Furnishing your home can be an exciting time, especially if it is your first home. Naturally, you may want to get the best furnishings possible. However, it is easy to get carried away with your spending and before you know it you have gone over budget!
It is important that you take the time to think about your purchases beforehand. Doing this means you can avoid overspending and filling your home with expensive items that you may never use.
In this article, you can learn about some expensive home essentials you don’t actually need.
Kitchen Appliances
A great room to start with is the kitchen. There is a vast range of specialty appliances you can get for the modern kitchen. Have you stopped to think if you really need them?
Here are some examples of unnecessary specialty kitchen appliances:
- Bread maker
- Popcorn machine
- Electric wine opener
- Deep fryer
- Countertop pizza oven
- Omelet maker
This list isn’t exhaustive and there are many more appliances that could be listed.
Why are they unnecessary?
These appliances aren’t needed as the function they offer can all be easily done using traditional methods.
You can bake bread in the oven, no special machine needed! Pizzas can be made in the oven too. Instead of using an omelet maker, you can cook your omelet using a frying pan. A special electric wine opener isn’t necessary, you can simply use a corkscrew!
Although all these tools seem like a good idea, they aren’t always. You could end up spending a lot of money plus each one is taking up space in your kitchen.
Prior to purchasing any specialty appliances ask yourself how you would manage without it and how often you would really use it. If you can make whatever you need using your oven or existing kitchenware, then you probably don’t need it!
Kitchen Utensils
When kitting out your kitchen you may be tempted to buy every utensil you can. However, these utensils that can only serve one function are essentially expensive clutter. Specialist cutters for specific fruits and vegetables, lots of pans of various sizes, and multiple plates are simply not needed.
Instead of having numerous pans of various sizes, just have 2 or 3 covering small, medium, and large. Don’t buy all the different slicers for each fruit and vegetable. Do you really need a banana slicer? Use knives instead.
When buying your kitchen equipment avoid buying huge sets of plates and cups. You only need enough for your family with a couple extra in case you have guests.
Furniture
When you are furnishing your home, you may be tempted to make sure each room is filled with matching furniture. This could involve buying expensive sets of furniture for the bedrooms, living room, or dining area.
Whilst there is nothing wrong with buying matching sets, it can make some homes feel bland if every room is filled with the same colors.
A great way to inject your own personality into your home is to buy individual pieces. You can still have a theme for each room but with more flexibility in your choices, you can really add that wow factor when someone walks in.
Storage Containers
Storage containers for the home are necessary, especially if you have children, as cupboard space isn’t unlimited. Many buy expensive storage boxes to store household items, toys, and other things such as towels.
Buying these types of storage containers can be costly plus it can detract from the aesthetic of your home.
To avoid filling your home with unsightly storage boxes try alternatives such as wicker baskets, decorative boxes, or if possible, installing extra cupboards.
Home Decor
Your home decor is a big part of showing who you are. There is a huge range of decorations you can buy to decorate your home. It may be tempting to buy lots of room decorations and wall accents to kit out your home, but this can be expensive plus it can make your home look like any other.
To save money when decorating your home and make it more personal to you, there are some great alternatives to buying decorations. Ideas include –
- Place framed photos of different sizes on the walls
- Add souvenirs around the home from places you visit
- If you have the skills, make your own art to hang around the home
- You could frame all kinds of personal things such as maps, letters, or postcards and show them off around the home
No one is saying you can’t buy anything, but these ideas are a great way to save money whilst adding a personal touch to your home.
Dining Rooms
Once upon a time family sat around a table together to eat their meals. Modern life has seen many changes including the decline of the dining room. For many this is due to hectic schedules, lack of space, or for smaller families a large dining room table is simply too much.
These days many choose to eat at the kitchen counter, use a cheap folding table in the kitchen or living room, or perhaps sit outside when the weather allows.
This means buying expensive dining room sets, dining room tables, dining plates and dinner sets is not always needed. The only exception would be if you plan to have a large family that needs an area to eat or you are going to regularly host dinner parties. If not, then ask yourself, do you really need an expensive dining room table?
Final Thoughts
Decorating and furnishing your home can be exciting. If you get carried away though it can be expensive. Choosing furniture, decorations and appliances that are right for your home should take time.
You don’t need everything that you see, many things are expensive and unnecessary. Using alternatives can help save you money but also means your home will truly reflect your personality.
Whatever you decide, enjoy your home, and have fun styling it!
By Admin –
