Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - 5 Decorating Mistakes | Clutterbug Podcast # 16

Episode Date: February 24, 2017

Here are 5 decorating mistakes and how to avoid them! This is the audio from my latest video, but I thought I'd sharE!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, d'n'allang-all-l-l-l-l-l-h-h-h-h-h. If I could take you up in Boom-Bum-Bum-Boh-Hu-me, I'm the only one that you know. Life could be a dream sweetheart. Bye. I get asked by you guys all the time for decorating tips or decorating advice, and I am definitely not an expert. But I thought I would share five decorating mistakes,

and if you avoid these mistakes, it can definitely make your house look a lot better. Let's get started with decorating mistake, number one and I see this all the time at friends and family when I go to visit. So many people make this mistake and that is hanging your artwork and pictures too high. You want to hang your artwork or your family photos at gallery level. So that's at eye level. Now if you're freakishly tall, it's not at your eye level.

It is the average five six to five seven person's eye level. So the center of the artwork, the center of the photo would be right directly at eye level. Now if you're hanging something behind a sofa or a chair, the general rule of thumb is eight to 10 inches, no higher than that above the back of the sofa or the back of the thing that you're hanging it above. If you're creating a gallery wall and you're grouping a large amount of pictures together,

again, just make sure the center of the group is at gallery level, is at eye level. So some of the pictures will be really high and some will low, but as long as the center of the grouping is at eye level, that's perfect and make sure to group your photos close together this is another mistake that a lot of people make when hanging family photos or artwork on the walls they space them so far apart it can look kind of awkward and yeah group them together group them tighter together and make sure you put them at eye

level it makes a really big difference in just the overall look and feel of the room mistake number two that I see all the time is having a lopsided or or unbalanced, unsymmetrical room. So a lot of the times there'll be furniture like piled all on one side of the room and then nothing on the other side. Or there'll be a lamp on one side of the sofa and nothing on the other.

Our eyes like symmetry. Maybe it's OCD, maybe we're all a little OCD, but things just look better when they're symmetrical. So try to balance your room accordingly. If you have one thing on one side of the bed, make sure you have something of similar size. on the opposite side. It doesn't have to be perfect, it doesn't have to be matchy, matchy, but by balancing your space and having it be more symmetrical, it is going to look a thousand

times better. Mistake number three is definitely chotchkes or knick necks or whatever you want to call them. If you've got tons of stuff on your surfaces, not only is that a ton to dust, but it's also really visually distracting and can look messy. Even if you have a really clean and organized If you have a ton of family photos all lined up on top of your, you know, mantle or a ton of little knickknacks all over the place, it can really feel messy and cluttered. So a quick tip to making this look a little bit better is to group your collection together in groups of three, five, and seven, and sort of having them all grouped together on one side and then big spaces in between and having another group of them on the other side. I'm not suggesting you have to get rid of all your knickknacks, but grouping them together instead of having them spread all over the place definitely is more appealing to the eye.

Mistake number four is just having no color. Now, a lot of people love the all-white look, and I think that's the exception, but even then, I think having pops of vibrant color just looks so much better. But what I'm talking about is like where everything's beige, the walls are beige, the curtains are beige, the carpet's beige. furniture is beige, everything, the throw pillows are beige, beige overload or gray, or, you know, when everything's like just the same color without any variations, it can just feel drab. And no matter how beautiful your furniture or how beautiful your finishes are, if everything is the same, nothing

really stands out. So pick an accent color, grab some throw pillows. That is the most inexpensive and easiest way to add pops of color, maybe hang some pretty curtains, or, paint a few accessories that, you know, whatever color you're into right now, yellow. I'm really into yellow. And I think yellow looks lovely with gray. So if you have an all gray room, think about adding some other pops of color. The last mistake that a lot of people make is putting off decorating their home because they feel like it's going to be too expensive or they're waiting until they have the money

saved. And decorating doesn't have to be expensive at all. You actually don't even have to spend any money at all to have a space look. It's about rearranging the furniture so it's in a more eye-pleasing way and making the most of what you have. Shopping your home, maybe grabbing some photos from different rooms or grouping your photography or photos or artwork on the wall in an eye-pleasing way. It's not about spending money. It's about making your home a reflection of you and making it the best that it can be with what you have. Almost all the furniture in my house is either a thrift store or you know,

know Kajiji which is like an online garage sale or garage sailing or things that we've gotten for free quick coat of paint here and there even the kitchen you know with $60 worth of stain to update it's not about having it be some Pinterest worthy gorgeous magazine spread space it's about making the most with what you have and making it a place that you feel pride in when you come home so I want to inspire you to look around your house, see if you're making any of those decorating mistakes. You could just make a few changes with lowering your artwork or grouping them on the wall a bit differently, adding a few maybe colorful throw pillows and rearranging your furniture so it's really

symmetrical and balanced and that would have a huge impact in the overall look of your room. So decorate something today. Thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you next time. video collab with Melissa from Clean Myspace and Catherine from Do It on a Dime, which is like, I'm like so excited. They're my favorite YouTubers. So I'm thrilled about that collab. So make sure you come back tomorrow to check that out. Thank you guys so much who have stayed to the end. Can you believe I'm doing a collab with Catherine and Melissa? I'm like, oh my God, I'm so excited. I'm just obsessed with their channels. I think they're doing everything so great. and I'm just so inspired by them and I look up to them and it's pretty much amazing that I'm doing a

collab with them today. I also wanted to tell you about the crazy thing that happened to me today. My son, Milo, he's just given me a run for my money. I thought I was a good parent, you guys. When I had Izzy and Abby, the girls, they were just so well-behaved and they never really had like temper tantrums and we'd go places and everyone to be like, oh, your kids are so good. And I was like, yeah, you know, I'm just parenting 101 over here. Yeah. And then I had Milo and he, he's a good boy, but he is stubborn and spirited and I don't, he's, he's killing me. So this morning, we're getting ready for school and it's always like a bit of a rush and we're getting on the bus. He loves riding the bus. So we open up the door and I'm in my pajamas. Can I just in a nightgown, you guys?

The girls always walk him to the end of the driveway so he can get on the bus. But he, this this time just bolts. He like runs and he hides. So the girls are like, we can't see Milo and I'm putting on my husband's like rubber boots that are way too big and I'm running out there in my nightgown and just like, why did I not put on pants? And I'm looking for him everywhere and I'm panicking because like it's only been a split second but we live on a really busy road and I can't find him and he's hiding. I find him hiding and he's like, I'm not getting on the bus, you're driving me and I'm like buddy you're you're getting on the bus. Let's go. go, you're getting on the bus, and I'm like, get on the bus, you're grounded, get on the bus,

I'll give you a lollipop. It's just, I pulled out all the tricks. So he, we finally walked to the bus stop, the bus starts coming, he runs across the street, like right traffic, he books it across the street, I'm not riding the bus, you're driving me. So of course, I'm in my nightgown, I'm in my nightgown, not just any nightcown either, it's not a lingerie, but it's like the t-shirt style nightcown that says people suck on it. in my husband's like, they're like,

camo rubber booths that are about five sizes too big. And I'm chasing him and the bus stops and all the cars are stopped. We live on a busy road. It's like, all my neighbors are outside. He's screaming and crying. I'm like, get back here, I'm chasing him. Oh, it's so embarrassing.

So I grab him and I have him under my arm, like, and I'm carrying him to the bus and he's kicking and screaming and trying to bite me. Anyways, I finally just wave the bus on. Like I'm not putting them on the bus like that and so as soon as the bus leaves he just stops and he's like I told you you drive me No you didn't now I'm not driving you except if I don't drive you you don't go to school and then you win either way so either way it's just me losing and him four totally tricking me outsmarting me just beating me down so I'm just like

it's not like this all the time but he is like this from time to time where he just gets an idea in his head and nothing I say or do matters and he's just going to do what he wants and run. And he's fast or I'm slow or maybe it was the boots. My neighbors, they must just think I'm like white trash alert over here in my nightgown running and screaming. My hair all sticking up. Woo! The moral of this story, here's the moral of this story. Always put on pants. And you guys know how I feel about pants, but I learned a lesson. Never go in the garage to watch the kids get to the bus stop at the end of your driveway without pants on because you never know what could happen. So anyways, I thought I'd share. I'll see you

next time.