We may dream of a mansion with fourteen bedrooms and eighteen bathrooms, but for most of us, that scenario is going to remain a dream. A few lucky people will hit the lottery by doing things like writing a bestseller or making it as a professional athlete, but most of us have to get by with considerably less space than you’ll find in Jennifer Lopez’s house. That’s especially true if you don’t have a huge salary or if you live in a place with an enormous cost of living. In fact, living in a high-cost city can make you feel like you’re never making enough money. It’s all part of the neverending rat race. But living in a small space doesn’t mean you have to feel cramped or even trapped. With a little ingenuity, you can make even a micro-studio feel like home.
Decorate generously
Every home needs decoration, regardless of if it’s a 2,000-square-foot house or a 300-square-foot apartment. Decorating the house makes you feel like a person actually lives there. You don’t want the place where you sleep to look like a prison, because then it might feel like a prison. So get out to the home goods stores and start shopping. Get a nice area rug for your kitchen area, or a snazzy lamp for your desk area. The nice thing about even the smallest space? It has walls (if it doesn’t, you got a really bad deal). You don’t live in or on the walls, so you can adorn them to your heart’s content. Find some nice artwork from a local artist. You can make yourself the local artist by turning your best Instagram and Facebook photos into high-quality canvas prints. There’s nothing wrong with traditional photos in a frame, but they can get a bit boring sometimes. Rolled canvas prints just seem to pop a little more when you hang them up on your wall. Most art doubles as a conversation piece, but that’s especially true of the canvas print that shows you and your best friends covered in mud at your local mud run. You’ll also be able to look at those personal photos and smile, whether they show you and your beloved getting married, the minutes after your first child was born, or even just a really fun night out on the town with your pals.
Keep things fresh
The longer you stay in a place, the easier it is to get tired of it. That’s true no matter how much living space you’ve got. To combat the residential blahs, freshen up your decor every so often. That can be as simple as just rearranging some things, like switching the photos in the dining area with the photos in your bedroom. It can mean something more drastic like replacing your old furniture with new, because that couch in the living room has seen way better days and you’re tired of looking at it. The budget for decorating can be as big or as small as you want it to be. The bottom line is this: you have to think outside the box to avoid feeling like you’re living in a box.
