5 Quick Ways to Refresh Your Home (for any season)
We’re exploring quick, easy and inexpensive ways to refresh your home and make it feel ready for any season!
Maybe it’s because I’ve spent a lot more time in my house recently, or maybe it’s because it’s the hottest month of the year. I am ready for a change of decor.
Not a serious and all out change, I don’t want to remodel anything. I want something that makes my space feel new and fresh without all the work of a big change.
Usually I get this feeling after the holidays.
I love to decorate for fall and then into the Christmas season. Well, maybe overdecorate is what we do. Then in January I love to pack everything up and leave some breathing space for my house.
It’s nice to see everything a bit bare after the holidays and it gives me a chance to refresh my home slowly.
I generally make small changes here and there throughout the year, but this has been an exceptional year hasn’t it?
So let’s talk about the little touches in your home that can make a big impact.
A small change that can quickly refresh your space.
The best thing about the following tips is that you can use any of them for any season. Pick one or pick all five and have an instant refresh in your space.
Best of all, you can easily make these changes in an afternoon!
Fresh Flowers or Plants
There’s nothing like a beautiful bouquet of flowers to brighten up any table in your home. Or anyplace else for that matter – put some in your bathroom, your entryway or a guest room to welcome a friend.
Fresh seasonal flowers are generally easy to find at most grocery stores and they’re a great way to add seasonal decor to your space. You can even find greenery and pretty twisty sticks if you’re not a huge fan of fresh flowers.
If you’ve got a garden, think outside the box and use some of your vines or branches to create a bouquet.
For something that’s a bit longer lasting than fresh flowers try a houseplant. Houseplants are a great way to add “life” and movement into your decor. Many popular houseplants are great for cleaning our indoor air as well so add that to the list of benefits of adding plants to your space.
The Best Plants for Filling A Corner in Your Home
Live houseplants do come along with care needs so take that into consideration. If this isn’t the season of your life to add something that needs care, don’t be ashamed to add fake plants.
Years ago fake plants looked, well, fake. I mean really fake.
The faux (I guess fake is not a pretty word to describe them) plants that are available now are pretty amazing. The more expensive faux plants are pretty hard to tell apart from the live ones. They just don’t require water, fertilizer, light, repotting, etc. Just an occasional dusting.
New Soap and/or Lotion
Do you have a tried and true soap that you use all year long?
Have you thought about switching up the scent?
I have a favorite dish soap that I use year round and I’ve tried others and determined that this one is my favorite.
When it comes to hand soap though, I love to switch out the scents for the seasons. I love a nice citrus scent in the spring and summer and a warmer vanilla and musk scent in the cooler months. Many times January will find me using something minty.
The scents in your home can really change your mood so make sure they’re scents that you love. If you get tired of one, put it away for a bit and try it out again later.
Fresh Linens
This is an easy way to refresh your home! All it takes is a quick trip online or to a home goods store and you’ll be all set.
Are your dish towels looking dingy?
Are those bath towels getting thin or scratchy?
Maybe it’s time to update them.
I don’t believe that any linens need to be replaced just for a season but if they’re worn out then then it’s definitely time to replace them.
If you are wanting fresh linens for a season then you could also rotate them. I do have some fun kitchen towels that we bring out when we decorate for Christmas and then we pack them up when the decor comes down. These are considered additional seasonal decor in our home.
I especially love any decor that’s actually useful. A fun Valentine or Easter dish towel is a great addition in my book!
I find that in our home spring cleaning is generally when I take stock of what needs to be refreshed.
Almost every spring requires a new stack of wash rags and I move a stack to the pile of cleaning rags. In spring I also take stock of how many beach towels are still in good shape and if we need to add any to our collection.
I also like to change out the hand towels in our bathrooms. Lighter ones for warmer months and darker ones for the cooler months. An easy and subtle change to a room that doesn’t have a lot of decor anyway.
I like to donate our more worn towels and blankets to our local dog shelter. They use them in their kennels and sometimes cut them up to use as cleaning rags, but there always seems to be a need for fresh ones.
Swap Out Your Throw Pillows
One of the fastest ways to change up the look of your rooms is with pillows. This can be in your living room or your bedroom. Adding or subtracting pillows or changing the colors is a surefire way to refresh a room.
It doesn’t matter if you’re wanting to try out a new trend or you’re considering a new direction in your decor, a throw pillow can create a dramatic change.
Throw pillows are like the lipstick of your decorating – they add that finish to your room and you can easily switch and swap them depending on your mood and the season. The effect is nothing short of transformative.
If your space is feeling a little dull, consider adding a few pillows in vibrant colors to bring in more upbeat vibes. And if you like a more boho aesthetic, then add pillows featuring more organic textures and colors.
Declutter and Donate
Sometimes you have to get things out of your space to clear it’s energy and to clear your head. You may or may not need to declutter or make a big trip to the donation station, you may just need to clean up the clutter.
I’m not going to go into the basics of how to declutter or clean your home. I’m not even going to preach about why we all need to do this more often. I still fail to understand how papers seem to multiply but pens and socks just disappear.
For this day – concentrate on removing anything in your space that A) doesn’t belong there or B) you don’t particularly like. Just start by getting it out of the space and then you can figure it out later.
Be sure to set a deadline on later, though.
In our home we have a file box that is green. We uniquely call it “the green box” and it’s where we keep things in waiting. Papers to sign, invitations, and random things that haven’t made it to a permanent home yet. For years “put it in the green box” or “have you checked the green box” has been a common phrase in our home.
The rule with the green box is when it reaches the top it has to be emptied. Sometimes it gets filled up in a day and sometimes it takes a couple of weeks, but it has a deadline to be dealt with.
This takes the pressure off moving the papers from the kitchen counter. They are added to the green box and be dealt with later. It makes straightening up an area easier and faster because I’m not worried about where each thing needs to go. Add all the papers to the green box.
If you left something on the kitchen counter and can’t find it, check the green box.
Usually, just picking up toys (it’s dog toys in our house these days), straightening up pillows and blankets, and lighting a candle can be a quick refresh in a room. Straightening makes a room look and feel clean (or cleaner)!
What are your Favorite ways to Refresh Your Home?
Here are a few more tips to help you:
