How to Keep Your House Looking Immaculate

So obviously I am a list person. I have lists of future lists to make. But, one of my favorite lists is my cleaning list. I clean my house everyday because I love to have it looking like we have room service that comes and cleans. I also love for it to smell nice; I used to be a PartyLite consultant so I have a love of fragrances.

When I come home from work I have a list of things I do on a daily basis. I do one load of laundry, wipe down counter tops and do the dishes, pick up the house, take out the trash (if needed), and sweep and vacuum. I have a fur baby so I have to do the floors everyday. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out a way to make her shed less. This takes thirty minutes tops,  but I get to go to bed and wake up with a clean home. I tend to feel really stressed when my house is a mess so this helps a lot.

Every Saturday, I clean a little bit deeper and this is my weekly cleaning. In addition to the daily cleaning tasks, once a week I clean the mirrors, mop the floors, scrub the toilet and shower, change our bedding, dust furniture, and wipe down the appliances. This kind of resets my week for me. I spend about an hour cleaning my home and then I have Sunday to relax with my husband.

My list isn't perfect and I'm constantly adding and taking things away. But taking these steps each day makes it easier on me to keep my house looking great. I don't believe in not cleaning something until it's dirty. We simply pick up after ourselves and spend the time to make sure it looks hotel worthy.

By saying "I" clean I mean we. I am so lucky and so blessed to have a husband that helps around the house. He also has a love for fragrances, so our warmers and candles are always keeping our house smelling wonderful.

When it comes to cleaning, my number one rule is but your feet up and relax when you're done. I always sit down with tea and a good book or catch up on Netflix.

Photo cred: The amazing Kate.

Kisses, Shavon

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Top 5 Tips to Purging Your Closet

So today's post hits close to home. When I got married I went from a large room with a walk-in closet to a one bedroom apartment. I don't in any way regret this move but it was a major adjustment. I never realized how much time it took to downsize everything and my closet was a major one.


My closet as I stated before was a walk-in and was packed from bottom to top with clothes, purses, jewelry and so on. It was so stuffed my shoes were out in the garage because there was no room. Let's just say when I started working at Macy's when I was nineteen I created a major addiction. What's really sad is when I was purging before the wedding I had tons of articles that had been purchased years ago and they still had the tag on them.


So, I know a lot of women are like me and need to purge their closets but don't know where to start. Did I mention I share a closet now? Thank goodness its spacious for an apartment or I would be lost. Here are five tips that will help you to purge your closet. Out with the old, in with the new.


1. Get inspired

Turn on some fun music. Make something nice and cold to drink like a flavored ice tea; or my favorite, a fruit and vegetable smoothie. Even recruit someone to be on your panel to help you decide what to keep.


2. Be realistic

You can't keep everything no matter how much you don't want to let go of your lavishing closet. That is not a bad thing at all, we are making room for the better things in life. The simplest way to do this is to have two bins: trash and donate. As you go through your closet take one thing out at a time. If your keeping it, hang it back up. If not put it on one of the two bins.


3. Ask the tough questions

If you were shopping today, would you buy it? Does it fit? It is damaged/stained? Can it be repaired? If any of your answers are no, it's probably time to part ways. No point in keeping the jeans you wore on your first day of high school. They probably don't fit and aren't in style anymore. The sweatpants that you've had for 10 years are just collecting dust. You have to be brutal right now but it will pay off. You will have a gorgeous closet that is organized and only has the clothing items you love.


4. Organize your newly purged closet.

This part depends on how you function best. You can color-coordinate it or organize it by clothing type. Figure out how your closet will work for you and get to organizing. Find a home for everything in your closet and make it look pretty! This will both make you love your closet AND help you to put everything back in its place when you're done.


5. Buy one, throw one.

This is the best way to make sure your closet stays looking gorgeous. If you buy a new article of clothing you have to throw one you already have; whether that means tossing, donating, or selling it. Not only does this keep your closet from being overloaded again but it ensures that you have nothing but pieces you love in your closet.


Now, I'm not going to lie and say this was easy because it definitely was not. It took me a lot of time and I had to part with a lot of clothes. But it was so worth it! It even makes getting ready faster because I have less to choose from and I love everything I own. Now the only hard part is getting my husband to purge ;)


I want to see the amazing work you accomplish! Tag me in your before and after pictures; tag your friends too! Get them to do this with you.


Kisses, Shavon.


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Planner Obsession

Hi guys!!

The list of my obsessions could literally go on and on so today I thought we would talk about another one. Office supplies and more specifically PLANNERS! I love planners and have for as long as I can remember. I loved being in school and they would give us the planners to write our assignments and events in. I was probably one of the only kids who color coordinated it and took it everywhere with me lol.

So forwarding a couple of years later and I love them even more, but I have moved on to bigger and better things. So here is my baby. I am using the Lily Pulitzer medium size and can I say it's amazing! I love this agenda for many reasons. Her agendas come in a few different sizes and designs. I believe this design is discontinued but is similar to pink lemonade. Another great thing about her agendas is they are not your typical 12 month agenda. It goes from August of 2014 to December 2015, which was perfect because I wanted to use it as soon as it came in the mail.

In the front of the agenda is a double sided pocket. On the front I keep extra paper clips and post its. I also keep important things that I use frequently, my insurance card, and anything I may need to take with me for the day.

There are two sets of month views. The first is in the front of the agenda and it is only month views. Lately, I have been trying to better myself and be a little bit healthier so I use a different coding system to keep track of my progress. Blue is for 8 glasses of water, green is for exercise, and red is for my daily devos. I simply draw a line through the day in that color if I finished my task for the day. I use the first set of month on two pages for this.

The second is with the weekly views and separates them by month. Here is a dummy mock-up of what my week and month would look like. Once I have completed a task I simply cross and out and I'm done.

As you can see I color-code my agenda I do this because it helps me to organize and I can tell what I have going on with just a quick glance. Plus adding a little bit of color makes it pretty and makes me actually want to use the agenda. Here is a breakdown of how I use the different colors:

Purple - Social
Green - Wedding
Dark Blue - Matt
Orange - Work
Red - Personal/To-Do

Each Sunday I decorate the upcoming week and fill in my schedule. Doing this every week probably excites me a little more than it should. Poor Matt has come home to my planner supplies all over the living room in pure confusion haha. I have a box that I keep all my supplies in so when I decorate I just bring it into the living room and decorate away. I use washi tape, sticker, post its and page flags. There is also a sheet of stickers that comes with all Lily agendas. I have taken mine out because I put it with the rest of my stickers because I have quite a few.

So there it is! I should probably start looking into planner anonymous meetings, but in talking with many of you I know that I am not alone. Do you use planners? What are your tips and tricks? Comment below and let me know.


You can find Lilly planners here. And for more on organization check out my post on purse organization here.

Kisses, Shavon

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