How to decorate and refresh without shopping

I love being creative-I quilt, I garden and cook, and I decorate. I love to change things around inside my home -a shelf or  a mantle might get cleaned off and a new collection of items put there to entice the eye and the brain.

As someone who loves living simply, I try to do this without following decorating trends or buying new things. If you can make your house a home even if there is not a lot of money, you are on a budget or just sick of shopping, are there any things you can do to decorate and refresh? 

Well the first thing I try to make myself do is just tidy up!

It always surprising how a clean floor and a bit of dusting and straightening makes everything feel calmer and nicer. The same goes for opening windows to let fresh air inside, and cleaning up pet clutter. The cat tray is a mega issue for my happiness unless it is fresh. I think Dora prefers it that way too! 

I am quite conscious of things which are out of place and find it hard to work or relax in cluttered spaces. This is not true of everyone who lives in my house, but as it bothers me they are usually pretty good at putting things away, and I reckon that if it bothers me and not them, it is up to me to fix it. 

Long time ago I found help from Flylady and her cleaning routines. I actually read her book which I got from the library! We were parents of young children and both had to work long hours. The house was so messy that when we had a break in and the police came, I had to say "No, they didn't trash the place, it always looks like this'. Embarrasing much? 

Flylady mottos and practices are still part of my life. A five minute pickup does make things better. Cleaning your sink and making your bed does calm the space and help you feel in control. "Focus makes you fabulous".  Lately I have found Dana K White's podcast "A Slob Comes Clean" is very useful too. 

Apart from tidying up, which has its own real and cheap magic to perform what can you do?

A LIST OF STRATEGIES

1. Instead of buying cut flowers

If you look at online decorators blogs you will find plants and flowers feature in the inspirational photos. Flowers cheer any space up, but there are only a few times when I am certainly going to spend $35 on a bunch of supermarket flowers. Instead I do the following things:

• bring in a pot plant for a few days -some of them stay if they like the space, others need a long time outside and a few days inside 

• cut some green leaves and stick them in a vase or jar or pot or anything. If you have only a few pieces, they can go in a tiny vase or an eggcup or a medicine bottle. 

• go for a walk and collect some sticks and dead branches or seed heads to spread on a shelf 

• Use local flowers, seeds and cones that you find in your garden. In Western Australia it is a crime to take these from the bush, but we can have lovely things at home in our garden, like this hardenbergia growing over a stump of a dead tree in my garden. 

• Make one or more crafted flowers-and have fun at the same time!

• raid the collection of fake flowers -do you have any? I keep some in the cupboard and mix them up with real leaves -they look more realistic that way. In my climate there are times when flowers are hard to come by in the garden- the height of summer, for example, when the heat browns everything off. Fake flowers or dried flowers can fill a gap -but I don't leave them out until they are dusty! A swish in warm water will revive silk ones, but dried ones need to be taken outside and given a shake. Moving them around makes them feel different too. 

• Use fruit instead. Bright lemons, green olives in a wooden bowl or basket, anything you have. 

2.  It is dark in here!

Natural light is one of those things that architects get good money for designing into a space. You can't do much if it is dark and dreary outside, or if your house faces to a blank wall, without expensive alterations. Here are some ideas which are cheaper than those major changes:

• Open the curtains or blinds to the maximum they will go. I am shocked how often people live without even noticing the free light which they could have if only they pushed everything up, away and against the wall. This might include re-arranging furniture to maximise the light from a window. If there is foliage in the way outside, time to prune it down! I don't like furniture to block natural light if it is at all possible to put it somewhere else. 

• Check where you can encourage light to bounce from outside to inside. We had a dark brown floor on our entry porch, but when we tiled it with left over white tiles, the afternoon sun bounced off the tiles, to the porch ceiling and into our dark loungeroom. It was also safer to come up to the house because the step was easier to see. A colourbond shed in the garden shines light into our kitchen and brightens things out there. 

• Mirrors can bounce light around -try putting one in a place where it can collect light from a nearby window and push it towards the dark space.

• Add table lamps -I often get mine from op shops or the tip shop. Maybe add a nice shade if it is worth it. Fitted with a LED globe they are cheap to run.

• Can you make a colour change to something lighter? Cushions, rugs and curtains are not too hard to move around and some of them can be home made too. They can brighten a space. 

3. I am bored and this place feels tired 

Sometimes I just need novelty! What I do then is fall back on the old 'move things around or shop at home" to make a tablescape. The above is one I made around Halloween -a book I already owned, a couple of lanterns from the garden, a  gargoyle from the op shop and some magpie feathers found in the park. Other ideas include- 

• move pictures from one room to another 
• move the furniture around 
• put music on, open the windows, light a candle
• Choose a theme land make a tiny vignette on a table or shelf. You don't need to wait for a large holiday -if you have a collection of woodland animals, or cats, or a stack of quilts- put them somewhere new and admire them again. 

• Cook something nice and make the house feel welcoming! 

FINALLY! 

Recently I wanted to do my refresh thing and came up with a theme of "Mad scientist's Victorian library". I already had leather lounge chairs, book cases, and a mantle piece with an old clock. I raided my collections for wooden boxes for the mantle and bottles that looks like I have been collecting nature specimens.

I cleared off the console and added beautiful books, a book stand and a globe which I found in an op shop. All of this makes me happy! 

I will probably change this around again soon. Maybe for Halloween? 

Hope you found this post helpful to inspire you to keep your place looking nice too.