Mastering the Sin of Covetousness

A few years ago, when the print media world was at the beginning of its sudden financial crisis, a favorite magazine of mine was one of the first casualties I noticed. Cottage Living was a lovely magazine filled with photos of beautiful homes. I was pretty bummed when I got the very last issue of Cottage Living. Other home magazines were nice, but this one was really my favorite. This was a publication that I enjoyed looking to for inspiration for my own home.

Or so I thought.

Shelves over the kitchen sink. At some point a magazine (or several of them)
told me to display like objects in groups and to paint the backs of my shelves
an accent color. I had to buy more things in order to get groups of them to
"properly" display. The only thing I use on these shelves and those next to
them (also populated with green and white pottery) is the teapot.

I was recently reminded of the existence of this magazine during a conversation (which I've now forgotten) and in thinking about it I've realized that rather than being a source of home decorating inspiration, it was actually a source of discontentment. I looked at the homes and rooms featured within and saw how my own home didn't measure up. I greatly desired rooms that looked like the ones I saw. I wished for more space, for better furniture, for more trendy accessories, for more stuff or different stuff.

My grandmother's Italian flower chandelier.
Decorating magazines told me these were cool.
Couldn't I just have decided for myself whether I liked this?

In the few years since this magazine has gone out of print, I have noticed that I spend far less time scheming about how I can make my home more like the ones I admired in the pages of Cottage Living. I have spent less time shopping for items I felt I needed to get a certain look. I have spent less money on home decorating. And, in general, I've gained more mastery over the sin of covetousness in my life.


The Binder

I still have ideas for home improvement, but they are (I hope) more based on me and my opinions and needs than on the style advice of others. I still see beautiful rooms featured on blogs, but I don't covet them. I still have an enormous 3-ring binder full of pages I ripped out from Cottage Living and other magazines, but I look at it maybe once every six months or so. I still buy an occasional thing for my home, but usually because it is practical and necessary. I'm letting more things get very worn out before replacing them.

Flowers from my son. He beamed as he brought them into the kitchen for me.
"Why did you get me flowers?" I asked. "Because I love you," he answered.
Commence heart melting.

I still get catalogs from Pottery Barn. I still get an occasinoal decorating magazine and flip through it. I still admire other people's homes. But it's becoming less and less important that others be "impressed" with my own home. Instead, it's becoming more important to me to try to keep the rooms I have clean (after all, I think part of the reason I coveted the rooms in Cottage Living  is because they were clean!) and livable. My decorating and home improvement schemes are largely made up of ideas for more storage and better lighting.

Do your reading or viewing habits open a door to discontentment and covetousness? If they do, what could you change in order to shut that door?