Secrets to Decorate home on a tight budget!

By Ruchita

We all love to make our homes beautiful, we want them to look classy, clean, spacious, and decorated according to our taste! But Home Decor is always tricky as it can be a costly affair. We all have our constraints and we don’t want interior decorating to burn a hole in our pockets and cause a financial strain. But setting up and decorating our houses can be done on a budget as well! All you need to know is some secrets to decorate your home on a tight budget.

Even if you’re pinching pennies, there’s still plenty you can do to create a stylish, inviting home for yourself and whoever you have over!

10 IDEAS FOR HOME DECORATION:

1. LIST THINGS OUT

The first thing that you need to do is make a visual plan about the room & make a list of the things that are supposed to be purchased or changed. The curtains need to be changed, write it down. Do you need a coffee table? Add it to the list. This will ensure that you have an idea about the layout of the room. Try and visualize it, the color, the style, the order of the furniture and make a note of it.

It will help you to define the style of your decor and stick to it instead of getting confused or distracted while shopping. If you have a tight budget, writing things down will prevent you from overspending and sticking to the budget.

2. LOOKUP ON PINTEREST FOR INSPIRATION

Pinterest is a visual discovery engine for finding ideas like recipes, home and style inspiration, and more. With billions of Pins on Pinterest, you’ll always find ideas to spark inspiration. Searching for home decor on Pinterest will give you an idea of what kind of style to choose from!

It is full of budget-friendly ideas and inspiring DIY options. Go figure!

3. CHECK OUT FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE FOR CHEAP DEALS

Facebook Marketplace is an open exchange where users can buy and sell new and pre-owned items to other users. Anyone can list products or services for sale and gain access to a local audience. You can find things that are used or already owned by people and are willing to sell for a reasonably cheaper price. You can also bargain or negotiate the price with the seller once you start a conversation with them on messenger.

But like any other online exchange, the Marketplace attracts its share of scammers. If you do pay in advance, the seller may never show up with the item. If you’re using Facebook Checkout to buy directly from an online store, there’s always a chance to be scammed. The best thing to do is to not pay in advance but in cash after checking the product.

Luckily, Facebook offers Purchase Protection to help you in that case. Try to check the profile of the person and check out the product yourself, (choose sellers that are close to your location) and then decide to buy stuff, after figuring out the delivery/pick up details. Once everything is clear and figured out, pay the cash to the seller yourself. We usually prefer to buy stuff and get it in our car after checking out the products. We bought a dresser, some porch furniture, and some side tables from Marketplace at a very cheap price.

Click below for some tips to deal safely in the marketplace.

5 Ways to buy and sell safely on the marketplace

4. VISIT YARD / GARAGE SALES NEAR YOU!

Garage Sales offer the lowest prices on furniture/ artifacts/ decorative items that are small and cost a lot in decor stores. Used goods will inevitably cost less than new ones. If you’re on a budget, shopping second–hand is a no-brainer.

It does not just save money, but buying secondhand also means you’ll be keeping plastic out of landfills and positively contributing to the decrease in worldwide textile demand and subsequent waste. Fewer resources used and wasted.

So, how to find a yard sale near you?

Go to the main Craigslist page, find your city page, then, click on “garage sale” under the “for sale” heading. If your city has lots of sales, you can even search the Craigslist garage sale listings for mentions of specific neighborhoods or merchandise types. There are a lot of apps online to find or set up yard sales as well. Click here for more info – https://www.thespruce.com/garage-sale-finders-for-yard-sales-near-you-4159780

5. GO TO A THRIFT STORE!

I can give you 5 benefits of a Thrift Store!

Reduce waste. Shopping at a local thrift store is a simple and easy way to go green!
Local experience gives you joy and saves money for other stuff.
Score high-quality goods at low prices. Stuff like lightings, lamps, hanging pieces, wall decor, photo frames are available for less and there’s a great variety of artifacts at thrift stores!
Find your next DIY project.
Support the community.

If you are having difficulty in finding a thrift store near you, click on www.thethriftshopper.com

6. AS-IS SECTIONS IN HIGH – END FURNITURE STORES

Now, this is a major pro – tip to decorate your home on a budget!

Hushh

A lot of Furniture Stores like IKEA, Rooms To Go, Kane’s Furniture, Ashley Homestore, Pottery Barn or Crate & Barrel, etc. have a separate As-Is Section. The As-Is section is where you can view the selection of floor samples, discontinued pieces, and customer returns at a reduced price. All these stores have a certain amount of merchandise throughout the year that they retire, which ensures that they keep their selection of products up-to-date.

There’s a trick here when to visit the As-Is sections. The weekends are when most people return merchandise they don’t want for whatever reason. The store puts this fresh inventory out on Monday. Plan your shopping trip on Monday to take advantage of a larger selection of furniture and home goods at lowered prices. This is where the store puts returns, discontinued items, and flawed merchandise. It’s also where you’ll find some great deals. This is why you should explore this section on Monday!

7. DE-CLUTTER AND ORGANIZE!

Get rid of cardboard boxes and unnecessary paper. Suitcases should be out of sight!

Make a list of stuff that is doing the space of the house a disservice and get rid of the stuff. Unnecessary plastic bags or wires can be removed or kept in a transparent box. There are a lot of ways to organize stuff. I enjoyed watching the transformations on the Marie Kondo Show and picked up some cool hacks.

I loved her show! You can learn a trick or two even from just the 1st episode

Check out these shows to learn some organizational skills.

Tidying Up with Marie Kondo (Netflix) …
Minimalism: A Documentary about the Important Things (Netflix) …
Happy (Netflix) …
Clean House (Hulu Live TV) …
Mission Organization (HGTV) …
Bea Organized (Amazon Prime) …
The Minimalist Lifestyle (Amazon Prime) …
Design Doctors (Amazon Prime)

8. POT SOME PLANTS!

Plants can add a fresh pop of color to a predominately white dull room. You can use some indoor plants by using affordable options like faux plants and style them around windows and next to sofas and beds on side tables.

A lot can be done to decorate the house with plants. People who don’t want the mess of watering plants can also use artificial plants that are available in thrift stores or flea markets. Check out ways to use plants for home decor with this link – 10 UNIQUE PLANT DECORATING IDEAS FOR YOUR HOME

9. DIY USING FABRICS, MIRRORS AND PRINTS

There are a lot of cheap ways in which you can make your indoors look beautiful. For example, instead of buying a new sofa, you can purchase a colorful new sofa cover to revamp the look of the sofa. You can use drapes and sofa throw to pop more colors in a room.

Mirrors, pillows and decorative are cheap items that you can find at flea markets and thrift markets. Avoid buying these at high-end stores and save a lot of money.

Check out how I transformed my living room by clicking below

“How I Transformed My Living Room”

Many artifacts, cushion covers, doormats, carpets, rugs come for very fewer prices at discount store companies like Ross, Dollar Tree, Overstack, and many other cheap online stores that are available on the internet.

10. INVEST IN AFFORDABLE LIGHTING

I am a big fan of fairy lights. It is affordable, very beautiful and saves a lot of money. I used to buy locally back in India a 5-meter long one for 30 Rs. Now we get 30 feet long here for 10 dollars in Walmart. Amazon has even cheaper options.

Candles are also cheaper options. You can get around 50 small candles for 10 dollars at IKEA. Dollar general stores and Dollar Trees have cute little cheaper options. Candles make the room warm, bright, and are very therapeutic. Do not burn scented candles that are toxic.

Read about the best candles to use at “10 Non-Toxic Candles You’ll Feel Good About Stocking up On“

Also if you are fond of table and floor lamps, (which I’m very fond of) invest in light bulbs that will consume less electricity. The most popular light bulbs available are halogen incandescents, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Although they can initially cost more than traditional incandescent bulbs, during their lifetime they save you money, because they use less energy. Your lighting choices will save you money. So choose wisely!