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?

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.

Spring Cleaning: Organizing and Deep Cleaning the Laundry Room

I decided to organize and deep clean our laundry room yesterday. This is a room that gets little love for the big job it does. In a room that's working so hard to get things clean, it deserves a little more cleaning love!

This was the state of our laundry room:

So, I started off by emptying out each section of the cabinets and wiping down the inside. I made sure that each item went back in a similar location so that way no one would be searching for a specific product.

Looks so much better right?

When I climbed on top of the dryer to dust the top of the cabinet it made me wonder if anyone had ever dusted up there before….

I'm sure the dryer lint has something to do with that mess but nevertheless it is a little embarrassing!

So much cleaner and nicer!

I did the same thing with this cabinet- taking everything out, wiping everything down and putting everything back in neatly in a similar location.

I also found some change, which I figured was my payment for cleaning up!

 Sigh. So much better!

I also wiped down all the baseboards, cleaned out the sink, and cleaned out our sample bin where something had leaked. I'm very pleased with this clean up!

The Beautiful Outdoors

As promised from last week, I'm here today sharing some pictures of our outdoor areas. Lately, as the leaves have been covering the trees, the grass is growing at an unbelievable rate, and the weather has been gorgeous, I've been spending a ton more time outside.

We are extremely blessed to have such an expansive outdoor area. We have five acres on our property total, and own the attached property as well- so there is a ton of outdoor space. Although having all this outdoor space does definitely have its perks, it's also a hassle when it comes to taking care of it.

Before we start with the scenery...how cute is this little one hiding under the stairs???

I just love her!

With all the mulch we put in the garden beds, everything is looking brighter and healthier!

Looking good!

We weeded everything and put red mulch down. The below area is one of my favorite areas, I love the rock wall. When my dad was building the house, he had the rocks piled into a rock wall which separates the front and back yard into different levels, so cool =)

The upper- area of our backyard is looking super green too.

A few flowers coming up...

All the leaves came in, and now there's a little privacy between the backyard and the driveway!

Love this trellis- It looks so pretty in the yard.

More plants sprouting!

I hope you enjoyed this little tour of our outdoor areas! I am really enjoying spending more time outside lately- the weather has been great! After all the storms and snow we had this past fall and winter, it is nice to finally be in the clear with some nice weather! =)

What have you done with your outdoor areas?