My next house is going to be beautiful. It might not be bigger but, my next house is the one I’ll really make into a home. This house we are in now is just a holding room for us until we get to our next house. It’s ok that it doesn’t represent our family. I’m renting, it’s a waste to make it pretty right now. I don’t know how long we’ll be here. I long to have a much loved haven for my family but, I don’t have the funds and those pictures in the magazines assure me that it’s impossible to even attempt to make a change where I am. Yeah, I’m gonna love my next house. You’ll see.
How many of those lines have you repeated to yourself? I’ve said them all. And then I finally realized that there might not be a next house.
Love where you are. Beautify where you are. Your next house will be great too but, wherever you are right now, today, has enormous potential.
Compared to your last house, this IS your next house.
This is a great post! We are living in our forever home, and have been for 5 years. Like some of the other posters, we have not done a lot to make it ours. My dining room is peach. Yes, peach. I hate peach (but love peaches, yummy). We have been waiting on painting the room because we want to add moulding under the chair-rail. There are no imminent plans to put the moulding up, as it requires money and tools. So there the room sits in all of it’s peachy glory. After reading this post, I am determined to paint the dining room. We use this room at least once a week, if not more, and I am going to do a band-aid fix on it, so I can enjoy it even without the ideal moulding. Thank you Nester. You rock!
I don’t know how many times I’ve said that to myself. What makes me think if it’s not done in this house, it will get done in the new one?
I love this post! It’s so very true. ♥
If only I had realized this 10 years ago!! I have been dreaming of a new house, living in limbo. Time to get with it. Today is the day to enjoy where we are. i have wasted so many years waiting…… How about a deliberate series for those of us living in the future to start enjoying our present abode?
…just remember…when you were living in the house before the house you are in now…the house you are in now was your next house…your now house might not be your forever house… but it is where you are now…so don’t waste another second…make it home… now…
Hi, I am new to your website but I really appreciate this post! I didn’t “love” my house for years and am just starting to decorate. Every house has potential! Thanks for the encouraging words.
Nester,
You have helped me to love my home! Instead of dreaming about what she could be I’m in love with what she is. She’s a modest home but full of love, laughter, smiles, tears and most importantly memories! Thank you for helping me fall in love with our home!
Wow. As a fellow renter, this is quite motivating!!
Years ago I remember reading about a snotty reporter interviewing President Eisenhower’s wife, Mamie. Of course, they had been in the military all their married lives, and had moved, moved, moved. The reporter asked her what it had been like all those years, sometimes only living in one place for a month, intimating that they had never really had a home all those years. Mamie replied something like this, “Even if we were only living in a small apartment for one month, it was my assignment turn that into a home. It was sometimes more of a challenge than other times, but I think I was always successful.” You go, Girl!!!
Ouch, ouch, ouch! How are you reading my mind, lady?!
I’m really struggling with this right now. We were supposed to only be in this basement apartment for less than a year. Two years later…I still only have stuff hung up where there were already nails and my favorite things are packed away in totes.
When I pause long enough to think about it, it feels like a part of my true self is packed away. Will I be the same person I was when I packed my decorations away? Will I regain that part?
Every day I think about how I will follow the Nester’s suggestions in my next house.
I have spent the past 3 days cleaning out closets, drawers, cabinets, and even the garage. I was keeping stuff for our next ” bigger, better” house. It finally dawned on me that our house isn’t too small for our family, we just have too much stuff crammed into it. I have already made 3 Goodwill runs and 4 trips to the local dump and there is still more to do, but the house is already feeling much calmer. I may never live in a “dream house” but there is a lot I can do to make this place wonderful. Thanks for your constant inspiration and fearless approach to decorating!
wow…i needed that {{thank you}}
Thank you so much for this! This was EXACTLY what I needed to hear today. My husband and I have been trying for a couple years to move across the country, but we seem to be stuck where we are for the time being. So many things have been put on hold until “after we move.” I have decided to work with what we have to make our home beautiful. Not perfect but beautiful.
I love your blog. God bless.
my attitude has always been to create every home to be a place i want to be.
early in our marriage i had a friend, who had the perspective you write about. she never understood how i could buy curtains for an apartment, or how i could paint walls of a house i did not own, how i could move all our family pix to a trailer we’d be living in for a summer while we waited for our next home. i told her like adam and eve in the garden, God created me too to be surrounded by beauty. .
thanks for the encouragement to continue to add creativity and beauty to my home.
I really needed to hear this today – which is probably why I was paging back through the archives. I say things like, “When I have a bigger kitchen.” “When there’s more room.”
Ironically, it’s not like I keep the cleanest nest in the tree. So, if I ever DO get the “bigger kitchen” ir living room or whatever, I’ll probably be complaining that I don’t have the time (or energy) to clean it.
This was a really good reminder for me to be happy where I am. This is where I’ve been planted for now. Why not try to flourish here?
Thanks Nester! I’m of the same mindset as Dana, and needed to hear this message for living in the moment, not some future what-if. When I remodeled my tiny { 750 s.f } condo, I got the kitchen I wanted: small built-in bookcase, farmhouse sink, ribbed glass cupboards, hardwood floors. What I haven’t fully honored is living in this space every day for me, and not just when I have company over. Every day for me, for however long I will live here. With beauty, my special things and as it pleases me. It does change my mindset considerably.
You are such a wise lady!!! I wonder if you have any idea how many you are helping!!! I loooove you site and have to force myself to stop looking and start doing in my own(rental) home!!!!!!
I have this article saved in the back recesses of my mind for when I need to pull up encouragement for my home. We’re in our 9th home in our 9th year of marriage – making it a total of 13 homes in 13 years for me since leaving for college! This quote – Your next house will be great too but, wherever you are right now, today, has enormous potential – sets me straight each time I read it. Thank you!