Five on Friday - Laundry Room Organization, Plant Update, and IG Wins

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Last week I didn’t have a chance to do a Five on Friday post and I truly missed it.  I’m happy to be back today even though I had to slap this post together at the last minute yesterday… please forgive me for any typos you’ve seen lately.  I barely have time to write these days, let alone edit.  Haha.  Let’s get to some of my favorites from the week, shall we?

O N E – Let’s Stay In

I bought this adorable sign from Target several months ago, and it’s taken on a whole new meaning these last few weeks.  While we’re sad we won’t be able to flip it to the “Let’s Go Out” side any time soon, we are finding ways to have fun while we’re staying in.  :o)  That sign is now sold out, but Target does have another cute one that says “Hello There” and “Miss You Already.”  Another appropriate sentiment for the times.  I miss everyone so much!!

T W O – Laundry Room Cleanout and Organization

I mentioned in my post yesterday that I spent a lot of the day on Sunday cleaning out our laundry room for the first time ever.  We’ve lived in our house for ten years and I have literally never once taken the time to organize or decorate or clean out the laundry room.  It’s been on my list of things to do for years, obviously, so it feels incredible to have gotten it started!

The before picture below was exactly how it looked when I walked in there to organize it.  The cabinets were a hot mess, and yes, all of that crap has been sitting on top of the washer and dryer just like that for years.  My friend, Katie, moved away overseas almost a year-and-a-half ago, and she dropped off all of their old laundry detergents and cleaning supplies at our house since they couldn’t take them with them.  They have all been sitting on top of our washer and dryer ever since because I never took the time to do something with them.  Face palm.  That is just so embarrassing.

This past Sunday, I cleaned out both sets of cabinets, got rid of a ton of old crap, and I organized everything in the cabinets, including the old stuff from Katie.  The right set of cabinets ended up being practically empty, so I was able to get all of our paint cans out of our downstairs utility closet and bring them upstairs to the laundry room to get them out of the way.  There’s now a ton more space in the downstairs utility closet, which is nice, considering we use it more than the laundry room.  And now that all of our paints are organized in the laundry room cabinet, I can see all of my spray paint colors without having to dig through all of them to find the one that I want!  Yessss.

There are still many things left to do in there but I’m so glad that I finally took the first step.  Here’s what we have left to do in there:

1. Paint walls
2. Paint cabinets
3. Install white subway tile
4. Install shelf over washer and dryer
5. Hang iron organizer
6. Purchase organizers for the countertop
7. Decorate

And now for the befores and afters…

BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER (left set of cabinets)

AFTER (right set of cabinets)

The lighting is awful because it's a tiny room in the center of our house away from all windows and it was also rainy that day, but if you could see it in person you'd appreciate it much more!  Makes my heart sing!  I may just work in there a little more this weekend, so be sure to tune in to my Instagram stories just in case…

T H R E E – Mama Cass Plant Update

I’ve talked about my grandmother’s plant on here several times, but for those of you who are new around here, a little refresher.  My Mama Cass (my grandmother) has had a plant in her living room since the 1960’s.  It was a gift for my great-grandmother during a hospital stay, and my Mama Cass inherited it when she passed away in the 1980’s.  The plant grew and grew and it’s now gigantic, so she is always giving away clippings from it. 

She gave me my first clipping from the plant about 4-5 years ago (I can’t remember exactly) and I ended up killing it because back then I was a self-proclaimed black thumb.  Well, I’ve slowly been working to earn my green thumb these last few years, and my Mama Cass brought another clipping to me about six months ago.  It was small, only a few inches high in the pot when she gave it to me, and look at it today!  These past couple of months it has just exploded and it’s growing by inches every single week!  Look at it cascading down the table!!  :o)  I’m just so thrilled to finally have it growing, and I think it’s just so cool that it’s been in our family for almost 60 years!!  Also, don't judge... clearly I need to dust.  Haha.

F O U R – Creative Outlet

I’ve finally had a little bit of time this past week to start using my essential oils Instagram account again, and it has been such a blessing to have some time to be creative again.  I feel like I’ve been on autopilot for the blog for the sake of getting the posts up, and I feel like I haven’t really taken as much time to do the creative side of blogging that I love so much, like styling things for photo shoots and brainstorming new ideas. 

One of my favorite things to do ever is to create pretty vignettes and flatlays and photograph them, and I have gotten immense pleasure this past week from styling some new things for my oils account.  I just love playing with the different fabrics and textures and colors and creating pretty things!  Oh, I love it!

As most of you know, I also love my oils, so it feels easy, too.  If you don’t already follow along and you want to, you can find me here @lindsayssweetessentials.  There won’t be any pressure to purchase oils or anything like that, so even if you don’t intend to purchase, you can still follow along to see how I use my oils or just to see all of the pretty pictures!  Haha.

F I V E – Hooray for 10K!

And speaking of Instagram… I finally hit 10K followers this week!  Like many other bloggers, I focused a lot on growing my Instagram following in 2017, but once Instagram changed some things in mid-2017, it became impossible to grow organically.  A lot of bloggers and influencers started using tactics that I didn’t really agree with (buying fake followers, following and unfollowing people), and their followings were surpassing mine by leaps and bounds, so I ended up jumping off of the IG train to focus more on monetizing my blog.  It’s just smarter anyway, since nobody owns their content on Instagram and Instagram could shut down/change/etc. in the blink of an eye. 

I’ve ended up having huge success with ad revenue and affiliate linking here on the blog, so it was definitely the right decision to stop trying to monetize IG, but I’ve still kept it as a goal of mine to make it to 10K so I can have the swipe-up feature for convenience.  Every now and then I’ll join a giveaway as long as it’s with a trustworthy partner and it’s fitting for my brand, and this past week, I had my most successful giveaway ever… it catapulted me right over that magic 10K mark!! 

However, there is always a drop-off after a giveaway ends, so I’ll likely dip back under 10K soon, but at least I’m close to being over it permanently.  I could do another giveaway soon to ensure I stay above that magic number, but I’ll probably just wait and see what happens.  As I said before, I try really hard to keep my IG a genuine space, so I’m not pushing the followers things too hard anymore.

Friday Funnies

Why is this so true for every single item?  Hahahaha.

On the Blog This Week

What I Wore – March 2020

Easy Mini Pizzas (Using Biscuit Dough)

Our Week – The One with Quarantine, Week 5 (Sidewalk Chalk at Church and Laundry Room Clean-Out)

We have some positively perfect weather on deck this weekend, so we’re looking forward to lots of time outside!  Happy Friday, y’all! 

*Linking up with A Little Bit of Everything for Friday Favorites and Della Devoted for High Five for Friday.