Favorite Buys on Amazon Even if They Aren't on Prime Day Sale!

Amazon Prime Day is known for its incredible deals and irresistible discounts, but there are certain items I'd buy on Amazon even without the allure of a sale. Whether it's because of their exceptional quality, daily utility, or the joy they bring into my life, these products are worth every penny, regardless of any special promotions. From essential gadgets to home comfort items, let's dive into my top Amazon picks that are worth the splurge any day of the year.

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DIY Projects You Can Tackle Yourself

Whether you’ve just purchased a new home or your home of 10+ years could use some sprucing up, it can be overwhelming sometimes. If the list of house projects is starting to give you anxiety, this is your opportunity to tackle some DIY projects, even if you feel like the least handy person around the home. You don’t need someone to paint your walls or tile a backsplash! With patience and a little time, you can tackle all of these yourself! Making practical and stylish additions to your home can feel intimidating. But these DIY projects are simple enough that you can tackle them yourself!

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Fall Finds for a Cozy Home: Transition Between Summer and Fall

Fall is a great time to really start to focus on home. There's a cozy factor I think people fall in love with as the weather starts to turn and there is a real desire to take advantage of the cooler weather to feather your nest so to speak and get ready to enjoy being inside those four walls you've created. I know I always put off a lot of home projects during the spring and summer because I would rather opt to be outside, but this time of year always has me turning my focus back on home inside my walls. Here are some of my favorite fall finds.

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Thinking of Remodeling Your Kitchen? Start Here First!

A kitchen remodel can be an exciting venture, but it can also be overwhelming without the proper planning and understanding of the process. And even then you should expect the unexpected! We spent several years planning and researching and we still ended up having to fire our general contractor weeks into the project and we lived in a construction zone for months! These are just a few things that we learned when we took on a kitchen remodel. Hopefully you can learn from our mistakes and take away a few things that will help you along the way too!

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Do You Really Need to Hire an Interior Designer for a Kitchen Remodel?

When we bought our current home nearly 13 years ago, I never really liked the kitchen. It was a custom home, it just wasn't our custom home. The kitchen was spacious and had a lot of upgrades, but the cabinets were dark and when the weather is dreary nine months out of the year in the Seattle area, dark is the last thing I wanted! But the home was relatively new, and I had a really hard time coming to terms with ripping out perfectly good materials just to replace them with something different. I spent years trying to come up with alternatives to create a space I would like better {paint the cabinets?, add a cabinet box?, remove the tile?, add new accessories?}, but the discontent was still there. The years passed and I started to get more serious about doing a kitchen remodel. I had a few different eyes on the project and took advantage of free consultations from interior designers, to contractors to kitchen designers with a cabinet company, because I wanted to try to see what my options were. Here is how I ultimately decided to hire an interior designer for our project and I have zero regrets! You might choose a different option, and I'll lay out some thoughts on what might work best for any budget during a home remodel.

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Preparing Your Home for Vacation

Preparing for a vacation can be a lot of work. Whether packing up the car, hitting the road, or dusting off your passport for a long flight, taking a vacation requires more than just preparing an itinerary. Your home will be left vacant while you’re gone, and you want to ensure your home is ready for it! Here are my best tips to help you prepare your home for vacation.

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10 Habits of Lazy Women Who Always Have Clean Homes

We all have that one friend in our lives. They make cleaning their home look so attainable yet they are so lazy! It might feel like these women never leave the couch from their Netflix show, yet their homes are spotless! You don’t have to be a professional cleaner to have a clean home, in fact, here are habits of lazy women who always have clean homes that you can do yourself! 

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Top Tips for Setting Up a Temporary Kitchen During a Home Remodel

"You're moving out right?" That's the question we got more than once when we talked about the scope of our home remodel. We are several weeks into a full kitchen remodel and not only are we still living in our home, but I'm also working at home in an active construction zone. In addition to a full kitchen remodel we are replacing all of the floors in our whole house as well as remodeling a half bath. Before the contractor even stepped foot in the door, we planned out how we were going to make a temporary kitchen work in our home for our family. We don't eat out a lot, and so far, we have yet to grab take-out, so I'd say these tips for setting up a temporary kitchen during a home remodel are working for us, and I think they'd work for you too!

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You Can Sell Your Used Kitchen Cabinets and Granite: Everything You Need to Know!

In late 2010, we purchased a new home. It was a custom home that was just a few years old. Here's the thing. I never really liked the kitchen. It's just not really my style and it was dark and Seattle is dark enough for nine months out of the year, that I dreamed of something lighter and brighter. The real dilemma for me was that we had a really nice kitchen. Top-of-the-line materials were used and I have always been of the mindset that you use what you have. Plus, I didn't want to see perfectly good materials ending up in a landfill. I'm not sure when the bug was put in my ear that I could sell our used kitchen, but I have sold just about everything else so why couldn't I sell our kitchen? I'm sharing all my tips and tricks so you can sell your old cabinets and granite, put a little money back in your pocket for your upcoming remodel, AND keep perfectly good materials out of the landfill! It's a real win all around!

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Tips for Growing Tulips

Tulips are one of the prettiest bulb flowers with deep, rich colors of almost every hue. While tulips are perennial, they often have to be grown as annuals, especially in hotter climates that do not really suit them. To start them off many gardeners in temperate regions need to place the bulbs in the crisper section of the refrigerator for 10-14 days. Thankfully, in the Puget Sound region where I live, tulips grow great. We even have an annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival that draws crowds from all over the world during the month of April. 
Gardeners who live south of the sub-tropical regions should be able to grow tulips. There are more varieties now than there used to be, and these – Single Late Tulips - are better suited to warmer temperatures. They are sometimes called French Tulips or Warm Climate Tulips. Whatever the variety, here are some tips for growing tulips.

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No Spend Challenge Month: Saving Money on Utilities

When I started thinking about the details and the rules I was going to impose during my no spend challenge month, utilities were one thing that came up as a non-negotiable item that would be paid. Regardless if you own a home or are renting, there are monthly bills that come with living somewhere. These utility bills, we will call them, seem hard to budget for, and there is little wiggle room in paying for them. It almost feels like you can't lower your utility bills, but I'm going to help you take a look at a few ways you can lower those standard utility bills to save money.

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10 Things Professionals Do Every Time They Clean a Home

If you’ve ever had your home professionally cleaned before, then you know the fantastic feeling you get from a genuinely spotless home. Professional cleaners do a better job of making our homes sparkle, and despite all my scrubbing and time spent cleaning, this is a reality I’m having a tough time facing. However, if you want to make your home sparkle like a cleaning crew just came through, you don’t need need to hire the professionals! Here are ten things that professionals do every time they clean a home.

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Keeping Your Family Safe with OneLink Smart Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detector

Thank you Onelink by First Alert for sponsoring this post. Add smart protection to your home with the Onelink Smart Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarm.

It started with a beep. I heard it after I walked out of the bathroom that's attached to my bedroom. It came from the carbon monoxide detector that had been sitting quietly in the corner for years. I picked up the detector and rolled it around in my hands. I looked for any sign that there was a low battery that was making it emit the beep but couldn't find any. The carbon monoxide detector had done its job. I called my husband, packed up the kids and we left the house. 

Our home was a few years old when we bought it, and we went through a thorough home inspection. I can only imagine it wasn't the homes first and yet no professional had detected the leak that was happening in our garage when a strange set of circumstances were occurring all at once. Turns out the vent from the furnace wasn't properly sealed and carbon monoxide was being leaked and sucked into our home. The same home we thought was our safe space. 

Things might have ended differently had we not had a carbon monoxide detector to warn us of the dangers and I'll be forever grateful that we had one to keep our family safe. Today I'm sharing everything you need to know about carbon monoxide and how you can protect your family. And why our family home will never be without one!

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Getting the Most out of Your First Home Security System

This is a sponsored post for MONI Smart Security. All opinions are 100% my own. 

One time, my dad was painting the dining room when two police officers suddenly appeared inside the house. We had just moved into a new home with a security system and had not a single clue how to use it. My dad had pushed the window open for some air and a silent alarm went off, alerting the police. This happened not just once but twice before my parents decided to cut the service. We just couldn't figure out how to make a security system work for our family; we had too many false alarms. Fast forward to several decades later, I now have a home and three kids of my own and it's my desire to make our house a safe and secure place for my family to land. We want to be able to have worry-free holidays away and feel secure when we are at home. I'll be honest though, there was a little bit of an adjustment, but here are some tips on how we learned how to get the most out of our first home security system. 

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