A Hand Made Life:

5 Tips to make a Rental House Feel like Home.

We are getting personal and sharing more from behind the scenes of Hand Made Kids Art. At the beginning of this year, we moved to a new city. It was probably the easiest yet most stressful move I have done. Is there any move not stressful? Of course being 7 months pregnant didn’t help or the fact we had 2 weeks to move and find a new place to live. Luckily, all the pieces did fall into place.

After being a homeowner for the last 7 years it is an adjustment to go back to being a renter. I did purge a lot of our stuff before the move.  I knew all our furniture would not fit in the new place. Once we moved in, I did feel a sense of urgency to get everything unpacked and into place before the new baby came. I also wanted to make the transition easy for my 4 and 2 yr old and make it seem like home right away. Read below for my top 5 tips on making the house your own without painting or remodeling.

5 Tips to Make a Rental House Your Own

1. Use Rugs. Hide ugly flooring with your own beautiful rugs. Don’t be afraid to layer on top of carpet too! As long as the rug is heavy enough to lay flat on top of the carpet, go for it.

 

2. Change the lighting. This probably should be listed first because it makes most impact in your house. Changing the lighting is relatively easy to do.  Save the old lights and put them back up when you move out.

3. Hang Artwork and Photos. Hang family photos and artwork right away this will immediately help make the room seem more like “yours” with your own stuff on the walls.

4.  Purge. If it doesn’t fit, let it go. It’s okay to purge..in fact, moving is a great time to do so. I think many people get caught up in trying to make everything fit in the new space. Not everything will fit.  My motto this year is “Own Less Stuff”. I repeated this a lot as I was purging through my things. I also don’t want me children growing up in a cluttered house. If something doesn’t have a space….get rid of it.

5. Splurge. Buy one nice new thing for your family in the new house. I bought new bath towels, probably not the biggest splurge but it has made a difference. I love stepping out of the shower and using my fluffy new towel. Plus, if we have overnight guests, I am no longer embarrassed to give them a towel and my mother doesn’t have to bring her own (yes, she really did bring her own towel)!  If you buy a new item be sure to throw out (or give away) the old one. I passed on our old towels to prevent the towels from falling on me every time I opened the linen closet.

How do you make your house a home?