Category: decorate

Spring Cleaning in the Kitchen

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FIRST THING FIRST, click HERE to get a free gift set and receive $10 after your first Grove Collaborative purchase.

Over the weekend, we ran out of dish soap and when I went to the cabinet where we keep back stock items, I noticed we only have fall scented cleaning supplies. I don’t know about you, but this is not acceptable in my house! Meanwhile, Jake has been loving our peppermint scented dish soap when he does the dishes at night. That day, I put in a big order at Grove Collaborative and added one of each Spring and Summer scented dish soap, cleaning spray, and hand soap. My family thought I was crazy for stocking up with one big order every season, but when everyone ran out of hand soap, I was the one with a cabinet full of it! I tried ordering hand soap when we were on our last one last month and noticed that very few online retailers are even shipping it because there is still a shortage because of the pandemic. This is why I LOVE LOVE LOVE my subscription to Grove Collaborative. The website is easy to shop and add items to your cart so you can get everything you need to keep your home clean, and be green while you do it, delivered to your front door. They also throw in a free item when you spend a certain amount and leave you a fun, friendly message on the box.

I put in an order and two days later I got a box of cleaning supplies on our doorstep! I rolled up my sleeves and got to work cleaning the kitchen and organizing our back stock.

  1. Keep A List of Essentials
    I keep a note on my phone of items that we always have so I can quickly glance and make note of if we are out of it so I can add it to my cart on grove.co.
  2. Stock Up
    Grove Collaborative makes it so easy to buy multiples and not have to push a heavy cart around and then carry them from the car to the house.
  3. Clean Appliances
    This stainless steel cleaner is life changing! Once a week I like to wipe down the refrigerator, stove and dishwasher because fingerprints drive me crazy but nothing ever worked until I used this cleaner! A little bit goes a long way and it protects appliances from fingerprints for like a week.
  4. Create a Routine
    At night I like to put all of the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, press start and wipe down the counters with the multi-surface cleaner. Waking up to a clean kitchen is so nice and it only takes two minutes at night to make my mornings better.
  5. Shop Green
    My favorite thing about Grove Collaborative (besides the convenience and friendly team!) is their commitment to the environment. I’m happy to pay a little more for products that are made with the environment in mind. Grove offers product refills so it’s less plastic and you just have to order one to last you a while. I get a hand soap refill each order so I can keep my cute bathroom soap dispenser filled with soap without ever running out.

For more cleaning tips, check out my spring cleaning post that I wrote during quarantine last year, more reasons why I love Grove Collaborative, and how I keep all of my things organized. Let me know your favorite cleaning scents!

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Getting A Deeper Clean with the Bissell Powerlifter Swivel Lift-OFF Pet Vacuum

Published on by blonde rosieLeave a comment

Bissell Powerlifter Swivel Lift-OFF Pet Vacum

Since we have been spending more of our time at home, I have been vacuuming more throughout the week. Not surprising as we both work, live and eat all of our meals at home so it’s going to get dirty at times! My most needy roommate is Ed the cat, he has adjusted to us being home 24/7 so he moves throughout the house to find a comfy place to nap and often leaves a trail of hair behind. We are all adjusting to our new normal right now and one of my new routines is a new cleaning routine with some new tools!

Last year, I purchased a vacuum and when I saw the pet model and the standard model, I didn’t know if there would be much of a difference. In the end I just bought the standard version because it was cheaper and thought it would work just as well. So far it’s been great and I have had zero complaints to clean up after my cookie crumbs and dirt that accumulates in our older house. It wasn’t until Bissell reached out to ask if I wanted to try a pet model vacuum. With Ed we thought it was a good thing to have and see if there was that much of a difference between our regular vacuum and a pet model.

Not knowing when the Bissell Powerlifter Swivel Lift-OFF Pet vacuum would arrive, I did my usual vacuum routine earlier in the week. When the new vacuum arrived, I took it out of the box and wanted to see if it was easy to use not thinking it would pick up anything since I just vacuumed earlier in the week. Our guest room slash my new office is rarely used and is carpeted so I wanted to see how it worked in that room. It was lightweight, easy to push and the swivel feature let me easily get to the corners in the room without using the attachment. It’s a small room so my jaw dropped when I saw how much dirt and hair was in the vacuum.

I pushed it down the hallway to our bedroom which has a rug over our hardwood floors and when I finished vacuuming the room that I just cleaned, the canister was completely full! The Bissell Powerlifter Swivel Lift-OFF Pet vacuum is an easy way to do a deep clean around the house. I can honestly say that I am so impressed with this vacuum and it has made cleaning up very easy.

Easy Holiday Storage

Published on by blonde rosie1 Comment

Taking the Christmas decorations out of storage is always a fun time in our house. We wait until we eat Thanksgiving pie and then rush to start unpacking boxes and put up greenery. However, putting it away can be daunting and always feels like more work than taking it out of the box! After years of getting tangled in lights I finally created a system to make it easy to put away holiday decorations without having to worry about anything breaking. 

ornament storage // plastic bins // hanging gift wrap organizer // small plastic storage containers // gift wrap cutter // large ornament storage // gift wrap under bed storage // clear gift wrap storage // tree storage bag

Ornament Storage Boxes

Invest in good ornament storage boxes one time and you will never have to again! Since we have a few trees in our house, we have a container for each tree to make decorating easier for the next year and prevent anything from breaking. 


Clear Small and Medium Plastic Containers

Over time I’ve collected some fragile Christmas decorations so instead of just throwing them in a box and hoping they don’t break, I’m wrapping them up in paper or bubble wrap and putting them in a small plastic container. To prevent lights getting tangled, after rolling them into a ball, I’m putting them into these containers. Also makes them super easy to find next year!In a medium sized container, I have my tissue paper and my ribbon in another. It can be a big purchase buying these bins at first, but I like having all of my stuff in clear containers so I can easily see them and get to the items without much fuss. For all of the cute tree decorations like garland and ribbon, I put everything for each tree in a plastic container 


Gift Wrap Organizers

I purchased the clear gift wrap organizer two years ago and I’m still a fan! It sits in the corner of my basement not taking up a lot of room which was important for us. Since it’s clear I can easily see what gift wrap I have and pull it out without much fuss! This year I got my mom a hanging gift wrap organizer so she now has a system that can hang in her craft room closet.  I’ve been tempted to purchase the underbed gift wrap storage container because I love that it holds gift bags, tissue paper and gift wrap but it just doesn’t work for our space right now.  Choose what works for you and your space! There is an option for everyone to keep your gift wrap organized to make it easy.


Gift Wrap Cutter

My friend and I were talking about this thing all December and could not find it! Should have looked on Amazon, duhh! This little tool makes cutting gift wrap super easy and gives you a straight line each time!


Tree Storage Bags

Since we have a few trees in our house and not a lot of space to store them, I got the largest tree storage bag so it can fit all of our trees. It’s not the greatest solution but I prefer just tripping over one giant bag than three of them ha!


Plastic Storage Bins

Thankful we have a very large basement but it can be frustrating because we don’t have the best way to keep our storage organized. Before we had my off season clothes and holiday decor in cardboard boxes which were a hassle to move and get stuff in and out of. Also not having a car at the moment meant not being able to run to Target to buy plastic storage bins but luckily Jake found an amazing set on Amazon for us. Now I have my decor easily and safely stored away for the next season in plastic bins instead of flimsy cardboard boxes!


Over the years I’ve purchased storage solutions here and there and the next year while I put things away makes me happy I did! Putting away Christmas is no longer a daunting task because I have a system that works for me that can be safely stacked in a corner of the basement collecting dust. I don’t have to worry about anything breaking, water damage or getting lost. 

Our Rowhome Christmas House Tour

Published on by blonde rosie3 Comments

I thought I would share photos of our home decorated for Christmas. This year we are seeing the positives of staying home all the time and went all out with our Christmas decorations. I should start that growing up Christmas was always a big thing in our house because my family loved Christmas and my birthday is Christmas Eve so it was always a really special time of year. We really wanted to take advantage of this opportunity of being home to enjoy our Christmas decorations so we used what we have accumulated over the years and purchased a few new items to decorate every single room. I love how our home looks and it’s made me very grateful for what we have. On our weekly family Zoom call, we all shared our homes decorated for Christmas so it was good to have a deadline to get everything up!

Linking everything that I can at the bottom of this post!

Living Room Tree
Flocked Christmas Tree
Pink Glitter Poinsettias
Rose Gold Ribbon
Pre-Lit Garland
Bedding
A lot of the smaller items are from the Target Bullseye Bin that I have picked up over the years. I love stocking up on these inexpensive and cute finds!

New Bedding for the Holidays

Published on by blonde rosie3 Comments

BEDROOM DETAILS
comforter set // wreath // mini trees // pajama set

I’ve been wanting to get new holiday bedding for a while now. I have a few sets of holiday themed sheets and duvet covers but they fit my old bed which is in our guest room and our master bedroom has a bigger bed. It’s been on my to do list since last Christmas when I tried to get my old sheets onto our new bed with no luck. I wanted something nice and neutral that we could use for many years so I waited until I found a set that I loved and was budget friendly.

I blame the section of the page when you are online shopping that says “Items You May Also Be Interested In” because that’s where I found this amazing comforter set. I was planning to only get garland and had to add the comforter in too because the price was so good. I loved the traditional Christmas pattern on one side and the super soft sherpa on the other. We have been using it for a week now and we are loving it! It’s light enough so it’s not too hot with the sherpa but still warm. I think Ed the cat is the only one who loves it more than me, because he has been laying in bed all day and we can’t pull him away from it!

Even though we will only use this bedding for a few months out of the year, I wanted to get something that was nice and we could really enjoy during the winter months. Not only is it really cute but it is so soft and cozy! I highly suggest you get this comforter to add some Christmas cheer to your bedroom!

New Mantel Decor

Published on by blonde rosie1 Comment

I was cleaning up at night before bed as I do most nights because I love waking up to a clean house. We have been in our house for a full year now and I’m still tweaking things here and there, especially around the holidays. After seeing new home decor items at Target released for fall, I decided I didn’t like how my first floor was decorated and wanted to change things up. For the record, it looks pretty as it is, I just need to rearrange things every few months because I’m crazy like that. I’m trying not to buy too much for our home because I may love it but we don’t have that much room for it all. I had to give in when I saw these candlesticks and the price was too good not to get them. I knew they would be perfect for my fireplace mantel throughout the year and could move them around with the seasons. The gold finish looks antique and are made really well for a low price. My mom has dozens of gold candlesticks varying in height and style that we love to decorate her home with. I’m excited to start building my collection with this set that can easily go with more candlesticks I buy in the future. Or more candle holders I buy from this amazing collection at Target right now! Right now I have my mantel decorated for fall and I’m excited to decorate it for Christmas in a few weeks. The candlesticks are the perfect elegant touch that this space needed in our dining room.

Candlesticks // candles // similar candle holder