If I had to pick just ONE side dish for a summer BBQ, I would pick baked beans without hesitation. I LOVE baked beans! And even though I’ll eat almost any baked beans, there is really nothing like the taste of making them from scratch — except for the fact that I never have the …
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Our IKEA Shopping Trip
We were supposed to go to IKEA 2 weeks ago — but do to a few “issues” with our truck’s electrical hook-ups, we had to postpone our trip. Thankfully, a very nice friend from church let us use their truck so we were finally able to go earlier this week — and boy was it an …
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Ask the Readers: Clothes Clutter
source: I’ve received an overwhelming number of emails asking about closet and clothes clutter. It seems you all have “too little closet space” — or MAYBE, you just have TOO much stuff!! Either way, I’m thinking it might not be a bad idea to do a few different posts about clothes clutter. And I’m planning to start …
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Carpet Cleaning – and a Peek into our Living Room!
source: I’m usually more of a do-it-yourself kind of person…and I rarely back down from a challenge. However, when it comes to carpet cleaning, I’m more than willing to pay a professional! I think the main reason I’m willing to pay for regular carpet cleanings is because it’s dirt and dust that I can’t see, so …
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How to Save Big on Moving Expenses
Last week, I talked about how we sold our house on Criaglist in just 3 days — and I got SO many emails asking more questions about selling a house and moving! Unfortunately, I don’t know a ton about real estate and selling homes, but I DO know a little bit about moving {here are …
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Homemade Granola Bars – the Winning Recipe
I’ve been on a mission to find the “perfect” homemade granola bar recipe for the last several months — and you better believe I’ve tried my fair-share of recipes! And while all of the recipes tasted delicious, I was never really satisfied until last week when I tried yet another new granola bar recipe… My idea of …
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More Tips to Simplify Your Laundry Routine
It’s practically the weekend {hooray}!! And I’m not sure about your house, but in our house, the weekend means laundry time. I often do a couple loads during the week, but the weekend is when I try to tackle every last piece of laundry left in the house — which honestly isn’t THAT much considering there are only 2 …
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Simple, Delicious Uses for Broccoli Stems
Are you one of THOSE people who only cut off the flowery tops of broccoli and then toss the rest? Growing up, we were NEVER allowed to waste food — especially if it came from my dad’s garden. And even though I would agree that broccoli florets are more appealing, there is really no reason why you should …
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Craigslist 101: How We Sold Our House!
Today I’m continuing my Craigslist 101 series to {hopefully} answer some of the many questions I get, asking how we sold our house on Craigslist. Yup, that’s right — Dave and I sold our first house on Craigslist… by owner… and got THREE offers… in only THREE days! And no, we did NOT know what …
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I’m Purging My Food Storage Containers
I’ve wanted to write a post about getting rid of old, nasty, food storage containers for several weeks now — but I figured that I should probably “practice what I preach” before I preach it!! And since my food storage containers were getting a little bit out of control, I decided to quickly tackle that …
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Keep Your Heating & Cooling Systems Trouble Free
Here in West Michigan, the past 10 days have been absolutely sweltering — with heat indexes above 100*F, and humidity in the 70-80%. We are SO thankful that our old farmhouse has a good air conditioning unit — and that it works! However, if you have not been so fortunate with your heating and cooling systems, the following post, written …
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Making the Most of Your Freezer
source: When it comes to meal planning, I consider my freezer to be almost as valuable as my oven! At least one of our weekly meals comes straight from the freezer, and many of our breads, cookies, bars, and other baked goods are simply pulled from the freezer on an “as-needed” basis. So whether you …
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Tips for Planning a Big Shopping Trip
This morning, Dave and I WERE SUPPOSED to drive to our closest IKEA store {2.5 hours away} to do some serious shopping! We actually even rented a small U-HAUL trailer because we were planning to purchase a couch, some mattresses, a couple of chairs, and a bunch of other things for our {almost} newly renovated main floor …
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Our Favorite Leftovers
The next few weeks are going to be CRAZY busy for me. I’ll be busy traveling quite a bit for my business, finishing up house projects, preparing for the upcoming arrival of our two international students, and trying to juggle everything else I do on a weekly basis — oh, and I’m 23 weeks pregnant! …
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Make Your Own Lotion, SunBlock, and More
Remember a few weeks ago, during my Birthday Giveaway Week, when I talked about MadeOn Hard Lotion? Their lotion bars and other homemade products are some of my new favorites! A few of the reasons I’m hooked on their products is because they are all-natural, totally organic, and they don’t have a strong fragrance. But now …
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Creative Bathroom Storage
One of the many perks of extensively renovating a very old house, or building a new house, is that you can do it YOUR WAY! So when it came to our farmhouse renovations — I was absolutely determined to figure out exactly what type of storage we would need, and then try to implement it as closely as possible …
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Preserve Yard Tools by Keeping Them Clean
The following is written by Jakob Barry of Networx.com: Pictures of Andrea’s shed at her old house. Quality yard tools are necessary for getting the most out of the garden so doing whatever possible to extend their lives is essential. Proper storage is a good start but when considering what tools go through during regular usage, …
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Yes, I Have a REAL Business Too
When I started my organizing business nearly 4 years ago, I was extrememly apprehensive to answer the question, “So what do you do for a living?” I didn’t feel like I had a REAL business… but then I started making money and that put an end to my apprehension! However, when I started blogging {just about …
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