Love the Home You Have

Let's be real today. Raise your hand if you often find yourself comparing your home to those of your friends, favorite bloggers, or the ones you see in magazines or on Pinterest. Do you look around your toy-strewn, goldfish crumb encrusted family room and say to yourself, "That's it. I'm done. My dream home is never going to happen, so I just give up."? It's okay to admit it...because I'm raising my hand too! I want to share with you about Love the Home You Have, a new book by Melissa Michaels of The Inspired Room, and how it inspired me. I hope it will inspire you too!

I rarely give a book its own review here on the blog, and I should note that this is not a sponsored post. Melissa didn't ask me to promote her book. She gifted me with a copy, and the second I finished up a book club read and put kid #3 down for a nap, I tore into the book.

First reaction?

Wow, she gets me!

I wanted to share about it with you because today is the official release day for Love the Home You Have, and if you struggle with finding contentment with your home, you need this book!

There are tooooons of housie books out there. Most of them are filled with jaw-dropping, glowing photos of homes so perfect that it makes your heart ache. Some have tutorials for DIY projects that cost money you might not have. They're fun to pore over during naptime, but they can also lead to frustration. 

So what do you do when you live in a home that doesn't quite live up to your expectations, and you lack the resources to transform it into one of those show homes you drool over in the housie books?

You see, according to Melissa, it's really a matter of the heart!

When I was finished reading Love the Home You Have, the book was so filled with highlighted advice, tips, and encouragement, that I should have just doused the whole thing in yellow marker. 

Melissa doesn't just fill the book with witty sayings, pictures, and Bible verses. (There are some lovely, whimsical illustrations that you can download as printables here-under "Downloads") She offers practical, real-life suggestions to help you see your home with new eyes. Once you understand that "creating a beautiful home is not about presenting a perfect image to the world," you can work to create an authentic home...right where you are!

Melissa shares tips on:

• Hospitality
• Clearing clutter
• Finding a cleaning routine that works for you
• Decorating 
• Taking the leap from "dreamer to doer"

One of the things I really appreciated was that Melissa includes questions at the end of the chapter to make you dig a little deeper. And there's a special 31 Day "Love Your Home" Challenge at the end of the book. I'm planning on starting tomorrow!

Love the Home You Have takes the reader full circle...a thoughtful, authentic, gentle reminder that whether you live in a magazine feature home or a 1970s fixer upper (like me), a true dream home doesn't exist without contentment. 

I'll leave you with some food for thought today...the first quote Melissa included in the book:

"We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have." -Frederick Keonig

Watch the book trailer below:

Love The Home You Have from The Inspired Room on Vimeo.

Get the book on Amazon here. They also have a kindle version, but I prefer paperback or hardback for books that I want to take lots of notes on. I'm waiting with baited breath for the next book in her series!!

If you enjoyed this post or found it helpful, I hope you'll click your "Pin It" button to add this post to Pinterest, or a +1 for Google+. And I always appreciate kind comments, Facebook shares, and Tweets!