It could be anything.
I put cooking oil in different bottles, the kind with the stopper on the hinge contraption. Vegetable oil goes in a large clear bottle, peanut oil goes in a smaller dark glass bottle and olive oil stays in its factory bottle(since I buy it only in dark glass bottles) so I don’t mix it up with the peanut oil. I do this so that I don’t have ugly plastic oil bottles sitting there on the counter (I don’t have the best designed kitchen, yet, cupboard space convenient to the stovetop is at a premium)
So what little things do you do to beautify your home?
The cats food bowls are the dessert bowls from my MIL’s set, she gave us her wedding dishes c 1954 metlox pottery They’re cute with little barnyard chicks on them, set of 12 which if one breaks I won’t be upset. I’ve gotten rid of my chipped everyday dishes and use a mix of Noritake patterns from my parents and in-laws. And the silver plate too I keep the box on a shelf and think of my
Nana every time I pull out a fork or spoon. No automatic dishwasher here.
The previous owners of my unit smoked and, despite major overhaul, I can still smell a whiff of stale smoke but I abhor air freshener, which smells fake.
I like to have a pot of herbs on the windowsill. Right now, it’s oregano. I’ll run my hands through it just to get a whiff of scent. If the trash gets iffy smelling mid-week, I might pinch off a few leaves, bruise them, and drop them in to help deal with the scent of cat litter and rot as I only produce one bag of trash a week. I clean with vinegar, which actually does not leave a vinegar scent behind so to me the place smells as clean as I can make it. I’m a home cooker and canner so my place often smells of deliciousness, which my entryway neighbors love too.
My mementos still need places to be displayed but I ran out of renovations money so that’s on hold, although I have good plans in my head, but I think that a few decorative mementos are what makes a house a home.
Our house is coated with a fine dusting of sand, assorted types of dog hair, and a scattering of colorful chew toys, but I like to accent all that by piling various fresh fruits in a big bowl on the kitchen counter.
I try to incorporate as many strange and tentacled sea creatures as possible. By default that usually ends up being octopuses, since octopuses are a common household ware (as opposed, to say, sea slugs). I have octopus towels, comforters, pillows, salt and pepper shakers, etc. But I have my share of squids, jellyfish and whales as well. My favorite wall in the house is an expensively framed print of Omar Ryann’s Octopus Contessa with her beloved squid, accented by vintage jellyfish and sea slug prints.
I very rarely close my windows so there is usually a bit of a breeze through the place. And I burn incense fairly often. I keep a pile of different sticks in the bathroom. Now and then, when I use the bathroom, I light one, wander through the place and, on return to the bathroom, insert the stick into a glass of salt to extinguish it. So there are always lots of varieties of partly burned sticks to choose from. It’s just my replacement for sprays I guess. And with the open windows the scent is soon only a faint reminder.
This. A couple of bouquets always lighten up the place.
I used to have a dish scrub brush with the squeezable soap dispenser on top in the shape of an octopus with big bug-eyes. It was great. Once it got old and ratty I couldn’t find a like replacement so now I have the plain OXO one. But we still call it the “dish octopus”.
We try keep the place clean, decluttered, and with plenty of art on the walls. It shouldn’t look like a stage set or hotel lobby, nor should you be plowing aside the clutter of daily living just to get anything done. That condition, to us, is pleasing.
I try to keep the clutter confined to the shelves and the furniture clear. It’s a constant struggle with Vaderling trying to make over the living room as his bedroom. I don’t have a ton of art on the walls but I like what I have and would have more but I’m terribly picky about things like that. I have to really really like it, or it has to have some special meaning to me before I’ll put it up(the kids drawings excepted)
My husband calls me Shiva the Destroyer because I leave disaster in my wake. He’s a neat freak. The end result is a house that looks probably the average amount of clean. But Spice Kit is going to start crawling any minute now, so I think we’re screwed. I have a hard enough time cleaning up after myself.
Ah, a baby. So glad Vaderling is on the outward bound side of dependance. Is this your first child? If so, relay this to Spice Hubby/Dad, clutter on the shelves, furniture clear, dishes clean counters wiped and on a good weekend floors mopped and vacuumed. It’s a sanity saving mantra for all parents
Fiestaware. Lots of Fiestaware. The tops of the kitchen cabinets is lined with Fiesta vases and pitchers. A glass cabinet in the living room has some of my vintage Fiesta and a large mini disk pitcher collection. A plate hanger in the dining room holds 3 rare and/or vintage Fiesta plates. The china cabinets has an assortment of vintage Fiesta. Another glass cabinet in the family room also contains quite a bit of vintage Fiesta. In addition to this, our regular dishware and serving pieces are all Fiesta. Even our pets eat out of Fiesta Petware. Plus my wife has quite a collection of Polish pottery just to break things up a bit.
I’m starting to find that decluttering is so important. It’s not hard to find pleasing things. But you need to be ruthless about just getting rid of superfluous stuff - especially if it was expensive but you just don’t use/need/like it anyone. You just don’t want to be looking at stuff like that every day, important to get out of the mindset that selling/donating superfluous stuff that was originally expensive is a “loss”.
I agree with this. One thing that keeps our home manageable is that I am ruthless about getting rid of stuff. Only a handful of times have I regretted it, and it’s always been a minor regret, easily replaceable thing.
Along the lines of the OP, I keep dishwashing liquid in a green glass bottle with a bar stopper.
I wanted to corral little items (toothpicks in copper holder, salt and pepper shakers, antique egg cup, etc.) but only had a narrow space available, so I got two wooden drawer dividers, turned 'em on their sides, and stacked them. Boom. Shelves.
I can’t afford artwork, so I grouped (artistically, I hope)my favorite photos of family and put the groups on various walls. There’s a group of my late mother and her sisters in their youth, a group of my dad and his brother, etc. I feel like I’m surrounded by people I’ve loved.