On the scale of 1-10 ten being my favorite thing (going to the thrift store) I put cleaning at about a 4… ok a 3. And cleaning stuff that is not normal everyday cleaning? How about a .75.

But it has to be done, so we are chatting tips and tricks to sprucing up your outdoor space.

1. Move Your Stuff. This one might be a little forehead slapping good but it is AMAZING the things that can secretly build up behind the things we put in our yard. Check out the corner of my porch…its a little embarrassing. I never would have seen it, if I didn’t move the giant pot.

2. Get Rid Of Broken or Dysfunctional Items. In my case,  this vinyl no solicitors sign. Every time I come in my front door I look at it and grimace. It is CLEARLY not functional. Which also explains my new vacuum, security system, and the stack of religious pamphlets that are accumulating in my entryway. Hmmm.

3. Wipe Down Your Front Door. Sometimes we forget how with looks without a layer of dust/pollen on it. If it especially grimy or water spot laden use Mr. Clean Outdoor Pro Spray. I gave mine a good scrub with a Magic Eraser and then a coat of Danish Oil.

4. Scrub Your Floor. Whether you have  concrete or wood or both, they can each use a good scrub down. I prefer using a deck brush, but if you have a power washer that is awesome too.

5. Get The Paint Off Of Your Driveway. Who me? Pssh.

Ok fine.

I always seem to have overspray on my concrete. Throw down a thick layer of Citristrip and let it sit for 15 minutes. Then use a deck brush to scrub the paint. The reason I use Citristrip is because it doesn’t  discolor the concrete like an acid wash or harsher paint strippers can.

6. Bust Out The Magic Eraser. Remember when I proclaimed my love and devotion of Magic Erasers for paint prep? Well guess what? They make outdoor ones. BAM. If I had to have one of my hands transformed into a cleaning tool for the rest of my life, it would be a Magic Eraser. THAT is how much I love them. I use mine to scrub everything from the BBQ to my furniture. And because its outdoor, the durability is through the roof.

7. Get Ready To Paint! Now that you have cleaned and prepped your old furniture, give it a coat of color with your favorite can of spray paint!! Remember to put down a drop cloth so you don’t have to repeat step 5!

8. Add Greenery. Head to Home Depot and grab some plants,  it is ridiculous how add such a small thing will totally transform a space.

Source

Now for the REALLY fun part! I am giving one lucky reader a chance to do all of this! I have teamed up with P&G and Home Depot to giveaway 1 Package of Outdoor Magic Erasers,  1 bottle of Mr. Clean Outdoor Pro Spray,  1 roll of Bounty paper towels, and $100 Home Depot Gift Card!

Enter the Rafflecopter below by leaving a comment with YOUR favorite outdoor cleaning tip, trick, or secret!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This post is in collaboration with Procter Gamble and The Home Depot. All opinions (and real life messes for that matter) are 100% mine.

The post My 8 Favorite Outdoor Sprucing Tips #readydoneclean appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

One of the conditions I had when we bought our house was that we had to replace the HORRIBLE carpet with hardwood. Because we were on a very strict budget we searched and searched before finding the right one on Build Direct. We ended up with Hand Scraped Engineered Hardwood. If you are unfamiliar with Engineered  flooring basically its a few layers of MDF with a small layer of real wood on the very top. Engineered is great because its a lot less expensive, its doesnt warp and swell the way real hardwood can (the MDF stabilizes it more) and it still looks fantastic.

Something that I think a lot of people fail to realize is that most pre-finished hardwood have a sealed top but are NOT sealed in the cracks (unless you get glue in 100% of the groove) so using things like steam mops,  can damage them. (You can tell if your floor is sealed by pouring a small amount of water on it. If it sits on the surface you are fine but if it is absorbed then your floor is unsealed.)  The other problem that I found using a steam mop is that it leaves the floor really dull and footprints are seem to be visible right away.

There are a million hardwood floor care products out there but my fave for the last 4 years has been the original Murphy Oil Soap. It just leaves the floor clean. There isnt any waxy, sticky, or slippery finish left over. And I am pretty sure my grandma uses it because the smell makes me think of here. (Insert collective awwwww here.)

To clean them I squirt Murphy Oil Soap on a 3×3 section and then use a clean dry washcloth to get off all of the footprints, dirt and ahem…frosting. You can use a mop also if you dont like going Cinderella style.

When Murphy Oil Soap contacted me about spreading the word of their new “Repin Reforest” Pinterest page, I was so excited because it is really how I take care of my floors and we are saving trees!! That my friends is what we call a win win.

Murphy Oil Soap has partnered with The Arbor Day Foundation as part of its We Save Wood campaign to generate awareness of the importance of tree conservation and education. We can all support this “Repin, Reforest” cause by visiting the “Repin Reforest”Pinterest page.

With each repin Murphy Oil Soap will donate $1.00 to The National Arbor Day Foundation! So get your pinning finger ready folks.

For more information, visit https://www.MurphyOilSoap.com/Saving-Trees.

And the fun has just begun. My friend Jen (of the Tatertots and Jello fame) and I are co-hosting a twitter party TONIGHT at 9 pm EST. We are chatting all things DIY and Decor and we would LOVE to have you join us! Oh, and we are also giving away some pretty fantastic prizes. Follow the #repinreforest hashtag and we will see you there!! xo

The post Caring For Hardwood and Saving Trees With Pinterest appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

So I sort of have this running joke with my friends. It goes a little something like this:

Them: “Wow Mands, your walls are so clean! What do you use on them?”

Me:  “New paint.”

Its no secret that I did not turn out like the wall scrubbing ninja that my mother tried to make me, and lets be honest, I usually repaint before masses of grubby handprints accumulate. But that is neither here nor there. Sorry Mom!!

So what do you do when your walls are looking less than stellar and need a new paint job OR you are like me and have a copycat artist in the house and need a new paint job (I mean can you blame her? After all she sees me drawing on the wall with markers too…)

As decor obsessed as I am, I am a little in love that Miss Dylan feels the need for large canvases. But that means that when its time to repaint there is necessary damage control that needs to happen. Today I am going to share my secrets for getting your walls paint ready (because who wants to spend all that time and money and have it not turn out?!)

Tip #1 Wipe Wipe Wipe.  My #1 go to for all things wall wipe down is a Magic Eraser. All of the dirt, grime, frosting (…? its one of the 5 food groups in our house) and crayon comes off with a few swipes. I am pretty sure that there is no better name on earth for what this actually does. It would be like naming a bag of Lindor Truffles Instant Guilt. I always scrub with the Magic Eraser and then wipe the loosened dirt with a damp washcloth.

If you have marker on the wall (especially washable) don’t try and paint over it without washing it off first. It will literally take 10 coats to cover because it will seep through the wet paint. So your options are to scrub or prime.

Sometimes markings need a bit of extra attention, like pen. Pen is lame. Unless you use my secret weapon…  Hand sanitizer. I swear it takes pen right off!

Tip #2  Dust Be Gone.  Just like paint isn’t only for walls, Swiffer Sweepers aren’t only for floors. In St. George very few houses have basements, most are built on concrete slabs which means that all of the vents are in the ceilings. Unfortunately this means that the dust literally falls from the ceiling. Before you start painting take a Swiffer to your walls, because no one wants gobs of dust mucking up your brand new paint job.

Tip #3  Start In The Right Place.  If you are painting walls, ceiling, and trim go in the order of the drippage. Paint the areas that are most likely to get dripped on last. Start with your ceiling (and get your husband to do it if you can!!)  then do your walls, and then move on to your trim.

Tip #4 Hold Your Horses.  One key to having a quick and easy paint job is to be patient. I know that sometimes waiting for paint to dry, is like well,  waiting for paint to dry. Waiting between coats is not only important for your finish but it saves you time. Have you ever rolled a coat on and then tried to second coat it only to find out that your first coat wasn’t dry enough and rolling over it is removing your first coat? It happens with every paint line and finish that I have tried. (what can I say, patience is not my greatest virtue.)   You have to wait. Trust.

Now for a fun giveaway. I have partnered with The Home Depot and P&G to giveaway a DIY painting #ReadyDoneClean prize package!! One lucky person will win my favorite cleaning prep products, a Magic Erasers and a Swiffer Sweeper and $25 Home Depot gift card to help you start your next painting project!!

To enter leave a comment below with YOUR favorite painting tip (because we can never have enough of those!!)  Winner will be chosen on Thursday 3/14

I have partnered with the Home Depot and P&G for this post. The best part? I really use these products before I start painting! All opinions are 100% mine folks.

The post Prepping Walls For Paint and a Giveaway!! appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

So you might learn a little more about me today than you were anticipating on a Monday Giveaway post.

I hate cleaning. Really ask my husband, mother in law, sisters, neighbors who randomly come to my door and aren’t let inside… I love having a clean house but it tends to get pushed down the list of importance some days.

So when I got an email from Nathan @ Fish Foam asking if he could do a giveaway on my site for some I almost said no. BUT in the email there was a link to a post by Shelley @ House of Smiths.  Little did Nathan know that Shelley is one of my best friends.

So I did what anyone would do, I called her right up and said “Shelley what do you think about Fish Foam?” For 15 minutes she told me how awesome it was. So I emailed Nathan and told him to send it on over.

Ok now you should know that I am not a cleaning products connoisseur. I don’t have my best favorite things that I always use that you have to go to a special store to get. For the last little while I have been using Windex Antibacterial because  its an all surface cleaner and its antibacterial. Its fine on everything but glass. My girls LOVE to clean the coffee table in the living room. Its like their favorite chore. I was getting frustrated cause every time they cleaned it it looked really hazy and streaky. So I would go back over it and guess what?…hazy and streaky. But by that point someone (Dylan) is usually dancing on it so I am over it.

So I get the Fish Foam in the mail and I was excited to see if it really was as awesome as Shelley said.

OH. MY. GRAVY. There are not words for how amazing this glass cleaner is. I called one of my friends to tell her about it and said “I don’t think people are going to understand HOW incredible Fish Foam is.” She told me I should make a video.

Which I did not do.

But.

It makes your glass so clean that it is actually brighter. That might sound strange but that is the only words I can put on this freakish phenomenon.

This is what I am giving EVERYONE on my list for Christmas.

One of the best parts about it is that it is a foam spray so I used TONS less than I did with my other cleaner. It is also Drip Free,  which is HUGE especially when you have kids helping you out….if you know what I mean.

It is an alcohol based product which is why it cleans SO good. There is no ammonia, or wax.

That’s right I said WAX dudes. That is in most other window cleaners. No Wax= No Streaks and Fogginess.

Also I went online after I used it fully expecting it to be over $10 a can (judging by how FANTASTIC it is).

Nope.

How about $3.94. Less than the product that I had been using.

So if you want to buy some go here!

And you should also know that most cities in the US have professional Fish Foam Window Cleaners. (Check out Shelley’s post for more info on that!)

So do you want some!? I PROMISE you do.

I am giving 3 -3 packs away!! You guys SERIOUSLY don’t know what you are missing out on by not using Fish Foam.

To enter:

Leave a comment on this post and tell me what glass surface you have the hardest time keeping clean.

For additional entries:

Like Vintage Revivals on Facebook

Tweet about the giveaway

Perform a Random Act of Kindness

Good Luck! The giveaway will end on Friday 11/25 at midnight MST.

The post Best Glass Cleaner Ever!! Fish Foam Giveaway appeared first on Vintage Revivals.