Growing real plants indoors can be intimidating, but here’s 8 low maintenance indoor plants that will help make your home beautiful, purify the air, and add life to any space.
I used to call my home a “plant graveyard”. I would joke that plants would come to my house to die.
Andddd – I wasn’t wrong. Here’s what I did wrong, and how I now can have a plant wall filled with happy houseplants:
- I bought the wrong kinds of plants
- I just picked plants up because I thought they looked cute or because they fit my budget – but didn’t research the care that they would need.
- Finally, I realized that there was a huge difference between high and low maintenance indoor plants!
- Watering them daily was NOT helping
- I essentially loved my poor plants to death! I thought I was helping them, but really I was drowning them.
- Finally, I learned that plants need way less water than I originally thought they did!
- I did not focus on the light they required
- A sunny window sill with direct light is not always the best spot for a house plant – and I didn’t learn this until my plants were crispy and brown!
- Paying close attention to what terms like direct sunlight, filtered light, and indirect light really helped my plants thrive.
By changing my habits in those three areas, I was able to make my plants much happier!
If you haven’t checked out our finished plant wall – you have to see all the details here! It makes me so happy!
**NOTE: Some of these plants are toxic to children and/or pets. I always teach my kids not to touch my plants when they’re not with me, and our dog doesn’t care about the plants that are on the floor. But if you have curious kids or pets, please make sure to research the plants you buy before you put them into your home!
Things that are making my houseplants thrive:
I talked about this on my Instagram page today, and I’m editing this post to add my favorite things to help feed my houseplants and keep them happy.
I am using plant food to fertilize them, Neem oil to keep bugs away, and Thieves cleaner to help with pest control and cleaning the leaves.
SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG POST TO SEE CUTE INEXPENSIVE PLANTERS TO PURCHASE FOR YOUR NEW EASY HOUSEPLANTS.
8 low maintenance house plants to add to your home:
Pothos:
This is HANDS DOWN the plant I tell people to start with when they’re just beginning to learn about how to have happy houseplants in their home. It’s forgiving (can withstand some neglect), grows quickly (so you are encouraged to keep going) and looks beautiful!
We have this pothos hanging in our bedroom – have you seen the whole room yet? It’s one of my favorite makeovers and I LOVE this space!
Snake Plant:
Also called “Mother in Law’s tongue” – don’t let the weird names stop you from considering this plant!
While it’s a slow grower, it’s perfect for a corner that doesn’t get direct sunlight. Snake plants can handle a lot of neglect, and they are really forgiving. Plus they are SO good at purifying the air in your home!
We put snake plants in all of the bedrooms because of their amazing air purifying qualities. I think plants are so important in our bedrooms, that I even dedicated a whole section of my “Peace by design: Master Bedroom” course to plants. They actually clean the air in your bedroom while you sleep – so not only are they beautiful, but they can really help your health as well.
ZZ Plant:
I am newer to the “ZZ plant owners club” but I bought this baby ZZ plant and woah! It grows so quickly with weekly waterings and indirect sunlight (see the light green leaves? That’s all new growth). This would be a great plant for beginners to get confident with owning a few plants!
Monstera:
A relative of the Philodendron plant (not included in this post today, but it should be!) the Monstera is one of my favorites. The leaves start out tightly furled, and they unfurl over the matter of a few days. It’s really kind of fascinating to watch, and I love having them in my home! In fact, I love them so much, that I currently have three. I almost bought a fourth this weekend but realized I needed to chill out a little bit. But they’re just such GREAT low maintenance indoor plants!
See those brighter green leaves? They’re all new growth and signal a healthy happy plant. Nevermind the fact that I desperately need to dust the leaves!! It’s on the “to-do list”.
You’ve probably noticed that I love to put my plants in baskets and various other containers. If you want to read more about how I put my plants in secondhand containers – click here.
Those two monsteras are really large, but you might feel more comfortable with a mini monstera first before you get a bigger one:
Succulents:
I have a love/hate relationship with succulents. They’re not my favorite but I do like them mixed in with my other leafier plants. This little Elephant Bush plant is super cute and has been very easy for me to get new growth! As a general rule: succulents need more sunshine and less water.
Peperomia:
These plants are dainty and cute, and they come in many different varieties. They can handle drier conditions and do better with underwatering than overwatering. They come in a lot of different varieties – I have a watermelon peperomia (pictured) and a variegated variety as well (not pictured).
Rubber plant:
While rubber trees can grow up to 100 feet in the wild – yes – 100 FEET – rubber plants can be happy in your home in a pot. The one I have is just a baby rubber plant, but I’m already encouraged by the new growth with little effort!
Wandering Jew:
This plant’s name is pretty bizarre, but it can also grow so prolifically you will forget about the weird name once you have it in your home! I remember my roommate had a HUGE one in college – and maybe this little guy will get there someday! Their leaves stand out and make a statement among the other plants around it.
What pots should I use?
There’s so many cute pots and planters out there, and I personally love scouring thrift stores for woven baskets to put my plants in. I just make sure to keep them in their grow pots and line the bottoms with a trash bag!
BUT if you’re not able to go out thrifting, or if you’re just not in the mood for hunting down a secondhand find – then here’s some super cute picks for your houseplants (affiliate links)
What about plant hangers?
We have a bunch of plant hangers that we used in our plant wall – and I linked them all in this post! Please click over to see all of them linked over there.
I also found this shop (no affiliate links here) that I LOVE and have bought a few plant related items from already. I know you’ll love them too! Check out EcoVibe Style here: (if you’re local to them – in Portland- then you can buy live plants from their shop too!)
How to learn more about plant care:
When you’re ready to learn more about house plant care, I have two people that I always recommend to my friends.
Hilton Carter is an *incredible* source of plant wisdom and knowledge. He has two books that are amazing, and I also took his course through AirBNB about plant propagation. I highly recommend following him on Instagram!
Here is his latest book:
Another one to follow is Mandi – you might recognize her amazing DIY skills at Vintage Revivals. But she’s also become such a source of plant wisdom for me – and I’m so glad she started a second plant account JUST for house plant knowledge!
Follow @HappyHappyHouseplant for lots of plant help!
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I love this. Such great advice. I started lock down with 9 plants and now have 25. They make me happy!!
Thanks Lynnette! So funny -I was just working on getting your package ready to ship out tomorrow! 🙂 And haha I have increased my plants majorly during quarantine too!