by Cerise Graham

​It is a fantastic day you just moved into your dream home, the place is everything you wished for. You walk in and unpack all your furniture when you realize something is not quite right. The house is filled with furniture that you have loved for years, yet now that your place has been completely furnished you are the furthest from satisfied, instead you are filled with decor horror.

The incredible feeling we get when we look at old unfashionable decor from the past, some of us might have even called it outdated furniture when we were younger. This feeling is entirely normal, it just means you might be outgrowing your decor. You're probably asking yourself how do you fix this decoration disaster? 

Let’s begin with the old furniture we dislike so much. First, discover what makes you dislike your beloved furniture in your new space. Could it be the color? If so the item might just look unappealing because of the colors around it. An example would be a red chair next to a moss couch in a white room. 

These items are opposite colors on the painting spectrum, which means they clash and we pick up the difference immediately. You might want to move them to spaces more fitting with their colors to avoid clashing furniture like a monochromatic space or a space with like colors. You can always look up a color wheel on most painting websites, to see which colors belong to which group of tones like warm, cool, etc. 

Perhaps it is the shape that you find unpleasant. Your furniture’s shape controls the overall theme of your home,  just like all clothing has a certain silhouette needed to make it fit a style. Squares often appear rustic or simple, Circles appear modern or minimalistic, and Triangles appear elegant and regal. So it helps to consider the shape of the furniture in your home when adding or keeping pieces. 

Last but certainly not least, is the overall room's color, like the walls, lighting, curtains, and floor. Luckily most homes regardless of type come with white walls, which we all know is the most inoffensive color to have. 

However, what about your curtains? Curtains that don’t fit with your decor can mess up the vibe of your space, just by having the wrong print. An example might be, having striped black and gray curtains in a neutral-tone room, when plain black or even gray would look better, the same rule goes for rugs. 

Be mindful of lighting in your home too, how you decorate can impact the way light illuminates your home. Which can overall set the wrong mood for your space. I am sure you have heard someone say that candlelight sets a comfy atmosphere, a true statement so if comfy is something you want your space to convey. You should pick out soft light bulbs which often give a more natural illumination. If you are going for high-tech or a strong crisp effect, you should pick daylight bulbs that do not possess the yellow glow soft light bulbs do.

It is important to keep in mind these are just suggestions to help with decor horror, not strict rules! The most important thing to keep in mind, when decorating your home is to decorate your space in a way that makes you happy. 

Do not follow a trend or color rules, because those might not make you happy and your home should do just that. So if you like opposite colors or whimsical prints, go ahead and fill your home to the brim with them. 

There are no solid rules to personal decor, after all, what is stylish to you may be unappealing to someone else. This suggestion is the most important one to follow, to help avoid/ remove decor horror from your new home space.

​Home is a special place. It is a place of solitude. A place that allows families the freedom to be themselves. We love to personalize our homes with items that are significant to ourselves and family. We take great care picking out things that commiserate special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays. Some items are solely valued for their heritage as an item to be passed down from generations to generation. Caring for our home and all their precious valuables usually falls on designated caretakers like the mother and father. 

One of the genuine obligations of a caretaker is to take care of the things in and around the home. It is important to find homes for all of the beloved cherished items to prevent them from becoming damaged. It is also important to find new homes for items that have lived out their purpose. Some of us spend many hours decluttering, cleaning, and doing maintenance. It's all part of caring for our homes.

However cleaning, is a job that requires a lot of attention. There is so much to do in making our homes presentable with just the daily chores that there is hardly any time for a day off. It is easy for the dishes to pile up, the counters to become cluttered, toys in the living room, and a huge pile of laundry to all happen in  just over a weekend of family bonding. It can be a bit daunting to any caretaker to have to deal with all of these tasks once everyone is back at their regular schedules of work and school. 

Now that cleaning is the trending thing over the internet due to the pandemic, more people spend time learning how to clean their homes even better than they did before. Many people found out that having things placed out of sight does not mean that your home was clean. Thanks to social media people learned a new definition to the term clean spaces. 

People discovered that a messy house was not the problem but how they chose to clean. Some people discovered that some of those cleaners with “harsh chemicals” were not able to actually sanitize your home. Vacuuming  and dusting were not enough to make your home safe but disinfecting surfaces that are commonly used could help with prevention of infections in a messy home.

Even though people have this life giving information, some have started to harass others for not having a meticulously clean, organized, and orderly home all the time. It seems some people are missing the point that it is okay that your home is not spotless, because life happens. 

People go through life and life is not always a bed of sweet smelling roses. Some things are very difficult and everybody goes through hardship so instead of offering negative criticisms try to be more understanding. By doing so we offer up the positive energy that is needed towards each other. 

Everyone could use some positive feedback that is filled with understanding and encouragement. We all could use it while we work on ourselves because no one person is without flaws. Yet it is important to acknowledge our shortcomings while trying to better ourselves. Understanding the suffrage of others is the first step towards becoming better people. 

Our homes and how we care for them are just a small example of how life and our many plans can get a little crazy and chaotic. It takes great courage to become an entity on social media for everyone to see in order to inspire others. Let’s all try to remember during a time when people are still skeptical about vaccines and mental health that the people we see on social media are just people. You probably won’t die if your house is messy for a couple of days but you may be a lot more relaxed and happy if it is. That may be just the break and recharge your body and soul need.