Everyone wants to be a good hostess, but have you ever felt at a loss how to create the haven you imagine your home to be? Here are 5 budget-friendly ways to make your home more welcoming.
1. Make it smell amazing.
We tend to associate good smells with positive memories, so making your home smell like a particularly good scent can be a powerful way to make it more welcoming. Right before guests arrive, try baking a batch of cookies, brewing a pot of coffee, or diffusing some essential oils to make everyone feel right at home.
2. Set out fresh flowers.
Flowers not only make your home smell good, but they freshen things up. Ask a friend if you can pick some fresh flowers from their garden or take advantage of sales at your local grocery store. (Fake flowers are fine in a pinch but fresh ones are even better.) One bouquet can easily be stretched by dividing the flowers between several glass bottles. Place these bottles strategically throughout your home or line them up on a mantle or piano to create a visual focal point.
3. Keep it clean.
A clean home is always a welcoming site. If you have a hard time keeping up with everything, try assigning one big cleaning task to each day of the week. That way you can focus on accomplishing one thing each day and not feel like you’re spending all your time cleaning.
4. Lighten things up.
The more light you let into your home, the more attractive it will appear. Light makes things look more open and can even make rooms appear to be larger than they actually are. Light can also boost the general mood of a room! If you don’t have very many windows, consider borrowing lamps. Artificial light isn’t as good as natural, but anything that makes your home appear less dark is an improvement.
5. Tame the clutter.
Keeping things clean and organized greatly affects the overall atmosphere of your home. If your fridge is currently hiding behind magnets and family photos, try finding other ways less intrusive to commemorate those keepsakes, such as a photo album or memory box. Aim for primarily blank walls with only a few tasteful decorations. “Nick knacks” can also add to the visual clutter, so keep surfaces as clear as possible, to help give your home that “magazine cover” appearance.
