Why I do my Christmas shopping in July!

7 / 5 / 1710 / 22 / 17

Today, here in the heat of the summer, I want to chat about Christmas. Shall we? You know that Hobby Lobby already has their truckloads of Christmas arriving to be put on the shelves any day now (does yours already have Christmas decorations out??). It really is right around the corner.

This post may contain affiliate links to stuff I love. It doesn't charge you any extra, but it will help support this blog and my family.

And if you know me, you know I looove snagging a deal. Which is exactly why I buy all our Christmas presents in July.

Plus, who has time to be Christmas shopping when there’s all that Christmas decorating and cookie making to do?!

Like lots of other busy mamas out there, Amazon Prime is my saving grace. I seriously love knowing that I can skip my shower for today, order that thing I need on Amazon, and without even putting on real pants, I can have it delivered to me tomorrow for the same price (or cheaper) than I would have found it at the store!

Plus, have you ever tried Christmas shopping with your kids around? It’s pretty tricky once they get older than about 2. We’re now in that territory, so shopping for deals on presents throughout the year has proven to be even more challenging this year.

Enter Amazon Prime Day 2017. It’s seriously the best deal out there. I have been sorely disappointed in Amazon’s Black Friday sales the past year or two. Why? Because Amazon Prime Day has waaay better deals. For real. And the deals are on things I want to buy like Melissa & Doug toys, ride on toys, and awesome home & beauty products.

So, if you aren’t an Amazon Prime member, you need to take a minute right now to get signed up because all the good deals open early just to Prime members. I bet you’ll save the cost of your membership on the deals you snag, plus you’ll get free two-day shipping the rest of the year!

Click the banner (that looks like an Amazon Ad (p.s. this post is full of Amazon links and banners. They won’t cost you any extra, but using these links will get you a free trial of Amazon Prime! Also, I’m sorry the images all look the same!!)) below to start a free 30 day trial and start saving right away.

And if you sign up for Amazon Family (same price as regular Prime), you save 20% on diapers, meaning, you can buy diapers that are delivered to your house for the same deal price you can get them at big warehouses like Sam’s and Costco. You really can’t beat it. You can snag a free 30 day trial of Amazon Family here (the image looks the same as above, but links to Amazon Family so you can save on diapers!!):

So, the short of it is that if you want to do some killer Christmas shipping this July, you’ll have just 30 hours of amazing deals (yes! I even set my alarm clock to wake up for a 2am deal if needed!). You can save some cash and get all that shopping complete so you can focus on family, food, and home during the holidays without battling the crazy Black Friday crowds or last minute Christmas shoppers! It’s a total win-win.

So, recap.

#1. If you aren’t a Prime member, sign up right now for a free trial to make sure you can get in on all the deals.

#2. If you are a Prime member, get ready to start shopping deals on July 10th at 9pm EST. I’ve found Amazon makes it really easy to shop these sales with their own Amazon shopping app, so go ahead and download that to get ready.

#3. If you’re covered on #1 and #2, you can sit back and chill until the 10th. Don’t worry, I’ll send out an email to remind you when it’s time! You can sign up to be reminded here. 🙂

Also! If you’re finding this post and Amazon Prime Day is already over, don’t worry! You can still sign up and I will be sure to remind you about it next year so you don’t miss a deal!

Uses for Magic Erasers

1 / 20 / 1711 / 28 / 18

You love Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. They’re amazing for cleaning everything around the house. You never know what a Magic Eraser can clean next, amiright? Plus, they’re chemical free, which means they’re safe even for a home full of kids and pets.

I actually love Magic Erasers. They have saved the day more times than I can count, and if you check out my Pinterest board for cleaning, you’ll see that I pin Magic Eraser pins all the time because they’re so helpful.

Uses for Magic Erasers

Need your glass stove top cleaned? Magic Erasers are the answer.
Need to clean your glass shower door covered in scum? Magic Erasers save the day.
How about how to clean the glass inside your oven? Oh yeah, Magic Erasers can clean that, too.
How are you going to get your shoes clean back to the bright white they were before? Magic Erasers are the secret.
Do you have scuff marks on your floors? Just whip out your Magic Erasers.
Ready to clean your outdoor furniture for spring? Magic Erasers can make springtime setup a breeze.
Cleaning the bathroom. I use them all over my bathroom on cleaning day including the sink, bathtub, and fixtures. It will keep them shining like new.

See even more uses for magic erasers here!

But have you seen how much those puppies cost? Around where I live you can get 4 Magic Erasers for about $6. And I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather spend my extra $6 at HomeGoods than the cleaning aisle.

And so, I get mine at Amazon. If you are a mom, Amazon Prime is an absolute gift from Jesus. It’s worth every penny to know that I can just order what I need when I think of it. It doesn’t matter if I’m chilling on the couch with hubs, at the doctor’s office, or sitting at my desk. I just order it and it’s here in 2 days. Before I remember to look for it, it’s sitting on my doorstep. Love Amazon.

But here’s the thing, you can get way more options at Amazon than you could on your Target cleaning aisle. Plus, they have more specialty items, like a 50′ endoscope or pro-level bug spray or melamine foam.

And here is why you will never buy Magic Erasers again. Because you can buy the EXACT SAME THING for a fraction of the price of Mr. Clean Magic Erasers.

How to find cheap Magic Erasers

See, Magic Erasers are created out of melamine foam that’s been used as soundproofing and other more commercial uses for a while now. But, in the last “few” years, it has been marketed as a cleaning miracle. And, well, honestly, it pretty much is.

So, if you want to save a buck, you can stop buying the mass-marketed Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and buy melamine foam. In bulk. For cheap. Fo’ real.

You can buy 100 regular magic erasers for $10 or 100 extra thick magic erasers for about $30 .

And why wouldn’t you? I mean, really?

Oh, and if you like the fancy Magic Erasers, like the ones with the blue stripe or the bumps/ridges in the middle, you can find those on Amazon, too.

So, what are you waiting for? Go make some magic happen!

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll probably like this one about how I get it all done as a work at home mom working about 4000 hours a week. Ok, so, maybe not that many hours, but it sure feels like it!

And if you’re fighting a dirty house, this is how I finally won the war with pet hair! And how I cleaned a disgusting house we bought.

p.s. If “chemical free” and safe for kids and pets makes you squirm, check out this post to see if magic erasers really include formaldehyde. (hint: they don’t)

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How to Make a DIY Planner and Save Serious Money

11 / 2 / 1611 / 14 / 16

Save a ton of money by binding your own planner!

How has your 2017 blog planning been going? Have you been thinking about your goals for the new year yet and begun planning your next stage for your business?

I know I’ve been thinking about it a ton! My to-do list for my blog is completely beyond me, and so I know I have a lot of work that will carry over into 2017. That makes having a planner a few months in advance crucial if I’m going to actually be productive in 2017!

This post may contain affiliate links to stuff I love. It doesn't charge you any extra, but it will help support this blog and my family.

If you haven’t seen it, I recently launched a 2017 printable planner for bloggers and work from home moms. I surveyed a ton of blogger moms and moms who work from home to find out what all those other planners are missing.

The first thing I heard from work at home moms was that those other planners are crazy expensive. Think upwards of $85 and easily over $100 after customization. And, even after being customized, those other planners aren’t really suiting their day-to-day needs as bloggers and mom business owners.

They also came back to me with a ton of awesome ideas!!! I created the pages they needed, and now you can find everything you need to run a business at home in this one planner. (pssst, and if you don’t see it, let me know and I can probably make it for you!)

I had a great response to the planner launch and wanted to give all my planner peeps some tips and tricks to DIY an awesome planner book that will last all year.

Step 1. Print it.

Print out your planner (if you’re using my blogging printable planner, just follow the instructions included with the download). If you’re using your own printer, paper, and ink, you’ll be surprised how much it doesn’t cost. I have used 3rd party ink from Amazon for years, and it’s never failed me for 1/5 of the price.

Step 2. Decide on your binding.

To DIY an amazing planner, you first want to decide if you want a 3 ring binder or a spiral binding. Both of them have their advantages.

If you’re like me, and have a problem with commitment, you might want to go with a 3 ring binder. I actually like that I can move pages/sections at will, and hold extra bulky pages in a holding place until I’m ready to use them

Hang with me here: think about the daily/weekly insert pages. I like to plan my months ahead quickly without having to flip through a bunch of empty weekly planning pages. So, I can keep my extras tucked behind the months, and move them in between the month pages as I’m working into the months. It saves me a ton of time by not needing to flip through those empty daily/weekly planner pages.

But, there is a ton of grace and beauty in a spiral binding. The last 3 years I have used a spiral binding from FedEx Office. I get the plastic cover/backing and the whole planner flows together like one big chunky book. I can flip as needed and it’s “my book.”

I think it costs something like $5-$10 to have it spiral bound (depending on your cover and book size, I think) and is totally worth it if you’re ready for that level of commitment. Spring for the frosted plastic cover. It’s so beautiful and worth it.

You also have limitless choices to go with arc binding, disc-bound, or other binding systems (like the Happy Planner). And be flexible to choose what works for you, despite what comes with each system. Most dividers and covers are punchable these days, meaning, just because it comes with a 3 hole punch in the divider doesn’t mean you can’t also use arc binding.

Which leads me to my next step.

Step 3. Choose your sections and dividers.

Don’t get it bound yet!

Pick out some divider pages. You need to choose your binding first because you might fall in love with a three ring binder and want dividers to coordinate.

Either way, Choose dividers that have colors that you love. If you’re not into neon colors, definitely don’t get neon colored dividers because that’s what the office supply store has available. You’ll be kicking yourself around March when you’re sick of looking at them. And the same goes for text on those dividers. If you don’t want numbers (I know I don’t!), then don’t settle.

Amazon has a ton of beautiful choices. My favorites are these from Martha Stewart. The colors are perfect for happy flair. I also really like these from Avery because of their calm colors.

And for heaven’s sake, pick plastic. You do want this planner to make it through the year, right?

Step 4. Find a cover page.

Sure, there’s a cover page for the planner, but go on over to Pinterest and find a quote that rocks your world. Or at least inspires you. Print that out and enjoy it this year. And if you’re inserting this blogging planner into another planner system, choose a design that makes you happy. 🙂 That’s important, you know.

Step 5. Get it bound.

A good 3 hole punch really won’t take you too long (think 5 minutes) to punch through the entire year’s worth of the planner if you’re putting it into a 3 ring binder.

And if you’re taking it to an office supply store to be bound, just be sure you have your pages (and dividers) in order before handing it over to them. You don’t want to be that girl with all her stuff spread out all over the counter with the workers waiting for you to get your act together, right?

Let’s not talk about how I know all about that scenario. :/

And if you’re using a planner system, your steps are pretty similar to the 3 hole punch. Just punch, insert, and get to work!

There you have it! Those are my 5 easy steps to save a ton of money by DIYing your own custom planner!

I just know that once you get your planner up and running, you’ll be saving a ton of time checking off those boxes and actually being productive working toward your goals this year!

What tips did you pick up along the way? Did you choose a cute 3 ring binder or spiral? And what cover page did you choose? I want to see!!! I still need to pick mine out for next year!

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Get great deals on Amazon for Christmas

10 / 7 / 1611 / 12 / 18

I love shopping for deals on Amazon for Christmas gifts. Online holiday shopping is absolutely amazing. I don’t have to waste gas driving around looking for ideas or deals. I don’t even have to change out of my pajamas. What could be better than that?

Getting awesome deals. That’s even better than that. Doing holiday shopping online can be a bit overwhelming if you don’t have an easy system in place.

This post may contain affiliate links to stuff I love. It doesn't charge you any extra, but it will help support this blog and my family.

I keep multiple wish lists, and they carry over from one Christmas to the next. I inevitably wish for a lot of presents that never make it under the Christmas tree, so I just keep those on my wish list until next year. If they are still relevant ideas, that’s that many gifts I don’t have to hunt down.

Not only that, but I learned that Amazon will let me know when something in my wish list goes on sale throughout the year. Score!

Amazon also tracks how much the item was originally when you added it to your wish list, so you can easily scroll through and see if anything is marked down and by what percentage.

You can see in this example, that this toy was 121.67 when I added it, and now it’s 23% off that price. A whopping 23% off is a pretty big deal when you’re talking about a big ticket present like this one.

If you didn’t have your Christmas list for this year set in January, don’t worry! There is still time to save money on Christmas presents by getting deals on Amazon. But you do need to start planning right now.

Here’s why: Black Friday isn’t what it once was. And Cyber Monday is not what it once was. Retailers are starting Christmas sales earlier every year, and Amazon is no different. They start Lightning Sales in early November, so be ready before then with your wishlist.

Create your wishlist early so you can be notified if something in your wishlist is a Lightning Deal without even needing to watch the Lightning deals. It’s still a great idea to keep your eye out for the named sale days (I stay by the computer all day during Melissa & Doug sale days), just to see if there is an item for sale that is comparable to the item on your list.

The How To

So, here’s all you need to do to snag a deal on Amazon for the holidays.

Take time this week or weekend to shop around for gifts you would like to buy.
Add them to an Amazon wishlist. Name it something like 2018 Christmas.
Check sale sites for deal days for product sales on Amazon you would likely be interested in (or categories you would be interested in). Add those days to your calendar.
Sit back and wait for notifications from Amazon or your calendar when a sale hits that can save you some money.
Check in occasionally to see if anything is on sale on your wish list.
Enjoy dragging the huge pile of boxes inside your house while you’re wearing your pajamas.
Use all that money you saved to celebrate your Pro Amazon Shopper Status you just attained by rockstar shopping for Christmas deals on Amazon.

Pin this on your Christmas board so you don’t forget to do this next year. 😉

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DIY Baby Album Envelope How To

9 / 8 / 169 / 28 / 16

DIY baby album envelopes (pockets) are my favorite newest addition to my baby book for Graham! I love keeping stuff from events or milestones. And, let’s be real honest, $6 paper pockets (plus shipping!) in every chapter of my book really isn’t in the budget. Plus, I don’t always want the pieces from different milestones to share one big pocket.

So, I came up with a cheap and easy DIY baby album pocket that only takes about 3 minutes to make. Perfect for a new mom! Or a not-new-mom-that’s-just-busy-aka-real-life.

This post may contain affiliate links to stuff I love. It doesn't charge you any extra, but it will help support this blog and my family.

Here’s how it goes. It’s so simple and easy you can make as many as you want. And cheap to boot!

To make your DIY baby album pocket, you’ll need:

paper bags
hole punch
baby album (mine is from 2iggles on Etsy)
printer (if you want to get all fancy with it)

Step 1

Get your paper bag and keep it folded flat. Lay it on your baby book and line the bottom of the bag up with the bottom of the book pages.

Step 2

Fold the excess hanging over the top of the page over so that it isn’t hanging off the page any more.

Step 3

Mark the binder ring locations on the bag lightly with a pencil.

Step 4

Use your hole punch to punch holes at the spots where you marked, just like you would any other paper.

Step 5

Fill your baby album pocket with your keepsakes. I found that a plain letter size paper fits beautifully if it’s folded into quarters (in half twice).

Step 6

Put it in your binder and cherish that thing forever.

See? It really is the easiest DIY baby album project you’ll probably ever do. And since you can print on paper bags pretty easily, there’s no limit to the cool things you could do with this DIY baby album idea.

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Buying Appliances You Will Actually Use

9 / 5 / 169 / 6 / 16

I am a sucker for kitchen buying appliances as much as the next girl.

Do I have a Kitchenaid Mixer in my basement storage? Why, yes. Yes, I do.

And do I have an entire cabinet in my kitchen solely devoted to appliances? Yes.

Do I need a butler’s pantry just to hold my appliances and baking materials? What a dream that would be!

This post may contain affiliate links to stuff I love. It doesn't charge you any extra, but it will help support this blog and my family.

But I’ve discovered the trick to buying appliances that I will actually use. You’ll never believe it. It’s so simple. It’s so easy. It’s almost unbelievable, but it works.

Buy the smallest ones you can find. Really.

The Nutribullet is used pretty often in my kitchen. A lot more often than my beehive blender. Why? Because I can whip it out quickly, make a batch of something yummy and put it back.

The beehive is heavy and bulky. Do I really want to bend over and pick up a boulder? No, thanks.

When we had Graham, I was making his baby food. I needed a food processor (don’t try the blender for baby food. It’s a no-go.) So, naturally, I was wondering if a larger food processor would be better. I could make larger batches at once = less time cooking = might get a shower.

But I opted for the mini food processor. Greatest baby brain decision I made! I love that little thing! I whip it out all the time for making salsa and even desserts (Oreo crumbles, anyone?). It’s so lightweight. It’s easy to clean in the dishwasher. Plus, who can resist teal blue? AmIright?

I mentioned a have Kitchenaid mixer. Well, I also have a vintage Sunbeam stand mixer, too. She’s a chrome vintage beaut! I mean, she belongs in a 1950s Sunbeam commercial somewhere.

But when I need to mix up some cream cheese and vanilla pudding, do you think I’m reaching for that stand mixer? Or am I grabbing the little hand mixer? Most definitely. My little hand mixer wins out almost every time.

If you’re anything like me, you want fast and easy. When you think of a 12 cup food processor do you think fast and easy? Me neither. What about a mini 4 cup food processor. Do you think fast and easy? Me too.

See? It’s one of those untold secrets of life. But now I just told you. So you’re in on it.

Consider yourself permanently freed from buying huge appliances that could take over your life. You’re free to put your Kitchenaid into storage, now, too.

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30 Easy Home Staging Tips

9 / 1 / 163 / 21 / 18

If you’re just starting home staging, check out this post about the basic process I used to stage our house to sell in 36 hours and get multiple offers.

Warning: The before photos of our house are so embarrassing. There was a lot of “life” happening in that house with everything from a sick family (complete with ER visits), Christmas, moving, renovating…you name it. Look ahead with grace. Yikes.

When you’re ready to begin preparing your home for the market, the absolute first thing you should do is go outside and stand around in your front yard. Imagine you are a buyer coming into the home for the first time. Pay attention to where your eyes naturally look and take lots of notes.

Walk into every room and imagine you are someone with different tastes and styles. What stands out at you? What could be toned down to appeal to everyone, but still remain fresh? Did you see that spot on the carpet? Yikes. Better put that on the list…

Be mean. Look at your home objective and critically. If you’re having a hard time seeing it objectively, get it “ready” in your eyes, then walk around and take some photos. Then, compare photos of your home with photos of other homes that are on the market (just avoid the ones that have been listed for weeks…unless you want your home listed for weeks). The camera doesn’t lie when it comes to clutter.

Yikes. Do you see all that clutter that just happened in our house?! I told you the camera doesn’t lie.

The great news is that home staging doesn’t have to be expensive. Sometimes, all it takes is removing some of your personal items and giving everything a good scrub-down for your home to be warm and inviting. Even an older home can be market-ready with the right attention, even if it doesn’t have granite countertops and hardwood floors.

Here is a quick list of things to take care of around the house as you go.

Kitchen

Clear off the tops of the cabinets.
Clear off the entire countertop.
Choose the one or two cabinets/drawers you think buyers will check and organize those.
Organize pantry.
Make sure the top of your refrigerator is cleaned off if it is accessible.

Bathrooms

Clear countertops except decorative soap dispensers and simple decor.
Remove plungers and trash cans.
Remove rugs.
Hide extra toilet paper.
Replace decorative shower curtains with simple white shower curtains.
Clear out all soaps (and medicines), and replace with spa-looking soaps.

Bedrooms

Remove everything except main furniture (dresser, nightstands, and bed).
Put your most luxurious light-colored comforter on the bed.
European pillows are your friend (at least 2 for queen, 3 for king).
Pick up all kids toys. If it can’t fit on a shelf it should go in a box.
Replace blackout curtains with white curtains (I got ours from Ikea).
Remove everything from dresser and nightstands except decorative elements.
Remove 1/2 to 2/3 of clothes and items in closets.

Living Room/Common Areas

Pick up all toys.
Minimize electronics and wires.
Add throw pillows to couches/chairs.
Move furniture to center of room in a cozy gathering area and remove all furniture that doesn’t fit into the simple layout.
Add decorative elements like flowers.

Outside

Pick up all clutter including toys and decorative elements.
Plant fresh flowers for a pop of color.
Add fresh pillows to outdoor furniture.

Right before showing

Replace used towels with fresh decorative towels.
Hide the trash can (or take it out of the house altogether). Even if it’s large.
Turn on all lights.
Open all blinds and curtains.
Set thermostat to comfortable temperature.

Staging our home with a toddler and pets around has been a major project, but I know it is the reason we received multiple offers at a price we thought was over market value. The time I put into staging our home proved to be completely worth it in the end.

Do you need a general overview of how we staged our house to sell for full price? Head on over to this post to read more about the overall process of how to stage a house to sell fast.

Want a little more help?

If you’ve already given staging your house a try, but you still aren’t sure if you’re doing the right things and just need a second opinion, I totally get it. Sometimes it helps a ton to have an outside perspective, especially in a house. You have a tendency to see the day-to-day messes, while an outsider will have an overall perspective.

By the second house I staged in a year, I had the listing process down to a science. Similar to the rules of home decor, there are rules to home staging. I understand the rules and can help you sell your house in no time.

For this month only, I am opening a few free mini home staging consultations! I am offering a free mini-consultation (worth $149) to give you custom advice on what to do with your home.

You can send me up to 5 pictures of what your house looks like now, and I will respond back with a list of items you can do in each room to get it listing-ready. Think action items like “Declutter desk” “Hide/remove toilet bowl brush” and “Move sofa to “x” location.” You’ll get steps you can actually take to get your home show-ready in no time with no guesswork involved.

To reserve a free mini-consultation, you just need to hit this box and drop in your email address to claim your spot. You’ll hear back from me soon with our next steps so that we can get you the feedback you’ve been needing.

So, if your house is currently on the market (or you wish it was), this time next week you could be preparing for appraisals, inspections, and closings. Or you could be wishing that you knew what to do to get your house show-ready before it hit the market three weeks ago.

Which one do you want to be?

I think I know the answer.

I’ve been there. Let me help you.

Sign me up!

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Earn Disney gift cards for (almost) free

4 / 6 / 1610 / 3 / 17

I wrote a few days ago about how we’re turning our mold remediation into half of a Disney vacation by earning free Disney gift cards, but I’ve gotten some questions about it, so I’m going to explain it in more detail.

Here we go.

This post may contain affiliate links to stuff I love. It doesn't charge you any extra, but it will help support this blog and my family.

First, let me say that we are Dave Ramsey people and don’t believe debt is a tool. Dave is almost always right. He said rich people didn’t get rich with credit card rewards. And he’s right. But I am wearing a beautiful diamond ring on my finger because of credit card rewards.

See? I love it.

Here’s how we are making $1250 with credit cards to pay for our Disney vacation with Disney gift cards.

First, we opened two Chase Premier cards with a 50,000 points bonus. They run these promos every few months on various cards. You just have to watch for them.

There is a $99 annual fee for each card. That means, just by opening the card, you are spending $100 for each card. But keep reading.

Then, we spent $2000 on each card within the first three months. I was desperate to take our young family to Disney before the flying elephants lost their sparkle, so I was going to shift whatever money around I had to to make this happen. I was going to buy gas and groceries on it, our cell phone bill, cable, anything I thought would get us closer to spending the $2000 in three months. It might be a pain, but it was worth it in my mind to take our family to Disney. We actually ended up having to spend exactly $4,000 on mold remediation, so I got through step 2 pretty quickly. If you’re doing this with bills, I would apply for one card, spend your $2,000 and then open the second card.

For this to be worth it, you need to only spend what you would have normally spent on your budget, and pay your card off immediately.

Then, we wait. It takes about a month or so for the points to show up in your Rapid Rewards account.

Then, you go pick out the gift cards you want to trade your points in for. You could take this opportunity to pay for your airfare and hotel for your vacation, but we want to stay on property and will drive, so we preferred Disney gift cards.

Except they don’t have Disney gift cards available to exchange for points. Now what? This is where it gets a little complicated, so hang on tight.

You can either exchange them for Target gift cards, or you could trade them for Wal-mart gift cards. After you get the Target or Walmart gift cards in the mail, you take them to the store to purchase Disney gift cards.

I chose Walmart gift cards because you can take them to Sam’s club and guy $150 in Disney gift cards for about $143. That means I can get $1050 in gift cards for pretty much free (or for $200 in fees for the sticklers).

And I only spent what I would have normally spent, but will get to use the $1050 in Disney gift cards to pay for our resort, theme park tickets or food! Or for souvenirs in the park.

If you’re really brave, you could do a similar thing with the Disney credit card. They are currently offering $200 back in gift cards with $500 spent in the first few months. I also got a bonus offer in the mail for an extra $50. So, that’s $250 back in gift cards to pay for our summer vacation with the Disney credit card. Not a bad deal either!

And that is how we are paying for our Disney vacation with our credit card bonus points and Disney gift cards. It’s our lemonade to the lemons life gave us! We can’t wait to ride those elephants with our mouse ears on! 😀

**UPDATE** We JUST got home from Disney yesterday and I can’t wait to share all the exciting things I learned. I’ll be sharing how to get extra bonus fastpasses, what not to forget, how to get all the best seats for the shows, and how to make your Disney vacation even more magical! If you want an update when the post is ready, just comment below and I’ll let you know (in an email) when it’s posted!

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How to stage a house to sell in a day

4 / 2 / 163 / 21 / 18

Home Staging To Sell Your House Fast

If you’re doing some home staging to sell your house fast, you’re in the right place. I’m going to share my favorite home staging tips for a quick sale! We just listed our house for sale. It’s been a long journey to this point, but when all is said and done, we have a beautiful house as an end product. And staging the house was just the cherry on top. We sold our last house in 36 hours and this house already has 3 offers on it!

This is the general overview of how to stage a home. Check out this post if you’re looking for a detailed step-by-step list of how to stage your house to sell.

This post may contain affiliate links to stuff I love. It doesn't charge you any extra, but it will help support this blog and my family.

Steps to Stage A House To Sell Fast

Get a vision of what it should be.

Think of a vacation rental or your favorite homes in magazines. When you are listing your home for sale, it should look like a vacation rental. It is clean, it’s organized, and it’s decorated. It’s simple but not bland. It’s equipped but not cluttered.

The Most Important thing: Prepacking!!

The absolute most important element of home staging is decluttering. If you don’t need it every single day, it shouldn’t be out. Would you pack it to take on vacation? Nope? Then you don’t need it while your house is on the market.

And the things that you will need the next few weeks (like a toothbrush) need to be tucked away in a proper place (like a drawer). If you absolutely must keep something out that is not solely decorative, put it in a basket. Every surface in your home should be for decorative purposes only (except maybe your cable box under your tv). Even your soap dispensers should be simple but decorative. These soap dispensers are inexpensive and will appeal to almost anyone.

If you aren’t committed to pre-packing and decluttering, then why list your house for sale at all? Commitment to a show-worthy house will make is sell-able. So, either, you’re in, or you’re not. So decide now because if you can’t pre-pack, then you aren’t ready for the next step of staging a house….

Take everything away. AKA Declutter again.

This part hurts a little so get ready. You’ll need to pack away everything that you either don’t use every day or doesn’t make your house beautiful. Get a stack of boxes and moving supplies (this kit makes it easy to get started). Make a pile in the center of each room with all the things that did not fit in their proper place (like extra towels, knick knacks, and appliances (fans, humidifiers, toasters, etc)). You are going to put each of these things in a box. Clear off your entire kitchen counter top and upper cabinets, too. No, it doesn’t really look that nice. It needs to go.

After you have your pile of extras, start boxing it away. I like to keep my boxes per room (bathroom extras), not per category (small appliances). If you mix rooms, it will take longer to unbox the mixed up boxes later. I prepacked and decluttered about 20 boxes worth in both homes I staged recently. This is hard work but selling your house for full price is worth it, right?

Decluttering is the absolute most important part of home staging.

Put a few things back.

Before you tape up your boxes, look at your pile of items and begin to replace the necessities. In our first home, I emptied a drawer of extra dish towels to hold all of my large kitchen utensils like wooden spoons that I used every day because my spoons just didn’t look very nice. But this time around I had a cute little crock and kept them on the counter because they fit in with the decor and made me feel like cooking.

stage a house to sell quickly — Staging a kitchen – In our first home, I emptied a drawer of dishtowels to hold all of my large kitchen utensils like wooden spoons that I used everyday. But this time around I had a cute little crock and kept them on the counter because they fit in with the decor.

Decorate in scenes.

After you put the necessities back out on the counter, you can start the fun part: decorating. I didn’t spend a lot on our decor for home staging. Instead, I got all of my decor items out and put them where I could see them. Then, I went around the house creating vignettes in each room. A vignette is like a little picture-perfect scene that’s part of a bigger picture.

To create a home staging vignette, you want to look at each large piece of furniture or decor in the room as an anchor. You also want to make sure you have enough similar pieces to fill that particular room.

Example: Even though I’m trying to phase teal out of my home decor (the hubs isn’t a fan :/), I have a lot of teal decor items left that I just can’t part with. It was an easy decision to use teal as an accent color throughout the house since it tied each room together, making the house feel more cohesive. I also moved the furniture around the house so that no room had only one type of furniture material (e.g. the black dresser in the foyer came out of my son’s all-wood bedroom so it wouldn’t stand out).

After you have your furniture and accent colors ready, you just build up some height and soften it with some greenery. Pairs are romantic (good for the master bedroom) and 3s or 5s are easy on the eyes. I also tried to have at least one (albeit fake) plant or flower in each room. Each piece of furniture should be a complete, but simple, ensemble.

Don’t forget about your walls. Leaving empty walls can leave a house feeling cold and unloved. And, I’m not going to lie, there were some strategic placements of art that said “Home Sweet Home” and art about embracing possibilities, only one chance, & making life beautiful. Did it make a difference? Probably not, but the wall art definitely softened each room.

Are you feeling like your home decor just doesn’t measure up or you need something extra to freshen up the space? I totally get that, too. We purchased a comforter set (similar to this one) that said “I’m luxurious” to our home shoppers.

If you know you need something but aren’t sure what, check out my post on my favorite home staging necessities.

Hide the ugly.

Let’s be honest. Life isn’t always magazine-worthy, but deep down in there, don’t we all dream of living a mess-free clutter-less life with zero maintenance issues? That ideal is part of what you are selling to potential buyers. “Living here is a breeze. Look, I don’t even have trash.” Yep, you read that right. I even hide the trash can. I also use decor items as an opportunity to hide the imperfections in our home that give it it’s…uhum…character.

Take my steps, for example. (Pardon the hazy photo.)

You think these plants are merely decorative? Think again. The bottom step needs replacing soon. The watering can takes the attention away from where a sliver of a step came off. And that stately boxwood at the top is cleverly (sort-of) concealing a hole we patched in the wall. Tread carefully here, though. You don’t want to draw attention to the flaws. Just pull some of the attention away from the mundane and make the potential buyers’ senses come alive.

Skip the extras.

You want to work in groups of 3’s and keep things simple. You want potential buyers to see the floor and see themselves in the space. You’re selling square footage and the hope of a nice home. If you wouldn’t see a vignette like that in a magazine, skip it. NOTHING is better than something wrong.

I really wanted to make this little entrance more inviting, but I just couldn’t find the right wreath or element to go here (everything at the stores was covered in Easter eggs this time of year), so I just left it alone. It eventually did get a pail of white flowers to hold it open, though.

Clean.

After you get your whole house decluttered and vignetted up, it should be crazy easy to clean. (Want to know why you’ll never buy Mr. Clean Magic Erasers ever again?) There’s always a few more details that need to be taken care of (like those left-over decor items). After you box those up, it’s time to call your Realtor!

If you’re ready for even more step by step help, check out this post for a list of steps to stage your house to sell.

Ask a pro (or at least a friend).

For this month only, I am opening a few free mini home staging consultations! I am offering a free mini-consultation (worth $149) to give you custom advice on what to do with your home.

Which one do you want to be?

I think I know the answer.

I’ve been there. Let me help you.

Sign me up!

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Turning $4000 of life’s lemons into lemonade

3 / 19 / 164 / 6 / 16

Today was a bittersweet day for us. Our house was remediated yesterday. The crew was really sweet. They made our (sheetless) beds, cleaned our rooms up, and even fixed some things that were broken around our house. But that kind of work doesn’t come without a price.

This post may contain affiliate links to stuff I love. It doesn't charge you any extra, but it will help support this blog and my family.

A hefty price, at that. It actually broke our hearts to have some of our worst fears confirmed a few months ago. We spent 5 months pouring love into (renovating) this house and got to spend only 2 sick months in it before we moved out “just to see” if the house was making us sick. Suspicions confirmed.

Sometimes life gives you lemons and you’ve just got to put on your big girl panties and deal with the bitterness. But, the good news is that if you can find some sugar and water, you can come out with lemonade.

Our lemonade comes in the form of credit cards. For our Dave Ramsey family, this is taboo, but it’s the silver lining for us at the moment. Yes, this house put us in serious debt. I wouldn’t recommend it. But, I would sometimes recommend using stellar credit to your advantage. Here’s how we did it.

life lemons

Right now (and often), Southwest and Chase are offering their Southwest Premier card with 50,000 bonus points. And the Rapid Rewards program is awesome. We used it for our 5 year anniversary to upgrade our wedding rings and I wear the bonus from that credit card on my finger every day. Real diamonds and gold.

It doesn’t come without strings, though. The first string is that you have to spend $2,000 with the credit card in the first 3 months of having it open (the details vary). And the second string is it comes with a $99 annual fee. So, basically, when you open the card, you already owe them 100 bucks.

But here’s the good part. 50,000 rapid reward points comes out to $500 in gift cards! You read that right! So, I pay $100 and get $500 back in gift cards. It’s not a bad deal. And if you’re like us, you can get one for each person. That comes out to $200 in fees spent for $1000 back in gift cards.

earn disney gift cards

Don’t forget you have to spend $2000 for each card, though. Before we found out about our house situation, I planned to make the $2000 happen by putting everything I could on the card, including bills. But, it just so happens that our remediation is $4,000. See where I’m going with this? We’ve already got our spending taken care of!!! Sugar for our lemonade!

The next thing we have to do is sell our house and pay off the hefty balance, which should happen in the next month or two. And then, we pick out our gift cards! Hooray!

So, in essence, we’re spending $4200 ($4k for remediation and $200 in fees for 2 cards) and getting mold remediation and $1000 in gift cards. That’s really not a bad deal when you think about it.

Want me to make it even sweeter? Because, I mean, who doesn’t like a cherry on top? I’m going to get Walmart gift cards. Not that sweet? Well, Sam’s accepts Walmart gift cards. And guess what they sell at a discount? Disney gift cards. It’s about 5% off (just like at Target if you have a Red Card). So, if I spend my $1,000 at Sam’s on Disney gift cards, I’ll be getting $1,050 to spend on our Disney vacation.

I know. Our sad mold remediation just turned into half of a Disney vacation that we were praying to be able to take next year already anyway. Now, we’re just praying that our cute little (healthy) house sells now. God is good!