Thursday, March 29, 2018
The Forgotten + Dirty
Keeping a house clean and tidy is hard work, and for a mom it can be even more difficult. For me, being a stay at home mom, the cleaning never stops. Come into our home any day and there are toys scattered from the playroom, down the hall, into the family and dining room. You will most likely find popcorn between our couch cushions, legos hiding under the curtains, dirty dishes in the sink and piles upon piles of laundry upstairs. I clean one area of the house and it seems to last maybe a whole 15 minutes. It’s a constant cycle and it can be exhausting, but the key for me is to designate certain days to certain cleaning. One for bathrooms, one for linens, one for floors, one for dusting & windows, etc. Giving each task a day helps compartmentalize my cleaning each week and makes it feel less overwhelming.
To think about all the cleaning that goes into a home can make the whole task seem daunting, but there are a few areas we often don’t think about cleaning. It’s easy to forget these sneaky little spots, but it’s so important to work them into our weekly cleaning routine. My sister Trish and I chat everyday, and we’re always sharing tips and tricks especially when it comes to cleaning and organizing. She’s the ultimate Clean Queen and she always has the best ideas to help me stay on top of my cleaning game. Here are a few areas Trish and I came up with to share with all of you!
8 Forgotten Sneaky Spots
1) Water & Ice Dispenser on the Refrigerator. Okay, I never thought to clean up behind the ice shelf on the dispenser. Where we live it’s high humidity which means mold can build up easily and this is the perfect spot for it to grow. Make it a goal to clean this baby at least once a month!
2) Tops of Cabinets & Appliances. Grease & cooking fumes tend to leave a thick, slimy coat on everything up high. Our vent hook and accessories above the cabinets always have a layer of this grime on it. Using a natural countertop cleaner does the trick and makes it easy to wipe all these surfaces down quick.
3) Sink Splash Guard. No one ever cleans this spot and it’s probably the most disgusting spot in the kitchen. Underneath is where all the grime grows. Here’s the problem...in most sinks, it can’t be removed, which makes it difficult to clean. So here’s our trick (actually from our dad!), using a razor blade, cut it out and replace it with a removable splash guard. We use this one and we highly recommend it!
4) Dishwasher Basket. Even the best dishwashers need some love. You know the commercials that advertise there’s no need to rinse your dish before putting it in the dishwasher? Well the soap may be doing it’s job, but all that food doesn’t just disappear. Clean out the dishwasher basket to ensure your dishes are getting the best cleaning.
5) Base Boards & Trim. The ultimate cobweb and dust bunny collector. I actually have my kids dust our baseboards because they think it’s fun, but it’s also easy and they see the dirt they’re collecting. I love using the vacuum attachment for quick weekly cleaning, but once a month I go through with my Thieves Household Cleaner & rag to wipe them all down.
6) Mattresses. Even though we have bed linens and a mattress protector on our beds, mites and bacteria can still grow. Plus we’re constantly shedding dead skin and it’s collecting in our beds! Try this simple essential oil detox powder for your mattress. Each week when washing your bed linens, sprinkle this mixture on top of the bare mattress and let it sit for at least an hour, the longer the better. Vacuum up and dress your bed with freshly cleaned sheets, Your bed will have never felt or smelled better!
Mattress Detox
1/2 cup baking soda
10 drops tea tree essential oil
10 drops eucalyptus essential oil
10 drops peppermint essential oil
5 drops clove essential oil
Mix in a bowl and pour into a jar with a shaker top. (We use old 3 ounce spice jars). Sprinkle on bare mattress and let sit 1 to 24 hours. Vacuum up.
7) Ceiling Vents & Registers. Our air returns are in our ceiling and tend to collect a lot of dust. It’s easy to take the vacuum for the easiest clean, also be sure to swap our those filters. This goes right along with chandelier chains and fan blades.
8) Washing Machine. After washing a load of laundry, especially if you have a front loading machine, be sure to wipe the inside rubber ring with a paper towel or rag. Moisture loves to collect in here and it can mold easily. If inside is pretty bad, grab a scrubbing brush, natural cleaner, gloves and go to work. Unfortunately, mold can stain the rubber ring, but at least stay on top of cleaning it from this point forward. No wants their clothes being washed in a dirty machine.
We hope this helps you tackle those sneaky little places that love to collect dirt. Do you have any cleaning tips and tricks? We’d love to hear about them!
Happy Cleaning!
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Olivia’s Room
Olivia’s room has been a long time coming. Well every bedroom pretty much has been a long time coming and still counting as we constantly rearrange our upstairs. I’m so excited to have one of the bedrooms finished (other than adding crown). It’s everyone’s little retreat and thankfully Olivia doesn’t seem to mind.
The show stopper in Olivia’s room aside from the accent wall and my favorite piece is the beautiful Darling My Darling print. A fellow high school classmate and friend of mine, Ashley DuBois, created this print for her sweet daughter’s nursery. She very graciously shared her gorgeous art and I’m so thankful because it makes Olivia’s room.
For her room we kept things pretty simple, using a lot of what we already had, re-purposed different items and purchased only a few select new ones. We didn’t have a specific budget for this room, but we knew we wanted to keep the budget low and the room simple + beautiful. I think we accomplished exactly that!
Mike and I started by painting the once pink ceiling back to white and added the shiplap-like accent wall. We created the accent wall using 1/4 inch plywood ripped into 6 inch wide strips. We didn’t fill the nail holes as we wanted to keep all the imperfections of the wood. Our biggest debate was paint color. We went back and forth whether we were going to flip the wall colors: paint the shiplap the green and the rest of the room white. We’re so happy with our choice as the color on the walls makes the room so cozy!
Olivia’s windows really needed curtains and what I wanted was more than what we wanted to spend. I ended up purchasing IKEA curtains for $9.99 per set of two panels and picked up black pom pom trim from Hobby Lobby where I was able to use a 40% off coupon. I did a basic stitch on my sewing machine attaching the trim to each side of a panel. Compared to $100 per panel, ours cost us a total of $12.25 per panel. A great little DIY to save tons while still getting the look we wanted!
The show stopper in Olivia’s room aside from the accent wall and my favorite piece is the beautiful Darling My Darling print. A fellow high school classmate and friend of mine, Ashley DuBois, created this print for her sweet daughter’s nursery. She very graciously shared her gorgeous art and I’m so thankful because it makes Olivia’s room.
The last piece we want to add to Olivia’s room is crown molding. We haven’t been able to knock this off our to do list due to our current schedule, but hopefully we can cross this off the list very soon! We are so in love with her room and we would do it all over again! The total cost of her room came in just under $225 which mainly included paint, plywood for the wall, curtains, trim, and few a accessories such as her wall hooks and framed wall art!
\ Sources \
Shiplap Wall Color \ Sherwin Williams Eider White in Eggshell
Wall Color \ Benjamin Moore Templeton Gray in Eggshell
Swan Head Wall Decor \ Target
Curtains \ IKEA
Pom Pom Trim \ Hobby Lobby
Faux Sheepskin Rug \ Home Decorators
Crib \ The Honest Co. (no longer available) but similar HERE
Crib Sheet \ Little Unicorn
Berry & Bloon Quilt \ Little Unicorn
Darlling My Darling Print \ Ashley DuBois Design & Branding
Star Garland \ Hooray Everyday
Frame \ Hobby Lobby
Dresser Knobs \ Hobby Lobby
Wall Hooks \ Hobby Lobby
Lion Rocker \ Crate&Kids (formerly Land of Nod)
Friday, March 16, 2018
Easter Basket Favorites
Happy Friday friends! This week as been such a long week for us, yesterday felt like Friday and I had to remind myself repeatedly that is wasn’t, and it was just flat out depressing. On top of being a long week, I also realized Easter is only a couple weeks away. WHAAAAAT!?!?!?!?!? Easter is sneaking up on us and I’m not ready at all. For crying out loud I still have my bottle brush trees sitting on our mantle! This weekend I have to get into gear for spring, but in my defense it’s been unusually cold here at the beach. We woke up to 28 degrees (F) yesterday morning which is crazy for around here. Luckily, the last couple days I pushed myself to work on the kids’ Easter baskets because I don’t want to be THAT mom who forgot, and now you won’t either! A few other fun goodies I picked up for the baskets are mini basic lego box sets. They’re not expensive and the possibilities are endless for the kids. We play with our Legos quite a bit, so this will be a hit! I also picked up some fun candy from William Sonoma. They always have the prettiest candy for Easter baskets and they’re currently on sale! So quick get this stuff done and be ready for this incredible spring holiday!
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