You can also hold in the Shift key on PC while rotating an object left or right to change the axis that you are rotating the object on. You can also throw these items by pressing R on PC or X on Xbox.
Yeah, idk if they changed it since launch (only touched it again today after a year of not touching it after playing it for only 10 days after launch) or what, but the new just auto equip is annoying when you're trying to decorate