Apartment Living: Decor Updates

Yesterday one of my main concerns was getting bedside table lamps to replace the old ones by our bed and a frame for our guestbook. Along the way I found a few other things I didn't know I wanted until I saw them....

I started the day going to HomeGoods but they didn't have two of any lamp that I really loved and no frames that were big enough (24x36) for our guestbook. From there I ventured on to AC Moore and Target and think I came home with great stuff.

Here's my pile when I got home. I am one of those people who insists on carrying everything in at once. No second trips for this girl right here!

The first thing I picked up was completely unplanned but when I saw it on clearance I was excited for the subtle change it would make in our bathroom.

We had a blue bath mat here which didn't really go with the shower curtain. I swapped it for this $10 white one that came from the HomeGoods clearance section and am loving the small change.

I took a quick look in the pillow section and found a set of two that I thought would look great on my couch.

The gray color works well and it's a larger version of the same design we have on the pillows that came with our couch.

I am so glad that we were able to get rid of the blue pillows that once at here. They were totally destroyed and we desperately needed an upgrade.

When I walked into AC Moore I didn't realize that they were having a liquidation sale. Everything was 25-80% off and it was insane in the store. I was mainly in there for a frame but managed to find this G that has waves on it. I was looking for a G for our living room decor for awhile now but never could find one I liked but this one is perfect! It goes with our decor so well.

This is the old broken lamp on my nightstand. Mine no longer worked so it was just there to match the one of Tim's side. I am not a fan of the gold at all and really wanted a white lamp, so that is just what I got!

I love how simple and clean this is! I replaced Tim's too but I didn't take a picture of his side of the bed.

Last but not least, our guestbook!

Our guestbook from our wedding is 24x36 making it difficult to frame. It's also made of wood so it's difficult to get it in a frame with the backing. I considered getting it custom framed but I didn't want to spend a ton of money. Since frames were 50% off at AC Moore I decided to just grab one and give it a try. The back unfortunately wouldn't fit on correctly but the guestbook itself fit perfectly inside the frame.

I used my hot glue gun to glue all the fasteners to the backing since they wouldn't fit in like normal.

The back stays on nicely but I am nervous to hang it by the back so I ordered some wall fasteners from Amazon which will be coming on Tuesday and we will get it hung on the wall!

That's what new decor-wise around here. Have you picked up any home decor lately?

A Quick Broom Closet Fix With Command Hooks!

Today I want to share a quick fix I made to our broom closet! 

If you've been following along you know that I'm passionate about cleaning and organizing. The closet in our hallway is half a broom closet and half a linen closet. The linen closet side is pretty organized but the broom closet side was driving me nuts. When I went to pull out the vacuum the mop would attack me! I needed to get this cleaned up a little bit.

Here's where we started:

Just a disorganized mess!

At Walmart I picked up these command hooks. I picked up two packs so I could hang four items and once I put them to good use they made things look amazing!

Check it out! I'm so excited to get these off the floor and on the wall.

These command hooks are labeled heavy so I'm hoping they hold up nicely.

So much better right?! I am very happy how this turned out especially since I can't make any major structural changes in the apartment. I really love making small changes that make a big impact.

Have you done any small  projects that made a huge difference in your living space?

Apartment Living: Updating The Walls

I finally got motivated to update our apartment walls! 

I had quite a few pictures from our wedding and honeymoon that I wanted to display. 

This frame was given to us by Brittni for Christmas and it took me a long time to get it put up! I ordered pictures off the Shutterfly app, did you know that you could order pictures for free? You just pay shipping for each order which is great. This frame is now on the wall in our guest room.

I ordered this canvas from CVS. There was a great deal and I got this 11x17 for only $12! I hung this up in our middle room.

The last place I updated recently was our gallery wall. This is our "adventure wall" where I like to display pictures of us in places we've explored. Now that we went to five different islands for our honeymoon I had a lot more places to display. This wall always makes me want to go more places!

Have you updated your wall decor lately? I'm running out of walls to decorate! I still need to hang up our guestbook but that involves bringing it to get custom framed!

Home Additions

I am all over the place lately! This week expect another post on Friday in lieu of this past Mondays post. I try really hard to keep to a blogging schedule but since this is simply my hobby I don't always have time!

Today I want to show you a few new additions to our apartment. Our house hunt has been going veryyyy slowly and initially I was not purchasing anything for the apartment but then I decided since we weren't going anywhere right away I needed to make our space work better for us.

The first purchase was from At Home. This past winter I picked up two aloe plants and they have been just sitting on the floor under the window. I finally gave in and purchased this to hold my plants. The planter in the center was also purchased from At Home a the same time as the table. The other two planters were purchased from the Target Dollar Spot and I love how they look all together. I love that this table is plain and works with our furniture no matter what room it ends up in.

I always just draped the blankets over our couch and was getting sick of that look so I picked up this basket at HomeGoods. I love the look of it and it holds 4-5 blankets which is perfect. 

Lastly I picked up this oil diffuser from Vasseur Essentials and it looks gorgeous in our bedroom! I also picked up the day and night kit with tons of different oils. 

What have you picked up for your home lately?

Spring Cleaning: My Beauty Products

Today we are talking about decluttering beauty and personal care products. I keep most of my products in my Alex 9 Drawer system that I purchased at Ikea. Unfortunately, this drawer system became overcrowded and I started storing items in my linen closet as well. I would like to eventually get everything into this drawer system but I have stockpiled quite a bit and it won't all fit at this point.

So let's get started!

This system fits nicely in our middle room. Our apartment has a weird "dining room" that we don't use as a dining room. We have a desk in here as well as my Alex 9 drawer, my jewelry armoire, and then some kitchen storage on the opposite wall. It is definitely utilized as a multi-use room but has worked for us so far.

The first thing I did was take pictures of all of the drawers in their original state. 

Everything was pretty messy and honestly there was lots of samples that were super old and had never touched. I was surprised by the amount of stuff I managed to get rid of.

After using my Mrs. Meyers mint multi-surface cleaner and a Makers microfiber cloth to wipe down each drawer I put everything back in neatly.

I managed to get almost everything on the top into drawers which was great!

So much better!

If you are interested in seeing the process and all the stuff that I got rid of you can check out my Youtube video.

What is on your spring cleaning list?

Spring Cleaning: The Bathroom

The bathroom is one of those rooms that you clean every week but definitely needs a deep clean every once in awhile. I knew I wanted to really scrub it down well so I spent an afternoon working on this room that can get pretty icky. 

I wiped down the mirror with Windex. I go back and forth between Windex and SprayWay and like switching it up. I like Clorox wipes to wipe down the sink and toilet because then I know those areas are getting really clean. I also use the Clorox wand for the toilet bowl which I love since they are disposable.

I've been using a mix of Soft Scrub and Method Bathroom Cleaner for my shower. Also spring cleaning is a great time to take down your shower curtain and liner and throw them in the wash!

I also vacuumed out the vents in the bathroom, wiped down the trash can, vacuumed and mopped the floors to really get it sparkling clean.

My final touch was to organize the under sink area. Since this area is so small we often just toss things in there. I try to keep items organized by type. All my cleaning supplies are on the left side and personal care is in the center. I keep feminine care items in a basket on the right hand side. Extra toilet paper gets piled up in the front for easy access. I also keep small trash bags in here for our bathroom trash can.

I gave this entire area a good wipe down as well which really freshened everything up.

Have you given your bathroom a good wipe down this spring?

Spring Cleaning: The Kitchen

It's time to spring clean the kitchen! So lets get motivated to get this done!

Earlier this week I filmed myself spring cleaning my apartment kitchen which you can see here. It might help give you some motivation to get yours done too, so definitely check it out! 

Here's what I did to get this room squeaky clean...

I cleaned all the dishes that were currently in the sink and then dried them and put them away so all my dishes would be clean. I took my dish drying rack and washed it as well since it can get a little gross. I also took the drying mat and threw it in my laundry pile so that would get super clean as well.

Next I went through each cabinet and drawer and pulled everything out, wiped down the inside and then put everything back inside. I did make sure to only put things back in that we actually use. Since we have very limited space in our kitchen we use pretty much everything that we have. We actually have quite a few kitchen items that aren't stored in our kitchen because we don't have a ton of room.

I made sure to scrub down all of the utensil holders as well. I do have a couple of permanent stains inside some of them and at some point when we move into a house and have a large kitchen I may decide to purchase all brand new matching ones.

With only three big cabinets, two small cabinets (one over the fridge which is kind of inaccessible), and five drawers we don't have a ton of room for kitchen supplies but we make it work.

Since we live in the apartment I am also pretty limited on changes I can make and I would love to one day have white cabinets and a real granite countertop. Right now I can't change any of those things so I will just do my best to keep things clean until then!

All of our spices are kept above the stove and I talked about this transformation in this post and this post. 

There are some stains in this cabinet I also can't seem to get out which is frustrating because I feel like it never looks clean!

I also wiped down the stove and the front of the oven. I also cleaned the microwave and wiped down the counters.

The only things I didn't touch during this particular clean were the fridge/freezer, under the sink cabinets, and the pantry. I am planning on tackling each of these projects separately since each of those can be very overwhelming.

I also did a thorough vacuum of the floor (including behind the fridge!)

When I was done with this clean I was exhausted but very satisfied with how everything turned out!

What spring cleaning projects are you working on this weekend?