In your 20s, home decorating is all about getting the basics, but once you hit your 30s, it’s time to investing in pieces for your home that will help you feel your most confident each day. Staples that will carry you for the next decade and beyond. Whether you’re still renting an apartment or living the suburban dream, now is the time for you to curate space at home. So if you are the 5 must-have adulting items 30-something gals need at home:
Permanent furnishings
Once you secure your long-term digs, it’s time to invest in quality pieces that will help you create your own thumping at home. Now is the time to switch your furniture from college or second-hand, temporary belongings and replace them with pieces that are quality and represent your style at home. Think classic, functional, and affordable.
Clothing that matches your lifestyle
Once you’ve hit your 30’s it time to curate your perfected adult wardrobe. A wardrobe with functional, quality pieces that can take you from the office to a night on the town. You will also need to invest in quality foundation pieces including a seasonless LBD, quality outerwear, properly fitted lingerie, sleepwear, and workout clothing too! Remember, workout clothes, yoga pants, and tights are not proper attire to wear in public for anyone past the age of ten!
Cosmetics and accessories that make you feel fabulous
30-something women should always have a collection of accessories, ranging from four seasons worth of quality footwear to seasonless hats to jewelry that makes a statement. You should also invest in quality makeup that helps you look your most youthful, health-minded self. Also making sure to purchase the proper containers to keep these fabulous finds in. Including vanity storage, vanity lighting, jewelry armoire, and accessory storage containers.
Proper linens
By the time you reach the age of 30, you should take steps to invest in your nightly sleep health at home. Including a proper mattress set and quality bedding and linen sets at home. Including high thread count long-staple cotton and bamboo sheet sets. Linens that help to sustainably wick away moisture while you sleep. Ensuring you get your proper amount of winks in each night!
All kinds of insurance
Whether you are a renter or homeowner, by the time you’re a 30-something, you should be properly insured at home. Protecting your belongings at home, including homeowners and renters insurance. And depending on your geographical location, policies that protect you from flooding, fire damage, hurricanes, and other natural disasters might be in order as well. It’s the ultimate way to get peace of mind when you are away from home.
Friends, those are the 5 things you should have at home by the time you are in the season of being a 30-something at home. Products and protections to help make your life as fabulous as possible at home! Now I want to ask, do you currently invest in those belongings and policies for yourself? Or do you plan to acquire these things this season? Let me know below!
Being a mom can be thoroughly exhausting, and while you are, no doubt, thinking the words “well, duh!” At this is very point, are you doing anything about it? Or have you resigned yourself to the fact that you are going to be exhausted for the next 15 to 20 years?
The big problem a lot of us have in life is that we think that it’s just the way it is. That is nothing we can do about it, and when you have so many different pressures in life, not just the fact that you are struggling financially.
Because buying things for your children now means you pretty much have to remortgage your home, the reality is a lot of parents face now is that both of them have to work full-time jobs, while concurrently balancing a healthy relationship with the kids, not to mention, the other essentials in life, from shopping to school, and everything else in between. It seems that now, while every parent feels incredible pressure on every aspect of their lives, it means that stress is not just something we feel on occasion, but it’s our default setting.
So, what is the answer? By the time you’ve put the kids to bed, done the laundry, and finally found time for you and your partner, you end up falling asleep. And while we all are different, it’s our night time routine that can set us up for the next day, give us the tools to tackle everything with enthusiasm, but can also energize us efficiently. So, what can you do before going to bed that will make sure you are rested, relaxed, and are recuperating properly?
Fixing Your Mindset
Depending on your attitude to life, you might find yourself of a positive disposition, or a negative one. If you will find yourself like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, this is going to impact every part of your life. It can be easy to get into this cycle of negative thinking, especially when you don’t have time for yourself.
The solution is to make the time. While you might find yourself against the idea of getting up before the rest of the family, by having that quiet time, and doing something that is for you, and makes you feel good, will have a great effect on your mindset throughout the whole of the day. It doesn’t have to be getting up at 4:30 in the morning, but if you give yourself the opportunity to ease into the day, you are going to be able to tackle tasks far better, and without that dreaded stress.
Now, this depends on what your own interests are. For a lot of us, if we look good, we feel good, so if you feel under the weather a lot, and you can see the effects on your face, maybe a skincare routine will be something to brighten up your spirits. Numerous resources like Sio – Skin Innovation Overnight, provide simple patches that improve collagen function, so if you put some of these on your face before going to bed, you will wake up in the morning looking a lot happier with your appearance, but by having the time to put a full face of makeup on and do your hair properly, you will have that confidence you need to see you through the day.
It’s amazing how much the external factors can impact our internal ones. And while fixing yourself from the outside it might work, doing it the other way round will also have a positive impact. Making 10 minutes for yourself in the morning and the night to take part in some rejuvenating techniques, such as box breathing, or mindfulness, have been shown to have a positive impact on every aspect of our lives, from our blood pressure lowering significantly, to a more relaxed mindset. This is something that, if you can get into the practice of doing it, you will feel so many benefits throughout your life.
How You Can Get Good Sleep
Sleep is the ever evasive thing we need to ensure that we are sufficiently recharged. Sleep is usually the lowest of the priorities, after ensuring your kids go to sleep, and all the housework being completed. But, you are doing your body and mind a disservice if you don’t get the adequate 8 hours. Likewise, you might be getting the sufficient amount, but you are still waking up feeling like you could do with a couple more hours. The trick is all about one simple thing, banning electronics from the bedroom.
A lot has been written about how electronics can impact your sleep, and specifically, mobile phones. But it’s not just mobile phones that have the blue light that impacts on melatonin (your sleep hormone) if you are partial to night-time TV watching, it may relax you, but the blue light being emitted from the TV is almost as bad as the one coming from your phone. The real solution, if you want to get a proper, rested sleep, is to go blackened. You want your room to be so dark, that you cannot see your hand in front of your face.
The simple way to get this underway is to purchase blackout blinds. If you can’t get the adequate amount of sleep, then you need to make what little sleep you can get, good quality. In addition to this, the quality of your bed will make all the difference, and buying a mattress that minimizes allergens, not to mention ensuring your pillows are well supported are simple little things that can mean a big difference in your night’s sleep.
Winning The Battle The Night Before
If you have that feeling you are constantly chasing your tail, and the time your kids go to bed is when you can clean up all loose ends, it’s hardly a surprise that you feel exhausted come the morning. You’ve done so much the night before to clean up the end of the day that you are feeling the effects of stress. And as soon as you finished everything at the end of the night, you are constantly thinking about what you have to do tomorrow.
Well, it’s at this point where you might want to take the attitude of getting ahead of yourself. Much like when you get up early so you can have some time to get yourself in check, by starting your day the night before, you’ve got a lot less on your to-do list, meaning that you start off the day on the right foot. So, what are the best things to do the night before? You could take the entrepreneurial approach and lay out clothes for yourself, but extend this to your kids.
In addition to this, things like packed lunches are easy to prepare the night before. But if you’re thinking that all this is just adding to your day, you’ll feel the benefits come Friday night when you’ve got nothing to do apart from looking after the kids. One of the best tricks to help yourself get ready the night before is to do these essential tasks while listening to music, or your favorite podcast, this makes it a bit more enjoyable, rather than something you have to do.
Sharing Your Problems
And if you really have no time to do anything the night before, the best tool you can give yourself is a piece of paper and a pen. If you worry about what’s going to happen tomorrow, and if you are going to be able to do everything, part of the difficulty in falling asleep at night is the fact that you’ve got so much information in your head.
Writing a to-do list, with everything laid out, and what order you can do it in, means you have more control over your day. By listing everything that needs doing, and putting it to one side, will make sure your brain is empty enough so that you can relax.
The humble pen and paper can also be beneficial in having a brain. If there are things playing on your mind, write about them. If you don’t have a diary, or you don’t have any form of getting things off your chest, a piece of paper and writing out these problems can help you to realize how minimal they are, or if they are major problems, one of the best things you can do is to list the pros and cons of each, and go to sleep. You might find that you have woken up with the answer because your subconscious has worked through it in the night.
Of course, the ideal way to win these battles would be to implement them all, but this is impossible. If you can take inspiration from this, and try to do a few of these before bed, you will feel so much better as a result.
As we get older, the more we shun a nighttime routine, but, we still make sure our kids have one. So surely, we should take inspiration from what we do for our kids, so that they have a peaceful sleep, and do it for ourselves? We will wake up feeling better, and as a result, that energy slump we feel in the middle of the day, or as soon as we wake up, will soon become a thing of the past
Being successful in blogging is all about exuding confidence, even if you don’t feel like you know what you are sometimes doing. In fact, it’s often a case of faking it until you make it. Although, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some useful approaches that you can take that will boost your blogging confidence and results, something that you can read more about in my post below.
Get good at talking to people.
One thing that can boost your blogging confidence is getting good at talking to people. Ok, so your blog may not require you to speak to anyone face to face, although if you get super successful, it’s likely this will happen at least some of the time. However, being confident in the way that you talk to people also can affect your interactions online and how you relate with your readers.
To that end, finding a language course that deals with conversational English, something that you can source online can be useful. Although, observing how other bloggers in your network manage this side of things can help too.
Get good at writing.
Next, a fantastic way of getting more confidence in your blogging is to hone your writing skills. Now, most of us can write fundamentally, but when it comes to structure, tense, and tone things can get a bit tricky.
Lucky, there is a wealth of information and tools out there that can help you improve the way that you write. Just bear in mind that sometimes it will take a little effort and commitment until you see a measurable difference.
Find some amazing images.
Also, it can help you to boost your blog confidence if you focus on the visual side of your site as well. In particular, ensuring that the images you use are on brand is something that can make your blog seem very professional and turn it into something to be proud of.
Of course, you can take your own pictures for your blog, something you can find out more about here. Alternatively, there are many free stock image sites that you can use to sources your photos. However, you do need to be sure that you understand the licensing agreements and whether you have to reference the images or not before you display them.
Create a stunning theme.
Lastly, and also on the visual side of things, something that can help you to be confident in your blog is to invest in a customized theme. In fact, doing so has many advantages including helping to create your brand, as well as providing a more aesthetically pleasing experience for your readers.
Now, if you are tech minded and have a little programming or graphic design experience you may want to have a go at doing this yourself.
However, if you want fast results without having to study how to code, it can be more helpful to outsource this task to someone that has proven expertise. After all, part of being confident in blogging is knowing when to delegate tasks and ask for help so you can keep getting better and better.
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #FreeandCleanLiving #CollectiveBias
Growing up my grandmother believed that having pets in the home wouldn’t enable you to be able to keep your home as clean as possible. As a result, I missed out on the opportunity to grow up aside pets as a child. One of the few things I regret about my childhood growing up.
After all, who doesn’t just love cats? Like most cat owners, one of my missions in life is to make sure that my furry friends are living their happiest, healthiest life at home. Especially my cat, Mr. Darcy, a rescue kitten my husband surprised our family with one afternoon last fall. He’s named after one of my favorite characters in fiction, Mr. Darcy, from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
Since the day my husband brought home our sweet little kitty, Mr. Darcy has become one of our best friends. A cat who lives life to the fullest. Making him the perfect cat!
In addition to having the perfect furry friends at home, I also like to keep my home perfectly clean too! Luckily, as many times over pet owner now I know that it’s not only possible to keep your home clean while being a pet owner, but it’s quite simple too!
Its all about having a pet-friendly cleaning routine at home. A routine I do each morning where I do a scan of my home and quickly clean up any pet messes in my living, dining, and bedroom areas at home. Making sure that the pet hot-spots, the litter box areas, pet beds, food stations, and play areas are tidied up, vacuumed, and are restocked for the day. I then make sure to feed my feline crew and am then off to workout and get myself, husband, and little one ready for the day.
This simply 30-minute morning cleanup allows my home to stay in tip-top shape. In such good shape, that unless you saw our litter boxes or food stations, you might not know pets lived in our home. And that’s such a little span of time and energy compared to the love and happiness my crew brings into my life each day!
Now if you’re looking for tips to help keep your cat-friendly home spic and span this season, here are a few tips to help you get started:
Finding the right cat litter:
As a multi-cat home, we use Purina® New TIDY CATS® Free & Clean™ Unscented Clumping Litter. It helps us keep our litter box stations clean, sanitary, and to help keep litter boxes odors at bay!
Purina® New TIDY CATS® Free & Clean™ Unscented Clumping Litter provides unscented odor control with the Powder of Activated Charcoal. I like the unscented version of this litter because with multiple cats my allergies already have enough to decipher each day. So why complicate things with artificial litter smells too?
It provides powerful odor control is at the top of every cat owners must-haves of litter list which is why this littler is without added fragrances and dyes. Free & Clean offers you the odor-absorbing power of activated charcoal plus TidyLock® Protection to lock away odors.
Purina® New TIDY CATS® Free & Clean™ Unscented Clumping Litter. is also 99.9% dust-free, clumps strongly, and help to keep your litter box station clean-up quick and easy at home. With TidyLock Protection that locks away odors to eliminate those dreaded litter box odors each day. We keep litter boxes in our kitchen and storage rooms so keeping them smelling fresh is a priority for me!
I pick up this litter at Target when I pick up my other pet supplies and food staples each week. I shop at Target at least once a week for the entire family and love their selection of pet food, treats, toys, and of course, litter too. It’s the convenient, affordable way for me to keep my pet family well stocked at home!
Have the correct number of litter boxes at home:
Its a general rule that you should have a litter box for each one of your cats at home, plus one. Which is why we have four litter boxes at home. Making sure each box stays clean and fresh by scooping them twice daily, once in the morning and again at night each day. This helps keep our home cleaner, cats happier, and eliminates not only litter box aggression but litter box odors too!
Set boundaries for your pets:
Since our cats were kittens we have trained them to have safe, healthy boundaries by keeping them off of specific surfaces in our home. Including kitchen countertops, bathroom vanities, coffee tables, and our kitchen table. This allows me to help keep the surfaces we need to be as germ-free as possible and helps keep our pets away from heat sources or our food too!
We give out cat areas a deep clean weekly:
Each weekend we live out cat-specific areas, including litter boxes a deep clean. We take them outside, remove all litter, hose out the boxes, sanitize the surfaces, and let them sun bleach until dry. This allows us to keep our cats healthier and while cleaning out the litter we can check for urine crystallization, a condition that would require immediate vet assistance.
We create cat-specific play areas in our home:
A fresh and happy at home should always include areas for your cats to play and enjoy their time in your home. We have several small areas that contain cat trees, toys, and our food stations, but we also have an area in our second spare bedroom that is designated as our pet-play space. In this space, we house two litter boxes, out pet bunny’s hutch, our hamster set-up, and DIY cat ramps and a cat toy area.
As cats are natural climbers, we made sure to include simple boards, beams, and ramps that allow them to climb about the room without interfering with my cleaning routines or with the other furry friends they cohabitate with at home in our playroom.
We used reclaimed, heat-treated palette wood, metal hinges, a table saw, and miter saw to put everything together. The entire project took under an hour.
Under the ramps, we keep the various toys, mats, tunnels, and scratching posts we picked up at Target to make sure our fuzzy friends have lots to play with each day at home!
So if your home is a happy home that loves having one cat or multiple cats, like we do, be sure to head over to your local Target and purchase Tidy Cats® Lightweight Free & Clean for your litter boxes and you’ll immediately see a difference in the freshness in your litter box stations, with no extra added scents. Target is always a great place to stock up on your pet’s needs, plus do a little bit of shopping for yourself too!
Looking for more #FreeandCleanLiving inspiration? Check out the social hub to see how others have put Purina® New TIDY CATS® Free & Clean™ Unscented Clumping Litter to work for them.
Now, friends, I want to ask, how are you helping to ensure your cat is living their happiest, healthiest life possible at home this season? I’d love to hear all about it below!
There are few things in life more difficult than trying to track down the perfect gift. As much as you know there shouldn’t be, it’s hard not to feel an immense amount of pressure to find the perfect gift that someone will treasure for the rest of their lives!
That kind of pressure can make life pretty difficult when you’re actually trying to find something. However, just because it can be a challenge to find the right gift, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t things that you can do in order to make the whole process just that little bit easier.
With that in mind, here are a few different ways that you can figure out what the perfect gift would be for someone in your life. That way you can avoid the stress of the season and get on with actually enjoying it!
Know their interests
If you want to find the right gift for someone, then it usually needs to be something that is tailored specifically to them. If you just go out and buy something generic that you can give to everyone in your life, people can usually tell.
Instead, think about the things that the person in your life actually cares about and build their gift around it. This might seem like the simplest thing in the world, but a lot of the time it can really help to think carefully about someone’s interests and then work backward from there when it comes to trying to find the best possible gift for them.
Personalise it
People can always tell if you’ve given them a generic gift that could have been for anyone else. Sure, the idea of buying something general and giving it to everyone might save you a lot of time and effort, but that’s just going to make it so that no one really cares that much about what you get them.
If you really want the gift that you give to have an impact on someone then why not make an effort to give them something personal.
Get online
It can sometimes feel as though you’re struggling to find the right kind of gift because everything that you find feels kind of obvious and predictable. One of the most common reasons that this ends up happening is because people are looking in the same old places over and over again.
If you only buy gifts from the same few places over and over, then, of course, it’s going to start to feel as though your selection is somewhat limited. If that’s the case for you then why not look just a little further afield in some slightly more unusual places.
The internet is great for this because there are almost always a few funny little corners of the web where you can find things that you never expected. Whether you’re buying birthday gifts to send halfway across the world or you just don’t want to bother with shopping in stores, the internet is a great place to find unique and interesting gifts. Just make sure that you order them in time!
It might sound kind of cliched and hackneyed to say this, but the old saying that “it’s the thought that counts” really is worth remembering. Don’t let things like price weigh you down too much. The truth is that people can feel the thought that you put into a gift the moment that they open it.
The fact that you’re feeling stressed and worried about finding the right gift is probably a good sign that you’re on the right track. After all, if finding a gift was easy, it’s probably a sign that you didn’t care that much about getting it right in the first place.
Learning to be a parent is pretty much trial by fire, you learn by doing! But with some of the essentials in your baby’s life, especially in the early days, it’s beneficial for you to have a decent idea of some of the fundamentals. Clothing is one of those things that can be confusing because you might not have the budget to play with.
Or if you’re planning on buying clothes in preparation for the arrival of your newborn, you have no idea what to go for, because you might pick clothes that don’t fit. But here are some of the rules to follow.
Comfort Is Key
Picking clothes that are comfortable is ideal for your baby. Essentially, just go for breathable fabrics, as this will avoid irritation. The goal is to make the clothes as soft as possible, so, once you’ve picked them up, give them a wash to soften the material again.
Get More Than You Think You Need
If you are expecting your first child, you won’t get a true appreciation of how much mess they make until you see it for yourself! This is why it’s always important to get much more than you think you need.
For the first couple of months of your baby’s life, you won’t be going out much, because you’ll be learning how to be a parent, but if there are some instances where you need to take the baby out, don’t be concerned too much about dressing them up, or making them look cute, it’s far better to get baby grows and outfits that are practical.
When they’re older, you can go for baby boy or baby girl outfits that have a bit of style at the outset, but their practicality is the most important thing.
Plan For Every Season
Babies cannot regulate their body temperature for some time after they’re born, and the first 8 weeks are vital. And while it’s important to be practical, you need to be aware of the external temperatures.
Giving birth in the summer means that they are more at risk of overheating, so picking fabrics and materials that are breathable is even more essential at the very outset. Get a good idea of the types of clothing that you want them to wear, but also to ensure that they are not too hot or not too cold. Sun hats for their head in the summer are essential, and snowsuits or bodysuits are vital in the winter.
And finally, when it comes to picking the essentials as far as baby clothes are concerned, muslin cloths and scratch mitts need to be in abundance. You are going to go through so much laundry, that you need enough supplies.
This is the most important thing to remember, at the very outset of your child’s life, you are going to be sleep deprived, so you aren’t going to have much of an opportunity to take care of the home essentials, but this is why you need to purchase more clothes. The first two months of your baby’s life is where everything becomes challenging, as long as you have enough as far as supplies are concerned, you’ll be fine.
With so many different ways to leave product reviews, it is easier than ever to find out what people think about every item under the sun. As well as reading what members of the public think, you can also find out what the professionals have to say as well. It is always worth taking the time to read reviews before you buy anything, and here are just a few of the reasons why.
Many people are buying products for a specific reason, and reading the reviews is one of the best ways of finding out whether or not it does it has what you need it to do. And while the product description may say that it fulfills a particular purpose, you can find out from people who are impartial about whether or not it lives up to all its promises.
To Get the View of the Experts
There are many review websites out there from people who are experienced in that particular product area. Whether you are looking for a new mountain bike or CBD vape cartridges, there are bound to be websites which are dedicated to that field. Often, the reviews that you get from the experts are more in-depth and you will pick up on features that might get missed by your average member of the public.
To Help You Identify Rogue Sellers
There is always an element of risk involved when you are buying online, but reading the product reviews is one of the best ways of picking up on the sellers which are more untrustworthy. People who have been victims in the past are likely to leave reviews warning future buyers away from the rogue sellers. If you see a number of reviews which are all saying the same thing, you have a better idea of the authenticity of the seller.
To Determine How Good a Brand is
Everyone has a pretty good idea what to expect when it comes to the big brands, but there may be some smaller or medium-sized ones which you have never heard about before. Rather than potentially buying an inferior product, you can find out the experiences of other buyers to find out about the pros and cons of that brand.
To Get an Idea of How the Product Can Be Utilised
When many people are leaving reviews, they like to describe their own experiences with the product. You may even find some alternative uses for the item which you had never considered in the past. The more you read, the more information that you will get about the product and the better informed you will be when it comes to making your decision.
The savvy buyer should always take the time to know everything they can about what they are about to buy. These are just a few of the reasons why you should always read reviews if you don’t already.
