I love seeing how other people actually live in their homes. If you stay with them you can see how they really organize their kitchens, if they use different spices while cooking or even how they handle laundry. Recently we stayed at my sister’s house and when I walked into her laundry room I saw her messy laundry detergent cups on the counter. Hi Jenny! I bet you love me sharing this on the internet. 🙂 I actually was just shown in the past year by another friend how to keep the laundry detergent cup clean so I was happy to share it with her. We are both shocked we hadn’t figured this out years ago.
Update Your Home with Oil Rubbed Bronze Door Knobs
Walking into a newly built home always brings house envy to me. The fresh smell and new fixtures makes me realize that our house needs some updating. It is the little things in a house that makes it feel new or out of date. The few things I always feel makes a home feel new are door hardware, lighting and fresh carpet.
About 6 months ago we replaced our rug in our living room. It helped to freshen up the space but I was ready to get to step 2 immediately…replace the door knobs.
Favorite Girls Comforters under $70
A few months ago, I upgraded my little girls room from toddler bed to regular bed. The colors had to be just so, I was being very picky. I scoured the internet and stores for just the right bedding. My list grew of favorite girl comforters under $70 and wanted to share them with you.
How To Get Sticker Residue Off Clothes After Going Through The Wash.
Are you trying to figure out how to get sticker residue off clothes? We have had too many stickers washed onto shirts in this house. Luckily after testing many ways, I have found the easiest way to remove adhesive from their clothes.
I can’t tell you how many shirts I have thrown away because I accidentally left a sticker on their shirt and washed it. Why do schools and camps have to use stickers to remind us parents of spirit nights? I have forgotten name tags too.
My Little Girl’s Pink and Blue Bedroom – I Ordered Everything Online!
This post may contain affiliate links. For full disclosure, click here.
My daughter Britton is 4 years old and just recently made over her room into a little girl’s pink and blue bedroom. The first thing we did was upgrade her to a big kid bed. Yes, we kept her in a toddler bed just a wee-bit too long. 😉 I am a firm believer in lots of sleep for kids therefore I stick with what’s working. My kids stayed in cribs until they were 3 and I kept her in a toddler bed until 4 1/2.
When I finally decided to make over her room, my only caveat was that I had to keep the blue rocking chair in her room. She really likes girly colors so I had to scour the stores and internet to find a girly comforter that made the blue chair work in the room.
How to Upgrade the Gift of a Cookbook Into Something Amazing and Personal (for Free!)
This post may contain affiliate links. See my full disclosure here.
Do you love to look through cookbooks too? The pictures and the possibilities of amazing food on each page are so fun to look though. I like receiving cookbooks as gifts and they are also great gifts to give at bridal showers, birthdays, and holidays. One time a friend sent me a cookbook that took the gift to a whole other level! I want to share with everyone how to upgrade the gift of a cookbook into something amazing and thoughtful and it doesn’t even cost anything extra!
Get those Bags of Chips Off the Pantry Shelf – A New Way to Organize Bags of Chips
Do you have bags of chips just piled on top of one another in your pantry? I did until I figured out how best to organize bags of chips.
I had so many piled up that I was starting to buy more pretzels and tortilla chips when I had half-open bags that I just couldn’t see.
How We Organized our Craft and Game Closet – Before & After
This post may contain affiliate links. See my full disclosure here.
Wow!! This closet has been a disaster for way too long and guess what my husband did while I was away on a girls trip? He cleaned and reorganized it! He rocks! And super extra bonus…he took pictures for me! He definitely knows me well. Ha Ha.
When I looked through the pictures I had to laugh. He took pictures just like a blogger with all the organizational hooks and racks that he put up last year. I wish he was home and I would have him write this post since he did it all but he would probably start off by saying, “My wife sucks at keeping things clean so I have to do everything around here.” Sorry sweetie! 😉
So this is how I left the closet as I went to my spa trip with the girls. A disaster, so nice of me right?
And
Yes, I let things get a little out of control. This closet was totally organized about 6 months ago but once Christmas break happened and some new crafts and games were added into the mix it blew up.
Last time we organized this closet my husband installed these door hangers. They are so great for all the little card games and coloring books. I use all of the card games and flash cards so much more often now that I can see them.
I am amazed at the transformation. He used a tub to store all our kids lunch items. The basket on top of the game shelf houses all our play-doh toys. I can even fit our vacuum back in the closet.
He also used a little clip to hang our chips.
Now I feel so much better when it is time to make the kids lunches every day. Thanks Honey!!
Want to see some of my other Bonus Cleaning Before and Afters??
Bonus Cleaning – Guest Room Before & After
Bonus Cleaning – After Christmas Clean Up – Before & After
Bonus Cleaning – Daughters Clothes – Before & After
Guest Room Clean Up – Before & After
This is what happens in my house when we go on a ski trip. Yikes!
Now to be fair, to go on a ski trip we have to bring down a lot of bins from the attic with our ski clothes. We have been back a couple of days so all our suitcases were just thrown into this room. Plus, we had a lot of other odds and ends stored in this room that needed to be put back where they belonged in the rest of the house. Yesterday morning when my youngest was in preschool I decided to tackle this mess.
Let’s take a look, suitcases, throw pillows, ski clothes, storage tubs for the ski clothes. All making a jumbled mess.
I decided to start with something that would make a large difference and give me some room to move around in the here. The suitcases belong in our guest room closet. I managed to puzzle them together to make them all fit into the closet. Then I moved some of the pillows back to the places they belonged.
Did you see some room in there? Now I had to put some ski clothes back in the bin and the other half to the laundry to wash it and I will put them in the bin when they are done.
For some reason there were tons of stuffed animals and kids toys that don’t belong in here. I delivered them to where they belong and then….Ta Da!! A room that looks 100% better. Ugh….why does this always happen to me?? I see some ski pants on the bed that I didn’t even notice. I am just not a detail person…I didn’t even notice when I was in the room. I just see it now, hours later, in the pictures. Oh well…
I was putting this off and really it went so much after than I expected. I get so overwhelmed I don’t want to even start and then when I do it goes really fast.
Let’s see the other side of the room.
After the laundry is finished (I had mountains of it but am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel) I will have my husband put the bins back in the attic. Then we will be ready for guests!
Want to see some of my other decluttering jobs around the house?
Bonus Cleaning – After Christmas Clean Up – Before & After
Bonus Cleaning – Daughters Clothes – Before & After
This post will be shared at my favorite linky parties.
1 Week Clutter Free Room Challenge – Results
I must say that I am so happy that I did this. My 1 Week Clutter Free Room Challenge. I thought it would be almost impossible to keep this room looking great all week. I always blame our crazy life and our 3 kids for the constant mess. Well, this just proves that if I just took a couple minutes to pick up each night then things would look pretty amazing around here.
Let’s start from the beginning.
- I cleaned up and reorganized our family room to handle our Christmas mess. See my Before and After Post here.
- I decided to pick up every little thing in my family room every night for 1 week.
- Even when it got pretty messy during the day it motivated me to constantly remind the kids to put away their stuff because I knew if I didn’t it would be a bigger mess for me later that evening.
- Found out it only took 2 minutes sometimes to put away the small things left out and that small step gave us huge returns!
Here is one day when it became messy during the day.
Now previously I would pick up most of it but inevitably there would be a toy or something that I didn’t really know what to do with it or it belonged in a place I just didn’t “feel” like walking to right then and over a week those little things would build up. Next thing I knew my family room looked a mess.
This evening I can truly say that my family rooms looks exactly like it did 1 week ago. I am pretty impressed with myself right now, its the little things right? 😉
What I can take away from this challenge:
- Just take 2 minutes every night to put EVERYTHING away. This has the effect of motivating me to to pick up often during the day so that my nightly job isn’t too big a job.
- I want to do this in more areas of my home.
I’ll post a new challenge for myself soon.
This post will be shared at my favorite linky parties.