Stuff I need to stop buying

This may come as a surprise to you guys, but I’m not a millionaire. I don’t have a lot of money, yet I like to buy shit I absolutely do not need. For example, a lot of the clothes I’ve previously mentioned on this site.

But this post isn’t about dumb purchases I made. Well, not exactly. This post is mostly here so I remember not to buy this stuff in the future because I hate it. I’ve bought these items at least one time and ended up tossing it for various reasons and then bought it again.

This list may not be for you guys, it’s a list of stuff that I can pull up at the grocery store or mall before I make a purchase I don’t need again.

Rose Petal Toner

I bought rosewater toner a few years ago and it wrecked havoc on my face. I read it helped with dry skin and was a good anti-aging product, but it did not work that way. Instead my face got super dry. So the bottle sat in my bathroom for a long while until I moved once and threw it away. Cut to a few years later and I was in Whole Foods and in the mood to make an impulse purchase and bought Thayers Rose Petal Witch Hazel Toner (with Aloe Vera!). Apparently I thought that the addition of witch hazel and aloe vera would make it different, but no. Once again, my face went dry. So I kept it in my medicine cabinet until last weekend when I tried it out again. Not only did I get my dry face, but my eye puffed up and got swollen (as it tends to do when my face dries out).

Can you guess what I did with the bottle of toner? That’s right, it’s still sitting in the medicine cabinet. So I guess I won’t buy this again because I still have a pretty full bottle at home.

Beats By Dre

I’m ashamed to say I’ve purchase more than one pair of Beats By Dre. Ok, not purchased. I bought one and then got a second pair as a warranty replacement. They’re not a bad earbud, it’s just that I am so rough on my headphones. After I use them I just throw them in my purse, haphazardly wrapped around my iPod or phone. The wires always become loose inside and the sound always cuts out in one side and I can only hear the music if I hold the wires in a very specific way. I’ve bought other headphones that I paid too much for and the sound was a bit better, but I’m not a dj or know anything really about the sound of songs. So I should stick to cheaper ones because it won’t hurt me so much to replace them.

Baby Spinach

It’s not the spinach that I need to stop buying, it’s the huge tub. I’m only one person, I have no idea why I buy this much spinach because I can’t eat all of it before it goes bad. I tell myself every time that it’s only $1 more than the smaller sizes.

Moscato

I can palate sweet wines more than the average person, but Moscatos are too sweet for human consumption. But I forget this at least once a year, so I end up buying a bottle only to use it for cooking after one sip.

What about you, what items do you buy repeatedly only to always be disappointed? 

Ikea Hacks: Rast

If you’ve been reading this blog, you probably realize that we love Ikea. In the short life of this blog, we’ve had a few posts on this magical Swedish store and their delightful furniture.

A few years ago, I bought the Rast chest of drawers to use as storage for clothes because I wasn’t ready to give some of them up even though I really should have. I was basically enabling my hoarder tendencies. After buying this, I moved and started using it as a dresser, but it really sucked as a dresser because it doesn’t hold as much as I wanted it to and it was really short. Also, it’s boring to look at.

I left it as that boring colour for way too long. I mean, look at it, it’s begging for a coat of paint!

I needed a new dresser but wasn’t sold on spending too much money on the situation, so I decided to get out my tools, some paint, my creativity and hack this Rast.

Now, let me state for the record I actually completed this hack over a year ago and before this blog was even a thought in our mind so I don’t have photos of the steps. But it is one of my proudest creative moments and I wanted to share it here.

What I needed to do to make this bad boy a functioning dresser is somehow give it the ability to store more stuff, raise it so I don’t have to bend down so much and slap a coat of paint on there.

The first order of business? Buying a second Rast. This bad boy does not break the bank and is available for only $39 at Ikea. Before I rushed home to put the second one together, as I usually do with a new Ikea purchase, I painted the individual pieces, along with the previous one I purchased.

These colour tester cans from Home Depot are the best. I work very close to a Rona, but they don’t sell them, so I take the extra half hour out of my day to make a trip to Home Depot for these. It’s the perfect amount for most projects, relatively cheap and you don’t have huge paint cans sitting around your house unused.

I chose a dusty purple colour for my project because my room is a boring beige-y brown colour and I need a pop. Also, I like to decorate as if a boy would never live in my house.

Obviously I would use a colour where the name evokes wine

After the paint had dried a couple of hours, I coated it in Varathane Diamond Wood Finish in Satin because this stuff is awesome at protecting your paint job. It also helps wick moisture and makes cleaning so much easier. Basically, always coat any wood you’ve stained or painted in this to help keep it looking good.

Next I had to get the two individual pieces together to form one dresser, so I glued the two Rast’s together in the middle using heavy glue. I questioned whether this would work but didn’t want to have to screw them together (or use nails) for fear of the nails or screws getting in the way of how the drawers fit. I used Gorilla Glue for wood and it works like a dream. Over one year later and it’s holding up really well.

To do this, I had one of the Rast on it’s side and put the glue on then placed the other Rast on top. Then used two heavy duty clamps to hold it together as it dried for about 24 hours.

As previously mentioned, I wanted the dresser to be raised a bit taller. This was much simpler than I though, I just got four legs (similar to these ones), painted them and screwed them into the bottom of the dresser(s). Actually, it required one more step in there since the Rast doesn’t have much of a base to screw that in, so I added a small piece of 2×4 where each leg would go (painted as well) to give the legs something to screw on to. These pieces were also stuck on with that handy dandy Gorilla Glue.

And finally, the most fun part. As you can see above the Rast has two pulls for each drawer. I wanted to jazz mine up and use metal pulls and since I found out that buying 12 of them can be pricey I decided to just have one per drawer. Although there are a bunch of cute and covetable drawer pulls at Anthropologie, I couldn’t bring myself to pay $12+ for each knob so I went with a 6-pack from Rona (similar to these ones). Still super cute!

This step was the only part I needed help from someone else because it is impossible to screw these pulls in if the hole doesn’t already exist, so I needed my dad’s power drill. And if you’ve never used one these before, they’re fun! I legit want one for Christmas.

And a note about the six pre-existing holes in the Rast for where the original knobs were to go, I just filled them in with wood filler before I painted and it’s like they never existed.

After a few days work (mostly to wait for paint and glue to dry) my new dresser was complete!

Love it!

Editors note: I took that last photo right after I put the dresser in place. The orchid has since died and the top of the dresser is littered with hair elastics, brushes and random bits of jewelry. The glasses I have hanging there will soon be gone as my prescription has changed and I have no need for my collection anymore. That in itself is sad, but it means a new DIY project to find something to put in it’s place!

I might get a new power drill for Christmas and need to use it on something! Link us to your favourite Ikea hacks or DIY projects for the house. 

Staying spider free

I have a fear of spiders, I’m relatively fear free except for the spiders (and guns, but that’s another story for another day). Like most fears, I can’t explain why I hate spiders. They’re creepy and fast and they can control eight legs at once and maybe I’m jealous because I can barely control my own two legs.

Over the years I’ve gotten a bit more tolerant of spiders. Actually, tolerant is not the right word… forgiving? Easygoing? No. I think the word(s) I’m looking for is that in the past few years I’ve become more of a stone cold spider killer.

September was the unofficial start of spider season and it typically lasts until November, at least this is true of the rainy and damp Vancouver area. So it’s important to be vigilant at this time of year to keep those creepy crawlers out of your house.

It used to be that if I had a spider in my house I would scream, jump on the couch and wait for someone to come kill it. But now since I live alone, my screams go unanswered. In the past few years I’ve found that I’ll kill the spiders myself, usually with chemical warfare (aka the bleach cleaner I keep in my bathroom) or sometimes by stomping on it in a heavy boot. I’m very specific about spiders found in my home, they have to be killed and the carcass collected in a tissue so I can give a burial at sea (down the toilet). There is no way I will give the spider its final resting place in the garbage, because it’ll come back to life and eat my face as I sleep. And don’t even try to tell me that spiders should just be relocated outside, unlike my dear Andrea I’m not against a bit of animal cruelty (arachnid… only arachnid, do not harm animals!). THEY WILL COME BACK IN. My home is very welcoming, they will most certainly want to make its way back inside. And I’m not down with that… unless it pays rent.

Now, when I say I can kill a spider myself I mean like small spiders, typically the size of a dime or smaller. Larger spiders I get a bit panicked about. A wolf spider and I’m screaming on my couch again and hoping a neighbour hears me as I dissolve into a full on panic attack. I’m only mildly kidding. This summer I killed my first wolf spider, using my trusty vacuum and a huge amount of courage. It was the highlight of my summer and I sent out a text to almost everyone I know to praise me.

Since I have actually had panic attacks at the sight of a wolf spider, I need to take on an attitude of prevention rather than waiting for them to come in and attack. How I do this, is actually very simple. I just have one weapon in my attack… spider spray.

I use either the Raid or One Shot. Now, neither of these are made to kill spiders when you see them. I mean, you can drown the spiders in the chemicals if you see one but it’s a meant to be a preventative measure.

Starting in late Spring I spray my doorways (front and back doors as well as the doors to my basement suite) as well as the floorboards in my bathroom and various other random spots I’ve seen spiders come in. The spray has a pleasant, non-chemically smell. Almost like honeysuckle. And you only have to spray every two weeks.

Now, to be honest it is a chemical. So maybe you’re not a fan of spraying chemicals in your house but I’m pretty ok with it to give me piece of mind. Plus, don’t breathe it in. The smell goes away for human nostrils, but spiders are repelled by it and stay away. Ever since I started doing this a few years ago I have very few spiders in my place. Occasionally one does get in, but’s usually because I’ve fallen behind on my spraying duties.

According to the internet there are non-chemical ways to keep spiders away but they typically include magically sourced ingredients that I’m too lazy to procure. Ok, not really, but I’m not trusting of those techniques (I tried the vinegar one, it didn’t work) and so I stick to my poison.

What are your recommendations for keeping the creepy crawlies out of my house? Have you tried any of the natural tricks and do they work? 

Tips and tricks of a committed clean freak

So I love cleaning. Good day, bad day, normal day. All good days to take out your frustrations on your countertop. Or sink. Man, I love cleaning my sink. Over the years I have found some tricks for tidying, and some favourite products. It all started in high school when I got sick of the inconsistency of the cleaning products used in my house, so I started to amass a collection of preferred things that I would keep in my room. Over the years my needs have changed, as I clean my whole place, not just my bedroom and have tried pretty well everything. All of the products here I have purchased at least twice. I don’t recommend anything that is not PROVEN to be effective and up to my high level of snuff. I hope you enjoy!

Sapadilla. I love the scent of this cleaner. It is fresh and citrusy, and cleans like an absolute dream. It loosens caked on food and spills like nobody’s business, and is eco friendly to boot! I use it for tons of surfaces in my house, from the kitchen to the bathroom and more. The Sapadilla Countertop Cleanser in Grapefruit + Bergamot can be found here. You can also find it in Whole Foods, and other local markets. I usually spray it on the surface and use paper towel to wipe it off.

Method. Another eco friendly lovely cleaner. I love the Method Dish Pump in Clementine which can be found here. I love that it is in a pump bottle, which makes using it super easy. It is gentle on my hands, and gets dishes clean in a hurry! You can also buy refills for it which cuts hugely down on the packaging.

I also use a dish wand for dishes, but don’t fill the container thing. I love the Scotch Brite dish wand. You can buy replacement sponges so you don’t need to replace the whole thing. It is available in most grocery stores! There are other wands available, but this is my favourite.

For glass cleaning, you can never go wrong with Windex. I have tried using other, more eco friendly options, and it just isn’t the same. I use Windex for tons of things as well, it helps get off sticky labels (never buy it without Ammonia!) off super easily.  I also use it on my countertops in a pinch! I feel like the wonderful dad in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I think he may have loved Windex more than me. You can find Windex literally everywhere. I don’t think you need my help finding it! P.S. Knockoffs work just fine!

Now into the tricker stuff. For cleaning my sink, I love Comet. It always reminds me of the last day of elementary school when we would clean our desks. I remember my teacher dumping a little mound of Comet on everybody’s desks and us getting paper towel, wetting it down and giving our desks a good scrub. I love the über clean smell, and the grittiness. It would get rid of all of the glue that had caked on, accidental marker mistakes, and tons of pencil marks. I love using this to clean my sink because it leaves it sparkling and super tidy. So satisfying! Find it in grocery stores or places like Walmart!

Toilet cleaning. Super necessary. ALWAYS REMEMBER TO CLEAN THE SEAT! EVEN IF YOU LIVE ALONE. Trust me. I use Vim and use a big squirt around the bowl and then use a toilet brush. It works like a charm, and is super quick. Also can be found just about anywhere.

For tub and shower cleaning, I have used eco friendly ones, and tried a million different options. My favourite for eco friendly cleaner is Method Bathroom Cleaner in Eucalyptus Mint which can be found here. It is great for tub and tile but not much else.

I also am a big fan of Fantastik for a deeper clean. It has bleach and gets EVERYTHING. I also use this for a quick toilet clean. Find it almost anywhere!

For the tub and shower cleaning, I use a scrub brush like the one above. I had my last one for 3 years and only got rid of it because I used it to clean my balcony and it got super gross. Otherwise I would have had it for way longer. I found a good one at Home Depot.

For floor cleaning, all you need is vinegar. I love this because using different cleaning products can be quite bad for animals. Swiffer Wet Jet has been shown to be toxic so I am super careful with any cleaning things that go where my dog goes. To clean your floor with vinegar, use a bucket, and put about a 1:20 ratio of vinegar to water. I use hot water and a mop and it works perfectly. Also it is super cheap! For a big jug of regular vinegar, its like 4$. And it will last for a super long time! I found some of this really cheap at Canadian Tire.

For mops, I love the Vileda Bee Mop for a big clean. It is the kind that you dip in the bucket of hot water, and is great at getting sticky grossness off of the floor. I remember having this kind of mop for my whole childhood and loved how it wrings out the water. You can find it at most supermarkets or places like Walmart.

For daily use cleanup, I like the Vileda ProMist Mop. It has an area where you can put in your own cleaner, and I fill it with the water and vinegar mixture and a little bit of lavender oil (just a couple of drops) so it smells a little better! It also has a reusable mop pad that you can throw in the washing machine! Find this at Walmart as well!

Anyways, I hope that my many years of cleaning craziness has helped you with your cleaning needs. If you have any other things that need to be tidied, I am sure that I have experienced it, found a solution, and have a clear opinion on it. Trust me. I feel very strongly about cleaning. Its a little weird.

What do you like to use for cleaning? Do you like cleaning? Let us know! 

To do list on a break

So I have a two and a half week break from school, which I am about 5 days into. I spent the first two days in a drunken stupor as we went out on the Friday, and it was my dads wedding on Saturday. The previously mentioned dress from “What is one to wear to a parents wedding” worked like a charm, and shockingly (or not) I was the only one in yellow.

After that, I am trying to fully get into break mode. I have a list of projects that need to get done around my house, because I am an obsessive neat freak, and like things to be organized beyond all normal reason. For example, today, I moved all of my spices into matching small mason jars and labeled them with my label maker. When I showed my roommate, he said “how is this different from how it was before”. I responded rationally, with a high pitched screech, “NOW THEY ALL MATCH”. So you are now getting an idea of the kind of list I am making.

I thought that a good way to hold my self to my list of things I need to do is to publish them to the inter webs.

Not everything I want to do is organization related. I also want to do some other kinds of things, like read. For example, my goal is to start and finish The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt. I originally bought this because I had heard about it, it looked like a decent sized book for the price, and the authors last name is Tartt. And who doesn’t like tarts? I don’t know but I want nothing to do with them. Anyways, on further inspection it looks great and I am excited to read it.

Also on my list is my continued desire to perfect my homemade ice cream, so I bought more cream and homo milk and have done a fair amount of research. I will share my results with you as soon as it is as good as Rain or Shine Ice Cream (my favourite spot).

Now for the nitty gritty. My list is;

1. Organize front closet
2. Organize storage locker
3. Clean out closet (and shame boxes of shoes under my bed)
4. Clean out china cabinet
5. Clean and organize bathroom
6. Finish painting kitchen
7. Clean out garden

Yikes. With this much stuff to do, I may end up with painting all of my furniture just like Jen did.

I have already though organized my kitchen cabinets, fridge and spices. So its not all bad. And my fabulous reward at the end is going to Bumbershoot to see Ellie Goulding. There are other acts, but I am there for the Ellie.

Anyways, I know this break is going to go way too fast so its important to set out what you want to get done, otherwise it will go to waste. I know this from experience in laziness.

Cleaning Out My Closet

It’s summer. It’s sunny and hot and the perfect time to be sitting on the beach or by a pool or doing anything outdoors. But I just want to sit on my bed and stare at this sight all day long (with a fan blowing on me, obvi)…

 

This is my closet. For perhaps the first time since I moved into my place over two years ago, I have finally been able to tackle the beast that it is and have everything organized.

Here’s the before…

 

I’m getting anxiety just looking at it. And this was after I went through and gave away stuff and tried to organize it in April.

The main issue at hand was that there were two clothing bars, the bottom held my pants and some blazers whereas the top was my shirts and dresses. I hated that the dresses couldn’t hang free and instead were folded to hang on the hangers so they didn’t dangle down on the pants. It took up twice the room and everything looked a mess.

I woke up Friday morning with one goal in mind… organize that closet.

Originally, I had thought to add a divider in so I could have one section for dresses and another for two bars. Look, I even drew up “blueprints”

I took a trip to Home Depot and decided that the divider wasn’t the answer to my problem (i.e. it seemed too difficult to do without help from my dad who is out of town), so I went to my favourite place to visit when I need to organize my life. Ikea.

One look at the Kallax and I knew I found the solution. I actually have a similar one of these bad boys in my room already and knew that it was just what I needed.

 

Let me share something with you guys, I have a PhD in Ikea furniture. You can give me anything out of their catalog along with the necessary parts and an Allen key and I can put it together. Doesn’t matter if it says I need two people to do the job, I got it on my own (this may also have to do with my fiercely stubborn personality). My greatest Ikea achievement was when I put together a wardrobe while I was living in a one bedroom with a roommate and used the living room as my bedroom. They don’t make the same one anymore, but this is similar and served as my closet at the time

 

After tackling that, the Kallax was child’s play. I could get it done with one hand tied behind my back if I needed. Instead I just did it while sweating buckets in my 500 degree room (C or F, whichever you prefer) and drinking.

The best thing about this piece of furniture was that it could be stood up to have two rows of four (as pictured above) or four rows of two. I went with four rows of two after trying both ways about 10 times. Which was fun to move around in said 500 degree room in a cramped closet space.

After taking everything out of the closet, I put everything back in neatly and I tried to colour code it. I was able to hang my dresses as a normal person might and not have them hang over other things, I then folded all my pants up along with a few sweaters and stored them in the Kallax

 

While at Ikea I also picked up these Dröna boxes to keep things organized (read: hidden) and put some scarves in one and some shoes in others.

I’m super happy with the results and finally feel like I’ve got a handle on my closet. Now, I just have to keep things organized and avoid throwing things on the floor when I change my outfit five times each morning.

Share! What’s your favourite closet organizing tip?