Rug Cleaning Adventures

Hi all! I know I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks, but today it's Saturday and I'm home watching Netflix, so thought I would share a recent adventure we had involving rug cleaning. I know, it sounds super exciting. But it actually was a pretty exciting day in our household.

First off, our living room rug has seen better days. I bought it back in 2013 (remember this post?), and Saleen likes to rub and lick on it because of her allergies. In short, it's gotten pretty disgusting for that reason. Yep, having a dog has made us learn "we can't have nice things." I'll spare you the "before cleaning" pictures.

We had gone a while without cleaning the rug, so we decided to rent a Rug Doctor at our local Dollar General. You can rent it for $30, along with buying the solution that goes in it for about $5.

We gave it a good vacuum first. Then Trent filled it with a mix of water and the solution, and I held the edges of the rug in place while he ran the Rug Doctor over it.

While you run it over the rug, it releases the mixture of solution and water, and also has brushes underneath that vibrate while it runs.

We had to continuously refill it with more solution, since it goes through it pretty quickly. And we ran it over the rug row by row, several times to make sure we got the dirt out the best we could.

Once we were done, instead of letting it dry in the living room, we took the rug and the rug pad underneath, outside and hung them on the fence for a little over a day to fully dry out.

We didn't want it to hold onto any water between the rug and the rug pad, since that might leave a little "mustiness" in the air, and no one wants that.. Eww!

I think leaving it out in the sun probably helped bleach the stains a little bit, too. At least we like to think so. So here's the "after":

It's not perfect, but it looks visibly cleaner, for sure! I'd say renting the Rug Doctor was worth it, not to do all the time, but I'd maybe do it once a year or so.

At first I was really hesitant to let Saleen into the living room again, and wiped off every stain she left. Haha. But now I've come to the conclusion that it's inevitable that the rug WILL get dirty again.

So, moral of the story, having a nice rug + a dog with allergies, do not mix! But a good rug cleaning every now and then makes things a little nicer, at least for the time being.

Donating via "Give Back Box"

This year, I'm ending 2016 on a good note. This comes in the form of donating my old clothes to Goodwill via a program called Give Back Box.

Let me put it this way: Did anyone else end up with shipping boxes after the holidays and don't know what to do with them? Well, Trent and I did - we ordered a lot of our presents to each other online this year, so we had a few shipping boxes left over.

Normally, we would take them out with all of our recycling. But just recently, I saw an ad for Give Back Box. The idea is pretty cool. If you have leftover boxes from the holidays or ordering things online, you can fill them with clothes or other items you no longer need and send them to Goodwill for a donation. And the shipping labels are completely free - you just go to the website and hit the button for "Print a label," then fill in your name and address into the online form. It generates a shipping label, and you can take it to the post office and send it off!

I decided to participate in the program, since I have been wanting to get rid of some clothes in my closet. I'm running out of closet space, and hangers. :)

So today, I had the day off work and ended up sending a couple of Amazon shipping boxes full of old clothing (and a purse) I no longer wanted.

It not only gives you the satisfaction of helping people that might not be able to afford brand new clothes, but it lets you start fresh and clear some space, too, without making the trip to a Goodwill store (specially if you live at least 20 minutes away from one, like we do!).

And it doesn't matter how big your box is, or what the weight is. You can pack those boxes full of clothes, accessories, or household items, and the shipping is always free.

So, if you're interested in donating, you should totally go to the Give Back Box website and get started. Happy 2017 everyone!

DIY Natural Home Cleaners

I have a lot of hobbies. Well, kind of. I like to try new things that I've never tried before. I like to eat healthy, paint, craft, decorate, draw, listen to music, watch movies, kayak, travel...I've tried essential oils, flower gardening, I've had yard sales, I've sold things on eBay, I've tracked my food daily, I have a running list of concerts I've seen and those I want to see, I keep a record of all of the new movies I watch, I blog, I renovate my house, I've even tried baking and cooking a time or two (even though I hate it). Variety is the spice of life, right?

Well, I've now tried something else. Remember when I said I was working on a new project? This is it. I've made my own natural home cleaners. I've seen a lot of these around the internet, just browsing on Pinterest. Some of them have the same ingredients, but there are still a lot of varieties, and they seem to be a lot healthier than the store bought stuff, like bleach, which can have some pretty harmful chemicals and can in turn, do some long term damage to your health.

I decided to make my own natural stuff, for a few reasons. One - with only a few ingredients, we pretty much had them all around the house already, so it didn't cost much to make. Two - I've started having allergies when I'm cleaning, and I'm starting to think some of the products we use around the house may be contributing to them. Three - Using bleach kind of scares me. The smell of the chemicals in it is so potent, it almost burns your eyes and nose. Nothing like this can be good for you, can it? The thought of using bleach to clean a home that we're constantly exposed to - and Saleen (our dog) is exposed to - kind of makes me cringe, so I figure there has to be a natural solution that's better for you, and works just as well.

So I made my own. I actually ended up making three different all-natural products:

• A Natural Bleach Alternative
• An All-Purpose Cleaner
• A Natural Air Freshener

The process was kind of experimental, and a little trial and error. I had never made these before, so I didn't really know what to expect. First I did a little research on DIY home cleaners I found online. I looked at different recipes, and wrote down the ingredients that were most often used in them, then put together my own combination and found what worked for me.

These are all of the ingredients I used:

I also added either Lemon essential oil or Lavender essential oil to all of them (and sometimes both!).

Most of the ingredients we already had around the house, but I did have to find some spray bottles. (That's a story in itself! I'll get to that later.) I found some cheap plastic ones for the time being, but I plan on upgrading them all to glass bottles next time, since by researching I found that glass bottles are the most durable for the types of ingredients used.

Here are the recipes I used for each:

Natural Bleach Alternative:

• 1 1/2 cups Hydrogen Peroxide
• 1/2 cup White Vinegar (or can substitute lemon juice for a gentler solution)
• Distilled Water to fill rest of spray bottle
• 10 Drops Lemon Essential Oil (don't need this if you are using lemon juice)

All-Purpose Cleaner:

• 1 cup Distilled Water
• 1 cup White Vinegar
• 20-30 drops Lemon Essential Oil

Natural Air Freshener:

• 2 cups Distilled Water
• 2 tablespoons Rubbing Alcohol (or can use vodka)
• 10 drops Lemon Essential Oil
• 20 drops Lavender Essential Oil

The air freshener was the hardest for me to get right, and the reason I had to buy more spray bottles. The original recipe that I used had Baking Soda in it, which would clog the spray bottle every time I mixed it in! So I definitely DO NOT recommend using Baking Soda if you will be spraying it! Take it from me. ;)

A few more notes:

• The natural bleach substitute uses a diluted mixture of Hydrogen Peroxide and Vinegar, but these two ingredients in their purest forms create Peracetic acid, which can be a very strong and toxic chemical if not used carefully. So, if you have lemon juice, I've seen some people using this as a substitute for the vinegar. It's up to you!
• I have not used the bleach alternative to wash or clean clothes yet. I might try it out, as I've heard that it does work. But so far, I've only used it for cleaning purposes.
• The rubbing alcohol or vodka in the air freshener is apparently not necessary, but its purpose is to help the oils mix with the water, and to help the solution dry faster once its sprayed. I haven't used it enough to tell its effectiveness yet, but I've seen several recipes that use this, so I added it in.
• I've seen other essential oil combinations used in these as well. I used all lavender and lemon because I don't have many oils, and these two are so versatile and both smell really fresh and clean.

Since this is my first time making these cleaners, I haven't used them enough yet to really judge their effectiveness, but I hope to use them around the house regularly and see how they work over time. If you want to make your own natural cleaners, I definitely recommend researching around the internet and figuring out the recipe that works best for you!

Update - I also recommend watching the documentary, The Human Experiment. It might make you think about the harmful products that you use on a daily basis! It is available on Netflix!

So Fresh and So Clean, Clean

Happy Monday! Who else watched The Bachelor premiere tonight? Love it! I feel like I got a lot accomplished over the weekend. After the holidays and recovery after New Years, we stayed home on Saturday, and I took down the Christmas tree and decorations. Trent and I spent the day cleaning the house. I finally got a good night's sleep for the first time in a while. I felt rested (and drank plenty of coffee to keep me energized).

Sunday we shopped, ate at Olive Garden for lunch, and went out with friends for dinner. And we got to come home to a CLEAN house! It's so much better when the house is clean after the busy-ness and chaos that was the holidays! Amiright?

I love when the big, bulky coffee table is moved out of the way, too. I like it for practical reasons, but I can't wait to get something else once we get the sectional in here. It feels so much more light and airy without our big, heavy coffee table in the middle of the room.

Not to mention how much bigger the room feels with the tree gone! And I love our tree, too, but without it, the light shines through the window again.

Annndd..I framed another one of our wedding photos.  I love it! I got this frame in the fall up by Chicago and I've been waiting for the perfect picture to use it.

Ahh, success. Seriously, that feeling when you've cleaned the house and can finally enjoy the fruits of your labor with a little cup of coffee and a movie. It's the best.

Now, time to watch the end of The Bachelor live! I've only been waiting for the season premiere all winter long. I don't think it disappointed at all. Lots of drama and crazy moments as usual!

Cleaning Weekend

The house is looking a tad cleaner this week! This past weekend we stayed home most of the time, and we both got the urge to do some deep cleaning. We completely tore apart the living room to get all of those dust bunnies behind the couch, and worst of all - those pesky Asian beetles that linger everywhere this time of year. We had them around the curtains, on the furniture, the walls, and ceiling of the living room.  So, naturally, Trent took the vacuum to them!

I should have taken more pictures, but my allergies were going crazy on Sunday. Too much dust I suppose! So I just got ones of Trent vacuuming. :) We had the couch pulled out, the rug pulled out, the curtains off...it was serious business.

It was such a nice day on Sunday that we even opened the windows and let some air in. I have a feeling that might be the last nice day we have in a while! This week has been chilly and rainy, and we're expecting our first snow this weekend.

It's so weird to see our living room without curtains. Check out the hardware on those windows! I definitely follow the "high and wide" rule when it comes to hanging my curtains. Makes the windows appear tons bigger than they really are! We washed all of our white curtains in some bleach, then hung them back up. I think I did a total of four full loads of laundry on Sunday, with bedding, curtains, pillow cases, and throw blankets. 

We cleaned the kitchen, too. And tackled the pantry area. Two loads of dishes - all tupperware containers! It looks much better in there now, though, so I'm glad we got that all done. Let's just hope it stays that way. ;)

The Storage Issue

Who else struggles with the lack of storage in your home? For me it never fails; no matter how much space I think I have, there never seems to be enough storage. I clear out some space and a couple of months later, it's the same thing again! Where does it all go?

If only our "organized" spaces always looked this neat!

Maybe it's our tiny, turn of the century home, or maybe it's just the fact that we can't seem to utilize all of the wasted space in it. I'm determined to come up with a long term solution either way. Maybe not right away, but gradually. The main goal is just to be able to make good use of all of the space that we do have.

In the mean time, I have another pile of things I'm taking to Goodwill. And I've reorganized all of my gift wrap and gift bags for the holidays, as is the yearly routine. 

One good thing - I came home to a clean kitchen yesterday thanks to Trent! We ate at the kitchen table the last two nights for the first time in a while. He's vowing to try to keep it clean, if I help him... We'll see how that goes! He also got me some flowers and wine tonight, just because. I think I'll keep him. :)

Cleaning Day

I'm lagging on the posts, I know. But Happy July! It's my favorite month. I LOVE summer. Today both Trent and I (and much of America I'm sure) have the day off to celebrate the holiday.

It's Friday, and it feels so nice to have the day off and get some things done around the house! The plan is to stay home all day and clean. So far, it's 2:30, and we haven't gotten too much done. We watched a movie this morning (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), and Trent had to go out and help his dad fix the mower. I did the first round of dishes, and am now taking a break to eat a late lunch. So it's been kind of a cleaning day so far, but kind of a lazy one too. I hope to get lots more done in the afternoon!

One of the things on my agenda today is to put away a lot of the gifts I received from my shower. They're still all piled up in the kitchen. I got all of my thank-you's done this week and sent, and Wednesday night, we met with our officiant at her house. We've been pretty busy these last couple of weeks!

It has been nice enjoying the flowers from my bridal shower on Sunday. I got to take them home, so I've been enjoying them around the kitchen. These are from my Aunt Connie:

I love hydrangeas and these purple ones are so pretty!

I also got a huge bouquet of lilies form a family friend, and some carnations from my cousin, Chrissy.

And, it's not the best bouquet ever, but I picked some wildflowers from outside of town to fill a couple of small vases in the living room. Some of the flowers looked a little wilty, but I still like the colors and think it's kind of cute.

The Queen Anne's lace is my favorite. :) 

I'm not sure what all of the other flowers are, but they were mostly along the side of the road, and some were even growing out back in our yard.

I made a smaller one too. It would be interesting to see what all of these "weeds" actually are. I like to just refer to them all as wildflowers, 'cause it sounds more romantic. :)

Well, lunch is done. Back to cleaning!

Around the House

Happy Labor Day, and happy first day of September! I haven't been keeping up with this blog as much as I would like to. But we haven't gotten as many house projects done this summer as we would have liked to, either. It's Labor Day weekend, and we spent Friday night with friends at the Bandits game, we spent all day Saturday cleaning the house and doing laundry, and we went shopping all day yesterday. Trent worked this morning, and then we watched a movie after he got home. It's kind of a lazy day for us today. So even though we would like to get things done, it's hard to find the time and the energy. Especially with summer slowly fading away, and the days getting shorter.

Anyway, I thought since I didn't have any new projects to share, I would share some scenes from around the house today. And show you a few new things I've picked up recently - And where I got them!

First up: The living room, which hasn't changed much over the summer. Some parts of this room are already looking kind of fall-ish, but I still have plenty of little pops of color for summer.

My old bird pillows from Target have been reversed lately so we can enjoy the chevron side of them a little bit. :) Also, my frame wall has been the same for quite a while - I'm pretty sure this is a new record for me.

Oh, and we've decided to start looking for a new couch soon. The cushions have seen better days - if you remember this post where I attempted to fix the cushions, well, the velcro sadly didn't work too well. It has only gotten worse. Plus, our small couch just doesn't cut it anymore. We need more space to spread out, and more room for when we have company over. So the quest for a new, larger, more long-term couch will begin soon.

Moving onto the kitchen, there's lots of new little things in here. Like my new handy storage bin by the door. We never have enough storage. And this cute little bin is just one solution to a space that needed some more love.

I picked it up the other day at Marshall's. I think it was like $15. It now houses things we can grab before we go out the door, like ice scrapers, umbrellas, and a few of Trent's shoes.

Onto other things like cute spatulas...I think I've started an obsession. I barely use these things, but somehow I've developed a weakness for them. The purple and turquoise one is from Gordman's and has common measurement conversions on the back, I kid you not. The green plastic utensils are from Target a few years ago. (And the timer is from IKEA by the way)

I found this adorable plate and these matching blue mugs a couple of months back. The plate was from TJ Maxx, and the mugs were from Gordman's.

I've been wanting one of these things forever: a drying mat. To sit wine and beer glasses on. Looks and works so much better than a paper towel! (Although now it has veggies from the garden on it for some reason) This guy came in a 2-pack from Marshall's.

Now onto the bedroom...And ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my brand new clothes hamper! I'm super excited about this one - also from Marshall's...my wire laundry hamper from college had seen MUCH better days. It was kind of falling apart...so this is its replacement. And it's beautiful.

This picture is nothing new, but I love when the sun shines in and makes shadows on the wall of all my necklaces on my necklace hanger I made a while back. It's gotten many new necklaces on it since I made it, and it still works really well. I still love it!

Trent has recently moved most of his clothes into his new storage bins, but he was still kind of lacking in the hamper department. Then when we were at Marshall's the other day (I swear we bought half of the store) - THIS hamper screamed - Perfect size for the hamper spot!! It's not the same color, but it kind of brings a nautical vibe in here, which is kind of cool. We were even thinking of getting a little boat statue to sit on top of the storage unit. I don't know, might be kind of cute. :)

It is pretty much adorable, and Trent even likes it, so that's a plus.

And finally, the bathroom - We get a new rug in here like every couple of months, I swear. We tend to ruin bathroom rugs pretty quickly..or any rugs, for that matter. If it's not Saleen tracking in dirt, it's spilling bleach or putting the rug in the dryer and it shrinks to half the size. #rugproblems.

So this is the latest bathroom rug, and once again, it's from Marshall's. That place and Target are my go-to stores for rugs. So many cute ones. 

And this is the other new-ish addition to the bathroom - my wire basket from Gordman's which is being used as the toilet paper bin. It actually lived under the sink at first, but after a disaster with the sink leaking and ALL of the toilet paper getting soaked (and my new bin), it has since switched places with the trash can. 

Please excuse the unpainted drywall behind it...the bathroom renovation has been put on hold for quite a while now. Also, there are old pillowcases and such in the hallway from cleaning yesterday. But what can you do... that's life, keepin' it real.

It's always nice to have a clean-ish house. It lets us focus on other things like decorating and renovation projects. :) Now to find a new project to complete....