I don’t know about you, but this quarantine has me feeling especially antsy and unsettled. We moved into our home in November, and while we had the holidays and plenty of time to settle, I feel like I’m still adjusting to being a homeowner and the realization that we won’t be moving again for a very long time, let alone in another 6-12 months like usual. We don’t have to do that anymore. Adjusting and changing our house, however we need to, and also being responsible for that home too is part of it. I normally like to move furniture around and update my rooms and surroundings pretty often. I thought you might also be feeling the urge to freshen up your space since most of us have been stuck at home more than we usually are.

Small Changes that Can Make a Big Difference

Rearranging my office

Early Monday night last week, Stephanie and I decided to rearrange my office. Because we couldn’t move my desk, it only made sense to move all the other pieces of matching furniture. I had to take out the excess to make everything fit a bit better. I had a set of storage cubes that I really wasn’t using in there, so out it came. It will be moved upstairs for extra things in another room whenever we need it. I have a bookshelf and accent chair that I wanted to move across the room to set up a nook corner. Then, we moved the printer center into the opposite, diagonal corner where the chair once sat. This also opened and widened the door frame area and gave it more of an open room feel. I also have a stacked set of plastic drawers in my office, where I store my Scentsy products and my Happy Planner supplies.

Decluttering my closet

I have been fighting this aesthetic feeling for months, maybe even years. You know those small things that bother you to no end and if you don’t just do them, it eats away at the back of your brain until you do it? This was one of them, to declutter my closet and organize everything according to category and shape, as well as choosing non-slip felt matching hangers. Yes, I chose blush pink because that’s what they had IN STOCK. Just my luck! I ordered four boxes of 50, thinking “surely, even in our large closet, it’ll be enough…” Well, my first box came in a set of 25 and that barely made a dent in the first section of my tops. So I rethought that again and grabbed two more matching boxes. The next day, the rest of the first order of hangers came, 3 boxes of 25. Making for a total of 100. That also barely made a dent, and now I’m expecting two more boxes of 50 and I’m waiting to see how much money I might be spending on blush soft hangers to make our closet look divine (I’m laughing my butt off at how ridiculous this is!). My plan this week is to reorganize and redecorate my closet and set everything up nicely.

Rearranging the game room

My husband has a game and recreation room and in it, he has a lot of movie and game collectibles. He received a Miyazaki set of posters from Howl’s Moving Castle. We were able to frame them and get them hung on the wall in a trio. Sean moved around his new adjustable, standing desk to fit better in the corner, so we shifted the bookshelf to the other side. There was also an extra bookshelf for statues and collectibles that he didn’t need anymore, so we moved that out of the room. The chairs and couch were switched into opposite places since I was too cold under the vents.

Goals for the living room

We have a big open wall off to one side of the living room, but we haven’t decided what is going to be placed there yet. It’s the space above the couch set. I’m hoping to add an art piece or fantastic decor there to accent the wall. I added a egg chair recently that is a great place for a relaxing seat and cozy nook. It was well worth the wait and money saved to purchase this great piece of furniture. 

Lighting

Often we spend our days without many lights on, especially during summer when it is hot and humid. We’ve been also replacing brighter lights to daylight bulbs upstairs and also throughout the kitchen. They kept going out one by one and it was just too dim. This house has many of the 80’s/90’s style lighting fixtures which don’t let the light through well. So that is another thing we are looking into switching out with more stylish options once we can head into like a Home Depot or lighting store. 

Adding appliances

Another thing we’ve been putting off again and again, and with COVID making going to the store very inconvenient and semi-unsafe, was that we wanted to get a smaller sized deep freezer for meats and quick meals to store for extras. The day after we got the freezer delivered and in our garage where it fits, we went to grab more freezer specific items. We got home with a whole trunk load of fresh groceries and it didn’t even come close to hitting the second layer of the deep freezer. Maybe fall or winter, once stores open up a bit more for orders, we’re looking into a different fridge- only because we are having major issues with the water/ice machine in it and its causing temperature problems. But we have to measure first and be able to see it in person to order it.  These are just a few things that I thought I could share with you and perhaps inspire you to switch up your design and environment. Each of them goes to show that even making small improvements can create big changes in your home. You don’t have to spend a ton of money and almost everyone has more time right now since we are all still quarantined at home. Let me know in the comments what your favorite way is to spruce up your home and make it a more positive space. Make sure to share this post with someone who would like to create a more complete space in their home too!