Quick Tip

Quick Tip: Cleaning the Carpets (From the Free Stylin’ Archives)

March 26, 2013 by beth 5 Comments

K, so recently someone asked me if I knew of a good way to clean up a large spill on the carpet. They were out of carpet shampoo and wondered if there was an alternative. A couple of years ago I actually wrote a post (one of my first on Free Stylin’!!) about this actual question. I thought I’d dig into the Free Stylin’ archives a little and share the post again because this simple solution is right in your laundry room. Check it out!

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Today’s little tip is FREE (love that!), so I wanted to let you in on it.

Most likely people stop by your home unannounced. And sometimes you might have a party, or are you cleaning up after one? Are you hosting the holidays this year? Dinner for the whole fam damily? When friends and neighbors stop by it’s always fun to invite them in for a little chat.

As I was thinking about guests coming to my house, I realized I was a little hesitant to invite anyone in because my carpets were dirty. I mean DIRTY. I knew it was past time for a good, deep clean. So recently I borrowed a carpet shampooing machine from a sweet lady at church, and I found a babysitter for little J. (Nice!) All of the furniture was hauled out of the rooms (by myself! Just call me She-Ra!). Now I was ready to clean.

Except….

No carpet shampoo. None. Oops. Blame it on the mom brain. I forgot to buy some. But, being the Free Stylin’ chick that I am, I looked around the house to see what I had on hand…

Laundry Detergent.

Yep! It’s a stain fighter, it’s gentle on carpets (and carpet cleaners), and it makes your whole house smell fresh. And I believe I used less detergent than actual carpet shampoo.

If you are wishing your carpets looked a little less gross, used, walked on, spilled on, or lived in and a little bit newer, cleaner, and brighter, but you don’t have

1. Time
2. Money or
3. A Brain (like me)

then try a little laundry detergent.

Here’s a beautiful stain on my floor – right where the kiddos love to play trains, and near the back entrance which we use all.the.time. (This is the perfect storm.)

After testing a little area first to make sure my idea would work (and not ruin the carpet!), I dripped a little diluted laundry detergent right on one of the toughest stains. (Make sure the detergent is diluted, or it will leave a residue on the carpet, making it appear dirty no matter how clean it really is.)

After a good scrub, it’s out!

I left the other spot so you could see the difference.

This is the whole area cleaned.

SO much better!

So that’s my little tip o’ the day: Use laundry detergent in place of carpet shampoo if you are in a hurry and are out of carpet cleaner.

Your carpet will never know what hit it!

And you can have people over without worrying too much about how the carpet looks. (I’m telling myself this more than I’m telling you, really.)

Do you have any quick, inexpensive tips for cleaning? Leave a comment, and let me know!

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Filed Under: Free, Laundry Room, Quick Tip Tagged With: Free, Laundry Room, Quick Tip

Quick Tip: Tie Rack Jewelry Organization

February 1, 2013 by beth 3 Comments

Hello Hello!! I hope this week is treating you well! I have been able to cross a few things off my To Do list this week. Love that feeling!!

One of those things was some much needed jewelry organization. My previous necklace and bracelet holder broke, and that was driving me crazy!! I’ve been on the lookout for something new to keep my jewelry in, and there are plenty of pretty containers and jewelry boxes out there to choose from. But I wanted each piece to have its own place, without getting into a big, tangled mess.

So the other night I was wandering The Container Store and came across this tie and belt rack. It was on sale for $6.99. Perfect for keeping my necklaces separate but still all together! And the price was nice, too. Yay!

There is a blank space on my closet wall that was just the right size, so I grabbed a hammer and hung up the rack with two nails. Then the necklaces and bracelets were each given their own hook.

Hooray! Now I can see what I have, and it’s easy to get to. No more grabbing a necklace only to have to stop and untangle it.

(Notice the flower bib necklace on the very end on the left? Learn how to make one HERE!)

Above the necklace rack hangs a DIY Earring Holder I made a few months ago.

I love it because it keeps my earrings organized, and I know when I need to keep a keep my eyes open if one is missing. (Can you spot the single earring? Let me know if you find the other one, K?)

Using the tie rack to organize jewelry reminded me that sometimes it just takes a little looking “outside the box” to solve my storage issues.

Looking for another way to display your jewelry? Try this FREE idea.

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Filed Under: Closet, Fashion, Organization, Quick Tip Tagged With: Closet, Fashion, Organization, Quick Tip

Quick Tip: How to Fix a Rolling Rug

August 2, 2012 by beth 6 Comments

Hey friends! How’s your week going? Ours has been pretty chill…we’re trying to recuperate from our trip! We’ve been watching a lot of the Olympics in the evenings. Go Team USA!! (We’re huge fans of Gabby Douglas and Michael Phelps!)

While my butt has been parked on the couch a bit, I’ve been driven pretty much over-the-edge annoyed about something so small, you’d think it was no big deal. But, to me, it’s big fat freakin’ screaming at me. Tell me you’d be annoyed at this, too:

See those obnoxious rolls the rug is making in the corners? You’re not supposed to do that, rug. I spent (not) a lot of money on you! Why are you rolling? (Okay, you’re right. At $80 for a rug, I’m pretty sure that was going to happen. But still. It’s not my fave. At. All.)

Stupid inexpensive rug.

(And, yes, Kids…Mom said stupid. I’m happy to go to timeout.)

Luckily there is a solution to my ~~HUGE~~ little rug dilemma. Have you ever seen these cool rug anchors from 3M?

They’re like Command Strips for your rugs. The black and tan sides attach to each other. Then the tan side attaches to the rug.

Once the tan sticky part is holding tight to the rug (that’s the tan sticker, not a band-aid!), the black part is stuck to the floor. You can pull them apart like any Command Strip when you’re ready to move it.

See how awesome?

My rug was super roll-y (is that a word?), so I had to use two on the one on the right, above.

But now I’m pretty thrilled that the rug isn’t curling like it was before. It was super annoying, and for some reason the curling edges were a kid magnet. My boys seemed to want to step right on the rolls. :/

Whoohoo! No more annoying rolls!! And it took me all of about 1 minute to correct the problem. Now I can sit on my tush and watch TV without interruption….from the rug at least.

Have you tried these awesome strips? Have you had luck with them? Ever had an annoying, rolling rug and fixed it? What’s your trick?

Disclaimer: This is NOT a sponsored post. 3M and the makers of the Rug Anchors did not pay me to write this. I saw a demonstration of the product and received a free sample. Once I took it home and tried it, I really liked them. Now I’m passing the info on to you. If they were total crap, I’d let you know.