I would appreciate your feedback on this post, financial follower friends!
I love seeing pictures of people’s beautiful home decor on Facebook. I’m always jealous. “I wish I could do that!” “Maybe I should get these friends to help decorate my house!” But then when we even think about a new piece of furniture or larger expense like that, my stomach sinks at the cost. We don’t NEED it, and that money could go to savings and such! So we don’t usually get it. Our house is quite plain and cluttered – I like to call it “lived in” (especially with a toddler in the house). No real decor. After 2+ years in this house and we still haven’t put much on the walls! And we have way too much stuff as it is, so in the end, I can’t justify buying anymore “stuff” that isn’t functional. As I changed the toddler bed linens and put on the random linen closet pillowcase that doesn’t match the Mickey sheet, I got a little sad that everything is so mismatched and blah, but then I remembered how much money I was saving and did I really care? I’m in my house everyday and I’m pretty immune to what it looks like. I imagine even if I had a beautifully-decorated and coordinated home, I would become immune to it in time as well?
You realize that our American culture feeds on this “nesting,” right? THERE IS A WHOLE TV CHANNEL DEVOTED TO HOME AND GARDEN STUFF!! And I know a LOT of people love HGTV! And then they have to go out and do it themselves. And in the end, what is it all for? In one way, it just goes back to keeping up with the Jones’. We’re trying to impress others. It’s working, I’m impressed, folks!
Here’s the funny thing, and what prompted me to write the post: sooner or later, all that beautiful decor is just clutter and crap and you’re trying to get rid of it at a garage sale! Case in point, a Facebook friend who has posted beautiful pictures of her home in the past and made me jealous of it all, posted this weekend about her moving sale. She posted pictures of all the things she’s selling and I decided to go through her old pictures and find those beautiful home pictures and see if any of the things in those pictures were for sale. Sure enough, I saw some!
I felt a bit vindicated in my cluttered blah decor. I’m not trying to impress anyone with my modest house and lack of pretty-ness, that’s for sure! And with life being so busy, I often don’t even have time to clean up before company visits. But almost all of the people that come into my home are my good friends and family that don’t care about that in the end. Oh I’m VERY sure they look around (maybe in disgust once in a while??) and turn up their nose for a second, but I imagine it’s a fleeting thought. A shoulder shrug and then on to the next thing. Funny thing is, if I were at a nicely-decorated house, I would probably have the same reaction. My first impression would be “wow this house is so nicely decorated and clean” but then I’m switching gears to just enjoying quality time with my peeps. And when you have good friends and family in your life, who cares what it looks like around you?
So that’s my love-hate relationship with home decor. What are your thoughts? Does having a beautifully-decorated home serve another purpose in your life? Comment below and tell me what you think!