As we inch closer to our second anniversary as working-from-home individuals, most of us have probably joined the many people of Home Buddies who satiate their boredom by renovating some parts of their house, tinkering on various nooks to make it more inviting, and even participating on online budols as they endlessly add to their carts various homeware and décor. But where do we draw the lines of wants, needs, and more importantly, its usage?
If you’re an active maximalist, and have always wanted your home to look like a museum with many fixtures to admire (and clean), look away. This article isn’t for you.
There’s a fine line between harmoniously designed rooms, and rooms that should be on MTV’s Pimp My Ride, American television series produced by MTV and hosted by rapper Xzibit, with each episode restoring and customizing cars in poor condition. To avoid this mistake of over-crowding your home, here are some helpful tips you can start on.
Know what you need and what you don’t need
As Marie Kondo always reiterated, take out what doesn’t spark joy. It’s only February, so it’s still never too late for you to start over. And since starting new doesn’t need an exact date, remember that you can always see more of what you don’t use every time you decide to do it in small batches.
Start with your kitchen: which plates, mugs, utensils, and other tools do you rarely use? Give them away or sell them! In the living room, look at your various décor and couch pillows. Do you really need eight fixtures? Five pillows? Think again. For your room, start with your bookshelf: if you’ve already read some of them, only keep those that are really your favorites, and sell or give away those that you’ve already read.
This way, you’re slowly (but surely) letting go of unnecessary objects in your home!
Shelves for what?
Don’t overdo the art of displaying random things in your shelves. Storing too many pots, bowls, or even collectibles seems inviting to the eyes, but cleaning them is hard work. At this point, consider the time you’ll be expending on reorganizing them. Will it be worth it? Is it smart to clean numerous things that takes you an hour or so? Exactly.
You don’t need trays for everything
Ceramics in pastel colours are trendy these days, as more and more millennials are getting into them, especially on Instagram. It’s nice to look at, and very satisfying to collect. But at what cost? In the coming years, will it still be of use for you and your home? Will carry all of it with you in case you move cities?
To make it easier for you, just try these for starters: a coaster for your drinks, a tray or two for your kitchen and dining area, and something for your fruits to sit on, and one big organizer for your makeup, skin products or accessories — that’s literally it.
Art and prints on your wall
As film enthusiast myself, I’m all for putting up various posters of my favorite movies on my living area — it brings me absolute joy and helps me remember what it felt like to be in a cinema house, particularly the cinema lobby of TriNoma. But thinking about it, it’s not always smart to fill your walls with numerous frames of prints. As I’ve mentioned, cleaning everything in your home is hard work. So be smart in choosing only around three to five prints you can’t really let go of.
Besides, we’re really still hoping to physically get back to the old glory days of packed cinema houses, with the smell of popcorn wafting through the dark room.
Addressing our toxic habits
If it is to be said, we’re all just victims of capitalism, actually. Maybe we’re all just in the disillusioned phase of mentality where we think every purchase — may it be homeware, K-Pop photo cards or appliances — will bring us happiness and peace of mind. Although it can raise our happy hormones, it all boils down to the harms of active consumerism, which in turn, can make our lives (and spaces!) feel overcrowded and cluttered. The amount of waste we throw out everyday is obscene — and talks on plastic, metal, and carbon waste management is an even bigger topic that calls for a different time for discussion.
Maybe 2202 is the year we start criticizing our own purchasing and designing habits that the trends we see online has ingrained in our minds. Not everything should be followed — this impulsive lifestyle only makes us lose and waste so much money, space, and energy.
