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Making a Rented House a Home.. I've always lived in rented accommodation. I grew up in a house that didn't belong to us, I moved when I was 10 to a house that wasn't ours and the only way to get my own place and move out of my parents house as a young mum with a partner was to rent a flat across the road. We have lived in 3 other houses since and now we live where we are currently; another rented house but for the first time we are living under a few new -to- us rules...

We are not allowed to redecorate (unless it's magnolia zzzzzz) It's no surprise we have this rule. I suppose if it were me renting out a house I wouldn't want anyone painting it either. We are not allowed to put any photos up (by making new holes) without first checking with the landlords the exact place we wish to hang a photo. Common sense tells me that they'd want to make sure we weren't putting holes in any wires but what a pain to have to always fire off an email to the agent who then have to fire one off to the landlord and then we all wait for replies..it's not worth the hassle.

So one thing I did (and I was lucky here) was to fill one wall which was previously filled with photos with my own without causing any problems. I have a lovely photo wall now and it was by looking very carefully for any small holes left by nails and there were still a few hooks left around the house which came in handy!

Putting your touch on a rented home feels hard when you cant re decorate but I've used cushions, throws, lovely duvet sets and a few ornaments to show our personalities. I use lovely little clip boards to rotate the children's artwork to avoid tucking everything away or sticking them up on the walls.

Outside is a bit harder. We moved in October so I haven't planted my flowers yet although I did pop my daffodil bulbs in a while ago. We don't have a garden, instead we have a yard. The bikes and toys are stored away to save room and we have a make shift washing line but that's all. The flowers will grow in trays and I plan to try and grow some fruit and vegetables in bags and trays. Because the yard catches a lovely bit of sun I'm wondering if a table and chairs, a picnic table or a rattan corner sofa will fit in. Whichever one fits in would be a nice addition to a small yard and could be put into another space when we move again in future (which we will due to number of bedrooms!)

I still find it hard to live in rented houses but I accept that owning our home will probably not happen, we simply don't have the income to put aside a decent amount. Of course we're still young, never say never and all that but it's unlikely. There are pros to renting for me; like when expensive things go bust but it's not your responsibly to replace them! Then the downside is you might not have a landlord or agent who is so quick to sort problems out! Thankfully that's not us. Our problem has been our landlords electrician rather than the actual landlord!

So there's a few things we do or plan to do to try and make our rented house feel more like our home for however long we're staying. Do you rent? Do you plan on saving for a home? Is there anything you do to make your rented house feel more like home? By Hannah Goode at February 14, 2017