How to Love the Home You Have Right Now

How do you love the home you have right now when there are so many unfinished corners, undecorated walls and unorganized closets? 

Today we will take a look at the essential mindset we need to do this, two practical tips to get started while staying content and finally the most important part of loving the home you have. 

When we first bought our home it was a major fixer-upper. We gutted room after room and my husband and his dad fixed it up.

Of course, the process slowed eventually and we were left with many unfinished pieces. Grateful for the massive amounts of work that had been done and yet staring at the unfinished parts before me started to etch at my contentedness.

To top that, I am no decorator. I struggle big time to decorate. As I type this post, only one wall in our main living area has anything on it. 

Day after day I’d find myself on social media looking for “inspiration” and yet coming away discontent and feeling embarrassed for how my home looked.

I’d visit friends and admire their decor and cozy homes and come home to a place that felt bare and uninviting. 

I do strongly believe that homemaking is the art of making your home inviting, cozy and a place where your family can flourish. But what about when this desire leads to whopping discontent? 

How can we love the home we’re in when it’s in progress and not quite picture-worthy?

1. Stop Comparing and Appreciate Where You Are

We always hear that comparison is bad, right? But I had convinced myself that what I was doing was not comparing but instead seeking inspiration. 

In the process, I still felt less-than. I felt inferior, both to those on social media, but also to my friends. 

We look around, especially online, and see beautiful pictures and decorated spaces. Cozy homes with happy children. 

It wasn’t until one day when I was watching a video from one of my favorite YouTubers that I realized the pictures don’t show it all. She had moved into her dream homestead property and her home was not at all what she wanted. 

She still had beautiful pictures and showed the nice spaces on her videos, but in this particular video, she talked about how she was so grateful for the property that she was content with slowly fixing up the spaces.

I loved seeing someone who I admired in these ways be real and show the spaces that aren’t finished or picture-worthy.

It made me realize that I am so grateful for so many parts of my home and my life. Our home still has some very unfinished spaces and yet I don’t need to let these spaces taint the joy of the spaces that are. 

I can be grateful for what we have and where we are while still hoping to improve our space. 

When we became parents, we chose to live on my husband’s income alone and because of this, our home improvement will be slower. Our decorations will be thrifted or found on sale, and much slower. 

But the joy we experience because of this decision makes it worth it.

So when I’m tempted to compare and feel inferior or less-than, I can remember how grateful I am for where we are and find contentment and satisfaction.

2. Start Small

We all have things we want to fix up, places that need decorating and things that need to be replaced. I can get overwhelmed as I stare at my home and think of all that needs to be done.

But when I do, I feel discontent. I feel like we need more money and more time and I begin to feel unsatisfied.

I find that when I take one area or even one thing that needs to be replaced or decorated or redone, I can focus on this. I can focus on finding frugal ways to make it exactly what I envision. 

I can search for inspiration (within limits) and make this one small area cozy and inviting.

And as you do this, piece by piece, you will make your home the place that you desire, all the while avoiding that overwhelming discontent.

It doesn’t happen all at once. Not all of us could afford to go out and decorate our entire homes. 

So start small, while appreciating what you have and slowly your home will transform.

3. Declutter!

Oh what a difference this makes. I never realized how uninviting a corner of my home was until I decluttered it. 

I remember when we first did this after we moved into our new home. We’d lived for probably months with corners of clutter, clutter on the table and on counters.

It didn’t seem to affect us too much.

But when I took the time to declutter these areas, I was literally amazed at how good it felt.

I would sit on the couch and stare at the bare corner and feel a deep sense of relief. 

It’s hard to keep our home clutter-free. We still have areas, like our kitchen table, that just collect clutter. I’m still working on systems and ways to keep the clutter from even forming. 

But the more I declutter, the more inviting and cozy my home begins to feel

Take a chunk of time and commit to decluttering one area at a time. You will be amazed by the difference it makes to the entire atmosphere of your home.

4. Family Atmosphere is Everything

As much as we can focus on the decorations and the layout and the organization of our home, it is our family and the relationships and intentional time spent together that truly makes our homes inviting.

Focusing on our marriage and on our relationship with our children and our children’s relationships with each other is absolutely essential in creating a home atmosphere that is inviting and beautiful.

I often don’t see this addressed when we discuss creating a home you love.

But isn’t this the point of homemaking? Isn’t this the point of having an inviting home? The family and relationships it holds. The children it raises up and the marriage it fosters.

When you think about your home, keep this in mind. It’s not all about pleasing aesthetics, because what looks gorgeous to me could be the opposite of what you love.

If you’re wondering how to love the home you have, take some serious time to invest in, pray about and work on family relationships. Foster time together. 

And try to think about how you can improve, organize and decorate your home based on this – not on what Instagram or your neighbors are using to decorate.

A home full of love is far greater than a home full of beautiful decorations. 

Let’s choose today to be grateful for where we are, to focus on what’s important and to love the home we have. As we do this, we will find contentment fill us and fuel us to do the will of God in our homes.

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