Five on Friday - My Top Five Amazon Bestsellers of 2023

*This post contains affiliate links.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Hey, y’all!  Happy first Friday of 2024!  Typically, I kick off the first Friday of each month with some goals, but since I haven’t recapped my 2023 goals for the year or posted my 2024 goals for the year, I couldn’t really delve into a January goals post just yet.  More to come on all of that next week!

In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to share my top five Amazon bestsellers of 2023!  As an Amazon Creator, they send me a nice little email summary at the end of each year sharing how many times readers clicked my links, how many items readers purchased from my links, my bestsellers from each month, and my overall best sellers from the year (among other stats). 

I LOVE quantifying and recapping all the things, so I thought it would be fun to share some of the stats here… specifically, my top five bestsellers from Amazon all year-long.

Before I get started, I thought I’d let y’all know that four of the five items are links from this blog post from FIVE years ago.  That’s right, my all-time most-viewed post ever is from 2018, and it is still generating a huge chunk of my Amazon income each month.  The last item in the post was a recent discovery, and probably my #1 favorite discovery of 2023.  Here's the summary from Amazon... (they only provided my Top 4 in the email, and I had to pull the data for the fifth item).

O N E – Iris USA 5-Pack Letter & Legal-Size Plastic Storage File Boxes

Coming it at #1 are the best file boxes of all-time.  They’re sturdy, they’re extra-long so you can fit tons of files, and they have a split-lid so you can open just half of it at a time.  They fit letter and legal-sized items making them the perfect boxes for storing old school papers, artwork, report cards, etc.  I have one of these for each child, and I am filling it with snippets of their artwork, schoolwork, report cards, and awards from every single year of their lives, and I’ll give it to them when they graduate.  I know this may not be for everyone (many of you like to trash everything and that’s ok, too!), but if you’re sentimental like we are, this is a great way to save only the best of the best, without getting bogged down and overloaded with too much, and it makes for the perfect keepsake for your child. 

These were, by far, my number one seller of the entire year, and they were literally my number one seller every single month of the entire year of 2023 (well, I don't have the data from December yet, but I'm to assume it was these.).  Look at this recap that Amazon sent to me.  Lol.

 

The price does fluctuate greatly for these depending on supply and demand, and right now they’re on the expensive side which leads me to believe that the supply must be low, (and demand is probably high since everyone is in New Year organization mode!) but I’ll go ahead and tell you that they are worth every single penny!  The reviews (and the fact that they were my number one seller all year) speak for themselves!

 

T W O – Hanging File Folders

If you’re going to organize file boxes, then you’re obviously going to need hanging file folders!  This listing on Amazon is great because you can choose from tons of different colors, and therefore, you can have a different color for each child. 

The folders are super sturdy, and they come in packs of 25 which gives you plenty for your child’s entire school career.  These were my #2 top seller of 2023, probably because people purchased them with the file boxes.  ;o)

 

T H R E E – Manila Folders

In the kids’ keepsake boxes, I divided several of the hanging folders into sections using these manila folders, and many of you decided to follow my method exactly, which means that… these were my #3 bestseller of 2023!

 

F O U R – Vinyl Labels

These vinyl labels were my #4 bestsellers for 2023, and I totally get why… they are PERFECT for labeling storage boxes because they stick on easily and stay on strong, but they can be peeled off cleanly should you decide you no longer need the label.  In addition to that, these are used with chalk markers, and the chalk markers wipe completely clean, so you can label and relabel as much as you need.  The exact labels that I purchased are currently unavailable, but check back frequently, as they are restocked periodically.  And if you want to get your hands on some right away, these are similar.

 

F I V E – Turmeric

I only just started taking this turmeric a few months ago, but it quickly climbed to my #5 bestseller of 2023, probably because of the ringing endorsement I gave it here on the blog.  I cannot say enough incredible things about turmeric.  It has made miraculous differences in my body these last few months and I’ll never go another day without taking it ever again.  Here is my original post about it in case you missed it:

Ohhhhh turmeric.  Where to even begin?  I am totally convinced that this supplement is a gift straight from heaven.  Of all of the supplements that I’ve started taking, turmeric has had the biggest impact on my overall health and wellness.  I’ve been taking it for seven weeks now, and when I say that it has made a huge difference in my life, I mean it.  By taking just one capsule a day, the inflammation in my body has decreased dramatically.

While some inflammation can be a good thing (it’s what helps our body heal from injury), too much inflammation can be a terrible thing causing pain in the body, chronic insomnia or fatigue, anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders, swelling, weight gain or weight loss, infections, and stomach irregularities like constipation and diarrhea.  Chronic inflammation in the body can even damage healthy cells, tissues, and organs that can eventually lead to cancer, diabetes, and other life-threatening diseases. 

For some reason I have been experiencing symptoms of chronic inflammation in my body for more than a decade, and my recent bloodwork most definitely reflected that.  I haven’t been able to pinpoint the cause, but until then, turmeric has become my best friend.

Some of the symptoms I have from inflammation are major swelling in my feet and ankles every single day, finger swelling (especially after a walk or run) – so bad sometimes that I can’t even twist my wedding bands around on my finger, let alone remove them – and my fingers are SO painful after a run, and the area around my c-section scar has always been puffy and swollen (from nine years ago).   

I also get lots of headaches (typically on the right side of my head), and I have a lot of pain in general, down the back of my head and neck, and also in my SI joint and my sacrum since they were damaged during childbirth 12 years ago.  My SI joint was bothering me so much earlier this summer that I was planning on getting another steroid shot.

Until I started taking the turmeric.

Since starting this magical supplement seven weeks ago, everything has improved… and I actually started seeing the benefits around the four-day mark of taking it.  Here are some of the things that have happened to me since I started taking it…

My feet and ankles no longer swell.  This first picture was taken at 7:36 PM on September 6… two days before I started taking the turmeric.  This is what my feet, toes, and ankles looked like every single day at the end of the day… and sometimes even at the beginning of the day.  So much swelling.  It literally looks like somebody took my ankle and blew it up like a rubber glove.  The skin is all smooth because it’s stretched so tight, and you can’t even see my ankle bone.  This has been my life nearly every single day for years.

This second picture was taken at 5:21 PM on September 21, almost two weeks after I started taking the turmeric.  I’m wearing the same jeans, the same shoes, and I’d had a similar day to the day I’d had when I snapped the picture above.  But look at the difference.  No swelling.  No smooth, tight skin.  And you can see my ankle bone.  It’s an actual normal-looking foot.

Here's the side-by-side so you can really see the difference:

Another benefit I’ve noticed is that my fingers no longer swell when I walk or run, and I now have zero pain in them after a workout.  Before, my fingers would swell so terribly that I couldn’t even twist my wedding rings on my finger, and now I can slip them right off immediately after a run.  In a way, this has actually become a problem.  Haha.  My fingers have shrunk so much that my wedding rings no longer fit… they are HUGE now and I’m going to have to get them resized because I’m worried my engagement ring is going to go flying off one of these days.  That has almost happened several times already.  Haha. 

In addition to that, my wrists have also shrunk.  I never even realized it, but apparently I had swelling there, too.  Since starting the turmeric, I have had to start wearing my Apple Watch band one notch tighter, and I can almost wear it two notches tighter.

My c-section scar is no longer puffy and swollen.  It just looks like a regular scar.

And my stomach has been flatter since I started taking the turmeric, too, so I’m assuming I was experiencing some kind of inflammation in my gut as well.

My SI joint has stopped hurting COMPLETELY (although, in full disclosure I’m also doing some additional stretching, so that could be part of it), but what a Godsend.  I have been able to walk and run with zero pain and I’m so glad that I won’t have to do the steroid shot again.

My headaches have also decreased significantly. 

Sounds too good to be true, I know.  I can barely believe it myself.   

This supplement has truly been a Godsend for me, and in addition to helping reduce inflammation, it has tons of other benefits without any negative side effects.  So, if you have high inflammation in your body, issues with swelling, pain with old injuries, headaches, or just any other random pain in general, I cannot recommend starting turmeric enough!  Turmeric is also supposed to be excellent for arthritis, digestive disorders, allergies, respiratory issues, and depression.  There are also studies that suggest it could help prevent cancer among other things.  It honestly sounds like a miracle supplement!

And if you’re still not convinced, check out this DM I received from a reader when I posted about it the first time…

Love it!

I use this Nature’s Bounty brand because it’s non-GMO and it’s free from artificial colors, flavors, artificial sweeteners, sugar, starch, milk, lactose, gluten, wheat, yeast, fish, and sodium.  I only take one capsule every morning with breakfast and that’s it.  It’s super affordable, and worth every single penny.  I will be taking this for the rest of my life.

 

Honorable Mentions

These pre-lit entryway Christmas trees came in at #6.

This viral car cleaning gel at #7.

Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss at #8 (because of this blog post).

My favorite liquid eyeliner of all-time that I've been wearing for, probably, 15-20 years at #9 (because of this post).  It's only $3, y'all!!!!

And finally, this toilet pumice stone at #10.  Because it's amazing.

Friday Funnies

On the Blog This Week

 Happy New Year!

Our Week – The One with Christmas, Sleepovers, and New Year's Eve

What I Ordered from Amazon in December 2023

 

Happy Friday, y’all!  Our kids are still out of school through Monday, but we'll be back to regularly scheduled programming on Tuesday!

Happy Friday, y’all!  

*Linking up with A Little Bit of Everything for Friday Favorites.