You Don't Need a Perfect House. You Need Somewhere to Start.

Bruce Coffman
6 days ago
3 min read

How I turned one embarrassing corner into a nicer space without spending a dime.

A disgusting corner of my home that caused me shame and anxiety.

I've been utterly ashamed of the way I've been living for quite some time and was damn well raised better than this. But, I was overwhelmed. I had no idea where to start. Cleaning this whole mess seemed daunting so, I'd freeze.

A friend gave me the idea of tackling one area and making it look the way I wanted to give me a sense of accomplishment and a less daunting mini-goal.

So, today I looked at this entry, the first thing I see when I come in and decided it disgusted me enough to finally do something about it. I even played a little psychological trick on myself and posted this very before picture on my Bluesky account to shame me into actually going through with cleaning it so I could post an after picture later.

One trash bag for all the trash and then a good scrub of the door and surrounding wall area with bleach spray cleaner later, I was even inspired to do a little decorating, which I love.

The cleaned up and decorated corner of my home I can now be proud of without spending a dime.

Is the after picture a dramatic home makeover reveal or Pinterest perfect? Absolutely not. Is it at least ten times better than it was before? Definitely. Plus, I can now look at it with a sense of pride in accomplishment and remind myself how much easier that was than I was making it out to be and I can keep doing this one section at a time.

Plus I got to try out a budget bougie home decor hack I'd been wanting to try out. The Italicus wine bottle on the fern stand was gifted to me by a dear friend, so I took a cutting from my butterfly bush and used it as a vase. I switched out a smaller wall hanging for the other one I was tired of and didn't look good there anyway. I got a decorator look without spending a dime.

I plan to either hang fabric or do a different treatment for the little window in the door to make it look even better overall. But now I can do those little things without tripping over piles of trash because I got started.

Here are some general tips I've accumulated and learned when it comes to an overwhelming cleaning project:

Clean what you already have.
Rearrange what you already have.
Use something free from outside.
Give a meaningful object you already own a place to shine.
Don't confuse “I need a nicer room” with “I need to go shopping.”

Cleaning and decorating aren't necessarily separate projects.

Sometimes cleaning one area reveals that you already own something beautiful. Sometimes moving three things makes one thing look expensive. Sometimes a branch in a bottle is enough. You don't need to become a different person before you're allowed to have a nicer environment.

If you're overwhelmed by your own mess, maybe you don't need to figure out how to fix the whole house. Maybe you just need to pick one corner.