I’m excited to be participating in the Go Green & Save Green Series with several other green bloggers this week! We’ll be talking about different areas of green and natural living, showing you how to go green while saving money at the same time! Be sure to check out the great links at the end of this post!
Go ahead. Laugh. Get it out of your system. Yes, I am writing a post on home deocrating. Yes, the girl who hasn’t hung a single picture on the walls of her new home for over a year.
I certainly am not one to tell you how to have a “Martha Stewart Style” home, but I do know a thing or two about saving money on home decor!
4 Ways to Save the Planet & Money When Decorating
1. Simplify – Our apartment had these wonderful built in shelves in the living room. Our new house doesn’t. Plus we don’t have bookshelves of any kind to replace that storage space. Because of that, 90% of the things you see in this picture are still packed away in boxes and we don’t miss the stuff!!! Knick-knacks can clutter your home and make it feel more stressful. Instead of filling your home with stuff, simplify and do with out.
2. Be Content with What You Have – I would love to have a home that is worthy of being in a home decor magazine, but instead I’m choosing to be content with my mix matched furniture so that our money can be spent elsewhere. Our shopping crazy society tells me that using the same dresser I had in middle school is lame. It is lame! But… it is better for the environment, my wallet and my mental health to choose to be content with what I have.
3. Accept Hand-Me-Downs – One man’s trash can be your treasure! Accepting second hand items keeps those things out of landfills and keep more money in your pockets (a budget calculator is a great way to keep up with the money you save!). If you don’t have people around you looking to unload their used items then check out garage sales and second hand shops for great deals.
4. Upcycle – Upcycling is when you take something old and unwanted and turn it into something fabulous! It is a great way to spruce up your home without having to buy newly manufactured products. Recycling at it’s finest.
Confession: I have upcycled a t-shirt into a necklace and a pop bottle into a sprinkler, but I am not a upcycling-for-home-decor professional. The only upcycled decor item in my home is an old desk we turned into a changing table. It isn’t even that impressive, so that’s why I’m turning to the professional on Pinterest to provide some inspiration.
Haven’t heard of Pinterest? It is an online bulliten board you can use to gather and share awesome ideas you find around the web. Follow me!
Check out these awesome home decorating upcycling projects I found on Pinterest:
Can you believe that this accent wall is made out of wooden pallets???
This chair turned into a bathroom shelf is so cute.
This fun piece of art is made out of empty toilet paper rolls! Love it!!!
Do you have any frugal & green decorating tips?
Check Out These Other Great Posts in the Go Green & Save Green Series:
- The Greenbacks Gal: Don’t Toss It! Repurpose It!
- Kinda Crunchy Kate: Reusing and Repurposing Food Packaging
Lots of great ideas Rebekah!
We have lots of picture frames still in boxes too. And after our last move to a smaller home, most of the knick-knacks are gone. I like it – less dusting!
I do wish that we had more photographs sitting out. I think it would help my daughter remember long distance family better, but right now we just don’t have a place to put them. (Of course I could put them on the walls!!!)
What great tips – I know that decluttering our house would make all the difference in the world! Rebekah, you just let me know when you’re ready to hang up some pictures, I’ll bring a hammer!
But…. but…. but…. then I’ll have to actually decided on something to PUT on the walls!!! 😉
I’ve totally pinned the same images! Isnt’ the tp roll one awesome! I find these pins so inspiring!
And everyone should view your sprinkler video! love it.
Aw, thanks! I have had a lot of fun making my vlogs.
I like point number 1. Less is more with decorating, especially when you have kids! Before children, I had lots of pictures in frames set around and nice little candle arrangements, etc. After my kiddos became mobile, all that stuff got put away. You gotta pick your battles, and that was one I didn’t want to fight!
Kate, we were very lucky that we moved just before our daughter got very mobile. Otherwise those built in shelves would have been a disaster every day!! Looking back at that picture almost makes me embarrassed that I even had such a cluttered space in my home!
Wow … great ideas … love the wall decoration made out of toilet paper rolls.
We did pretty much the same as you … we moved and didn’t have the inclination or room to many items so they sat in a box. And truthfully, I rather like the clean lines of bare walls and the “feel” of no clutter. So now we’re slowly going through boxes, sorting out what we actually can and want to use and giving the rest away on Freecycle. It’s so liberating!
Thanks for the great ideas and inspiration!
I need to get to the point of going through the boxes from our move, but I really REALLY dread doing it. I have a hard time letting go of stuff and I just know the whole experience is going to stress me out. Even though I haven’t even SEEN the stuff for over a year. *sigh*
if you haven’t missed the stuff after a year, don’t go through the boxes, just off load them or ask someone else (hubby, mum, bf) to sort them and off load everything worthy of giving and toss the rest.
I knew there was a use for those toilet paper rolls! And now I’m just waiting for one my chairs to break to make a shelf. 🙂 I’ll hunt for you on Pinterest!
hahaha!! That shelf is just too cute, isn’t it? Love it!
I really like that toilet paper roll art!
We have a plastic shelving unit that works very well as a combination plant stand (plants on top; if they overflow, it won’t hurt the shelf) and bedside table (books, etc., on the lower shelf) but is very ugly and cheap-looking. So I covered it with an old curtain that matches the color scheme in the room. Now it looks lovely, and we can just flip up the fabric to reach the lower shelf! And if it gets icky plant-water on it, it’s machine washable.
Love it! No one has to know what is really under that curtain! haha! If I had something like that it would always be a MESS under there!! 🙂
As a child I thought I. Would die every time my mother brought home something from trash day or a handy me down. That changed when I found out my really millionaire relatives did the same thing and called them antiques or special finds. Today I have beautiful home built mostly of special finds mostly freebies or thift. I hope mom’s proud.