The one thing I stopped buying when I turned 30

I’ve been interested in decor for as long as I can remember. As a child, our family trips to IKEA would be exponentially long when I was in tow because I would have to sit in every single chair and lay in every single bed. In high school, I would mysteriously move furniture around my bedroom in the middle of the night, much to the dismay of my mother. So when I turned 20 and finally ventured out on my own, it’s no surprise that I didn’t take the decorating of my first apartment lightly. For years, as I moved from place to place, I accumulated a staggering amount of tchotchkes and accessories found in vintage shops, garage sales and decor stores.

But here is the mistake I was making: By never wanting to put my money toward larger pieces, I ended up with a lot of (quite frankly) useless things: vintage vases, inlaid boxes, small artwork, more trays than I knew what to do with and scented candles galore. I had bowls and pillows and bookends to last me a lifetime — and quite a few side tables and smaller pieces of accent furniture, but I had no piece of furniture that really served a purpose, or that I could actually keep long-term. While my shelves were expertly styled, I was still sitting on a hand-me-down sofa, and my IKEA dresser had seen better days.

When I turned 30 (or more accurately, 29), after meticulously bubble-wrapping bookends and vases for the millionth time preparing for yet another move, I made a vow to myself: I put a stop to my decor hoarding tendencies and decided to exclusively invest in larger pieces that would increase the function and comfort of my home. The result: My apartment has never looked better or felt more organized and, thanks to my 20-something habits to buying cheap thrills, I have more decor accessories that I have space to display them.