How often do you look at Pinterest or Google and think “If I had the money I would…”, “Look at that beautiful space, maybe we could knock down and wall and….” or “If only my home looked like that”. Too often, I feel that we are always living for the next thing, the next big break, the next change. We are rarely looking at what we have and thinking of how the space is serving us in the now. How we can use the space that we are so blessed to have and make our house feel like a home. So often we are consumed by the stuff that encompasses our lives, we need to stop and remember that it is not the stuff that we have in our house that makes the space a home. While our decorations definitely help to define our space and help us to spark joy, these items are just things.

I will be honest with you friends, this is me 100%, I am often searching for ways to update my home, looking at those gorgeous kitchens, with high end finishes and expensive appliances that I am all too often forgetting what God has blessed me with. I have a home, a beautiful one at that and while it may not be the biggest or the best, it is serving our family just fine. Now I am not saying to never dream of renovating, what I am trying to say is that we need to stop focusing so much on what we don’t have and take the time to enjoy what we do.

My house is a cape cod style and while I often dream of a huge, open concept kitchen, dining and family room, it just will never happen (unless we want to sink thousands of dollars and add on an addition). This, my friends, could very well be possible, yet you need to ask that important question again “Is this where I want my money to go? Do we really need all that additional space?”.

We really need to think about what makes these other homes so appealing, why do I want my home to look like that? Why is this large kitchen so important? What are the characteristics or features that make the other places so appealing?

The point to this is we want to make our house feel like a home. We need to work with the “bones” of the house as it currently is. While it may very well be in the plans to move or do a major renovation in 5 or 10 years, we need to stop focusing on what our homes could look like and focus on how they can be now.

Do we really need to sink thousands of dollars into a renovation when we can simply add fresh paint to our walls or cabinets and simple decor pieces (that we may already have) to achieve the look we want.

Take a good look at the space you have and take note of what sparks joy and makes you happy and what doesn’t. I know that this seems like such a simple task, but really if the item doesn’t make you happy and it is there to just fill a space, then it is time to let it go. Clear your home of these items and then just take the time to enjoy your space and if needed you can then continue to add back to the space with items that spark joy.

I have been on this journey for a while now and I am honestly still struggling with it. It is really hard not to dream of “what can be” and to only focus on “what is”. You will still see me share renovation ideas and plans, but I am really trying to embrace what I currently have and love it.

Please share with me your ideas of learning to love the space that we have, I look forward to hearing from you.

Take care,