Quick Clean for The Holidays & a DIY Little Firecracker Craft

The Fourth is officially here and that means summer is in full swing. Hip, hip, hooray!

With the holiday weekend came lots of fun... and lots of messes. Instead of stressing out about the hooplah and the mess left around our house, I decided to embrace the art of a quick cleaning and got to work first thing this morning.

With my trusty sidekicks - Viva Vantage Paper Towels, Clorox All purpose Cleaner, Delainey, and my hubs, I was about to "unleash the clean squad" and our house is looking sparkling clean!

Within just a few minutes, we had wiped down every surface with Clorox, from counter tops to doorknobs and made sure to mop because little Miss is on the move lately. We used our Viva Vantage paper towels & Clorox to scrub down sticky messes, from the sloppy sauce splattered on our stove top to the sticky fingerprints left on our cabinets, it all cleaned up quickly and easily... and well, with the extra time on our hands, I also decided it was time for us to get a little crafty, especially once the paper towel roll was emptied!

With it being the "Fourth of July eve", it only made sense to try and get crafty with my little firecracker. In the spirit of Independence Day, we decided to make a super simple little firecracker for her to play with... especially because shes fascinated with small pieces of paper lately. 😂

If you have a little one, you'll want to give this craft a try. Watching the curiosity on her face as the pieces of colorful paper came streaming out of our "firework" was seriously the cutest and then the joy she had playing in the "confetti". Plus, you can use the colorful paper as a learning experience, talking about all the colors, the shapes of the paper and the paper towel roll, etc. While she loved the toy and I loved being able to craft and play with her, the best part is, we were able to upcycle our Viva Vantage Paper Towel roll in a fun way!

If you're like us, you probably went through a few rolls of Viva paper towels this weekend with all kinds of fun messes to clean up. If so, this craft is totally easy and you are likely to have everything you need around your house - so get ready to make your own firework - it's going to be a blast!

To make this craft you'll need:

Viva Vantage Paper Towel Roll (empty)
Colorful Paper
Markers
Tape and/or glue
Scissors

This craft is actually fairly simple. I made the video below to show how it all came together but here's a quick summary.

You'll begin by taping/gluing your paper to your paper towel roll. Next, design your firework... I was really sloppy with mine, but you get the idea. After that, stack a few pieces of colorful paper together and cut into small, quarter inch size strips - this will be your confetti.

Last but not least, stuff your firework full of the fun confetti and shake! Get ready for some fun... and bonus, it's easy to pick up all the confetti and "set off" your firework again and again.

As you can tell, we are embracing all the fun the 4th has to offer... while also making sure our house is looking fresh! If you need to #UnleashtheClenaningSquad on your 4th of July weekend mess or if you have some extravagant plans for tomorrow and a pig sty to clean up today, don't forget to call in some back up in the form of Viva Vantage Paper Towels and Clorox... You can grab them both at Walmart and be sure to snag your rebate via Ibotta on BOTH members of your cleaning squad!

So tell me, how are you celebrating the 4th this year? I'd love to hear about your plans in the comments below!

Take a Selfe at Home & Save Money Each Month!

This discussion is brought to you by HomeSelfe, regardless all opinions expressed below are my own.

Saving money is a pretty big priority in our house lately, from spending less on ordering take out to scrunching and saving on our monthly bills; we are doing everything we can to save a few dollars each and every month, because as we all know, it all adds up and we need to add to our little nest egg.

If you're looking for ways to save around your house, HomeSelfe may be the answer you've been looking for. It's a new app that allows you to save $$$ with a free evaluation of your home's energy inefficiencies and it helps provide solutions for each of your issues! While saving you money each month, the savings up-front for this service are phenomenal... with the normal price of an energy audit running you around a few hundred dollars, you can spend nothing using HomeSelfe for FREE!

So how does it all work? HomeSelfe has partnered with local, state, and the nation's ten largest public utilities to develop this simple-to-use tool, allowing you to see results in your home and where it really counts - in your wallet! The patent-pending technology allows you to create a digital version of your home with a simple questionnaire you can answer at your own pace. Once your HomeSelfe is complete, you'll receive a free, easy-to-understand report that provides a crystal clear picture of your home's energy efficiency, where your place could use a little improvement, and what upgrades you really need to make ASAP.

Get ready to take action against your own home, in the best way possible. With connections to the best contractors via HomeSelfe and access to special offers & rebates, you'll be saving money while saving energy (for yourself and your home) and protecting the environment!

Are you ready to take action against the energy inefficiencies in your home? Try HomeSelfe out for yourself and don't forget to take the time to enter to win one of 4 Home Depot gift cards to help make improvements using the tool below!

CLICK HERE to ENTER THE GIVEAWAY!

After you've taken the time to download HomeSelfe and use the app, as well as enter the giveaway, I'd love to hear what you found the most interesting in your results! Are you hoping to replace insulation? Do you have a water heater that's making your bill sky rocket? After learning how our house could use improvements, I'm eager to hear about your HomeSelfe results!

Fun Spring Cleaning DIY Projects

It's almost spring time and that means I'm thinking about spring cleaning... Mind you, I said "thinking". I'm not exactly implementing any of my ideas yet, but I plan to get things in order soon and with my inspirational thoughts of a clean home, comes some amazing ideas to keep things stored away in pretty little containers and creative, functional projects that I plan on making a part of my place.

Here's six different fun spring cleaning DIY projects that you'll want to make space for while you are cleaning this year:


1. We'll start with this super cute Ikea Hack. These beautiful little shelves are super easy to make and just involve a little bit of paint and elbow grease to make it this beautiful.

2. The Second DIY project you have to work on to really get your home in the perfect functioning order is this simple kitchen cabinet makeover! When everything has a place, it's much easier to find!

3. Another kitchen organization set up that I am totally eyeballing right now is this perfectly placed pantry. I love how it's all even labeled, making snack time and even cooking a little bit easier.

4. I know I'm not the only one that receives a million pieces of mail everyday and doesn't read it all at once, I mean, who has time for all the bills?! This DIY mail organizer is the perfect place to stow away all my bills for another day.

5. Organizing your laundry room is easier said than done, but this layout is super tidy and perfect for a growing family. I think a laundry system like this in our laundry room would be excellent for storage and would eliminate some of the clothing clutter that accumulates.

6. Totally in love with the idea of having even more places to store my accessories, this DIY accessories organizer project is the perfect creative way to keep all my jewelry and little pretties in their place.

There's so many ways to keep your house organizer but these projects are on the top of my list. Do you have your eye on some projects that can keep your house a little more tidy this year? Give me the details in the comments below!

Looking for more DIY inspiration? Check out these 111 Most Loved DIY projects from Homesthetics!

Make Smelly, Moldy, Old Books Like New Again with This Simple Trick

Have you ever found a book you just had to have while browsing at a thrift store or garage sale? If you are a bargain shopper like me, you can't pass up a good deal on an old favorite and when I recently found a hand full of first edition copies of some awesome books, that must have been decades, if not centuries old I just had to buy them. I was so excited I didn't even notice that although I had fun some hidden treasures, they stunk something awful.

After contemplating and a testing a few methods, I found this way of cleaning the scent of the books the most effect. It's super easy and while it may take a while for the smell to completely disappear, it's definitely a useful way of restoring glory to some classic literature.

Before we get started, you'll want to take a very lightly dampened cloth and wipe the pages of all the books. This will remove dirt, mold, and other nasty little grime around the pages, the spine, the covers, etc.

For the project of removing the actual smell of the book, you'll want to start with a large covered bin of some sort, an old garbage can, a plastic tub, or a small pail will work just fine. Please keep in mind that it'll be in use for a fairly long time though and you'll need to be able to fit another smaller bin inside of it.

You'll want to put several inches of an odor absorbing material at the bottom of the bin you choose. By odor absorbing material I mean anything that is known to absorb stinky smells; such as kitty, litter, charcoal or baking soda.

Now place a smaller pail of any sort inside the "smell absorbing bin", place a handful of books (or whatever will fit) inside of the smaller bin, and place a cover or a lid over the top of the smell absorbing bin.

It's that easy, all you need to do now is sit and wait. I suggest checking on the book and it's smell level every couple of days or so until you no longer can smell the stench. It may take a week or maybe even a month, but that stink you once dreaded will dissipate and you'll be left with a wonderful book to add to your library.

If you decide to give this method a try, let me know how long it took your book to smell better... Here's to the reading of books that don't smell for many years to come!

How to Get Your Deposit Back When Moving Out of a Rental with Green Works

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #NaturallyClean #CollectiveBias

As you probably already know, we moved recently. This means that we had to do something that I've always thought was second nature when moving out of a home, we had to deep clean every square inch. From the bathtub to the refrigerator drawers, we scrubbed and wiped to make sure it was perfect for the next tenant.

The reason I'm sharing this not-so-exciting detail of our move is the realization that most people don't clean out their rental homes. When speaking with other people that rent, I've heard several say they don't even bother to wipe down counters. While I understand not wanting to waste the time on your old place, you should respect the landlord and the future tenants enough to make sure you leave the house looking even better than when the keys were handed to you.

Wiping down every surface, scrubbing every inch of the kitchens and the bathrooms, dusting, sweeping, mopping, even wiping down baseboards... it's all a necessary part of giving your place back in pristine condition... even if you are a clean-freak while living in the home, once all your furniture is moved out it's still nice to clean the entire place! Plus, as a renter, you are more likely to get your deposit back in full if your place is in tip-top shape!

While we were cleaning our old place, I realized that our new place hadn't been cleaned to our standards yet either. Some parts of the house were too dusty for words and we noticed little nooks and crannies that needed a good cleaning. This means that we had to double the deep cleaning during the same week and needed a powerful army of cleaning products to helps us out!

We took a trip to Target and found the entire Green Works line waiting for us. I decided to purchase these green products because they are just as tough as the other products on the market but they don't leave a harsh chemical smell or residue! You'll also be overjoyed to find out that Green Works is made with plant and mineral based ingredients and the products are all actually in environmentally sustainable packaging whenever possible. Want some awesome news? You can save money, head to Target now and grab three Green Works products for $8!

The good news about this whole cleaning situation that moving in & out of a rental creates is that Green Works has a product to help clean every room in your house! They offer everything you'll need from sprays to wipes to laundry detergent, all the bases are covered!

My line up for cleaning both the old place and our new home included the Green Works All Purpose Cleaner as a star player! It tackles grease, grime, dirt, and other little nasty things around the house without any trouble and puts off absolutely no chemical fumes or residue. Made with 98% naturally derived ingredients, this cleaner is the perfect way to clean everything from your bathtub to your kitchen counters!

My next favorite Green Works item is the Cleaning Wipes. They are so easily accessible and make the perfect cleaners for all kinds of surfaces. I love being able to quickly dust with a Cleaning Wipe and since these wipes are 99% naturally derived ingredients, they won't harm me or my animals!

I've never been one for dishwashing but with Green Works in the house, the whole process somehow doesn't seem so daunting. With a super fresh and clean scent this bottle of naturally derived dish soap cuts through all the tough stuff and easily rinses away to offer a sparkling, streak-free shine on everything you wash!

Lastly, I'm overjoyed to announce we have a new addition to our home: a washer and dryer! We've spent the last three years visiting the laundry mat and I'm so over that! No longer do we have to spend a few hours of our day washing piles of clothes, we can do a load every single day with Green Works Laundry Detergent! I love that this laundry detergent attacks tough stains, while still being made with naturally derived ingredients! You can wash your clothing without phosphates, optical brighteners, or any other nasty chemical residue causing problems, even those with sensitive skin won't be bothered by this powerful, stain-fighting detergent!

Now that I've shared my cleaning tips to ensure you receive your deposit back in full, I'd love to hear what other tips you have for those that are in the processing of moving?

Do Your Part to Create a Bright Future and Win: Rinse, Recycle, Reimagine!

The “Rinse. Recycle. Reimagine” program is part of the Unilever Sustainability plan and aims to increase its positive social impact while reducing its environmental impact, a big thanks to the program for sponsoring today's discussion and hopefully influencing you to recycle your produtcts!

This may surprise you but Americans are more inclined to walk farther distances to get a drink when thirsty, charge their phone, or answer a phone call, than walk an empty plastic bottle from the bathroom to the recycle bin. As a result, these easily recyclable bathroom products are contributing to nearly 29 million tons of plastics in landfills each year! That's a lot of plastic that could be reused but that is instead going to just sit there for many, many years - what a waste of good material!

Unilever has teamed up with Keep America Beautiful, the Ad Council, and me and my little blog to help spread the word about recycling in the bathroom! Think that empty shampoo bottle is worthless and unusable? You are sorely mistaken, rinse and recycle it and you could end up using that same shampoo bottle again, it'll just be recycled into a hairbrush, backpack, or even a swing set in your backyard! It's pretty amazing that we are able to reuse so much and we need to start embracing this fact if we are going to continue growing as a society.

If you are like me and twenty percent of American's, you probably have a collection of bathroom products that seems a bit unhealthy. A range of shampoo and conditioner, a collection of body wash, a handful of perfume bottles, a couple of lotion bottles, and the list can go on!

You may be thinking, but I can't recycle this or that, and while I understand the confusion on what can and can't be recycled, did you know that there's a website that can help you figure all of that out; to find out what qualifies items for recycling in your area and to find out what your plastic bottles could become, go to iwanttoberecycled.org/bathroom!

Want to win something for helping to create a bright future? Unilever is hosting a pretty awesome sweepstakes and you have the chance to win all kinds of prizes daily or win the $500 grand prize! The sweeps is going on through June 9th and you can enter via Twitter.com or Instagram by uploading a photo showing off how you recycle in your bathroom with the hashtags #ReimagineThat and #sweeps and tagging @UnileverUSA!