Home Decor Ideas: 7 Searing Problems with MOST of Them

Did you know the average American spends a whopping $1,599 on home decor ideas in a year? (Stats from 2024.)

(And bear in mind that’s only for home decor. Home renovation and remodeling have their own spending category, $5,635 to be exact.)

So, is it worth it? Should you too be spending almost $1,600 on home decor?

Home decor ideas, such as blankets and pillows, decorative vases (that you can’t put any water in because they leak), bed headboards with no function, and other small clutter with no use?

Maybe not.

But don’t worry. If you love decorating your spaces, there are ways to enjoy home decor without spending so much and more importantly, without filling your home with useless stuff.

Let’s see what to avoid and what to go for instead.

7 Searing Problems with MOST Home Decor Ideas

1. Just Decorative, No Function

You get the picture instantly just by thinking of elephant sculptures, artificial bonsai trees, imitation wood ornaments, and the like that many people order from online stores like Temu and Wish.

This is a big problem because it’s so easy to have home decor that’s both beautiful and functional.

And it can get even better: this aesthetic and functional item can also be a gift from someone special, or a DIY project, making it even more meaningful to you.

So whenever a home decor idea has none of that going for it, it’s wise to think twice before you get it.

Example: Below’s our bed with an old headboard that I painted myself and that has enough space on top for earplugs, for instance, or earrings if I forget to remove them, have already switched off the lights, and gone to bed.

We don’t have traditional nightstands in our small city apartment, so it’s nice to be able to use the headboard temporarily for little things.

Our previous headboard was made of thin, almost somewhat bendy metal, so this is definitely an upgrade.

2. No Story Behind Them to Make Them Special

Let’s imagine a dear friend brings you a beautiful home decor gift that you love the look of but that has no function beyond the look.

In this case, it can actually be just fine because this item will always remind you of your friend and your time together on this earth.

There are, however, many ways of making home decor ideas even more special: aside from looks, they can be functional, upcycled, or even completely self-made.

And whenever you lose a loved one and inherit something from their estate, let’s say something from your beloved grandma, items like these can feel extra special even when their monetary value is minimal.

Can you already start to see why some China-made, 3-dollar home decor item you order from Temu on a whim can’t possibly compare to items with stories attached to them, items with precious memories?

3. Following Trends Instead of Getting Evergreen Items/Your Own Favorites

According to a 2024 home decor report, the winner in least favorite color for anything home-related is pink.

But then again, the report also says that dusty pink could become one of the new, trendy neutral colors in 2024.

Does that mean that all the Barbie home decor for adults that you bought in 2023 inspired by Margot Robbie is now extremely outdated, and that you should rush to the store to get dustier versions?

The answer should of course be a huge NO.

If anything that you bought in 2023 looks outdated in 2024, something definitely went wrong.

A situation like this never occurs when you only get home decor that is evergreen, i.e., always in style, and/or that you love regardless of trends.

Go for the colors that bring you most joy, or if you have no preference of your own, then go with the safe but boring white, gray, and beige, with black accents sprinkled here and there.

4. Buying New –> Creating More Demand for Useless Stuff

Buying a new couch when the old one is over 20 years old is totally fine. Used couches can not only be unhygienic but can also be so worn that you won’t get a lot of use out of them.

But of course we’re not talking about couches in this case, but home decor ideas such as starfish in random colors, H, O, M, and E stickers, and those goddamn wooden bead tassels with absolutely no use.

If you like any of this stuff or are inspired to create something yourself thanks to them, that’s great. Just remember there’s always a better way to get items like these than ordering them from sweatshops like Shein.

If I wanted the starfish, for instance, I would make them myself (I took pottery classes for two years) out of clay or plaster, and then paint them with the exact colors I want.

This way you also create meaningful hobbies, not to even mention how much more I would like my starfish, getting to enjoy my own handicraft, and knowing that I didn’t create more demand for items like these.

Also, sometimes giving an old, bad-looking item a deep clean can make it appear as new: this way you can have “new” things without actually buying new stuff.

5. Made in the USA –> Made in China

Not everything you buy can be locally made, and even when you deliberately want to avoid China-made stuff, it’s impossible with most home electronics, for instance.

But does everything that was once made much closer to us, now be from China?

While it’s wonderful that China has become more affluent, and especially that the middle class is growing rapidly, it’s sad that it’s happening at the expense of local businesses.

Example: Above we have USA-bought Christmas cards: displaying them in some cool way is among popular home decor ideas around the holiday season, and as we can see, China has crept its way into this realm as well.

As if it wasn’t enough that so many online stores swamping the Internet, such as Alibaba, AliExpress, Wish, Temu, and Shein (that all sell home decor among other things), are Chinese.

That’s actually one more thing I love about saunas, a huge topic on my blog: only infrared saunas (which are not real saunas) can be China-made, but traditional saunas never are, not even the heaters, the most of which are made in Finland and then shipped to the US. When building in North America, the wood used in saunas is often local.

6. Filling Your Home With Useless Stuff

Even if you had all the money and opportunity to buy whatever you want any time you want, and you’d even enjoy all that stuff (most people don’t), you probably still couldn’t escape the inevitable problem:

Where are you going to put all that stuff?

Especially if you’re replacing perfectly good throw pillows with new ones every season just because of the color? And then of course repeating this process with all other home textiles and other home decor items?

If you love buying stuff and know that minimalism isn’t for you, but still suffer from clutter, having put too many home decor ideas into action, you could find help in collecting.

When you collect something, you’re passionate about what you collect, and collecting a full set may take years or even decades.

This way you get to be on the hunt for certain collectibles as much and often as you want, but your home won’t fill up with useless home decor items that don’t mean that much to you in the first place, let alone later when they’ve gone out of style.

When you have less stuff, there’s automatically less waste, too, and less to worry about both for you and for your relatives.

7. Passing on Bad Habits to Your Kids or Other Loved Ones

Let’s say you’re doing all or most of the things mentioned above: you’re frequently buying cheap, low-quality home decor items, having them sent to you from the other side of the world, and of course with no second thoughts.

If that’s you, you’re setting a bad example to your loved ones.

Kids are especially susceptible to parental behavior like this since it’s all they know, and they’re not able to think critically until much later in life (if even then).

Luckily, you can change this for all of you by adopting more responsible habits yourself!

Home Decor Ideas Possibly Worth It

If you feel you simply must buy something new to implement certain home decor ideas, you could concentrate on items that can either be used up or are perishable:

• flowers
• candles
• aroma diffusers

This way your home can easily have a slightly different look, different scent, and vibe as often as you like.

And the best part: you won’t be left with useless stuff you don’t know what to do with.

Final Thoughts

Even if you take just one point from this article, e.g., you stop falling for home decor ideas with no function, that’s already an amazing start.

This means not every item you buy or receive as a gift has to tick all boxes: it’s very unlikely all your home decor items in the near future will be aesthetically pleasing, functional, self-made or a gift from a loved one/have an incredible story behind it, AND be locally made.

But I hope these points help you to see just how MUCH is wrong with our current consumer trends.

Buying useless, fragile, low-quality, and plastic home decor items from overseas, made by people forced to work in poor conditions for extremely low pay. Why and how did it become a thing?

If it’s any consolation, just remember that you don’t have to take part in any of that when it comes to home decor ideas.

Like shown above, there are countless ways to enjoy home decor without producing so much waste, and without destroying lives, the environment, and your finances.