AlyssaW's Profile

I am just transition from the throw away/hand me down furniture stage and starting to think about investing in more quality furniture.

Dining set- free from the dumpster. It was brand new, still wrapped in bubble wrap with the legs off ad hardware included. I found the set online and it was just under $500 retail. Major score.

Bedroom furniture- $300 for Queen mattresses, $20 for short lockers used as bedside tables, free solid wood dresser and a $25 high boy Craigslist find that I refinished. It is Sculptured pine and sells for <$500 in good condition. I have just a cheap bed frame and I use a dark wood dining table top as my headboard- the apron makes a perfect ledge and it looks great. My mom purchased the table for $40 at an Estate sale and just gave it to me.

I use upholstered storage ottomans in the family room as toy boxes- good storage, but not obnoxious. $65/ each at target.

I need to invest in couches, I imagine that what I want (deep seats, down, attached chaise) will be $$$$, but I figure that I've saved a lot of money in other areas so it all evens out.

Thanks Ohdeedoh for posting this! We love this reading nook in our home and use it every single day.

Thanks to our friend Zane Dungy for turning my vision into a reality, he made this build in better than I had imagined!

We did something similar and LOVE IT!

We are having a yard sale on Saturday as part of our spring cleaning. I always have a cooler with water and soda and sometimes make muffins or cookies to sell I usually make at least $40 in concessions.

lol, we have this liberator wedge and also the esse that are used as seating/toys in the baby's room. The foam is soft but firm, slipcovers are easily washed, it looks sleek and modern, etc.

I've purchased all of my old cast iron cookware from resale stores. Baking them in a self cleaning oven for an hour then cleaning up the remaining rust with steel wool has made them as good as new! I also recently found a Wagner ware aluminum roaster with lid for $6!

I use the bottom shelf of the changing table in my 10 month old's room to store toys and books for him to crawl around and get into.. I also have a storage basket filled with soft toys tipped onto its side (almost like a cubby) so that he can see the toys in in there and get what he wants to play with.

When I was a kid my mom stashed some unopened mail in the oven before we had someone over for a BBQ. That guest was so nice to help clean up afterward and went to put a freshly washed baking sheet in the oven for storage... My mom was mortified.

Fridge clutter is something that I don't worry about. My great grandparents had a ton of kooky magnets on their refrigerator and it was my favorite thing about their house as a kid. I let my kids put up artwork, pictures, fun magnets, etc.

We did this when I was a kid and honestly, it got really out of control really fast and my mom wound up having to either deal with looking junky or take things for my younger siblings up herself.

We keep baskets for each person in the laundry room that collect their things downstairs and are taken upstairs every couple days.