Homemaking for the 5 Senses: Sight

This thrift-store desk has become a favorite "display" area in my living room

Last week we shared ways to use our sense of smell to create a welcoming atmosphere in our homes.

This week, we are on to the sense of sight!

This is a BIG one. As you can imagine, the list of ways to incorporate this sense into your home is quite long. But I’ve put together a few of my most favorite tips to share with you today.

Using the Sense of Sight to Create a Peaceful Home

1. Declutter

This is a very popular theme across the blogosphere these days, but it’s so important! It’s astounding how much “stuff” we hang onto. Since we live in a small home, decluttering has become a means of survival for me, but I remember how easy it was to literally keep extra rooms of “baggage” when we lived in our larger rental house.

(Photo Credit)

If a more peaceful home is your goal, then be ruthless in your purging. If you don’t love it, use it, or need it– get rid of it! I’ve started taking at least one box of ‘stuff’ to donate to the thrift store every month. I’m no where near finished (you should see my basement…), but I feel so “free” everytime I drop off that box of donations! It’s easier to live, play, work, and entertain when your home is low on clutter.

2. Use creative organization

Once you’ve decluttered, be creative in ways that you can organize the things that you are keeping. I look for cute baskets and containers when I’m yard saling and then use them to store all sorts of things, instead of boring cardboard boxes and plastic bags. Organization can be pretty as well as functional! Check out my spice drawer idea for just one of the ways you can creatively organize your home.

3. Focus on trouble zones

A rare, mostly-clean moment for my table...

For me, it’s my dining room table. It’s the first thing you see when you walk in the door, and it seems to be the collection point for all manner of clutter. When my table is full, it makes me feel like the whole house is a disaster! On my good weeks, I try to make an effort to keep the table cleared off as best as I can. Even if the rest of the house is a mess, I at least “feel” better with a clean table. It’s probably more of a mental thing, but it works for me. What are your “trigger” spots?

4. Create a welcoming entry way

Make a good first impression by keeping your entry way area tidy and fun. In our home, everyone enters through our small “mudroom”. For the longest time, it just drove me nuts. The paint colors were icky, and it felt like you were walking into a jungle of mudboots and coats when you came through the door.

All it took was a fresh coat of paint (I chose a soothing gray color for all 4 walls), getting rid of some extra coats, and a big yard-sale basket to store all of our extra shoes. Bingo! A fresh feeling mudroom that sets the mood for the rest of the house.

Now keeping the mudroom floor free of chunks of mud and dog hair? Well, no advice there… that’s something I’m still working on!

(NOTE: this picture is NOT my mudroom. My mudroom does NOT look this good. I wish it did, though!)

5. Decorate!

Decorating your home with things that you love doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. My Repurposed Chicken Wire Frame is evidence of that! Next week I’ll highlight more of my repurposed decor ideas. But for now, start off by defining your sense of style: is it Modern? Rustic? Vintage? Cottage? Victorian? Or a mixture of several different styles?

Look at magazines and blogs for inspiration. Be prepared to think outside of the box. Something doesn’t have to be sold as a “wallhanging” in order to hang on the wall!

For example, here is one of my latest living room decor projects:

Believe it or not, this was one of the old doors off of our barn that we remodeled this summer. It was sitting in the trash pile, but the weathered wood and chipping paint kept calling to me. We cut it down a little, added an extra coat of paint, and sanded the edges. I love the texture and primitive feel it adds to the room. My hubby crafted the barbed wire crosses out of rusty old wire destined for the landfill.

A few of my favorite design inspiration blogs to get you started:

• My Blessed Life
• Perfectly Imperfect
• My Repurposed Life

6. Decorate with photos

What better way to accessorize your home than with the faces of people that you love? One idea is to collect a variety of frames from yard sales and thrift stores. Use spray paint to make them all the same color, then arrange them in a photo collage on your wall. You’ll have a frugal focal point that is meaningful, too. I loved this example from Pinterest.

7. Set the mood with lighting

(Photo Credit) 

To me, there is nothing that can make or break the mood of a room more than lighting. Choose accent lights over bright overhead ones to create a cozy atmosphere. Or, turn off all the lights and operate by candlelight or lantern light instead. I hardly ever use the main lights in our kitchen and living room. Instead, I prefer to turn on lamps or use the small lights around the perimeter of the room. Another option is to install dimmer switches to eliminate the need for glaring lights.

8. Get creative with arrangements

This thrift-store desk has become a favorite "display" area in my living room

Have a space that just doesn’t “feel” right to you? Try playing around with the arrangement of the furniture and/or accessories. For the longest time, our living room felt “off” to me. I had a couch on each wall, and at first glance, it appeared that that was the only way the room would allow itself to be set up. But, after a little bit of brainstorming, I thought waaaay outside of the box and came up with an arrangement that completely transforms the room. Even when I like the way one of my rooms is set up, I still enjoy switching things up now and then to keep everything fresh!

Like what you are reading so far? Check out the other posts in the Homemaking on the Homestead series and stay tuned for more next week!

• Homemaking for the 5 Senses: Smell
• Repurposed Chicken Wire Frame

And be sure to pay a visit to our spectacular sponsors: Homestead Drying Racks and Pantry Paratus.

This post is shared at: Frugal Friday, Living Well Blog Hop, Frugal Days Sustainable Ways, Above Rubies, Anti Procrastination Tuesday, Handmade Tuesday, Teach Me Tuesday, Women Living Well, WFMW, Simple Lives Thursday, Homemakers Challenge, Your Green Resource