interest.
That way you will get all the rewards and none of the drawbacks.
And what happens when a big purchase comes along that I really need, like my car breaking down or just a new mattress? I always figure that’s where the utilization starts going up and there’s only so much that can be paid off before the next billing cycle.
Credit cards should be avoided at all times, unless you have the money to pay them off each month. Or if you’re getting zero-interest financing and you are able to stick to the plan of paying it off before interest gets added.
Getting into credit card debt is one of the most common and worst poverty traps. Getting behind on credit card bills can ruin your credit and take years to repair, which impacts your financial stability when it comes time to make a purchase with Real Credit such as a home or car.
My best poverty tip is to not buy expensive things that are unnecessary. Also cook your own food at home, and learn to repair anything that you value. I’ve saved thousands of dollars over the years by doing my own car repairs, and driving old cars long past having them paid off.
My neighbors living in a slumlord’s two bedroom apartment Rent to Own everything. The got a TV from Rent to Own so big it had to be delivered cause it didnt fit in their car … i got the cheapest roku pos tv at walmart for $50.
Their daughter when she comes over to play with my kids has told me about so many frivolous things from Rent to Own they probably pay more to Rent to Own per month than in actual rent for their appartment.
When I started out my limit was less than I made in a month and I paid for everything with it. That was hard to fuck up and helped me build good spending habits. Currently I have one that is about 2x my monthly salary that I use for larger purchases but still the concept remains similar.
The very first thing I do whenever I move into a new place is get things on the wall. Floating shelves and framed pictures especially. I usually just buy cheap frames that I think look good.
Without exception, people normally comment that the place looks lived in despite there being boxes all over the place. The trick, as I’ve found, is to make your home look the way you want. It’s your space, and if it’s your space you can decorate it how you like and it can’t be “wrong”. The decorating style speaks to your style and your own flairs and personality will come through. Do what’s pleasing to your eye.
Personally, knick-knacks and some books, old DVDs of favorite movies, travel (or other) mementos, and small plants on the shelves seal the deal for me. For pictures and other framed pieces, my aesthetic leans towards semi-chaos looking. No neat rows and columns on the wall. I just throw things up and move them around as I see fit.
Don’t sweat the details, there is no “wrong” when it comes to personal preference for your living space. Make some tiny holes in the wall for your “pieces of flair” and don’t worry, they can be fixed or filled in as needed.
If that’s all still too much, get some houseplants and spread them around your home.
Tons of great info here! Yeah like I think pictures + shelves for the walls are the way to go. It seems like for us it’s a matter of just putting something up to get started then that’ll jumpstart the rest. Love the idea of “semi-chaos.” I feel like my friends places have some more refined style but maybe ours just doesn’t work that way. It’s nice to know people embrace a less pristine style.
Something I read online ages ago that kind of struck a chord with me…it was something to the effect of “treat your home like a playground and not a museum”. And you know what, it’s true! I enjoy it when people in my home feel comfortable picking up a knick-knack that looks interesting to them, especially so if I see a kid eyeing something and the look on their face when I hand it to them! Within reason of course :)
Happy to share a few pictures of what I’ve got going on over here, especially if it’ll help inspire you to put that first nail in the wall!
Manjaro Linux with GNOME on my personal desktop. Used to do Arch with bspwm way back but don’t really want to put in the time configuring things anymore
I’m using a Macbook Pro with Mac OS Sanoma for my work laptop
I have a Home Decoration Guide - Whiterun that I’d let you take off my hands if you want. Definitely recommend filling up trophy cases, weapon and shield racks as well as bookshelves from your favorite plot lines, arcanery or narratives. Have something cooking. And or course, don’t forget the furniture and wall decor.
I’ll have to look that up! Would definitely love a guide for extra info/tips and inspiration. I think wall decor is our largest hurdle, along with making sure to keep clutter to a minimum. Having a toddler makes it difficult sometimes.
We do have our older kitty, buutt may be looking into getting another! I do feel like getting 2 together is the way to go so it’s definitely something my wife and I are thinking through!
Please do! It worked out so well for us that we even got another via blast from the past 😹 11/10 goddamn solid-ass crew
Edit: seriously, get two young’uns so they have each other as a foundation and will be reasonably ok when the older passes. Sad to think about but you gotta be the adult in the room for them and cats should always come in no less than pairs
Yeah I agree with everything you’ve said! I’m super cautious before adopting any new pets. The only time I’d just get one is if I’m maybe adopting from a shelter to give an older cat a new home. My main concern is how they’d interact with our old lady cat because she can be a bit feisty!
I have my own miracle in terms of that. As long as everyone has everything they need and you use treats strategically, I catch them all the time laying down with like a couple inches between butts, which would have been unthinkable to me previously.
Cats are far more trainable than people know or are willing to give them credit for. I literally train them >= the amount they train me ;)
I feel hanging shelves and putting tchotchkes on em really add a lot of personal touches. I went with some geometric shaped shelves that I placed in a pattern on the wall and put some object de arte on em and that did a lot of good for making it feel more homey. I’m embellishing a bit on “object de arte”, I got a go set, a red wax elephant, a Star Trek ship and a small plant on there, just some stuff that relates to my interests and a few splashes of color.
If you’re nervous about putting holes in the wall, some wire frame shelving units can work, too, and you can get them in all sorts of shapes and sizes these days. If you search using the keywords “geometric” or “asymmetrical”, you can easily find some designs that help break up the flat lines of a book case style shelf that I feel adds a dynamic feel to the decoration.
Lastly, if you can splurge for it, there’s always the classic paintings. Find an artist you like and go for a print or two. I went with stuff by Kandinsky, but I really like that sort of abstract, dynamic piece, to my boyfriend’s chagrin, so maybe talk about it with the people you live with first more than I did (he’s come to tolerate it plenty fine though and we get compliments all the time so haha I win).
I do really enjoy geometric and abstract stuff so I’ll have to look into them, we really just want to give our home some more personality so it feels like home. We have some artwork but never know which room they really fit in since they’re all kind of different moods and aesthetics.
To parrot some of the other comments, the holes needed to hang artwork and photos are very easily covered up with a lil spackle (or even toothpaste!) and paint, but also command hooks work very well for hanging things even up to ten pounds, and come off cleanly if you remove them slowly and according to the instructions.
I’ve hung paintings in spots and later decided they don’t look right there and moved em. Sometimes it’s helpful to put it up to see how it works in the space and move it later.
Bookshelves don’t have to just be for books, either! Ours is a mixed setup with a few plants, books, of course, some video games since it’s near the TV and boardgames. We also put a few eye-catching objects on it to add some color and inspire conversations.
Edit: BookS, plural! Though, I bet it could be striking if you put one single book on the shelf and filled the rest of it with other objects.
We did just get some bookshelves to put in our basement! We have more space down there so it’s helpful for getting stuff stored, but doesn’t add to our spaces where we stay the most. I think it’s really wall decorations that stress me out and makes the room feel barren.
Maybe get a shelf and put just your very favorites en it. Those you just can’t help but return to. Rotate them once in a while if that choice is too hard. Books are pretty, there’s a reason rich people buy false books by the meter just for decoration.
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