The Ultimate Home Reset Guide

Transform your home with just $100. The secret to decorating your home on a budget is simple. You have to create your space on purpose. Together, we will walk step by step through each room until you have your dream home on a budget. This will need your time and energy, but the reward is a home that serves you and your family. Here is The Ultimate Home Reset Guide.

This system will cultivate peace and order in your home. Our homes are a tool to serve others and refresh our souls. To do that we need spaces that are easy to maintain and look beautiful. Notice I did not say Pottery Barn furniture or a professionally designed home.

Creating a cozy and safe place to land requires presence, imperfection, and authenticity and decor that looks and feels like you. A home that is charming and full of warmth and character, is closer than you realize. You just have to do it on purpose.

To be the best you and maintain a home prepared for those you love the most, your home should bring peace, not chaos. Stillness, not stress. We should enjoy our homes and not pick up frantically with the weight of overwhelm. I do a home reset when I no longer enjoy housekeeping and find the stuff not serving us.

Like any great system, there’s an order to the home reset. This room order will keep you motivated and not only seeing the results but living in them. Your new spaces will begin to bring life and peace to your life.

Room Order

Your room order will keep you focused and organized. We begin in the living room because it is the HUB of our homes. The living room is a great space to learn your style and experience instant reward. This gratification will keep you going when you get in the middle. Keep going and don’t give up! One room and one step at a time.

Home Reset System: Phase 1

I created this system when I was drowning in chore duties while also not enjoying the decor I had pieced together. We had too much stuff and it wasn’t serving us. The whole picture was big and overwhelming, so I broke the system into phases. Moving through phases slowly over time, allows the systems to be tested and rooms layout and purpose to be refined.

1. The Home Reset: Phase 1- This phase is to get a fresh start and create spaces that are functional and beautiful. We mostly declutter by deciding on what to keep, deep clean for a clean slate, and decorate using what we have but with a new vision.
2. The Home Design: Phase 2- In this phase we dig deeper into mood boards, colors, patterns, and how to create the space you are wanting on a budget. We begin purchasing furniture, lighting, wall art, window treatments, and rugs.
3. The Home Projects: Phase 3- This is the fine tuning of what we have done in the other phases. By now, we know what works and what does not work, so we adjust as needed to create rooms that flow best with our lives. Also, we add character by wall trim, wall treatments, and even Smart features that make our homes the best they can be.

In this post, we are walking through the Home reset: Phase 1. The biggest focus of this phase will be decluttering, removing what is no longer serving its purpose and building a foundation that we love. Following the 5 steps, we will complete phase 1 in each room, before moving onto the next.

Decluttering

Decluttering is the focus of phase 1. We have too much stuff and we have become so use to it, we forget that we choose every day to house chaos. I want to challenge you in this step, to do something different. It will feel a little scary at times and emotional but trust the process and make decisions with your head and vision in mind.

Everything in your room will fit into these categories:

• Trash
• Donations/ Errands
• Maybe Bin (To put out of sight for 6 months to see if you miss it. You probably won’t)
• Rehome Bin (For items that you need to move to another room. A laundry hamper works great)
• Keep (Please notice how the keep option is last. Ha! But if you love it and use it, keep it)

Organizing

Organizing is complicated to me. I have a love/hate with it. Organizing in phase 1 is not buying all the bins and making beautiful centerpieces to show off all your stuff. However, once we have decided on what we love and use, there are systems that can help us maintain and create function. That is what organizing is in phase 1.

• Purge (Already did this, but you can do it again!)
• Group like items
• Collect in bins, baskets, etc. Make putting things away as easy as leaving them out.

Don’t be afraid to just use amazon or shoe boxes at first. Systems can take time to prove if they work so I suggest waiting to purchase containers until phase 2. Then, you can effectively decide if you want clear, wood, or white bins, using the overall vision you will create in that phase.

Clean

Cleaning your space will bring a refreshment that costs nothing. (If you do it yourself, of course.) I don’t LOVE cleaning, but I love the way it makes a room new. Caring for what you already have is the first step to having the home you want. Make this fun and special by lighting a candle, playing oldies, and rewarding yourself with the chocolate cake in the bathtub.

In each room we will focus on deep cleaning tasks. You can do as much or as little as you want here.

• Dust upper corners
• Wipe Blinds & Clean Windows
• Shampoo Rugs
• Dust Furniture (Don’t forget underneath)
• Door Frames & Baseboards
• Wash Sheets, Pillows, Curtains

Undecorate

Listen, decorating is the reward for cleaning. It’s my favorite step. However, I cannot have you doing what you have always done, so for that I’m calling this undecorating.

I know this is confusing since decorating implies that you add things, but for phase 1, I REALLY want you to not add another thing. There will be spaces that you can confidently and intentionally add lighting, furniture, wall art, and even decor. In those spaces you are decorating on purpose, the only decorating allowed.

I want you to undecorate as much as possible in this phase. Take things off the counters and surfaces and put them in a closet for now. Just see how those areas look and feel without soo many decorations and that will give you a clean slate for phase 2. Here is the list for step 4:

1. Furniture placement & Focal point
2. Rugs & Windows
3. Lighting
4. Walls & Art
5. Accessories

Finish

The room is feeling great by this step. To finish we will:

1. Throw away all trash
2. Errands: Returns & Donations
3. Put Maybe Bin in attic or closet out of sight
4. Make to-do list (Small projects or honey do’s that need to be done)
5. Reflect

Reflection is the last step in phase one, but the first step for phase two. Dream and cast vision for what this room needs or ideas for lighting, paint colors, etc. As you live in this space, add to these notes any ideas on how this room can function better or look more like your family.

Once this step is completed, you have finished the room and can move to the next room or begin phase 2 in the same room. Finishing is just as important as starting. I can’t wait to see your pictures and hear your stories.

Check out my favorite Home decor books.

Grab your Home Reset Checklist today! Join the community below.

Tips & Encouragement

• Keep your eyes on the prize. It WILL get worse before it gets better.
• Don’t wait until you have a whole hour. It is best to work with hour blocks but if you have 10 minutes, do what you can in 10 minutes.
• The more you declutter the less you have to organize and manage.
• Please do not buy anything in this phase. You will not believe the impact you can have on a room by removing and arranging on purpose.
• Create a reward for each finished room. Grab your favorite coffee, give yourself a chore free day, buy that new vacuum or maybe a candle. You deserve it.

Book resources

These books have shaped me and guided me in my decorating journey. The inspiration and educational value is life changing. If you feel clueless or unqualified to decorate your home these will put the decorating cookies on the bottom shelf.

THE HOME EDIT I THE HOME EDIT WORKBOOK I COZY MINIMALIST HOME l FEELS LIKE HOME

ALL THINGS LOVELY l HOUSE RULES l HOME BODY l THE ART OF HOME

Prep

• Meal plan and prep. Choose easy meals or even stock up on costco meals that are ready to go. Prep fruits, snacks and crockpots to add time back to your schedule
• Quick Clean. Dust, vacuum, mop, change sheets, take out trash, catch up laundry, swishing toilets.
• Trash, Rehome, Maybe, Errands. Collect trash bags and bins and label so you are ready for the first step of phase 1.
• Block Calendar and schedule. You will need to say NO. This will take sacrifice for a short time and adding a home reset to your plate for a season, means you need to make room for it and you. Check out this post on time management and balance.
• Self-care. Take a self-care break before you begin to reset yourself and find rest. Schedule little pockets of time to go on a walk, have coffee with a friend, or sit in a warm bath.

I’m so excited for you to experience the power of your home. Challenge yourself, do some new things, and you will see change. Once I reset my home, I couldn’t believe how fulfilling the spaces felt. I want this for you too.

Let’s get started! Start in the living room!

I challenge you to this journey with me from start to finish. Grab your checklist and guide. Comment below on which room you are starting in! I can’t wait to hear your stories!

Until next time,