Everyday Edits

Simple Ideas to Repurpose Plastic Spray Bottles

I blame genetics for my obsession to find simple ideas to repurpose plastic spray bottles. I carry the repurpose gene from my  Ireland- to- Appalachia great grandparents. And, the Catholic guilt for just about everything. #wink 

That is the only way to explain my guilt and inability to toss my stash of empty spray bottles from my favorite HomeGoods finds.

Simple Ideas to Repurpose Plastic Spray Bottles

I have an unusally high feeling of guilt over the plastic spray nozzles. The plastic spray nozzles have no chance at a repurposed life once they end up in a landfill.

To balance the purchased cleaning products, I buy vinegar and baking soda in bulk. Then I just play junior high chemist to create eco-friendly cleaning products. I use my plastic spray bottles to stash around the house.

My sister told me about Nature’s Miracle for pet accidents and stinky workout gear. As she explained, the vinegar neturalizes the odors. Eventually, I switched to purchasing a gallon of vinergar for less than the cost of a latte.

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I removed the labels and glue from the spray bottles and used chalk labels or scrap paper to identify the bottles. This fun dog print was perfect for the vinegar based cleaning products for dog messes. The puppy print was the visual the family needed to clean up the pet messes and puppy puddles.

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I loved these chalk friendly labels but added a layer of clear packing tape to keep the labels dry.

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Last summer was the summer of Snapple at our house (until I saw the sugar content). I had saved dozens of Snapple bottles. With a few minutes of boredom, I realized the Snapple bottles were the perfect to size to store dish soap and baking soda.

Check out this list for Good Housekeeping’s uses for baking soda.

And, a little sprinkle of baking soda to add sparkle to the sink and a great way to remove rust from serving trays.

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With 19 Snapple bottles left, I stored Dawn dish soap in bottles for the laundry room. Dawn worked great to remove oil-based makeup stains.

I tucked these spray bottles into closets for quick cleanups or fresh scent smell. No more running around the house to find a surface-specific cleaner.

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How do you upcycle plastic spray bottles? Do you have any suggestions for my Snapple bottles or spray bottles? Looking for other ways to repurpose, check out this Earth Day is Everyday post.

5 Simple Ideas to Keep the Kitchen Sink Pretty

We had a family bbq and much needed time at home to regroup and work in the yard! This is my busy season and the Denver real estate market is crazy! At my house, the first room to show distress is the kitchen.  And, the sink is the work horse in the kitchen.And, with my college-age son home for the summer, and his new found love of cooking, my kitchen sink looks like a food truck after a night serving 150 burgers. So in an attempt to take control of my kitchen, here are 5 simple ideas to keep the kitchen sink pretty. 

My inspiration for a pretty was sink was from BH&G. Is this the prettiest sink ever? We have a similar faucet and I don’t see any pasta sauce splatter or water spots on this one. I love the porcelain sink. And, that tray!

Source BH&G

Here are 5 simple ideas to keep the kitchen sink pretty.

They work well at my house, because they are… simple. I pulled a few key elements and play with them during the day, week or season.

1. Add a plant next to the sink                                                                                  I love real plants next to the sink because it’s near a water source. The plant’s chance of survival increases dramatically if in close proximity to the sink. I prefer small, easy to maintain (real) plants, but it is your sink, your rules. Adding a plant next to the sink is an unexpected pop of color. And, yes I am growing (real)grass in one of these jars.  #wink #its a joke5-simple-ideas-to-keep-kitchen-sink-pretty-everyday-edits

2. Matching or Cute Cleaning Products

I do not usually splurge on matching cleaning products, but I won a gift basket of Meyer cleaning products at a school auction. Taking a cue from Pinterst, I propped the cleaning products on a cake plate from the Target dollar section.  I usually have a hodgepodge of brands. But, I loved how pretty the sink looked with matching cleaning products. These are on my HomeGoods  favorite things list.

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3. Handtowels

If there is one thing a sink needs it is towels. I found these cute Turkish towels at one of my favorite online store here.  The towel hooks are from a Pottery Barn outlet years ago. The towel hooks are actually on my island, located behind my sink so they are hidden from most of the kitchen’s angles. 

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Of course, this  little guy found the hand towels. He is so stinkin’ cute I just took his photo. 

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4. Add a Candle 

I love candles. But, I love a candle by the sink because it keeps the surrounding area (garbage disposal) smelling seasonally fresh. 

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5. Store the cleaning products in cute bottles and jars. 

I buy a few cleaning products in bulk like baking soda and vinegar. Both products are stain and odor fighting agents for puppy accidents.   But I don’t like to drag them out from under the sink because they tend to stay on the counter. So I repurposed empty  cleaning bottles and keep them near the sink-where they hide in plain sight.  

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The sink and the surrounding area stays clean because all the essentials are on display and within reach. Not excuses. What tricks do you have to keep the kitchen sink clean? 

 

 

 

How to Repurpose Retail Boxes

I love the ease of click and ship purchases; the convenience, the free shipping and the no hassle returns of my favorite retailers. But, I don’t love the guilt that sneaks up on me when I toss the familiar brown retail boxes into the recycle bin. 

I  had similar guilt fueled feelings before I  repurposed a few favorite heavyweight Anthropologie holiday shopping bags. 

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So when I ordered my twice (okay, four times a year ) Bath & Body Works foaming hand soaps and seasonal candles and they arrived in these plaid boxes, I wanted to figure a way how to repurpose these retail boxes.

The Bath & Body Works packaging people were on to something. I found a reason to buy hand soaps and 3 wick candles because of the cute blue plaid print inside their boxes.

So for a few seasons, I hoarded Bath & Body Works boxes. 

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For a caffeinated fueled moment, I considered framing the flat sides of the retail boxes for my office walls. But, as the caffeine wore off, I decided to start with a less ambitious project and one that only required a roll of clear packaging tape.

I folded the plaid facing sides of the Bath & Body Works’ boxes to the exterior side of the box and secured with a clear, clean edge of packing tape.  

That’s it! Never overthink a way how to repurpose retail boxes. 

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And, with a roll of packing tape, I figured out a way how to repurpose retail boxes to create storage for my office supplies.  

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With a few extra”broken down” boxes, I framed a rectangular section of the patterned cardboard box. I thought it would be fun to coordinate the pattern in my office’s storage hutch. 

I wonder how long until the boys in my house recognize the familiar retailer’s packaging? And, then I will wait for the eye roll.

There’s always an eye roll after a repurposed project.

Seriously, are these not the cutest retail boxes ever?

Are you taking note Chewy? Target? Amazon? Nordstrom? Give us a reason to repurpose the retail boxes!

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How to Build Farmhouse Kitchen Shelves

The farmhouse shelves in our kitchen were one of my favorite projects. The shelves opened up the space and added a bit of a trend to my aging, dated kitchen. The farmhouse kitchen shelves were an inexpensive solution to replace the dated cabinets and not lose valuable storage. If you are looking for an entry-level DIY project these shelves are a perfect starting point.

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Well, when we knocked out the wall between the kitchen and dining room we lost a row of upper cabinets. The open shelves was a great way to keep the space open and add storage space for the essentials.

It was a simple project with 2 x 12 select pine from Home Depot. We went with select pine because it has a smoother finish. I cut the pine boards to size using a table saw (with an assist from my assistant (husband) to hold the end of the board).

I used my favorite pre-stain wood conditioner to prep the wood shelves.

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This was my go-to stain for most of my DIY projects. I have a few other favs, but this is a reliable stain and gives me a rich, Colorado rustic finish.

I went with a heavy bracket and found Wade’s shop on Etsy. These were super easy to install to the wall and the weight of the brackets matched the weight of the pine shelves.

The hardest part of these farmhouse shelves was capturing a photo at the right time of day (still waiting) and staging the shelves. Seriously, I was so excited to stage the shelves and it has been many late nights with episodes of Friends in the background while trying to find the right accessories.

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This was an easy Saturday afternoon project. I loved this project so much I added the same shelves to our aging basement kitchenette/bar. So the farmhouse shelf photos are from both spaces.

I am taking staging suggestions for staging the shelves in the comments.

My Favorite Tech Hack to Stay Organized in the New Year

With the new year comes goals and promises. For me, my goal (every year )is to get organized. Usually, closets are the first think on my list to organize in January.  But what usually (always) happens is I just generate more piles in my efforts to get organized. So this year I am going in a different direction with a goal to organize my digital files and paper trails. It won’t lead to any coverup, but it will eliminate folders and folders of receipts and immunization forms dating back to Friends. My favorite tech hack to stay organized is an app I can use from my phone. It will make calls like this one, “Mom, I need a copy of my immunization forms in an hour.” Or, texts like this one, “Do you have a copy of the furnace receipt from last spring?”

My “favorite” call was when my son called to tell me I forgot to sign his field trip permission slip. And, he was the only child who could not get on the bus unless that permission slip was received in the next 12 minutes.

Game on! 

And, the reason I didn’t panic is I want to share the best app for the new year! This app organized my life. I even got my 75+-year-old mom to download the free app so she doesn’t have to fax documents.

Sidenote: My mom is a very tech-savvy grandma!

Have you heard of TurboScan? In a sentence, it is a scanner on your phone.

You might be wondering, “Can’t I just take a photo?”

Yes, but this app saves the document as a pdf which is the format that allows adding as an attachment.

The Turbo Scan app is the app to the rescue.

I have not looked for other scanner apps, so if you know of another one, please share in the comments. It takes a village to get organized.

Source: Turb Scan

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Turbo Scan changed my personal and work life.  It’s a free app in the Apple app store. The official name is TurboScan™ Pro – document & receipt scanner By Piksoft Inc. There might be a paid version, but the free app works for my needs.

It takes a scan (photo) of a document, permission form.. anything. It creates a border around the image to make sure you capture what you need. And, even when the image looks gray or grainy it almost always captures a clear image.

Turbo Scan allows me to save documents directly to my Dropbox (another favorite) and/or email a copy in a pdf format to my email or to the recipient. It keeps a copy of any scanned documents too, but I always save a copy to my Dropbox account. I’m just a bit of a control freak. Especially in August.

My husband first shared this app with me a few years ago. And, I use it almost every day.

And, if you are just a smidge like me, your desk (my command center) begins to look like this as the new year approaches.

I just pile up the paper until January rolls around to get organized.


Clear the clutter by snapping a photo of the paper, document. It’s more professional because it saves it as a pdf for clients, the front office or service providers. The one suggestion I have with this app is to turn off the overhead light above the document or receipt. The light can add a shadow to the document.

 

After a week using this app, I ditched my fax/scanner (donated to one of my son’s teachers).   Turbo Scan is the best iPhone app for the new year. Let me know if you download it and what you think? Do you have a favorite app to stay organized? Please share in the comments.

 

 

 

 

Pinterest Audit

 

I went into a Pinterest vortex over the weekend. It started with a cup of coffee in the early morning hours. It is my favorite time of the day and it’s also when I search holiday ideas that randomly pop into my head during the week.

What’s the funniest topic you searched on Pinterest? One of mine was, “How to eliminate an air duct.”


And, in various fall front porch pins, I decided it was time to take a Pinterest audit of my boards and pins. 

It was like cleaning out my closets without leaving my laptop.

 

Pinterest Audit

I started with my Pinterest home page and it looked pretty good.

It wasn’t an Instagram or HGTV worthy page, but it was step up from a few years ago.

Scroll to the bottom to see one of my first pins.

 

I randomly clicked on a few of my older pins. A few of my favorites included some of my prettier images like this:

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But, when I followed the pinned image I got this message.

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And, it wasn’t just on one or two pins. It was a Pinterest epidemic of lost pages and redirects.

I had ignored my boards for too long. 

It was a harsh reality when my “Travel” board had a whopping 4 pins.

Yep, I decided I had to say goodbye to a few boards and even more pins.

Can I tell you how amazing it was to clean up my Pinterest boards? Less really is more.

Here is one of my first pins from my original blog. I have not used Blogspot for years, but this was still out there.

How many times do you pin something and check the URL link for future reference?

My Pinterest audit was also a nice reminder to update, replace or retake a few of my more popular pins. 

Taking an hour (or two) to audit my boards and pins was the only way to see which links were dead. And, the reality of which pins and photos needed to go to the trash. And, after my Pinterest audit, some things don’t change.

This is still at the top of my Pinterest page. 

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