If you don’t have a huge budget for decorating, that doesn’t mean you have to come home to the same exact surroundings every single day. If you’re bored with how your home looks, change it! It doesn’t take that much effort, and it doesn’t even have to cost any money unless you want it to.

Moving things around can make a big difference in how your rooms feel and flow. You may have convinced yourself that the way you have your furniture now is the best possible configuration, or maybe even the only configuration if you have a small living space. But just have a go with rearranging some things, both big and small, and see how it feels. You might be surprised at how much of a difference it makes, and how new and fresh the room looks. The best part is, nothing’s permanent — if you rearrange the room and you’re not sure if you like it, leave it that way a couple of days, and if it doesn’t grow on you, you can change it again, or even just put it back to how it was before.

Don’t be afraid to take things into other rooms, either. Just because a certain picture has always been hanging in the living room, doesn’t mean there’s a law that says it belongs there for all eternity. Try hanging it over your bed instead and see how that looks. We are creatures of habit, and often we continue to do things a certain way and follow certain patterns simply because that’s what we’ve always done. Bedroom things go in the bedroom and living room things go in the living room, but it doesn’t have to be like that if you don’t want it to. Dare to think outside the box; there are literally endless combinations you can experiment with, without even spending a penny.

However, if the whole point for you is that you were looking forward to some shopping, this opens up a whole new set of possibilities. There are two main ways to proceed: either you can buy ready-made objects like candle holders and picture frames to add accents and spice up the room, or you can purchase the necessary items to change the very room itself.

Accents are a lovely and often cost effective way to make a room more interesting, but be careful of too much going on in one place. If you already have a lot of small decorative items, buying more and adding them to the mix may result in a space that looks more cluttered and mismatched than freshened up. It’s fun to have new things, but if you tend to get carried away with the shopping, consider whether any of the items from your existing decor could be sold, given to friends, or donated to charity.

As far as changing the room goes, obviously there is no limit to what you can do with a bit of accent paint or some wallpaper. If you are feeling particularly creative, craft stores sell all manner of special tools like sponges and textured rollers that can transform an ordinary paint job into something special. Again, avoid the temptation to buy and try everything that looks interesting just because you think it’ll be a fun project. There’s a fine line between “stylish” and “gaudy” where things like stencils and textures are concerned, and it’s easy to overdo it if you get too excited about the range of things available to you. Remember, just because there are ten wall decor kits in the crafts store that look good doesn’t mean they’ll all look good in the same room, or even in the same house. If every single room is covered in busy patterns or challenging color combinations, it can be a bit overwhelming. Sometimes less is more, especially if you’re hoping to feel relaxed and refreshed in your home.

It’s nice to have a lot of extra money lying around to redo an entire room, but in this economic climate, not many of us are in that situation. Nonetheless, there’s always a range of things you can do if you’re tired of the look of your home, and with a bit of imaginative planning, you can make changes on pretty much any budget, or even no budget at all. All it takes is a bit of your free time and an open mind, and you can significantly change the look of any room in your home.