It’s one of the eternal struggles as a parent…How do I get my kids to do their chores....willingly?! Without complaining, grumbling, or procrastinating?? Despite our best intentions as parents, sometimes kids don't want to do chores without putting up a - LOT - of resistance. Kids are just like everyone else - they know they are important parts of the family, and they know there are household tasks that need to get done. Power struggles are bound to happen whenever parents are trying to implement household standards. If only our little beautiful ones would come Keep Reading
5 Free Stay at Home Mom Printables {Cleaning, Meal Planning & More!}
As a stay at home mom for many years, I was always looking for ways to make my life a little easier. I've always been a checklist person, so once my babies weren't so little anymore, I took some time to create these official stay at home mom printables for the blog! I know from personal experience that being a mom is hard work and I'm here to help! After all, the most important thing in life is family time. But it seems like there is always so much to do that I used to find myself spending all my time spinning my wheels instead of enjoying my children. That's exactly why Keep Reading
What You Can Do to Make Your Shower Smell Good {& Always Stay Clean!}
One thing I vowed when we built our home a few years ago was that I'd do my very best to always keep the bad smells away from important places. :) I have mostly lived in very old homes in my life, so I am familiar with that old musty smell + unpleasant lingering bathroom odors. I've often asked myself, "Why does it smell bad?" I have always wondered if I started from scratch in a brand new home if I could potentially keep the freshness going if I tried really hard. So this new home (we built 3 years ago) is my chance! I Wasn't Sure How to Keep It Clean at Keep Reading
The Best Smelling Essential Oil Diffuser Blend for Your Living Room!
I have been hunting FOREVER – like literally 20 million years – for a good scent diffuser for my home. When I was a little girl, we didn’t have anything good smelling in our house. My family was as frugal as frugal comes, and essential oil diffusers were not high on top of the list of things to buy. I would go to friends’ homes and marvel at these wonderful smelling devices that released fragrance in the air. 😊 I vowed that I would one day make my home smell amazing despite how unpractical it was to spend hard-earned money on this luxury. Hehe. **Don’t Keep Reading
How to Always Have a Clean Kitchen
Recently I've been thinking on something - I have always wished I would have one of those "perfectly white & beautiful kitchens" like you see on Pinterest. And I'll be honest - I have the kitchen of my dreams now because we built our dream house a few years ago.... Complete with a white kitchen that I had grand visions of always keeping beautiful and glossy and picture-perfect. But it has NEVER looked the way I envisioned, not since the day we moved in. I honestly didn't figure out why until recently - it's not that the room is disgusting or anything, it's just Keep Reading
How to Make a Your Messy House Presentable in 10 Minutes Flat
I have so much to do this evening. When I took a look at our kitchen after a long day of running errands and working on our bedroom remodel, the last thing I wanted to do was spend half an hour cleaning up downstairs. So I decided to try something new - I set the alarm on the oven timer for 10 minutes and set out to make our house presentable in that amount of time. I'm pretty proud of myself at what I actually accomplished! This is how I did it: Before Pictures of My Messy Kitchen & Living Room Area This isn't the worst our kitchen ever looks, mostly because we Keep Reading
List of 10 Everyday Chores Kids Can Do by Age to Build Character (& tips to make it easy!)
Twice in recent weeks, I've had discussions with other moms on all the CHORES I make my kids do. Yes, I'm that mom!! :) I'm a HUGE believer in childhood chores. I think chores build character, lessen entitlement, and generally help kids prepare for the real world. Nobody comes along to help me with my chores, and I don't want my children to feel like they must be waited on hand and foot. They have really great lives, and I never want them to take that for granted. I probably am extra sensitive to this because my mom and grandmother are from a 3rd world Keep Reading
Free Blank Printable Weekly Chore Chart Template for Kids
If you'd like to teach your children responsibility, this blank printable weekly chore chart is perfect for that! With this printable, you can assign tasks and keep track of who completed their household duties. In our house, the kids do age appropriate chores. My kids do all their chores UNPAID. I am a big proponent of kids doing chores as a way to learn valuable life skills and because they are part of our family. Nobody pays me to do household tasks, so I don't pay them to do things around the house either. I am a firm believer that Keep Reading
How to Make Your Bathroom Smell Good All the Time {the 5 Best Ways!}
I'm not one to keep my bathrooms shiny and spotless because I HATE cleaning bathrooms with a passion! I will happily wash an unlimited amount of dishes, wash mountains of laundry, and mop all the floors.....but bathrooms??!! YUCK!! The reason I don't like getting intimate with my bathrooms (the smell) is precisely the reason I want them to smell fresh all the time. LOL what a dilemma! I don't know if I'm smart or lazy (maybe a little bit of both?), but at any rate, I've figured out some little tricks over the years to keep my bathroom smelling really good without having to Keep Reading
5 Magnetic Chore Charts That Make Your Kids WANT to Do Chores!
On this blog we talk a lot about teaching kids responsibility from a young age. It's really important to me that my kids grow up to be responsible & caring. One of the things we work VERY hard on in our house is instilling a sense of pride in taking ownership for your home and helping out the family. The kids get an allowance that is NOT TIED to their chores and then they are expected to do chores simply because they live here. You can read more about that here >> It's been a long journey, but now that they are 10, 8, and 6, my persistence has paid off. They Keep Reading
How to Create an Allergy Friendly Master Bedroom
This post is sponsored by Venta Airwasher. All opinions are 100% my own. Ya’ll. Today I want to write about something I’ve been meaning to talk about for quite a while. Seasonal allergies and allergies in general have plagued me my entire life. Whenever I’ve lived in a home with carpet, my allergies have given me problems. I like clean air, and carpets seem to hold onto dust + other allergens that make me sneeze constantly. Earlier this year, we decided to go on a rampage against the allergens in our carpet, and I want to write about this so you can see how it’s possible to go from Keep Reading
17 Tips & Tricks to Keep Your Kitchen Smelling Fresh
Kitchen smells getting you down? If you have ever actually used your kitchen, then you've run into this problem. We all have. For whatever reason, you have tried to clean and sanitize but the smells still linger. Instead of doing it all over again, try these tricks to make your kitchen smell great in no time and keep it smelling that way! Related Post >> How to Make Your Stinky House Smell Like a SPA - this post explains how I tracked down the essential oil diffuser scents that I encountered at a five star spa hotel in Salt Lake City! Step Keep Reading
121 Things You Can Throw Away or Donate This Week
I have too much stuff. There is said it. I know I have too much stuff because I finally got around to organizing my office this week, and as I looked at the pile of things I hadn't used in years, I tried to remember why I thought I ever needed them in the first place. Some things were just old items that I didn't need anymore, but a lot of it was excess. Like the 200 sheet protectors or the 6 packs of dinosaur themed thank you cards. I'm sure I had a project in mind for those sheet protectors at the time I bought them; it's just eluding me at this Keep Reading
A Crazy Easy Way to Clean Your House – a Guide for Lazy People
This post was sponsored by P & G as part of an influencer Activation for Influence Central. I received complimentary products to facilitate my review. Cleaning my house is such a pain, and I don't know how it gets so dirty anyway. The only mess I honestly make is in the kitchen when I cook. Other than that, I know it's a children thing. They are messy. Really, really messy. It seems no matter how much they clean up behind themselves, the house just stays dirty. From school projects to toddler activities to just living, it all adds up to one thing - more cleaning. It's practically Keep Reading
The Simple Rule to Make That Will Make You Look Forward to Doing Laundry
The other week I wrote about how I'm trying my best to figure out better laundry systems around this place. I finally figured out a way to consolidate some of my laundry tasks, and I wrote about that here: The 3 Basket Laundry System That Saved My Sanity Now that I have that process under control, I feel like I could make even more improvements. You see, I HATE DOING LAUNDRY. It's second only to unloading the dishwasher. I really don't like doing that. :) So for the past two weeks I've been trying to figure out how I can basically have a better attitude about doing laundry, so I thought Keep Reading
