Rainbow Shelves and Tap To Clean

 Do you guys have today off too?! Three day weekends are so glorious, I would love to have three days off every weekend! Over the course of the weekend I got a ton of things done around the house which was great. Nothing too exciting of course... we are still mid-way through the fence project and haven't started or completed any other projects lately. I had a long list of to-dos and managed to get through about half of them. 

Have you seen the "tap to clean" trend on instagram? I am so obsessed with it and like to do them on my own instagram (@balancingonmytoes).

Here is one I did last week...

I love when I get through a chore like dishes or laundry, it's so satisfying to me!

I also made a rainbow bookshelf in our office a la The Home Edit. If you haven't watched The Home Edit show on Netflix yet you definitely need to! I love the rainbow color coded shelves, it's so esthetically pleasing. 

Isn't it funny how your home never truly feels "done" and you can continually find areas to update, things to buy, etc... I am constantly finding areas where I want to move things around or where I could buy something new for the area. It's definitely a never-ending feat!

What have you been doing around your house lately?

Cleaning After Sickness

Have you been sick yet this winter? Unfortunately the flu hit our house last week AND Sophie was spayed and is recovering from her surgery.. .meaning my house has become a disaster which I absolutely cannot stand.

Let me paint a picture for you....

Tuesday: Sophie gets spayed. Tim and Melissa decide the best thing for her is to sleep on the couch in the living room. Blankets are laid across the floor along with Sophie's bed to make everything comfortable for her. Melissa and Tim are up half the night with a crying dog who is in pain :(

Wednesday: Tim wakes up super sick. Sophie still in recovery.

Thursday: Tim even worse. Sophie now has energy and it's tough to keep her calm and resting.

Friday: Melissa joins in with the sickness. Tim is miserable. Sophie wants to play but no one will play with her they are trying to make her rest.

Saturday: Tim still sick, Melissa feels worse than the day before, Sophie is still angry no one will play and can't sit still.

Sunday: Tim feels better, Melissa still down for the count, Sophie still irritated no one will play.

....and here we are!

Now my plan this week is to get all the sickness out of our house. Obviously there's not too much we can do with Sophie who is still in a cone until next week when she has her sutures removed but we are going to try to get as many germs out of the house as possible.

I started cleaning over the weekend even when I felt pretty horrible because I knew that getting things clean would definitely help.

• Wash all things linen!

 This involves any clothing, bedding, towels, etc that you have come in contact with while sick. I washed everything from our clothing to Sophie's blankets. I generally do all the laundry on the weekend anyways but I made sure to include everything I thought might be slightly infected. Changing your pajamas often can help as well as things like blankets and pillowcases.

• New Toothbrushes

I coupon and get new toothbrushes all the time for free so the moment we feel better after being sick we change out our toothbrushes. No one wants that yucky toothbrush full of germs back in their mouth. 

• Disinfect all Surfaces (Including Doorhandles!)

I looooove my Clorox wipes and although I usually just use them in the bathroom but after we've been sick I wipe down every surface with them. Everything from our kitchen counters to our doorhandles to our cell phones...no germs will survive.

• Take out Trash/ Recycling

When we are sick we get super lazy and tend to let the trash and recycling build up. We also got a ton of packages last week so there was quite a bit to bring out to the outdoor bins.

• Vacuum and Mop!

I love to vacuum and mop regularly but this is a quick and easy way to get germs out of your house. There's always stuff all over the floor that we track in the house on our shoes. Vacuum it all up and mop down the floors to give it a good scrubbing.

• Bathrooms

For some reason it seems like bathrooms always have a ton of germs in them. I make sure to clean ours really well.

• Open The Windows!

It was far too cold this weekend to open the windows but this week its supposed to warm up a bit and you better believe we will be letting in some fresh air! 

Now, I want to know....  what are the number one things you clean once you finally feel better? If we had kids I think I would be disinfecting toys and washing stuffed animals!

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?

Spring Cleaning: The Living Room

Let's chat about spring cleaning the living room! 

Our living room is pretty massive but fortunately the living room is a pretty easy place to spring clean.

Here's what I did to accomplish a clean living room (can you see exactly where I was sitting right before I took this picture? Totally forgot to move the pillows back into place before I took the picture!)

The first thing I did was start by doing any dusting that needed to be done. Since we live on planet Earth and deal with gravity it's always best to work from top to bottom. I dusted my pictures, all the furniture, and moved around everything in order to get everything wiped down.

I vacuumed the couch, folded all the blankets and rearranged the pillows.

I don't have the ability to get my windows washed on the outside being on the top floor of an apartment but I make sure that the inside is squeaky clean. This is a great time to also wipe down your blinds and wash your curtains.

Decluttering is also important. I regularly go through these baskets and keep the clutter in this room to a minimum.

Our living room also serves as a mudroom for us. This is where we take off our coats and shoes when we get home. I put all the heavy coats away in our front hall closet and pulled all my boots off our shoe mat and brought them to my closet for the summer.

Once everything had been dusted, cleaned and decluttered I did a thorough vacuum job of the entire room. This is a great time to move furniture and vacuum behind and underneath everything.

Have you finished your spring cleaning yet?

Motivation Monday: My Favorite YouTube Cleaning Channels

Happy Monday!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and Easter if you celebrated! We spent Saturday celebrating with Tim's side of the family and yesterday celebrating with mine. We had a great time and can't believe how fast the weekend went by.

Since I'm sure plenty of you have a lot of cleaning up to do after a holiday weekend I wanted to share a little cleaning motivation with you. I have been obsessed with YouTube cleaning channels for some time now and wanted to share my favorites with you. These girls always keep me motivated and for some weird reason I think it is super entertaining to watch someone else clean.

1. Kelly Marie

Kelly posts mostly cleaning videos and I am obsessed! For some reason her videos are some of the most satisfying. I also relate to her since I'm not cleaning up messes from kids and her videos also feature her adorable puppies!

2. Brittany Vasseur

Brittany does a wide array of videos but cleaning and organizing are definitely present on her channel. She has such an amazing personality and her son Carter is just the cutest! She also gives great tips and life hacks and I find myself watching every single video she puts out, no matter what the topic is.

3. Elle Fowler

Elle started out as a makeup guru but has rebranded her channel as a lifestyle channel. Right now she is decluttering a different area of her house every Monday while she prepares to move across the country. I am obsessed with her declutter series and look forward to Monday's because of her videos!

4. Brianna K

Brianna K is a stay at home mom who has an gorgeous house that she regularly does cleaning videos on. I found her through the YouTube cleaning community and I always watch her cleaning and decorating videos. Her kids are absolutely adorable too!

5. Love Meg

I couldn't make a cleaning channel list without the cleaning queen herself! Love Meg makes some awesome videos and just moved into a new house so there are plenty of new areas to see her clean. She is always super thorough and her family is really cute too!

6. Beauty and The Beastons

Tiffani is a mom to three kiddos and always seems to have a mess to pick up! I love watching her cleaning videos because she has a beautiful home and I love how her house always is the epitome of "real life" since she isn't able to pick up after her kids all day long.

7. Erica Lee

Erica Lee makes some great cleaning videos although I feel like her house is always clean to begin with. She is pregnant with her first child though so maybe we will be seeing some super messy clean with me videos in the future!

8. Clean My Space

If you haven't heard of Clean My Space then you should probably head over there right now. Melissa Maker owns a cleaning business in Canada and gives awesome cleaning tips to help you get everything in your own into tip top shape!


Those are my favorite Cleaning Channels on YouTube, now I want to know what are some of your favorites?

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?

Spring Cleaning: Front Hall Closet (GIVEAWAY!)

Hey loves!

Today is the first episode of my Spring Cleaning series and we are starting small with the front hall closet. 

In my usual forgetfulness I didn't take a before picture but if I'm being honest the before and after wasn't too different. I mostly just wanted to wipe down the shelf and vacuum the floor. There wasn't a whole lot that needed to be decluttered. In this closet we keep our coats, board games, some shoes, and a few other random items.

The first thing I did was pull everything out of the closet and pile it in the kitchen. Then I wiped down the shelf and used my vacuum to clean the floor. 

As I put things back I tired to keep my coats on one side and Tim's coats on the other. I'm sure we have more coats then we really need but I truly wear all the coats from my side and Tim's stuff is his responsibility to declutter.

On the top shelf I stacked up our games and found a spot for my dance bags. I'm not sure why I insist on keeping all my dance stuff ready to go, but I like to have it here. The second bag is for my dance team stuff so that is necessary to bring when I coach.

I keep a  few extra hangers available in case we have guests who want to hang up their coats in the closet.

I despise our floors, they are so gross looking. I can't wait to buy a house and chose my own floors at some point!

On the floor I kept my rainboots, my uggs, Tim's boots, Tim's lunchbox, a shovel, car cleaning supplies and my step stool. In the back I also have a poster with a picture of me from Halloween when I was little and the poster from my bridal shower. To the right side there are also a few golf clubs and a golf umbrella. 

Overall the only thing that didn't put back in here was a gaming chair that Tim has never used but it definitely gave us a little more room.

Now for the exciting news, I am hosting a giveaway!!

If you haven't heard, The Home Edit just released their first book and let me tell you it's incredible! The pictures are gorgeous and their method for organizing and making things look beautiful is perfect. I adore their Instagram (thehomeedit) and want to share the inspiration with all of you so in addition to buying a book for myself, I picked one up to share with one of you! In order to enter the giveaway you can head HERE.

This giveaway will be open until April 3rd at 11:59PM and I will announce the winner here shortly after. This giveaway is only open to those located in the United States. Good luck!

In addition to this post I also filmed a front hall closet clean with me video which you can check out here.