Mov­ing Up: The Fi­nal Step

IT’S THE FI­NAL COUNT­DOWN! We have come a long way since the be­gin­ning of this blog, from the dreary dorm life to the cheery apart­ment life. You have learned a lot about be­com­ing an adult, and I have learned a lot about how to write a blog. BUT our jour­ney to­gether is not over yet! There is one last step, one last piece of in­for­ma­tion that I have to throw at you be­fore we come to an end. What might that be? DECOR! This step has been long awaited since the be­gin­ning. I was­n’t about to end the se­ries with­out talk­ing about the main as­pect every­one dreams about when think­ing of their very own apart­ment. When I lived on cam­pus, my Pin­ter­est board be­came flooded with ideas on how to style my soon-to-be apart­ment. From or­ga­ni­za­tional jars for the kitchen to cute Christ­mas decor to an aes­thetic bar cart, my list had it all. This area might come easy to some, but to oth­ers, it can be very over­whelm­ing. Don’t worry; just like every­thing else, Mov­ing Up is here to help! 

Your days of day­dream­ing and won­der­ing about the isles of Hobby Lobby and Home Goods are over, and you are now able to make some of those dreams a re­al­ity! Well, maybe that was­n’t a re­al­ity for you, but for me, that was my room­mate and I’s typ­i­cal Fri­day night while liv­ing on cam­pus. When you first open the door to dec­o­rate your apart­ment, there are about a mil­lion di­rec­tions you could go from sim­ple to mod­ern to preppy to the typ­i­cal col­lege house. The list goes on. But where to start? My first tip would be to de­fine your style. What does this mean ex­actly? Think about it: what vibe are you go­ing for? What col­ors do you love? What en­vi­ron­ment do you want to cre­ate for you and your guests? This will cre­ate a ba­sic foun­da­tion to start! To see the plan vi­su­ally, I sug­gest  

• Cre­at­ing a Pin­ter­est Board 

• Gain­ing in­spi­ra­tion from In­sta­gram  

• Walk­ing through fur­ni­ture stores 

These will help you gain an un­der­stand­ing of what the feel­ing of dif­fer­ent vibes can look like. Per­son­ally, I chose a homey feel, with a sim­ple and warm feel. By cre­at­ing a plan of what ex­actly you want your apart­ment to look like, you will be able to pick out dec­o­ra­tions that sup­port that style.  

Af­ter cre­at­ing a plan, it’s time for ac­tion! Re­mem­ber, it is un­re­al­is­tic to pur­chase every item you de­sire at the start. Be­gin with a few fun dec­o­ra­tions that will make your apart­ment feel more like home. It’s key to let your own per­son­al­ity shine through in your liv­ing space so it feels com­fort­able; not like a ho­tel or an Air BNB. My fa­vorite way I’ve done this in my own apart­ment is  

• Cre­at­ing a pic­ture wall of my friends and fam­ily  

• Hang­ing paint­ings that re­flect my per­son­al­ity  

• Not choos­ing every decor based on look, but on feel­ing 

• DIY my own dec­o­ra­tions  

Lit­tle de­tails can make a huge dif­fer­ence when it comes to trans­form­ing a space. One small plant can make the room look much more put to­gether and not as empty. As well as in­cor­po­rate per­sonal as­pects into your dec­o­ra­tions. This is the key to turn­ing your apart­ment into a home. You want to feel com­fort­able and safe in your space; this is your go-to place to re­lax and wind down at the end of the night. Laura Can­non, an ex­pe­ri­enced decor buyer, said, “In­vest­ing time into mak­ing my apart­ment feel like my home was the best de­ci­sion I had ever made. It makes do­ing home­work and study­ing much more en­joy­able.” But it is also im­por­tant to re­mem­ber that at the end of the day, decor is just decor. Un­for­tu­nately, there are more im­por­tant things to spend your money on, like food. That is why when you do pur­chase dec­o­ra­tions, pur­chase them smartly; Buy items on sale, cre­ate your own, ask for them for Christ­mas/​Birth­days, etc. Dec­o­ra­tions will come over time and the more per­sonal they are, the more they will feel like they be­long. Some of the best places to buy decor at is: 

• Target (es­pe­cially the $5 dol­lar sec­tion) 

• Walmart 

• Hobby Lobby (look for the weekly sales!) 

• Aldi’s (the isle of shame sec­tion) 

• Home Goods  

• Marshall’s  

If there is a cer­tain vibe you are search­ing for when it comes to decor, shop­ping at many lo­ca­tions is the best way to en­sure you are get­ting ex­actly what you en­vi­sion. Tar­get is a great op­tion, es­pe­cially in the $5 sec­tion. The decor changes sea­son­ally, and it is a great area, es­pe­cially for dec­o­rat­ing for the hol­i­days. Wal­mart also of­fers a broad se­lec­tion of decor at a rea­son­able price. You can buy mir­rors, paint­ings, plants, etc. Now, the most shock­ing thing is Aldi’s. Al­though not orig­i­nally thought of for decor, their Isle of Shame has ex­panded over the past year and of­fers a great se­lec­tion of dec­o­ra­tions that change out weekly. Mov­ing on to the most pre­dictable, the ac­tual decor stores. Hobby Lobby, Home Goods, and Mar­shal­l’s are all great ar­eas to buy decor at. How­ever, these lo­ca­tions might be a bit pricey for cer­tain items. Nev­er­the­less, even if it is out of your price range, they of­fer great in­spi­ra­tion for DIYs!  

CON­GRAT­U­LA­TIONS! You have crossed the fin­ish line! Thank you for com­ing along on this jour­ney with me, and I am thrilled that you have found your new and beau­ti­fully dec­o­rated home! I know it was stress­ful at times, from de­cid­ing where to rent to go­ing through the process, mov­ing in, and fi­nally be­ing able to call your new place home. This jour­ney is one that you will never for­get, and now you will be able to help any­one new in this area of life. Make sure, even dur­ing stress­ful times, to en­joy the ride. I know it is cliché to say, but in the words of Fer­ris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Af­ter all the hard work and stress you have en­dured, I give you per­mis­sion to treat your­self to some fun dec­o­ra­tions! Just re­mem­ber not to break the bank com­pletely ! 

Want­ing to know more? Check back to Mov­ing Up for more need-to-know con­tent about life off cam­pus and to learn about the next step and fol­low us on In­sta­gram at movin­gup_mu !!