How to Make any house a home, even if you are renting

Making your space a place where you want to be is a matter of making it comfortable. This does need to be an expensive exercise. A few simple touches can make your house feel like a home.

Art
Art makes us feel something every time we really look at it. The best part about art is it can be anything that you find beautiful. I once read a article about a woman who framed the dress she was wearing on her first date with her husband, because he remembered how beautiful she looked in it. You can make some amazing art for less then $20, grab a canvas, some tubes of paint and start splattering it around.

Upcycling Old Clothes
This might seem like a strange thing to upcycle old clothes to make your house more of a home but I have made some great projects from old clothes I was planning to throw out. Turn old woollen jumpers into comfy cushion covers. Another favourite project of mine is I turned all of our old holey farm t-shirts into a floor rug.

Paint old furniture
With Facebook and gumtree its super easy to buy second hand furniture, or you may have some ugly hand me down furniture hanging around that you could paint or distress. This can instantly give you a feel of being home.

Display your favourite things
I have a misfit collection of things displayed around my house but I love each piece and each piece has a story, I love to tell them every time some one admires it. It might be my favourite set of wine glasses from Mexico or my old travel journal sitting on top of my coffee table.

Display photos
Nothing makes it feel like your space more then photos. I love photos if I start to feel lost or tired I look at my photos on the wall and I remember why I need to keep going and working. There is some great renters hooks out there that don't damage the paint.

Smells
This is something that really makes a house a home I personally love the smell of clean linen! It smells clean and fresh to me. I keep this smell around by using clean linen scented wax melts and using a fabric smell with a clean linen scented oil in it.

Pets
Nothing makes a house more of a home then a pet. Even if its a fish, there will always be something to put a smile on your face even on the worst days.

I hope I have helped you turn your house into a home.

Paying off debt to live a calmer life

Debt has become so accepted by our society, that its not a big deal. Everybody has debt, well not everybody but there is a large percent of the population that is walking around with debt. The worst part about it is there is always that threat hanging over your head that you wont make a repayment.

I have spent a large part of my adult life in some form of debt or another it seems to be that I will never escape this pattern. Well that was until I stopped. I just stopped going into new debt and worked out a plan to get it all paid off.

The first step is I looked at all my debt, I wrote a list and wrote down the exact amount of each one and my fortnightly repayment. I worked out if I could afford to pay extra off one in particular, I used the snowball method to pay each one off.

I also looked at ways to save money around the house. such as only eating in season fruits and vegetables and buying meat on sale at the butchers. every dollar saved is a dollar closer to reaching the dream.

I also write a shopping list. Not a food shopping list its to actually remind me what we need instead of just trying to remember and buy a lot of things we don't need.

The most important thing is to take it step by step and remember that the things that really matter can't be bought from a store.

3 things that take 30 minutes or less to clear the clutter.

Clearing the clutter can be a daunting job, where do you begin?  On many occasions I have tried to clear the clutter and I just end up in a big fat mess!!
Here is a few tasks that will take 30 minutes or less to complete and will instantly make you feel more in control.

1) Phone Station
Everyone has a phone station, even if like us its just a corner of the bench.

1. Clear the old paperwork away. Old bills and school notes seem to pile up very quickly. Everything that's important file for later reference. Everything that's out of date bin it.
2. Check all the pens. Throw out any that no longer work or any that you don't like to use. About 10 should be sufficient.
3. keep a lined pad or block of post it notes by the pen cup. easy reach to jot down a phone message.

2) Bathroom Draws

1. This is usually where most people keep make up, nail polish and hand creams. How many do we actually use? For me it was a few things but I seemed to hang on to a lot of things that people had given me as gifts. Many were not my style, colour or didn't agree with my skin. So everything I hadn't used and wasn't planning on really using I packed up and gave away.
2. I replaced only the things I use on a regular bases, everything else I placed in a separate container. If its still there in a few weeks I will give it away.

3) DVD's

1. Give away any that you don't enjoy watching.
2. Give away any kids DVD's that your kids have grown out of
3. Place all DVD's with the spines facing out and I like to group mine by Category.