Spring into the Dream Guide from Homes.com

I'm not sure if you've caught the last few articles that we've posted over at Homes.com, but more than one are focused heavily on getting ready for warmer weather!

Utah got hit with a couple of pretty crazy snow storms this winter, so the few sunny days we've had the last couple of weeks are like heaven to me! It may not be quite as warm as I'd like, but I'll take clear skies and sunshine no matter what temperature comes with it
:)

Usually when Spring comes, the process of getting your home freshened up and reorganized from the long, cold winter months also follows behind it. That's why I'm excited to share with you the new Homes.com Spring into the Dream, free downloadable guide that covers a bunch of helpful, great tips on Spring cleaning and organizing this season!

You'll find info included on how to best de-clutter your kitchen, ways to find and maximize your current living space and even tips on how to stay green while preparing for a big move!

Also, don't forget to head on over to enter for a chance to win a $5,000 closet makeover! You can read about all the details here.

Thanks to Homes.com for all of their hard work on this great guide and for always offering up such awesome giveaways!

Enjoy!

Oreck Magnesium Vacuum & Ultimate handheld vac Review and Giveaway

Who's ready for some serious giveaway goodness today!?

Cason and I have teamed up with the ever-fabulous Oreck vacuum cleaner company to share with you one of our newest favorite things!

The Oreck Magnesium Vacuum!

It may sound silly, but I'm a bit of a vacuum snob, (heaven knows we've had enough in our married lifetime) and very rarely do new vacuums actually 'fit the bill'. Here are a few things that are MUSTS when it comes to the perfect vacuum for our family.

Fish Window Cleaning - Brightening your World!

A few months ago I put a "help message" out on our Facebook page, asking anyone local who they would recommend for an affordable, thorough window cleaning for our home. I got a few responses, but didn't really follow through, because I was scared of the time commitment, price, and well... quite frankly, our windows had NEVER been cleaned before and I was a bit embarrassed at their current condition. I thought that between the hard water stains and the paint over-spray from our basement construction 2 years go, that our windows were hopeless. So a few weeks ago when Fish Window Cleaning contacted me to see if I would do a review of their services and cleaning foam, I jumped at the opportunity! :)

I don't know how many of you actually get your houses' windows cleaned regularly, but let me tell you, it's TOTALLY PAINLESS! Fish came out, walked around my house, gave me an estimate...and then came back about a week later to actually do the cleaning on my windows.

Do you want to know the BEST part about the window cleaning service? Their price includes cleaning the SCREENS! Whaaaa!? That's crazy-awesome!

ECOMAIDS of Salt Lake City Review and Giveaway

A few days ago my cute bloggy friend Emily emailed me to ask me if I wanted to participate in a little review for a brand new local house cleaning service here in SLC Utah, called ECOMAIDS.

The deal was that they would come with all of their "green" products, clean my house and then I had to tell them what I thought!

Um.... yes please!  You don't have to ask me twice :)

I don't Feel like Cleaning...

{Today I don't feel like doin' Anything...}

Cleaning out the Garage

It's sunny today! WHOO-hoo!

We've had over 4 straight days of  RAIN this week so we're glad to see a clearing, even if we ARE expecting thunder storms again on Monday. ha!

(I can't complain.  Rain is awesome for our grass!)

Anywho, we decided to tidy up the garage, and get things organized for this summer the best we could, so that we could start in again on some big projects, that we need to refocus on.

C.L.E.A.N

If you follow us on Facebook then you know that we've been busy trying to take control of our crazy house these past two weeks...

hence the lack of blog posts, sorry...

It pretty much has taken all the strength that we have in order to KEEP cleaning, organizing, and SIMPLIFYING our lives, to prepare for a new busy year!

We have officially (besides the garage, and the junk drawer in the kitchen) cleaned out EVERY nook and cranny of this dang house!  And now I can actually FOCUS on getting a couple of the projects done on our massive list of "things to do" this year!

Shaklee Giveaway

{GIVEAWAY!}

It's the Little Things

Do you ever feel like this?

Today was one of those days for me :)

I'm thankful for my clean office/storage/workspace that my rockin' hubby help me organize the other night...

WHILE my brother was installing a new, better hard drive on my computer!

ME = HAPPY!

Pottery Barn? I wish!

So... I love blogging for LOTS of reasons... but between the comments, the sharing of tons of talent, and getting inspiration from every corner of the blogging world... well... it's enough to hook a girl :)

Speaking of comments... I had a few this week that made me laugh out loud. LITERALLY.

These were the parts of their comments that I found flattering... but humorous just the same.

Becky said... 

... your pictures look like they are straight out of a Pottery Barn catalog!  Good Job!

and Robin said...

...so I belive that there is not ONE ugly thing in your house - EVERYONE has something ugly, but apparently YOU do not!...

I thought I could just take these comments sitting down... but I-just-cant!

UGLY... you want to talk UGLY?...

Where we keep our Toys and Stuff

Okay... that's not REALLY how Rachelle worded it... it was more like...

where do you put the toy clutter and all the "stuff" that is not in your kids bedrooms ???
you've got me stumped!

LOL... Ohhh Rachelle

Okay... well first off... can I start with THIS picture?

OH ya...

WELCOME TO MY REAL LIFE

:)

Cleaning Tips and Tricks

{Toy's and Clean It's}

I've had a few people ask me to share some tips on how I get motivated, or go about getting things organized... So I put a little post together about how I think, when it comes to my house.

And also some pictures of the CLEAN toy room.

Since this room is usually a mess 90% of the time... with kids playing, I thought I would show you how it looked when I finally got to it, and took control.

The girls actually helped me and we had a good time. A bin for dress ups, a bin for babies and their stuff, and another basket for the rest of their toys!

I am a chronic toy throw-er outter-er. I HATE broken, un-played with toys. So I go through them at least once a month and toss out or get rid of the broken/McDonald type/grown out of toys! I usually give them to the DI (Deseret Industries). It's a great way to keep our "toy crazyness" in check.

Plus, my kids actually PLAY BETTER with the toys I keep because they can SEE what they have to play with, rather than opening up a closet, to find a random mess of stuff!

Cleaning out 2009

{Cleaning out 2009}

Oh gosh! I have been like a MAD woman the past week, cleaning and organizing, around here.

I've decided that I'm DONE with ANY and ALL clutter. And after, basically two moves, I'm NOT putting ANYTHING BACK in my house, unless it has a proper, cute place!

I've never been a super messy, unorganized person, but now we're talkin' DEEP cleaning, and EXTREME organizing, with a purpose! :)

Here's what the Smith's have been up to...