Guest Post - Money-Saving Methods for Decorating Your New Home

Moving in with a significant other is a big milestone. There’s a sacrifice of personal space and independence, but you gain so much more: a domestic partner to share living expenses and domestic duties, a step up in the relationship, and a commitment that says more than words could express. Like all major life changes, moving in together comes with bumps in the road. Besides compromises and agreeing on decisions for your living space, the cost of moving can be a challenge to overcome.

Moving isn’t cheap. First, you have deposits and down payments, and on top of that, the cost of moving averages out to $1,250 locally and $4,890 long distance. The numbers vary based on the size of your home, distance traveled, and services hired, but every move has a cost. Once you arrive at your new home, you’re faced with even more expenses that come with getting settled into the new space. To help alleviate the move-in decorating costs, try some of these budget-friendly suggestions to make your first home together feel like it belongs to both of you.

Shop Wisely

Save the fancy items for your wedding registry, and stick to more affordable methods when paying out-of-pocket for your home goods. Need more hangers? Bigger sheets for your new bed? A shower caddy to accommodate the extra bottles? A set of wine glasses for date nights? Many retailers offer countless options for the things that you’ll need to fill your place and make it livable. Shopping online can provide more discounts and money savings, like using a Bed Bath & Beyond promo code to keep purchases within your budget, as well as give you access to a full range of products.  

Thrifting

When shopping for furniture, thrift stores could be a great option for high-quality pieces at steeply discounted prices. You can find solid wood dressers and tables for less than you’d pay for flimsy particleboard, but what you’d be getting is more reliable and sturdier. Secondhand shopping can bring a treasure trove of goods for decorating as well. If you dig deep enough, you could score a deal on cool lamps or vintage artwork to hang on the walls and adorn your shelves. 

Shop Locally

Some of the same deals that you’d find at Goodwill can also be found in person at a swap meet or flea market, as well as online at resale sites like OfferUp or Facebook Marketplace. Vendors often sell off their old goods, so you never know what you’ll come across! You could even utilize these secondhand markets to sell things that you don’t want in exchange for extra cash to buy new “used” items for the home.

DIY and Crafting

The most economical way to decorate is to make it yourself. Sometimes the cheapest place to find decorations is at Michaels, where you can buy the crafting supplies and create your own artwork. Think cross stitch wall art, hanging plants, and homemade door wreaths. Another option is to print your own high-quality photos on acrylic, metal, or canvas to hang on the wall in lieu of paintings. Photos of you or taken by you will add a personal touch to your interior décor. You can DIY painting as well. When painting your home, consider using cool colors (e.g., shades for blue and green) to create the illusion of space.  

Repurposing

Surely, you and your partner are moving in together with some things from your former homes. Even if what you owned individually doesn’t fit in with the theme of the house, you can still find a way to repurpose it in your new home. Your first IKEA desk from college might not be the ideal office furniture for your new home office, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t use it to create a new piece of furniture. Perhaps it can be used as an entry table or bench in the foyer.

If you’re trying to pinch pennies as much as possible, then consider asking for hand-me-downs from friends and family members. Perhaps put off decorating for the time being — at least until you fill your home with the essentials first. At the very least, you can simply reuse your old things until save up enough to start fresh. Even if your individual styles clash, the mismatched home would be a unique representation of your relationship and your life together.

Author bio: Natalie enjoys writing about homebuying and hopes to inspire homeowners of all stages enjoy the perks of homeownership!

Guest Post - The 7 tools you need to start DIY home renovation

DIY’s are difficult. But a right set of tools and equipment will help you in making the job easy. Hardware tools are the best investment in case you are a DIY fan.

Here are 7 tools you must have in your toolbox to start a DIY home renovation.

Japanese Cat’s Paw

The Japanese cat’s paw is a hammer that is an extremely handy tool used for removing nails from the wood. This is expensive yet a must-have tool. The hammer consists of two claws that are needed for convenience. It is also a great help when it comes to putting up hoops. This is an extremely useful tool to speed things up.

Cordless Drill

Invest in a good cordless drill as it is light and contains less toxic batteries which are quick to charge and long lasting. A cordless drill will be very useful for any renovation project in your house. Good control of the trigger is necessary to allow you to quickly switch from fast to slow drilling. Also, make sure your drill has a light for drilling in dark places in your house.

Pliers

Pliers are the most useful tools you will ever own. Pliers are good at holding wires tight in a place. They are made in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some are used for gripping things while some are used for twisting wires. Some are used in a combination of both. There are also certain pliers that are used to cut wires. The long nose pliers and diagonal cutting pliers are appropriate for home DIYs. They help is bending wires, making hoops, removing pins and nails and reaching awkward places.

Tool Pouch

Need to put all your tools in a place together? A tool pouch is an answer to your question. A well-organized tool pouch helps you in easy functioning and better working. There is a huge variety of tool pouches available in the market. Get the best tool bags that will satisfy your needs and will have the right amount of space and compartments to arrange your tools. A tool pouch with many pockets is recommended. In this way, you can keep your tools organized.

Extension Cords

Having extension cords in your toolbox to makes tasks easier at home. Keep extension cords of different materials for various purposes. Also don’t forget to consider wet areas, oily spaces or extreme sunlight exposure while buying them. Extension cords come in different colors, lengths, and thicknesses. The cords need to be durable for long periods of time.

Ladder

A ladder is a must when it comes to reaching your roof for DIY’s or renovations. It will be difficult to reach heights without a ladder. Also, there are a number of different ladders available in the market. Choose a suitable one for all your home renovations tasks. While selecting a ladder, make sure whether your tools can be attached to the ladder, whether it stands comfortably on your floor and whether you will be able to stand for hours on the ladder while painting your new bedroom walls.

Tapes

Tapes are the number one tool in your tool pouch. For all of your DIY home renovations, duct tapes are crucial. Be it sticking things like flowers or even small crafts. Tapes are useful when it comes to sealing things, sticking cardboard or fastening anything or everything.

These are some of the most essential tools that you will need to start DIY home renovations.

Author Bio: Harold Camaya is a blogger who loves to write in different verticals. She co-authored Supercharge Organic Traffic: A popular course focusing on Organic Traffic for Ecommerce.. Her hobbies are traveling and reading.

Interview - Decimated Designs

While most of us don't think about Halloween during summer, at House to Home Organizing we are always on the look out for locally made quality items. We spoke with Kyle from Connecticut's own Decimated Designs about all the cool things they do and make.

What’s your background and what is Decimated Designs?

Decimated Designs is a full-service design and fabrication shop in New Britain, CT. We specialize in making large foam creations with our 4’x8’ CNC as well as makeup FX, costumes, masks, signage, and the occasional blueprint or fire-exit plan. I've always been a Halloween fanatic, up to the point that my sister's birthday is November 1st because my mother refused to miss seeing me in costume. I did my first (laughably bad) prosthetic makeup when I was 9, and then discovered the Theater when I moved to Connecticut at 10. I went to school for Tech Theater and when I got out landed at a professional Haunted House only to realize that between the sets, costumes, makeup, lighting, sound, actors, etc., haunted houses are just a different type of theater! From there I started the company and it has grown and taken on more and more new and interesting projects.

What is the haunt community?

The haunt community is a group of like-minded individuals who come together for the purpose of scaring the socks out of the public. Many of us are charity-oriented in one way or another, plenty of us are strictly business, and a good chunk are purely for-the-love-of-it types who don't want to muddy things up by having to charge for tickets one way or another. You've got Home Haunters, Semi-Pros, Professional Haunters, Actors, Designers, Costumers, Makeup Artists, Animatronic Fabricators, Sculptors, Web Designers, and absolutely everything in-between. We come from incredibly diverse backgrounds and yet when we meet up one haunter can almost always spot another in a crowd. There's an energy to it, and a community built around it.

Can regular people shop with you or is it only for professionals?

We cater to just about everyone! We've sold cosplay items to Dr. Who fans in Malta, noisemakers to a haunt in Dubai, and 6' beating hearts to one of the largest amusement parks in the country! We do high-end makeup for films and quick face paints at local Comic Cons. It's a bit of a give-and-take because I love being reachable at all ranges of the spectrum but we often run into budgetary issues when clients don't realize just how much the truly high-end work actually costs.  It never hurts to contact us and ask about something you’re interested in, and we always try to come up with creative ways to do a project and stay within budgets.

I assume Halloween is your biggest season, what do you do the rest of the year?

Halloween is absolutely our busy season, but we don't slow down very much. Over the winter we're prepping new products for a Spring release. Most of the big haunted houses in the country are actually buying their larger products in March so that the companies have production time and they're able to get their items with enough time for setup and testing before the season begins. Since installing the CNC, we've also begun taking on more commercial work which keeps us busy through the Spring and Summer and there are plenty of conventions and shows we hit in-between.

Do you teach others to do what you do?

We do quite a bit of education actually! We are the only iWata certified airbrush educators in the Northeast and regularly teach classes on makeup FX. One of our favorite recurring classes is “How to improve your Halloween Makeup” which we teach about 6-8 times a year at various libraries throughout Connecticut. Halloween is how I got into all of this and if I can help up-and-coming future artists get better at their craft then I’m there! We teach things like how to make eye makeup scary without resorting to “racoon black-out” eyes. There is plenty that we do which we cannot teach because of the depth and complexity of it, or the large tools involved, but we’re always looking to add on new classes!

Over the years, what has been the coolest things you have done?

We’ve worked with celebrities, large companies, tv shows & movies, and gotten to create giant versions of some of our favorite characters. We’re currently working on a 10’ Thanos statue as well as some giant PEZ and a dream project to convert a certain artistic space into a Halloween themed nightmare (sorry, but can’t share too too much on this one yet!) Some of our favorite projects have been the Halloween Weddings we’ve done turning brides into zombies and grooms into werewolves! With our new CNC Machine, we’ve also been able to expand the kind of size and detail we’re able to output, so as someone who loves seeing art come to life that has been incredibly awesome. We’re always up to something new and interesting and it’s so hard to pick! It’s probably best to follow us on social media where we keep everyone as up-to-date as possible and let everyone pick their favorite for themselves!