How to Resist the Redecorating Craze
For those of us who don't want to be Martha, Debbie
or on "Trading Spaces."

By Violet Nesdoly

Do you live in a house whose walls are still builder-beige after all these years? Do you find yourself, each time you return from visiting friends, faced with the persistent and nagging thought - I should do something with this place?

Now I'm not talking about adding the odd picture, bookshelf or file cabinet. I'm referring to serious redecorating where you paint, paper or move walls, replace flooring, build stuff- in other words, bring major disruption on yourself. For though part of you knows you should redecorate, another part argues, why would you plunge yourself into chaos when all you really want is the peace and quiet to pursue your real passion - whatever that is from scrapbooking to sewing to starting that new business..

If this is you, take heart. Help is at hand. Do one or all of the suggestions below and house-guilt will forever be a thing of the past.

1.	Watch lots of redecorating shows. Even a few of these will exhaust you and leave you feeling that you yourself have been redecorating for days.
2.	Encourage your husband to ask you complicated questions whenever you mention re-decorating, like asking for cost-benefit analysis or if it fits in your budget - yikes, what budget?
3.	Hang around with friends who are perpetually redecorating. You'll soon find that in all the time it takes to collect and consider paint and carpet swatches, visit drapery stores and home shows, you could have finished writing your first novel - or at least come up with an article idea.
4.	Redecorate one room as a trial run. When you see how much work it is, you'll be cured forever.
5.	Scrub your house till it glows. Who'd want to improve on such a lovable place anyway?
6.	If you should happen to find that lonely decorating article that lauds the hodge-podge look of your home, keep it handy against the next time the urge to redecorate resurfaces.
7.	Buy one or two trendy accessories to make you feel better (no matter that they don't fit the 80s decor of your home).
8.	Stay the course and one of these years the house fashion trends will come full circle. All those mulberry, taupe and navy walls of your friends will find themselves beige again, faux wood will be all the rage again and your house will be fashionable again without you ever raising a hammer or paintbrush.
9.	Stay the course and before you know it your house will be a community heritage treasure with by-law protection against change.
10.	Get good at what you love to do, make lots of money and hire a professional decorator or your decorator-savvy friends.
11.	Get good at what you love to do, make lots of money and move to a house that comes pre-decorated.
12.	Memorize every saying and Bible verse about contentment that you can find. Start with: "If we have food and clothing, we will be content with that" (I Timothy 6:8).

Violet Nesdoly lives in Surrey, B.C. She works with words in both of her day jobs - medical transcription and freelance writing. She has had
fiction, non-fiction and poetry published in a variety of magazines,
Sunday school papers and web sites. Visit her on the web at: http://members.shaw.ca/vnesdoly or at her blog "promptings": http://vnesdoly.blogspot.com