The life of a renter...

I LOVE Pinterest. I would seriously like to kiss the person who came up with the idea. I spend more time than I care to admit Ohhing and Ahhing on there, mostly at the Home Decor board. I have an amazing little family of 5, a wonderful husband of nearly 6 years (nearly 9 years as a couple) and 3 amazing kids, Austin (6), Hannah (4), and Mason (2). Pinterest has led me to some wonderful blogs, given me great ideas for decorating, organizing and also made me feel pretty dumb (pancake batter in a ketchup bottle anyone? How about toothpaste on the back of the picture so it marks where you need to nail? Why didn't I think of that?!) But, Pinterest also makes me very sad at times. We are renters. It is not in the cards for us to be able to buy a home right now unfortunately, so we rent. We had a tiny 3 bedroom apartment (I'm talking around 650 sq feet) when our 3rd child was born, my husband was laid off from work, and we're still picking up the pieces and putting them back together from that time in our lives. We are now in a house we can call "home" until we can buy *our* home. But for now, I will be making someone else's home, ours.

There are up's and downs to renting, a/c breaks, you don't have to shell out the $$ to fix it!! Find a built in mud room you MUST have and build immediately? Probably a no go with the landlord. Find a gorgeous wall paper or paint color that goes perfect with the way you want to decorate the dining room? Tough cookies. I am about 99.9999999% sure I am not the only Pinterest addict lover that is in this situation.

Our current house has no rods to hang clothes in my boys closet, which is not cool!! 2 boys sharing a room and I can't hang clothes!? Mine and my husbands closet is super small and not much room to hang clothes either... needless to say, there's some major organizing to be had in our new house!! I am also very cheap thrifty. I coupon (i'm not as extreme as some, but i'm pretty hard core about it) I have a bad habit of buying something then returning it because I feel guilty. I've never really had a "decorated" house. Sure, i've had pictures on the walls, a pretty hand towel in the kitchen.. but not a homey decorated house. I haven't really cared to, because we've always rented, I just told myself I'll decorate when we buy. That is no more. This home will be our home for quite some time. I want it to be warm, and inviting, and organized!!

The organizing/decorating bug has bit me and bit me hard thanks to Jen over at iheartorganizing. Her taste is pretty much the same as mine, her organizing skills are AWESOME, she is my virtual idol :) She and her husband (she's the brains behind the operation but gotta give her hubby some props too on making some of her dreams reality!!) do amazing things to their home and while I can't do everything she can, because I rent, my goal is to do the renters version. If there is just one person in the world that can relate to this blog, then I am happy :) If you rent too and don't do the things you'd like because you rent, stick around, you may like what you see. I didn't call this blog The Thrifty Tenant for nothing.. the things you see here will be very affordable! Thanks for stopping by and reading!! :)