In a continuing effort to not have so much “stuff” I’ve been trying to practice “shoe your home” for new uses for things I already have. Might be a household item, might be shopping my closet for new outfit combinations. Might be moving a lamp from one room to another that right now seems more purposeful.
Today I shopped my yard for my front of the house fall decorating. We have a large front porch (brand new cement too!) and I’m not really a big mum fan AND my summer flowers (I have alot) are still in great shape. Besides one large carving pumpkin, one heirloom pumpkin and a couple pie shaped or gourds (total spent less than $10) I built a beautiful fall grouping using pots from the yard. Grabbed a wood bench, a few pots of geraniums and herbs, mixed in the pumpkins/gourds - voila! Great fall display without buying much new stuff.
My son was really proud that he finished a room in his house “shopping the house” - while he bought a small couch and a mid-century modern look tv table he was able to find wall art, lamps, side tables and shelf accessories from other parts of the house or basement. Now for little $$ he has a purposeful room that was previously just holding junk.
This time of year I also shop my closet. I’m not ready to jump fully out of summer wear or into fall wear so I’m blending some different outfits for work. A lightweight dress with a colorful cardigan. A little bit of layering without being heavy. And my all time favorite warm fall wear, shorts or a skort with a tshirt AND layer of long sleeves - a lightweight quarter zip or a long sleeved t over the short sleeved t. New combos out of “old” stuff!
How do you shop your home? I think when you have some unused rooms it’s even easier to move objects around for new purposes.
I haven’t shopped it yet, but I set up a little go-to box in our kitchen. When husband moved back from 2.5 years working out of state, he brought back the pots, tools, and linens he’s been using at the apartment. We gave some of it away (kept me active on Bag-A-Week for a while) but like some of it enough to keep. I now have a happy little stash of really good spoons, pot-holders, other tools to shop in when my current ones wear out.
I too am working on getting lighter with less “stuff”. I’ve been selling things on FB Marketplace. I’ve never sold things before - just donated but it feels great to recoup a little money for larger ticket items. I also had the carpets cleaned in the upstairs of our home. That forced me to clean closets and do a super clean before the carpet clean. It is true - less is more.
I realize when walking through other people’s homes how much more happy I am with “less” in my home. Now if my H would buy into the same philosophy…
But this thread is largely about before purchasing new for your home or life, thinking about if you already have something that can suit your needs - whether it’s trading out chairs in a room, moving a rug to a room whose size better suits the rug, switching a favorite lamp to a more visable place, finding new closet combinations to go with that favorite black skirt instead of just grabbing the same top that goes with it.
I also recently did this with a lamp. There was one in the living room that I liked but just didn’t bother to use. It was fine but neutral and could go anywhere. Meanwhile I had a brass swing arm lamp that I LOVED - it was stationed in a spare bedroom - I never really was able to enjoy it! Switched them out, now I enjoy the swing arm in the living room, and the neutral lamp serves a good purpose in the spare bedroom.
Every so often, I move the artwork on my walls around. It gives the rooms a completely different look. I have a few pieces in an extra closet that I cycle into the mix.
The other thing I do is change the quilts on our beds. Again…gives the spaces a completely different look.
^^^ Yes! A refresh right in your home. Pillows are another good candidate for moving around. Or at least buying pillow covers instead of new pillows. Pillow covers are a hot item these days.
Funny, we just had company for the Jewish New Year and wanted to change it up a bit. We changed art work around which lead to changing furniture around which lead to… Lol…
I struggle with what to wear between seasons, but I’m planning for retirement, so I too try and “make do” with what I have in new combinations.
This might not be exactly the spirit of this thread, but I have lots of “stuff” I’ve been kind of saving for my kids to take from the house, and I think “I may wear at some point.” Now I’m trying to think about someone who needs my “stuff” more than I do, and if I find someone willing to take all but the most sentimental house stuff, I’m happy to see it gone.
A “big” shop from my house thing I’m thinking about is having slip covers put on our “old” but almost never used sofa and chair. The cats have used them as scraping posts, so they look bad, but they are in perfect shape structurally. I want to find out how much it will cost to get them covered, as opposed to getting new.
We move things around quite a bit. H recently came across some old photos in a chest that he wants to put up on the walls. He’s going through our frames trying to make a collection that will look good together. We move chairs and pillows the most. I have seasonal decor that I love and every year when a new season comes around I enjoy pulling out the fall, winter, and spring/summer things.
Funny, I am another one who recently rearranged the art in my home. I do have a selection in my basement of stuff we don’t have up right now but like. I cycled one of those in, cycled one piece into that pile, and moved 4-5 pictures to different locations. Like with other decorating or home improvements, my husband and I both thought it was so much better and “why wasn’t that picture on top of the fireplace before?”
One thing I try to shop my home for is home repairs. It seems like I have quite a bit of unused home depot purchases and I am really happy when I find I have an extra whatever in the basement and don’t need to buy a new one. It happened recently when a nightlight stopped working, exact duplicate brand new was in the basement.
I reuse only if I love it. The problem is I am so tired of my decor and accessories for the home. All I’ve had for at least 25 years, some going back further than that. We are updating the house this year, and I plan on buying new and discarding things, but not all. I would like to rearrange and put in different locations the items we keep.
Re-upholstering can work wonders. Even in furniture with traditional [aka boring] lines, a really zippy fabric can make it fabulous again. For example, this is one of my favorite things on Houzz:
I bought a new chair for my LR; lugged it home in the heat, rearranged and happened upon a new arrangement without the chair - just with what I had - so back it went! Getting compliments on it all!
25 yrs ago, we spent a fortune on a leather chair. It still is comfy; but looks really worn. DH will not get rid of it; he’s like Marty in the Frasier series with his chair. I’ve turned the chair so you don’t look at it head on, but rather from the back which is pristine. that’s helped too.
@bgbg4us there are leather restoration/touch up “paint” kits on Amazon - check them out!
@conmama I agree only re-use what you love. But I have found that I fall in love with something more when it’s in a new, sometimes better, spot in the house!
I love leather furniture. I have two pieces in our living room a full sized couch that is sort of mid-century modern and a love seat that is clean lines but a little unique and I LOVE them both and don’t think I’ll ever tire of them. The love seat I have had for more than 15 years - it is still quite pristine!
Around here re-upholstering is expensive! Often not cheaper than just replacing. That disappoints me.
I shop my home first. I have a basement with stuff I don’t necessarily want out all the time but makes a nice change. Lamps are a great example. Art is another - I can’t display all that I own on my walls so I also rotate stuff in and out from the basement.
We definitely shopped our home for the kids when they went to college! Both got a couple of new things (yeah we didn’t have twin XL sheets…) but much of what they took was in the house. Why buy new towels for college? Art? Throw rug? They even rotated their comforters, we seem to have 3 for every bed
