Revamping Your Home for the Holidays

furniture rentalDecorating for the holidays can seem like a monumental task–how will you ever make your home as perfectly cozy as the ones in movies? Here are some ways to streamline the process and help you add a little holiday cheer to your home without going crazy.

Make Space
If you have relatives coming to stay, use an online self-storage finder to make extra space by putting unneeded furniture into storage. This will also allow you more room for holiday decorations. Additionally, consider your furniture arrangement–do you want the living room to appear large and spacious, or comforting and cozy? If your home is looking a little outdated, furniture rental could be a good solution.

Find Inspiration
Sites like Pinterest and Apartment Therapy offer a wealth of DIY how-to guides, especially for nifty decorations and creative repurposing of furniture and objects. If you find yourself in a decorating rut, use these resources for inspiration. You can also use sets from holiday movies and TV shows that appeal to you.

Establish a Color Scheme
Pick a festive color scheme and stick with it. The holidays are associated with mostly warm and rich tones, like brown, red/maroon, and pine. White and silver are also great for giving your rooms a wintery finishing touch. Use your color scheme as a guide and outline to your holiday decorations. If you find yourself at a loss for ideas, do some research online and play with various options until you get your perfect scheme.

Smells Like Home
Our sense of smell is embedded in the brain’s limbic system and amygdala, where emotions form and emotional memories are stored. Smells, feelings, and memories go together, so something as simple as lighting a cinnamon candle might make your home immediately smell like your grandmother’s house during your childhood. Most of us associate the holidays with a particular smell, be it cinnamon, nutmeg, or freshly baked cookies. Whatever your specific holiday scent is, augment it and let it set the tone for your home.

Jenny Zhang is a writer at SpareFoot, the online marketplace where you can find and reserve a self-storage unit with comparison shopping tools that show real-time availability and exclusive deals.