How To Create A Simple, Beautiful Room on a Budget (My 5-Step System)

How do I get the beautiful rooms I see on Pinterest for my own home? I’m going to share with you how I decorate a room on a budget, and using my 5-step system, you can create a beautiful home too!

I created this system over seven years ago when we moved into our current home. This was when Joanna Gaines was making her mark and regardless of how much furniture I purchased, I couldn’t get my rooms to look like hers.. or decide if that was even what I wanted to begin with.

The Raising Home Blog Room Reset (My 5 Simple Step System)

I wanted a home that felt like us. A place we could live life, rest from the world, and connect with each other. Farmhouse style didn’t feel like it and buying more stuff didn’t feel like it either. So, I studied Pinterest and discovered that if I followed this simple 5-step system, I could create a room that felt like us and on a budget.

The secret wasn’t more, it was less with a few intentional choices.

The Raising Home Blog Room Reset

1. Declutter
2. Organize
3. Clean
4. Decorate
5. Finish

To walk you through the process, I’m going to use my living room as the example. Living rooms are great places to begin, since the living room is a focal point of the house and the best place to discover your style.

Decorate a Living Room on a budget

The living room is the hub of the home and in my house, the space we begin and end our days. As the kids reenter from the world, they plop on the sofa and watch a show or work on a puzzle. My youngest will bring in her art supplies, and we just gather. It’s become my favorite time of day.

With this in mind, the living room can become quite cluttered, so I like to keep the number of items in this space as minimal as possible. You’ll see what I mean as we work through the steps. Take one at a time and do them in order!

Step One: Declutter

Decluttering is the first step because it has the most impact on a room. We have become blind to our clutter and emotionally attached to items that are bossing us around.

Everything is telling you what to do. The laundry on the sofa says, “fold me”. Each lamp reminds you that they are not your style anymore. The rug is screaming, “I’m too small!” If you feel overwhelmed or not at home in your living room, it’s time this room got much-needed attention.

A simple, beautiful room always begins with decluttering.

Steps of the Declutter

Here is what you’ll need for your declutter:

• Trash Bag– Black bag preferably
• Donation Bags– Also black and more than one.
• Rehome Basket– For items you need to put in another space
• Maybe Bin– Collect items that you want to try to take a break from, but you aren’t ready to donate. Put them in an extra room or closet for a set time and then commit to donating anything you didn’t miss or use.

Before you begin, look around the room for clutter and reflect on the room.

• Is there clutter, and how to solve it?
• What do you like or not like about the room?
• Does everything in this room need to be in here?

Here is your declutter checklist:

• Surfaces
• Floor
• Furniture
• Lighting
• Wall art
• Decor items

You will have to do things differently to get different results. This is supposed to feel uncomfortable. When I first did it, the room felt naked and empty, and I had a hard time being in the room. All of this is normal and okay. Check out this 30 day declutter challenge or the whole house declutter for more inspiration.

Step Two: Organize

Now we organize, but this isn’t organizing like you are used to doing. Remember, the fewer items we own, the less we manage, and the secret to a home that feels good is less stuff. I should call this step, “declutter again.” Ha!

However, there are spaces (especially the bathroom and kitchen, yikes!) that will need organization.

For Bins and Baskets:

• Woven basket or White Bin: Choose one for collecting the items that will be stored outside of doors and drawers. Think socks, winter items, laundry room, books, craft or office supplies, etc. I love these and use them all over.
• Clear containers: Bathroom drawers and cabinets, as well as pantry items. Only use these behind doors. Otherwise, you will see all the clutter always. Clear containers like these.. can be used in the bathroom or kitchen drawers.
• Wooden dividers and containers: Kitchen drawers. However, I still use clear bins for cabinet shelves and bigger items. These are in all my dressers!
• Ivory Tubs: Attic & Garage storage. Some people prefer clear bins, but seeing everything looks cluttered to me. I prefer a solid, cohesive bin and label what’s inside on the outside.

Don’t forget to label your bins! I use this label maker and these label clips.

If you do not have these, please do not go buy them! Just have a plan for when you do buy organizational items. I trial run my organization system before I buy any bins.

In a simple, beautiful home, everything has a place and a purpose.

Here is my process to organize:

1. Declutter again 🙂
2. Group like items together
3. Store items where you use them, and store the things you use the most in the best real estate in the closet. This makes your home functional AND beautiful.
4. Use Cohesive bins and baskets. Decide on a basket color and use it all over your house. This is one less decision you need to make, and if you need to shift the organization around, it will match!

Step Three: Clean

Cleaning the room you have is the quickest and best way to have a new space. You’ll be surprised by the ideas you get while cleaning, so trust the process. I didn’t say this would be easy, but it will be worth it!

We won’t be doing a basic clean during this step. This will go a little deeper, but will give your room the biggest bang for the buck… if you know what I mean. Ha! I’m all about the least amount of work for the greatest reward. Check out this post on cleaning.

Steps to clean

To clean your room, we will work from top to bottom and from left to right. You will get into the rhythm, and not only does it go fast, but cleaning this way makes sure we don’t miss anything. Let me know if you want to see the cleaning products and supplies I use!

1. Wash sofa covers, blankets, and rugs (even curtains if needed)
2. Dust Corners & Lights
3. Wipe doors, light switch, walls, & baseboards
4. Vacuum furniture and under/behind furniture
5. Dust surfaces & wall art
6. Vacuum floor (especially around the corners). Shampoo carpet if you’re extra
7. Deep clean floors
8. Clean blinds, windows, & window sills

The living room should be simple enough to clean. Actually, the more you remove, even temporarily, the easier this step will be! You can do declutter again! Ha!

Living Room Cleaning Checklist

1. Wash sofa covers and pillow case covers
2. Wipe down light fixtures & dust room corners
3. Dust wall art & clean windows. Wash window treatments if you want.
4. Spot clean walls, doors, and dust baseboards
5. Dust furniture & Vacuum under cushions (Shampoo furniture if needed)
6. Vacuum under and around furniture, as well as along baseboards.
7. Deep clean floor

A simple, beautiful home is clean and tidy.

Now we get to do what you thought you were here to do! I know decluttering, organizing, and cleaning isn’t fun, but it’s foundational to the system, so if you skipped a step, go back!

My go to cleaning Supplies:

• A set of reuseable cleaning cloths
• A great vacuum. A great upstairs vacuum & a robot vacuum for the daily. I’m also saving got this stick vacuum. I’ve had a Dyson and really didn’t get the life out of it I needed for the price.
• This vacuum mop combo I use several times a week. LOVE. Also this mop is basic, but does the job well.
• A great bathroom cleaner and toilet bowl cleaner
• Spray bottle for the vinegar & dawn dish soap solution I make.

I live to be frugal with cleaning products.

Step Four: Decorate

A living room decorated well should feel collected. Your living room has a story to tell, and it is worth the effort to create a room that will welcome your family home and send them off for a day of purpose. Your home is a tool that blesses and grounds the ones you love the most.

To begin, you’ll need to identify who is using this room and what they are doing there. How your room functions and what you keep there (or don’t keep there) depend on this.

How to decorate a room on a budget

1. Dream
2. Furniture
3. Lighting
4. Windows
5. Rugs and Fabrics
6. Wall Art
7. Accessories
8. Details

Decorating on a budget requires patience and vision. Follow this post for all the decorating scoop and check out my go-to decorating inspiration.

My favorite decorating hacks:

• Shop your house. You never know what beauty will come of moving furniture around and it’s FREE!
• More is Less. Before you go buy all the things, count the items in your room. More is less
• Use Pinterest to direct you. Pin a bunch of pins for 30 minutes that you love and that have the style and mood you want in your space. Then review the pins and notice what they have in common and how they differ from your room now.
• Furniture arrangement is King. Get that right and everything else will fall in line. Use the focal point (first thing you see or the focus of the room) to guide you.
• Repeat colors. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel for each room! Use the same 3-5 colors around your house, and if something doesn’t feel right in your space, repeat the color in a decor item or furniture finish.

A beautiful living room tells a story of the people who live there and functions well.

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Step Five: Celebrate

You are not done until you are done, so now you celebrate! I know you've worked hard to get here, and you were questioning your sanity along the way, but now you get the reward! It's rarely easy, but it's always worth it!

Before we celebrate you have a couple housekeeping (no pun intended) tasks to complete:

1. Throw away all trash
2. Drop off donations
3. Complete any final projects or tasks that came up along the way
4. Celebrate!

Create an evening of sitting around the fire and playing games, or even a movie night piled on the sofa. Enjoy each other and the room you've created!

How fun was that! And such an easy process!

Pillow covers I Pillow Inserts (10k people cannot be wrong) Puzzle Board I Black Lamp I Candle I Rug

A simple living space

The living room should be a space that is simple and easy to manage. In a home that is moving and never ending projects and items to manage, make this room simple. Seating, lighting, a few collected fabrics, and wall art that you love. Everything else can be rehomed somewhere else or kept in a closet for another space. You’ve got this. 

Make sure to check out my post on the whole house refresh.

The more you declutter, the less you have to manage and when you manage less you are free to do better things.

Here is the 30 day declutter challenge if you want to do more! Also, this post is one of my top 3 about the whole house declutter.

Next week we will conquer the organization in the living room.

Until next time,