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Motivated Moms Planner Review & Giveaway

Please note, though an app affiliate, I was not compensated by Motivated Moms for this review. All opinions are mine alone.

With running two at-home businesses, working on my first novel, running a blog, time spend volunteering pro-bono legal services, aiding my husband to coach his school’s robotics team, being an active member of several community civic and political organizations, hosting local book club meetings, and attending mass regularly, to keeping up with everything involved in the running of a home, a lot falls on my plate to finish each and every day.

While I’m not a super woman by any sense of the imagination, you may wonder how I manage to keep so many plates spinning at the same time? I’m able to accomplish all these tasks by keeping all of my priorities straight, delegating tasks out when needed, relying on family members to pull their fair share when it comes to chores at home, and by utilizing several planners to help keep me on track for success.

This past year I discovered a new planning cornucopia of goodness when I was given the opportunity to review the Motivated Moms iOS app, an app which has helped me stay on top of my daily household routine.

This full year’s app comes standard with a pre-programmed year of chores, broken down daily with a master list of chores and new prescribed and seasonally detailed chores as well. Everything is covered from laundry maintenance to being reminded to clean out my purse from time-to-time. This app is reminiscent of nothing as virtually every home-based maintenance is meticulously listed.

Using the app is as easy as completing a chore, and then once a task is completed, I just touch the check box on my devices screen, where it’s moved to the bottom of my chore list, and listed as a completed task.

Even as a minimalist, I can become overwhelmed by the demands of my home. Having lived my life the guide of perfectionism, as is typical of only children, I tend to go overboard when it comes to chores and feel a personal sense of failure if I don’t get every task completed on my daily to-do list. With the Motivated Moms iOS app, I receive immediate validation after completing each task on-screen and get the instantaneous gratification that comes with knowing in progressing through my daily chores. This app gives you momentum to get it all done!

I also love that typical homemaking chores, such as the tidying of countertop surfaces and the sweeping of common areas, aren’t the only chores listed. Also included are chores such as exercising, the taking of vitamins, and Bible reading are also included. The Motivated Moms iOS app (also available for Android) keeps me focused on my house cleaning schedule, helping me to take back time in my schedule for more important things like self-care and spending time each day with my family.

What makes the Motivated Moms iOS app so unique? This app is customizable! Not only can I assign and color code for individual person’s and their chores, I can also add or remove tasks based on the seasonal necessity of our family and home’s day-to-day needs. I can even select how often a custom task should be performed. I recently added blowing fall leaves from our walkways to my husband’s every-other-day chore list. A chore that while needed at present will not be a pressing task in the weeks to come.

I am also able to tailor some of the most perfunctory tasks on the app as well. Since we don’t have the 2nd floor in our home, I hid this task from the chore list and created a new task, cleaning out our home’s essential oil diffusers weekly instead. While pre-programmed tasks can’t be edited, just hiding the original chore and creating a custom task accomplishes the same goal in less time.

Not only can you customize chores for your home, you can also:

Add rooms, such as a library, sunroom, den, office, pantry, or study.
Freely hide and unhide tasks as your needs change.
Add or remove people from chores.
E-mail yourself a printable of the day’s lists (available for iOS), and if you have an AirPrint printer, you can print directly from the app.
Sync the app between your iOS devices. As everyone in our home is an Apple user this makes finding out your daily chores effortless.

While I admit to having been always more of a paper-to-pen kind of planner, but I have been blown away by the ease of using the Motivated Moms system, both by their app and their printable planner. But if you don’t want the app and prefer a printed chore planner? Motivated Moms has you covered for that, too. You can get the same planner, with or without assigned daily Bible study reading, in black and white or in color, for only $8.00, when you use promo code SAVE1 at checkout. You will also receive the remainder of 2016 with each purchase for free as well!

An initial subscription to the Motivated Moms iOS app is $1.99 and includes two months of tasks and server access. You can buy additional months via in-app purchase for 99¢ per month or a year for $7.99, and again denoted above for only $8.00 when you use promo code SAVE1 at checkout for the printable paper version.

In all, this app has proven beneficial to helping me finish my chores and get more done, in terms of my home-based businesses, I plan to keep my subscription current and will be using this system again in 2017.

For more information on Motivated Moms, also be sure to join them on Facebook and Twitter.

Motivated Moms has been gracious enough to give two LadyPrefers2Save readers their very own 1-year subscription to this amazing app. To enter, just leave me a comment and let me know why you are excited to try this app in the new year.

So savvy savers, let me know how you plan to get everything you need to get done at home in the coming year. I’d love to hear all about it below!

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Urban Market Bag Review

I strive to have a zero-waste home. In fact, it’s one of my missions in life. So I’m always on the lookout for new and better products that make my household, and personal mission, easier. So when I find new brands, companies, and product lines that fall in line with my personal beliefs on sustainability, I’m always a little giddy on the inside.

So recently when I was given the opportunity to review a new line of resuable bags I jumped at the chance.

So today I want to share with you my experience with the new Urban Market Bag line.

This venture started by longtime friends, Cindy Goldberg and Kerri Stenson, a pair that have raised their children together, volunteered, planned events, and started a business based on providing the public with a smart, stylish, reusable bag, the Urban Market Bag line.

You can also find out more about these awesome entrepeneurs here.

I received the Urban Market 3-piece bag set in the rural series, which features three bags in purple, taupe, and a rich, golden brown. The bags are also available in the Urban series, a fun, funky pastel collection.

My Urban Market set arrived tucked into a drawstring pouch (each measuring 5″ x 3.5″), which contained three bags, all of which were 26″ x 12.5″ in size. From the moment I took them out of their packaging, I was a smitten kitten.

I loved the look of the bags. They are sleek, fashionable, and not loaded with slogans (which is a bonus for me), yet are large enough to accommodate the same amount of groceries that would normally fit into a large, brown paper bag.

The Urban Market bags are durable and feel good in-hand. The bags are strong enough to be sent to school with my husband’s weekday lunches, but feminine enough to be carried to a luncheon date.

Since unpacking my Urban Market bags I have used, folded, and refolded my bags numerous times and can easily return my bags back to both their initial size and to the travel pouch without issue. These bags have moved from novel to necessary, in my opinion.

I also like to use these bags for transporting tarred mason jars used in bulk shopping. They also work well for carrying heavy-weight clothing items destined for the charity shop. These bags have proven themselves to be dependable many times over.

While these machine-washable nylon bags are relatively stain-resistant, like most reusable bags, run the occassional risk of the crumb-in-the-corner syndrome. Mind you, this can easily be remedied with occasional spot treating and/or cold-rinse cycle washing and air drying.

No mater your cleaning method, these bags when laundered will be left as good as new.

It’s also worth noting that like other reusable bags, the Urban Market bags are not air-tight – so they are not great to store bread products or crunchy snacks overnight, or while traveling. But for general shopping, running to the library, or for keeping reusable bags on hand in my vehicle, they are stellar!

So what’s the only drawback? The price. My three-pack will set you back a cool $28.00. The six-pack is currently priced even more at $40.00, and neither of these prices include shipping.

However, let’s also figure long-term zero-waste savings into this equation. As many national grocery chains charge customers upwards of $0.10 per grocery bag, per shopping trip for plastic grocery sacks, the initial price tag of the Urban Market bags would quickly be offset within two seasons of weekly use.

While it’s a personal preference as to whether or not you want to pay on the front or the backend for zero-waste shopping, rest assured you will pay either way! By choosing to pay the upfront costs for quality reusable bags, such as the Urban Market bags, you will at least have the satisfaction of not adding to landfill space in the interum.

With that said, for reliable, zero-waste shopping bags I’d gladly pay $28.00 for this three-bag set for all of my home’s zero-waste shopping and errand-running storage needs. Which for me, makes the Urban Market bag line worth a shot!

So, everyone, what do you think about the Urban Market Bag line? Do you pack a waste-free or no-waste lunch or shop for groceries using resuable bags? If you do, I’d love to hear all about it below!

Here’s to intentionally being a bag lady,

Please note, I received these bags as a review sample from Urban Market Bags. All opinions are my own. Thank you.

7 Pantry Clean Out Tips

Despite running a minimalist home my pantry always seems to be in need of rearranging, sorting, and cleaning.

While my stockpile saves my family thousands of dollars annually and allows me to give generously to my local food pantry, I must admit it is one of the most neglected areas in my home. Which is why I gave my stockpile a much needed Fall Cleaning yesterday afternoon.

So if your home pantry is in need of a sprucing up before the start of the holiday season or as part of this month’s No-Spend Challenge, here are a few tips to get you started.

1) Rotate your stockpile. “Rotating your stockpile” means rotating your stockpile per season. You will need to place goods in order of expiration date, my seasonal usage, as well as keeping climate into consideration; you may need to start storing it in one location for summer and another location for winter, in terms of baking tools, cans, chemicals, etc.

2) Long Term Storage: If you plan to store any item for longer than a week or two, you need to know its long-term storage requirements. Some items will only last months or longer if stored in a cool, dry place. Some items must be stored in a refrigerated or frozen environment in order to last longer. Make lists, and create sub-areas in your stockpile; examples are canned goods, cosmetics, paper products, etc.

3) Take Note of Patterns: Start a list of your product usage, this will allow you to see what you need, will use in a years time, and what should be donated accordingly. Unused goods are cash wasted.

4) Last Forever Items: Nothing lasts forever. Even goods such as bottled water, start to have an altered taste after a decade, so keep this in mind.

5) Canned and Preserved Goods: Keep inventory and note the dates of home-preserved items; a rule of thumbs is to only keep items no longer than two years.

6) Pests: Pests love your stockpile, almost as much as you do! Be sure to check goods monthly, especially in Summer, and any goods that look altered, chuck immediately!

7) Dehumidifier: Humidity can alter and mold many goods, so consider running a dehumidifier twice weekly to lessen your chances of losing food to mold spoilage and canning ruptures.

Now I hope these tips will help you in cleaning out your own pantry at home. Remember, the best way to save on your food budget at the store is to first have a proper, written inventory of what you already have on hand at home.

Here’s to saving,

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30 Money-Free Weekend Ideas

For the last few months, my husband and I have been making the effort to schedule things to do as a family every other weekend or so that we call money-free weekends, in an effort to live more frugally, and minimally. When we started this experiment we didn’t think there would be very many free, family weekend activities available to me in my small town. To my surprise, there were lots of free activities that have actually been quite fun. So today I wanted to share a few ways we as a family celebrate money-free weekends.

Now before I begin I do need to mention one ground rule. As a family on money-free weekends, we’re not allowed to spend any money. On anything, no matter what. In other words, we can’t make a run to the store to buy food, even if it’s on the dollar menu. We can’t spend money on any sort of entertainment, even if a great deal pops up online, on say Groupon. Even grocery shopping on Saturdays, on a “money-free” weekend, is delayed until Monday or Tuesday.

This rule also extends to our home. While we can use our utilities, extras are off the table. No renting movies on cable, no in-game purchases, no kindle downloads, no Farmville coins for the kiddos. Nadda. Zip. Zilch.

With that said, we still manage to have an awesome time each money-free weekend. I hope you will consider the following list in the coming weeks, as part of No-Spend November, and try a few out with your family as well!

Please note that everyone’s interests are different – you probably won’t find everything on this list fun but they are all frugal, and all worth a second look. Anyway, here goes, 30 money-free family weekend ideas for No-Spend November:

Check out your town’s online community calendar: Look at your town’s website (as well as those of cities and towns close by). You’ll often be surprised at how many interesting (and free) activities are going on right now in your area. Fall, in most parts of the country, is full of awesome, free festivals and events, especially for the kiddos.

Rearrange the furniture in a room: It’s amazing how much you can refresh a room just by moving the furniture into new positions. Pick a room, and try out a turn of 90 degrees on any new piece of furniture, and you may be surprised to see how it’s new configuration lends itself to your space. Why buy hundreds of dollars worth of new decor when all your room may need is a change of direction and a quick shop for accessories from other rooms in your home!

Go Geocaching: Geocaching is partly an outdoor adventure, partly a treasure hunt. Just visit Geocaching online, type in your home address, download their app, add your destination coordinates, and your set for adventure. Plus, you’ll likely find a few geocaches stashed in the area.

Do a neighborhood cleanup: Walk through your neighborhood and shared spaces with a trash bag and a pair of gloves, and pick up the litter. It’s a great eco-friendly thing to do as a family!

Visit your local library: Oh, the library. My home away from home! Not only does the library contain a plethora of books, but most libraries also have extensive CD, DVD, Audiobook, and language learning software collections you can check out too! Many libraries also offer weekend story time for young children, film nights for various groups, book clubs, concerts, author readings or lectures, and many other events that you may be unaware of – all for free. Stop in and check out what they have to offer.

Get involved in community sports: Many towns have community sports fields where both youth and adult sports leagues and activities are regularly going on throughout the weekend. Stop by, watch a game or two, and if something intrigues you, look into joining as a participant, or as a volunteer.

Find a new podcast: Podcasts are wonderful! These free, informative, entertaining audio programs are available to you for free on any topic you can fathom. Give them a shot – it’s easy to do using iTunes, under the podcast section of the of the iTunes Store.

My favorite podcasts include: The Minimalists (on minimalism), Cultivating the Lovely (on home matters), RadioLab (scientific and philosophical ideas), Fresh Air (interviews of general interest), The Simple Home (on sustainable living), and This Week in Tech (technology news), among many others.

Board games: We have a pile of board games that we often pull out and play on weekends as a family. Classic games like Monopoly and Pictionary can be great fun. You’re just a dig through the recesses of your closet away from memory-making success!

Baking: Bread baking. Anyone can do it. When freshly baked bread comes out of the oven, it’s delicious! Fresh bread also makes for an awesome hostess gift! Check out Stacy from Humorous Homemaking’s latest post, and her numerous videos on breadmaking success, for those looking to up their bread making game!

Teach yourself how to juggle: Juggling is a great way to teach anyone not only great hand and eye coordination, but concentration skills as well. All you really need are three balls and a video showing you how to do it. And you are in luck, because my husband Daniel is a juggler, and posted a Youtube video on learning to juggle as well!

Learn how to change your car’s oil: If your car’s due for an oil change, just bring home the oil and oil filter you need and teach yourself how to do it on your own. Use your car manual as a guide for the procedure and you might just find it’s both a lot easier than you thought and a useful skill to have as well. And it’s cheaper than taking your car to Jiffy-Lube. Just remember to dispose of the old oil according to local laws. A tip? Most gas and service stations will accept your used motor oil.

Introduce yourself to your neighbors: Be brave. Be kind. Bake something and take it over to your new neighbors and introduce yourself this weekend if you don’t know them very well. And if you meet any interesting people in your neighborhood, invite them over for a cup of coffee and a chat, just to get to know each other better. Your neighborhood will be a safer, kinder, and a more diverse place after you do.

Digitize your media collection: Go through your collection, determine which items you’d actually like to keep, digitize those copies, and then donate or sell the rest. Use this time to cultivate collections of media that spark joy to you, and maybe, make some money for the upcoming holiday season too!

Host a cupboard potluck: Go through your cupboards and find any items that might be hiding in the back of your shelves unused. Invite some friends to do the same, then get together for a potluck dinner prepared from only these ingredients and whatever else you have on hand. This is also a great time to collect food donations for local food pantries in your area as well.

Make a goal list: Why wait until the new year to start a goal? Just jot down a goal, keep it in a place you will see it daily, and start bettering your life, family, home, or business today.

Make a will: Now I know what you are thinking, that making a will isn’t fun. But you will not believe how relieved you will be to have one in hand when it’s done. Spend some time thinking about what you want to happen to your personal assets when you have passed on, particularly in terms of the personal mementos that you want others to have, and where you want the value of your estate to go. Do you want it all to stay with family members? Do you want to remember a charity? You need to just sketch out the basics of a will. Later, you’ll need either a lawyer to prepare it for a formalized copy for you or use a site like LegalZoom, but just having those decisions made doesn’t cost a thing and is a big mental relief.

Perform a household maintenance walk-through: Seasonally, go through your home and look for any little maintenance tasks that need to be done. Do filters need to be replaced? Are there any burnt-out light bulbs? Do any windows need sealing or addressing? November is also a great time to finish up any last minute yard detailing before the start of snowy winter weather as well. Here’s a great example from Real Simple.

Go on a neighborhood scavenger hunt: Going on a themed neighborhood scavenger hunt is a great way to see what sights and sounds can be found in your neck of the woods. My family goes on one scavenger hunt each season, and we love it. Here’s are a few great examples of printable Fall, Thanksgiving, and Holiday scanger hunts as well!

Organize a self-guided walking tour of your area: Research the interesting historic and cultural sites in your town, then go on a walking tour of them. Pack a lunch in your backpack and have a picnic on the village green or in the park. You can easily turn this into a full day if you live in a compelling area. Your community’s Chamber of Commerce and the National Historic League are great places to start looking for ideas.

Teach yourself to knit or crochet: Learning to knit or crochet requires two needles or a hook, some yarn, a lot of patience, and an instructional video or two. There are tons of free patterns online, especially on Pinterest, Ravelry, and Red Heart Yarns! Beyond this, think ahead to the holiday season. Try making a scarf for a friend or a small blanket for a friend’s new baby. While it’s not quite free, you’ll learn a useful new skill — and if you stick with it, you’ll make things much more valuable than the initial cost of yarn. Before you know it, you might even be able to sell your knitwear and crochet goods on Etsy.

Hoan your photography skills: Pull your digital camera out and take pictures of anything and everything you find interesting. Take lots of them. Then go home later and see if you’ve taken anything beautiful and compelling. Great images can lay the groundwork for homemade greeting cards, nice desktop wallpapers, screensavers, personalized gifts, or create your own stockpile of photos if you are a blogger.

Share those digital photographs: And if your weekend photo shoot goes really well, you can pay-it-forward and sign up for a free Flickr account. You’ll be able to upload some of your most interesting pictures to share with others. Be intentional in your selection. Spend the time titling your images. You can also add interesting captions and allow them to be used under a Creative Commons Attribution license so your images can be enjoyed by as many people as possible.

Start a blog: Have you considered starting a blog? You can get a free blog started this weekend using WordPress or Blogger. Join either service and start a blog on a topic that interests you. Not only can it be a ton of fun, it will also help to improve your communication skills, and perhaps earn a bit of income further down the road.

Visit a free museum or zoo: Many cities, colleges, and universities offer free educational attractions, such as museum or zoo passes. Many banks, such as Bank of America, do seasonally as well. Make an effort to enjoy these free attractions. If your community doesn’t have free zoos or museums, call your local Chamber of Commerce and inquire about free to the public exhibits or free days for local attractions to add to your family’s social calendar for the upcoming months ahead.

Take a free college course: Did you know that you attend, and sometimes receive collegiate credit online for free at numerous online learning institutions for free? Great options include Coursera, Khan Academy, and the edX, a partnership between Harvard and MIT.

Cook some meals in advance: Spend some time this weekend cooking some meals in advance to store in the freezer. It’s easy to prepare casseroles, soups, pasta meals, breakfast burritos, and many other items all at once, then store them in portion-sized containers in the freezer for quick and easy reheating on a busy weekday. You’ll be glad you have pre-made meals on hand during the holiday’s next month! Here’s a great list from Crystal, of MoneySavingMom.com!

Build a basic net-worth calculator: A great way to ensure that you’re consistently making financial progress as a family, or for yourself, is to build your own net worth calculator. Once you have it set up, updating it quarterly is easy, and it can provide a great snapshot of your financial situation as well as show off your progress. Here’s a detailed guide to making one with any basic spreadsheet program.

Create a YouTube how-to video: We are all experts on something. Share your knowledge! All you need is a smartphone, as you can edit killer videos right on your iPad or iPhone with iMovie. Just create a video to demonstrate how to accomplish something interesting and useful. You’ll be a star before you know it, and helpful too!

Make a time capsule: Find a small box, and then walk around your house gathering items that represent the reality of your present-day life: A newspaper or magazine, photographs, recent receipts, letters or greeting cards, and the like. You could even include a digital flash drive with photos or a video. Then just put it all in the box, tape it up securely, and write a date on the outside saying when you’re allowed to open it. Add the date to your digital calendar online, and that’s it! One day you’ll enjoy reflecting on those items in the future and seeing how the world has changed.

Throw a Throwback Thursday party: Invite friends and family over to look through each other’s pictures, and then have a digital party where everyone scans and uploads their memories. There’s nothing better than getting together with family and friends and looking at pictures from when you were in high school. Besides, this will give your kids a little fodder as well!

So, that’s it folks, my 30 ideas for money-free weekend activities. I hope you all will be able to glean a few ideas for yourself, and perhaps start a few new free family traditions this weekend as well. And if you have any ideas on free family weekend activities, I’d love to hear about them below.

Here’s to the weekend,

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How to Save Money Buying Prescription Glasses Online

There are so many positive traits I have been able to pass along to my children. A love of reading. A flair for French cooking. An ability to think calmly under pressure. Unfortunately, a keen sense of eyesight is not amongst them. From the moment a second-grade parent-teacher conference culminated with the suggestion that I was squinting to see the blackboard in class, I was destined to be a glasses-clad gal for life.

My earliest experience with smart looking frames was dismal. For decades, glasses for children were classified under two camps: librarian or reporter in training. So under the direction of my grandmother, I was given a stunning pair of red, thick, plastic frames, set off by a dazzling pair of coke bottle lenses. I was the envy of every Sally Jessie Raphael wannabe of the elementary school sect.

Fortunately, times have changed. Nowadays prescription glasses come in a myriad of hip, trendy, options for those of all ages. The only issue? The price hefty tag. Add to this the fact that going to an optometrist’s office, especially with a family or children in tow, can be well, inconvenient.

I mean, you have to schedule an appointment, take time off of work, drive across town, fill out forms, wait endlessly, and culminate your experience by having a brief rendezvous with the tonometer, or as I like to call it, my scientifically proven inability to keep my eyes open while small gusts of high-powered winds are blown over my eyeballs. And it is at this point, with your hard earned eye prescription in-hand, are you are finally able to purchase your next pair of overpriced glasses.

Thankfully there are other options for purchasing your next pair of prescription glasses. Providing you have a valid eye prescription, you can opt to simply order glasses online, delivered right to your door and, best of all, for under half the cost of retail from the GlassesShop online.

Launched in 2004, GlassesShop is an online optical store that provides fashionable eyewear at affordable pricing. Not only does this site offer prescription eyeglasses, glasses, and prescription sunglasses for the entire family, but GlassesShop offers their commitment to offering customers 100% prescription accuracy, a free scratch proof multi-hard coating, and unbeatable savings to the public.

As I began to browse their selection, I immediately noticed that GlassesShop site makes it easy for customers to navigate and narrow down their collections within minutes. Whether shopping for plastic or metal, men’s, women’s or kid’s frames, what you need is only a click away.

In full disclosure, I knew I would be keeping my eye out for a full rim, plastic, tortoiseshell frames that would add a little style and pop of color to my current fall capsule wardrobe, and I was jazzed to quickly find the Winchester, a frame that was stylish, simple, and perfect for fall!

1) Ordering glasses on the site is super simple. First, you can determine your frame dimensions by comparing your frame of choice to your current frames digitally. The mainframe of the site allows you to select your new frames, and then select the compare button, which will give you the option to view your new frames and fit on your face through a virtual try-on of your glasses.

2) For a more customized view, GlassesShop will also allow you to upload a photo of yourself, add your new frames to the image, and see how your newly selected frames will look on you.

3) Once you’ve decided on your frame, you’ll be asked to supply your prescription information, place your order, and then just sit back until your new frames arrive!

Not having seen my new frames in person, I had reservations as to the quality of the glasses I would receive. However, my frames arrived within one business week, and I found my frames to be identical to those that I have purchased previously in retail.

I also appreciated the thicker frames, longer lenses, and sturdy arms and hinges of my frames. Not only were my glasses trendy the frame sizing also helped to cover up the thickness of my lenses beautifully. This was a huge bonus in my book.

These glasses have definitely become my favorite new fall capsule wardrobe accessory!

What can be better than this? The Winchester, currently priced at only $29.99, including the single vision lenses, anti-scratch coating, protective case, microfiber cleaning cloth, coupon offer for 30% off my next order, and shipping, is an excellent value considering that even with vision insurance, my last set of glasses cost well over $120.00!

If you are still on the fence about the GlassesShop, consider this: this site offers their customers a chance to get their first pair of glasses completely free. And what savvy saver doesn’t love free? And this certainly ties in very well with this month’s so-Spend November theme!

Also, should you need additional sets of frames, glasses, or prescription sunglasses, GlassShop also currently has a special coupon code GSHOT50, which can save you 50% off on eyeglasses and sunglasses with free lenses (sale frames excluded).

If you’re looking for a complete pair of accurately prepared and crafted lenses and frames at low prices, with the convenience of shopping in your slippers, with stellar customer service that will go the extra mile to ensure you are completely satisfied with each and every order, then you owe it to yourself, and your wallet, to mosey on to the GlassesShop today.

So tell me, everyone, what style of glasses are you most interested in checking out from GlassesShop today for your own fall capsules and wardrobes? I’d love to hear about them below!

Here’s to saving,

Please note, I received my glasses, frames, and case as a review sample from GlassesShop.com in order to facilitate this review. I was not compensated for this review and was based on my opinion of this site and their products.

How Minimalism Helped Me Clean Our Shed

When it comes to cleaning, there always seems to be a bit of a hassle involved. Cleaning out a shed is no exception. For when a shed is really messy, it can not only be difficult to decide the best way to organize your space, but may over time, infringe on your ability to complete projects, quickly attend to household emergency repairs, put up holiday decor, or to seasonally garden and landscape your home’s outdoor property.

Even as a minimalist, my home’s shed was one of the hardest spaces in my home to organize. You see, by nature, I’m a saver, and my shed is where I logically thought to store all of the items I envisioned needing to keep our home in good repair. I felt that every extra hose, cable, bolt, nut, and screw, while not being used presently, would be used in the near future. In the attempt to be become a good steward of my home, I abused the purpose of my shed, a building intended to store only what my home needed at present, into an out of sight, out of mind wasteland for holiday decor, gardening gadgets, and building materials far past their prime.

Though there were many times I walked into the shed and put it into my good intentions memory bank to clean and organize this space, rarely did this manifest into action. While I could easily blame time, circumstance, and familiar obligations for my lack of shed cleanliness, the truth remains: I did not clean out my shed because I was okay with allowing this area of my home to become a catchall for items and projects that no longer reflected my family’s lifestyle or added value to my life. That I didn’t want to be confronted by all of the items I had accumulated over the past six years, in hopes of impressing others or to emulate the talents and aspirations of others successes on Pinterest I had once admired.

But the issues of my shed grew much deeper than simply a messy shed. I knew that my examining my shed, I would have to examine myself as well. That I didn’t want to delve deeper into understanding why I would spend thousands of dollars on countless gadgets and cords each year when my shed was already overrun with a myriad of these same unused items already. I didn’t want to reflect on the fact that for every misstep in my life, business, and marriage, I bought new, unused holiday decor to mask my unhappiness in other areas of my life. Why would have known that such a small space could contain so much, figuratively or otherwise? This past weekend I finally dug deep and spent two days peeling back the layers of my shed’s overgrowth, in more ways than one.

So, here are a few things I learned while cleaning out my shed, as a minimalist:

Start with a resolution of change: When I made this seasonal resolution earlier last week to clean out my shed, it was initially processed as a way to expand my minimalism post on my blog. Another check on the old editorial calendar, if you will. But the closer the day came to actually cleaning out my shed, the more excuses as to not completing this task began to creep up. I had to make a resolution to not simply organize my space this year, in hopes of just making it through another holiday season, but to create long-lasting progress for everyone in my family. This wasn’t simply a Halloween through Christmas decluttering project, this needed to be a dedicated block of time for reducing the items we owned as a family, just like the de-owning we completed on the inside rooms of our home.

Create boundaries: I married my best friend. A man who takes pleasure in providing not just my needs, but my overall wants as well. And it is because of his desire to be a giver, that my husband has never liked to say no to any requests I made for holiday decor, gardening tools, and even for power tools I suggested he buy not only for his own projects but for my collective inspiration du jour. Your’s truly, on the other hand, was never willing to put a spending or spatial limit on my whimsical wants lists and often went to the store with the knowledge that no matter what new fangled item I could amass, my shed could accommodate it’s long-term storage needs.

So for this reason in year’s past, my husband and I would purchase new storage bins to accommodate all of my growing collections of holiday decor each and every Black Friday. The downside? Not only was this a passive-aggressive was for me to spend frivolously and emotionally manipulate my husband into buying me expensive craft store finds while I professed the need to daily live on a budget, but our shed contained dozens of tubs of plastic, overpriced holiday decor, of which most never saw the light of day. This was simply wasteful consumption, and we were not happier by any means as a result.

So, this past weekend my husband and I went through our holiday decor. I made a lot of due apologies to my husband, and my husband vowed to financially keep me more accountable for my holiday decor accumulation and spending. We each then made a pact to keep only the items that truly sparked joy, could not be replaced, and helped us celebrate the holidays each year. We also made a rule to only decorate for Harvest and Holiday moving forward. No longer would decorate for Halloween, Easter, Valentine’s Day, Saint Patrick’s day, Mardi Gras, Cinco de Mayo, Spring, Thanksgiving, and the like. Decor would be limited the holidays that brought us the most joy as a family. Decor would be limited to the places that its presence would bring us the most enjoyment, on our mantle, entry area, and front porch.

Another new change? No longer would we place holiday lights along the length of our roof this December, in hopes of mimicking our neighbors, or to be featured in our local newspaper. Instead, our lights will reflect a more simple, more dignified porch-scape. This change will help us to lower our power consumption, be more tailored to our tastes, and would not express the desires of our neighbors and passersby, but what we as a family wanted to see during this and future holiday seasons. This small change will help us to be able to take minutes rather than hours to put up, take down, and store holiday decor this coming season.

My husband and I also made a pact to keep all of these items confined to four large, sustainable bamboo wooden trunks, and to not purchase any new holiday decor, even if it is on sale after the holidays, for three years. We hope that this time will help us truly dig deeper and see with each passing season what items we treasure and what items we can donate to others. We created holiday spending and accumulation boundaries. We believe that this boundary will help us economically, emotionally, and environmentally more conscious as well.

Understanding that organizing my shed only caused more clutter: Normally when doing a massive cleaning of a shed, the first thing you would typically do is to find all the things you can throw away, and then reorganizing the remaining items. The idea that future cleaning and organizing endeavors will go more smoothly if you’ve gotten rid of a few things you don’t need today. This past weekend we decided to take clearing out our shed t the next level.

In hopes of creating a more minimal and cathartic shed space, we removed every item from our shed. Each item was placed in out carport, and all organizational items, bins, totes, and baskets were removed and immediately taken to donation. Without the crutch of plastic totes to help us organize our belongings, we could no longer shuffle items, or organize them. e painstakingly went through each and every item, and within a few hours over half was taken away to donations as well. All remaining items were placed on hooks on the walls, placed in the four wooden trunks, separated by holiday, or openly stored for immediate use. Items that needed repair were repaired and made ready for use as well. It was so freeing to no longer see walls upon walls of plastic storage bins. I also gained another bit of perspective, organizing, especially with

As we painstakingly went through each and every item, we began to see how by removing the access we could clearly start to see all of the better more lasting investments we had purchased for our home. We were more prepared for home ownership than we had previously thought. At this point, all remaining items were placed on hooks on the walls, placed in the four wooden trunks, separated by holiday, or openly stored for immediate use. Items that needed repair were repaired and made ready for use as well. It was so freeing to no longer see walls upon walls of plastic storage bins. I also gained another bit of perspective, organizing, especially with plastic totes and bins, is simply a fancier term for hoarding.

Safety should be maintained: When we started sorting through our shed we started to notice how many chemicals we owned as a family. From spray paints to varnishes, our shed has slowly over time turned into a nuclear power station. So one of the first things we did was figure out what chemicals we no longer needed, pulled them to the side, boxed them up, and went online to see what agencies would help us properly dispose of these unneeded and dangerous agents in our shed. Everything from expired cleaners, old paint, and dried up liquid items were removed. Cleaning out our shed made our home a lot safer for this coming season and on.

Recycle first: In many homes, sheds are where recyclables that may have piled up. From newspapers kept for painting projects and fire pit starters, to plastic bins and jugs, all of these items should be recycled when no longer in usage.

Make everything within reach: One of our big projects this past weekend was to make everything within our shed accessible for immediate use. So once everything that needed to be discarded was removed, we started to place items we knew we needed to keep back into our shed in an orderly manner. We placed items we needed for this coming season on lower shelves, and items from the next gardening season on higher shelves. We made sure to only use shelves my husband could reach without having to access a ladder. Accessibility also meant ease of use, so these same shelves new mason jars for housing bird seed, grass seed, and plant food. And when it came time to place our tools back in our shed, we placed small, galvanized metal hooks all along a single wall and hung each tool. Hidden tools are unused tools. We sought to create more usefulness in our shed. Each tool in our shed is now used or is a necessity item in our home shed. Should we need a specialty tool for a future project, we will borrow or rent tools instead.

So, in just nine and a half short hours later, our shed was transformed from an emotional and economic deluge into a minimal, useful space. I can only imagine how much nicer the holiday season will feel when we will no longer face tripping over anything in the shed. But what I know to be true right now is that cleaning our my shed helped me grow as a person and be a more responsible steward to our home, a better wife, a strong person, and a more savvy saver in the process.

But with all of this said, what does this mean for you? With the gardening season soon at an end and the holiday season being just around the corner, this is a great time to not only clean out your shed before the chaos of the holiday’s but to help bless other families with as well. And the best part? By minimizing your shed’s possessions, come next spring, you won’t have any excuses to get your gardening and Spring cleaning started early. You’ll be more than ready. You can create a more prepared home today, cost-free.

So, savvy savers? Do you have any plans for decluttering projects this coming season? I’d love to hear about it below.

Here’s to more minimal sheds,

Two-Ingredient, All-Natural Oven Cleaner!

Fact: cleaning an oven is hard. It’s time-consuming and the chemicals used are often expensive and caustic. Whether it’s the seasonal necessitated, pre-holiday cleaning or the smoking-up-the-kitchen by way of burnt food on the bottom of the oven messes, you need a clean oven. No matter the cause, it’s a drain.

The good news, however, there is a simple, affordable, natural cleaning solution. All you have to do to get a shining oven requires only two affordable kitchen staples, baking soda and vinegar!

Here’s what you need:

1/4 Cup White Vinegar
Spray Bottle
Baking soda; 2 cups for a large oven and 1 for a toaster oven.

To clean your appliance:

Starting with a cold, off oven, just spray the bottom of your oven or toaster oven with a healthy mist of white vinegar and then sprinkle a thick layer or baking soda to start the cleaning process.
You will need to lay out a quarter inch layer of baking soda paste on the bottom of the oven.
Should any of the baking soda become dry, spray a light amount of vinegar, around a quarter cup per dosing, over the baking soda.
At this point the fizz, the natural cleaning oomph will begin!
You’ll need to leave the baking soda on your appliance for two hours.
Then after two hours, simply wipe up the paste with a cloth and all the grime comes with it.
For really baked on grime, this may take a couple applications, but it always works.
If using a toaster oven, turn the oven on for fifteen minutes prior to your next use to make sure the elemental strips are cleared of agents before adding food to your unit.

So for the cost of a quarter and the span of a few hours, you’ll have a like-new oven too!

Here’s to natural cleaning,

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