Dying to decorate!!

Okay, so I've been dying to decorate our place FOREVER. The problem is, we are so tight on money that we never get to and we are only renting so is it even worth it?

I moved into our small 2 bedroom 1 bath condo when my fiance still lived in it with his old roommate. His old roommate was in the process of moving out and that was his first home with his current wife. So instead of us getting to move into a clean place, it was more like we were swapping stuff out. What I would LOVE to do, is move out of the place and move back into it. I feel like the place never got cleaned. I try to keep it clean, but I was never able to clean every crown molding, every crack and corner. I feel like if we emptied it and had Molly Maid come and just clean the place and deep clean the carpet, we can move into it and maintain it a little better. My house is not messy, but there is just dust around the floor boards and our blinds are caked with dirt/dust that I can't even clean with a wet cloth!

Pretty much all of the furniture that is in our condo now came from when I shared an apartment with Jaccie. So things are very simple, we have a dining table, a sectional, coffee table, a bookcase, my old bed and well Chase's room has a crib and and old dresser that my fiance found at a job which was his old dresser before we moved in. (I just realized how drab my place sounds right now). I LOVE our friends house, who is also our neighbor, who is also my fiance's old roomate and his wife. She's from Sweden and you would think it was out of a creative IKEA catalog. I wish I had her creativity. Although, I feel like I do, I just don't have the money to decorate. I'm the type of person that has to just do everything at once. Not just a piece at a time. I've been really into the site. bhg.com. Although, the ideas they have in there are..well not as realistic. It's pretty to look at, but lets face it. The pictures of kitchens and living rooms are that of a wealthy home. I need ideas for a small condo. I feel like our walls are so bare, our patio is so blah, There's no creativity at all. Everything matches and that's about it. Another issue that I come across with having a nicely decorated home is that it usually is not child proof. Meaning there are way too many corners for kids to bump into, too many knick knacks they can just pick up and put in their mouth or throw. It's almost like you have to choose between having a nice home or having a child friendly home.

Well, I plan on maybe doing a little low budget home decorating or "revamping." Our patio for one is so bland. It's literally one color and it's like the Sahara desert. I swear the sun beats on our patio for 8 hours a day, then the other side of our wall for another 3. Our place gets SO HOT in the summer because the sun rises shining on one side of the wall only to drift to the other side. So the only time when it doesn't get sun is when it's dark out. I want to have some plants in our patio but we have two problems. One, I don't garden well. I've never been able to have a plant live pass a month. Two, what is possible going to grow on our patio besides freaking cactus.