5 Easy-to-Keep-Alive Indoor Houseplants and 3 to Avoid as a Beginner Plant Lady

Sharing my good and bad experiences in indoor plant caretaking

When it comes to styling our home, I don’t like too many accent décor pieces taking up space. I’ve discovered it’s just not my style and a) more things on shelves, tables, dressers, etc. require more dusting and cleaning and  b) unsuspecting decorative objects WILL be found and grabbed by my toddlers, requiring me to pry them from their hands and resulting in horrifying screams of disbelief.

When I recently looked around our living room and noticed it looking bare, however, I decided adding more greenery aka plants was the answer to the feeling of emptiness. They would add more pops of my favorite color–green– and add life and texture to places I wanted to fill. 

I have had my fair share of experimenting with different indoor plants, and this recent effort to bring more plants into our home added some new go-to indoor plants to my repertoire as well as some plants that were just too high maintenance for me and basically required as much love and attention as my children. I need my plants to be like Kelly Clarkson– miss Independent, miss self-sufficient, miss keep-your-distance. Meaning they are low maintenance, thrive on inconsistent watering habits, and also don’t care which direction window they are facing. I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T.

Here’s my go-to and never-go-back-to houseplants.

Low Maintenance (aka Easy) Indoor Plants

1. Pothos Plant

Pothos plants are superb. Not only do they require minimal watering, they also have beautiful, hearty leaves that trail out of the pot as they grow. Perfect for higher shelves or tall planters. Bonus: jade pothos plants are a beautiful bluish green color for some variety. 

2. Philodendron plant 

I’ve had this plant for a couple years now, purchased from IKEA! It was thriving in our bathroom, so maybe enjoys a little bit of bonus humidity. I recently moved it near my home workspace that needed some life. It's by a window that gets plenty of sun and seems pleased!

3. Bird of Paradise plant

Reaching toward the sunlight. Some of the shorter branches need some chop-chopping.

Purchased right before our first son was born, you could call this plant our first child  as it is the first thing we managed to keep alive together. It is so exciting watching this plant pop out new leaves. It has survived a couple of re-locations due to our Christmas tree taking its spot during the season but has not showed sensitivity to it. 10/10.

This is called a Bird of Paradise plant because in the tropical wild it blooms with a stunning flower resembling a colorful bird. My midwest home doesn't get close to ideal tropical conditions, so will likely not sprout any blooms maybe ever.

4. Blue Star Fern Plant

I’m a big fan of ferns. I love their hardiness and the way they can look a little wild but still gorgeous. The jury is still out on this one, but I am pleased so far with this blue star fern especially since another type of fern I purchased at the same time about 5 months ago died. It likes light water mists on its leaves and sunny afternoons on the coffee table. It's taking its time to grow but it's strong and healthy.

5. ZZ plant

This plant will survive whether you like it or not. I first purchased this one during COVID and I gave up on it because I decided I didn’t like it anymore–it began to wither away but my husband decided to become its caretaker and it bounced back. Now it’s in a location that does not get a lot of light and is also rarely watered, but it lives on! 

High Maintenance (difficult to care for) indoor plants 

1.String of Fish Hooks Plant

UGH this plant is a piece of WORK. It’s a succulent, and I had done my research that it shouldn’t need frequent watering. It was doing great in my living room and I waited about a week after its first watering to water it again because according to experts you shouldn’t water it until the soil is completely dry. And it was! So i provided it with some nice refreshment. HOWEVer the next day its little hooks were turning yellow and also shriveling at the same time. Both of these are symptoms for either overwatering, so I didn’t water it for another week or so but it didn’t get any better. So I watered it again because those same symptoms ALSO mean it is under-watered. Does that make sense? NO. And this is why I will never again trust a succulent. THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY WANT.

2. All succulent plants

See # 1. When I was living with my friend in an apartment post-college she purchased an aloe plant and it looked lovely on our dining table. I returned from work one day to the sight of the plant being completely demolished. All of its leaves were detached from its stem, I wondered if a plant vandal came and destroyed it. In reality I think it had had too much water and just exploded but it was a gory sight!

DISCLAIMER: We were at Home Depot the other day and I let my son pick out a little plant for his room and it's a succulent! It was only $4 so low risk. Will keep you posted on if it chooses to explode from overwatering or wither away from underwatering or just totally give up because the whole time it just wanted sparkling water not still water...

3. Fiddle Leaf Fig Plants

A fiddle leaf fig that lasted approximately 8 days in our house. At least it was a good photo opp with my little love.

Drama queens! Similar to succulents they don’t seem to know what they want. And/or I don't know what they want. Or they are just so particular it’s impossible to give them the perfect environment. I’ve given these a few chances as I find good deals on them but have always been disappointed. 

Hot Tips for Indoor Plant Care: Repotting and Ideal Pot Size

Like I mentioned, I am not a certified plant lady but I do love plants as décor in my home and all the above is based on experiences I have had trying out different lewks. As for potting the plants, I usually keep them in the grow pots they came in and put inside of a decorative pot. As they grow you will likely need to repot them into a larger grow pot with more soil.

A big indicator I've learned for when a plant needs a larger grow pot is when it seems to never get enough water. If you keep watering it and it dries out very quickly, chances are it needs more soil and room for roots to grow. When you purchase a decorative pot for a new houseplant, buy one that is larger than its current grow pot so that if it outgrows its grow pot and needs to be repotted you just replace the grow pot and can keep it in the same decorative one.

My little plant repotting helper

An added bonus to using plants as décor is the bonus of looking for beautiful decorative pots to plant them in to add character, texture, and even more color. Check out some of my favorites and some shown in the photos above in my post Adding Style and Interest to Your Home with Decorative Planters.