Family Room Console Table DIY

When we moved into our house, we had an ugly problem in the family room.  The city water meter was just hanging out, in the open.  Yuck.

At about the same time, behind the couch console tables (or shelves) were all the rage on Pinterest.  I showed Josh my idea to cover the meter and he agreed that he liked it.  Fast forward 8 months and we finally started working on it.

We didn't follow a plan at all, just built a top, two legs, and supports.  Except for some minor engineering help from me, Josh made this on his own.  It only took a few hours with staining time.  Super easy, looks nice, and covers the meter.  Win!

Wool Dryer Balls

When I purchased my microfiber cloths, I also purchased two other things.  Sticking with my saving money and being green trend, I purchased wool dryer balls and reusable produce bags.

Puppy cuddles

After getting used to the initial shock of the balls rumbling around in the dryer, I really like what they do.  They do seem to make everything dry faster and more efficiently.  I have heard of people adding essential oils to the dryer balls to give a nice scent.  I only have lemon essential oil, so I will have to invest in another scent to try that one.

If you are looking for a way to improve drying efficiency and time, I would recommend testing these out.  I believe you can get them from Target and some other stores as well as Amazon.  Verdict is still out on the produce bags.  Our meal plan this week only required us to buy cheese and lettuce.  Hooray for pantry shopping!

Hiatus and Budget Cleaning

I have taken a bit of a hiatus lately.  I wasn't having a great time at work and thought that any posts would be a bit of a downer, so decided to just skip it.  A lot has happened since my last post.  We have been doing some projects around the house, attended a few weddings, went on a trip to Hawaii, and my Dad has had coronary bypass surgery.  Whew!

We won the ticket lottery to see Book of Mormon

Things are going to be changing around here.  Josh has always wanted to go back to school to get his MBA, and he is taking the first step towards that this month.  He will start his GMAT prep course in a few weeks and is also attending an information session at Carlson School of Business.  With oodles more debt looming in our future, we are looking for some ways to cut the budget.

Happy ready to support her Uncle Chase

I have been tossing around the idea of making our own cleaning products for a while, but we have had a HUGE stockpile of cleaning products since moving out of our apartment in St. Paul.  While we are working on that, I am doing some research on things I would like to try.

Shave ice in Hawaii

One thing I do know is that we will go back to making our own laundry detergent.  We tried it a while back and loved it.  It is super easy, cost effective, and smells good.  This is the recipe we used last time and will use it again.  We already have all the ingredients and I liked the results.

Cutie pie

Something else I have been considering for a while is not using paper towels for cleaning.  I have been trying to cut back on our paper towel use.  First of all, they are expensive.  Second of all, throwing away all that waste is not good for the environment.  When we got married, we registered for cloth napkins.  We were really good about using them, but since we moved, have fallen off.  I am going to add some cloth napkins to my Christmas list to bulk up our supply and try to get back to using them.

Wedding

Also, after being invited to a Norwex party but not being willing to spend that much money on something, I ordered some microfiber cloths from Amazon.  So far, I have used them one time and like what I have seen.  I like that you don't need to use cleaning solutions and that once you make the initial investment, there isn't much more to spend.

Puppy love

I will keep update with how this is going.  Let me know if you have any secret tips for cleaning on a budget.