How Decluttering Can Earn You Cash

September 12, 2019September 12, 2019 / My Brunette Adventure / Leave a comment

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Happy Thursday! Hope you all had a great week we are one day away from the weekend. For the past couple of weekends, I have been in major declutter mode. The kind where your husband starts asking if he is next to be sold off? In all seriousness, I am a keeper of things. I have always been that way. If it is something I ‘could’ be using in the future, I keep it because I find it a waste to rebuy it later. However, I took a good look around my house and realized so many things were being unused and had to go. Do you have a house project you would like to help pay for? Maybe a family vacation? Or what about your savings for Christmas gifts?

One of my goals (some call them resolutions) at the beginning of the year was to live more minimally. That would include decluttering the tons of stuff that is just not being used around my house. Instead of letting it overwhelm you, I found it best to take it space or room by room. For example: your closet, your make up/beauty products, your linen closet, your living room, your craft area, your play area, the garage, etc. Take it one by one and choose one of four things; keep, sell, donate or throw away.

Of course some items are just straight to the garbage. Some items can be saved from a landfill and can be sold or donated. Think of a win-win scenario–someone out there is looking to buy the item and they buy it from you gently used. It would save another one of that item going through the cycle and sending to a landfill. 🙂 Plus you made a little cash. When deciding whether to donate or sell, think ‘is it something you could sell quickly?’ If so, use the many resell streams available; FB marketplace, Let it Go, Poshmark, etc. I have noticed electronics, household goods and furniture seem to go well on FB marketplace in my area. Clothing, jewelry, shoes and accessories tend to go well on Poshmark. (and the buyer pays for shipping)

What areas of your house need the most decluttering? Ask yourself, when is the last time you used or wore the item? Then ask, ‘Can I get something, rather than nothing for this item?’

After you have decluttered your first space, you can now organize your keep items in that space and move to the next area. Once you have finished, do not forget to take all your donations and be sure to list/sell all ‘sell’ items for cash. Don’t think of it as your only getting $20 bucks think of it as it will all add up if you sell most or all the items in your sell pile! You will be shocked at the hundreds of dollars, if not more you can bring in.

Happy decluttering

Jessica

Beckett’s Nursery

April 19, 2018April 19, 2018 / My Brunette Adventure / Leave a comment

Well, I know it has been sometime since I have posted here. Since my last post, we added a new addition to our family! Our baby girl, Beckett Vivian Bryant made her debut March 16th and we are all adjusting to our new normal around here. I have yet to decide if I will share her birth story here, but boy-oh-boy is it a good story. 🙂 For now, I wanted to share her nursery that was finished before she arrived, I just never blogged about it here on my piece of the web.

If you know me, I do not like tons of pink but I wanted her nursery to still be simple and a touch of girly. For her paint color, we painted two walls a Dusty Rose which is exactly just the color I was going for in her room. I really love the color in person. Two other key factors I kept in mind, keeping it simple and budget friendly.

Before Beckett was born, this room was my all white office with old carpet. It was very boring. We had decided to put laminate flooring in our whole upstairs so this was the perfect time. My husband worked his tail off to get it all done before she arrived. Once the flooring was finished and the walls were painted, we assembled her crib, dresser and chair. I only added a few decor items for now. I did one DIY project, the greenery loop above her crib. It was a very easy DIY anyone can do.

Of course, big sister Lilly had to make an appearance. 🙂 She loves sitting in that chair and looking out the window. Even though Beckett does not get much use of her room now, here soon she will be in there full time and we cannot wait to watch her grow in her own space. She also has a crate of books ready to be read to her while rocking in her chair. Can you tell I am excited?

|| Rug: RugsUSA || Rocking Chair: Amazon || Crib & Shelves: Target || Side Table, Dresser and Curtains: IKEA || Stool & Greenery: HobbyLobby || Throw Blanket: TJMaxx ||

Thanks for stopping by to check out baby Beckett’s nursery. Now that we have a schedule around here, I plan to get more posts up before my maternity leave ends in 7 weeks.

XOXO,

Jessica

DIY Farmhouse Table

July 25, 2016 / My Brunette Adventure / 2 Comments

The summer is always a great time to finish up those home projects you have kind of put off for sometime. I know we all do it. Today, I will share with you our DIY farmhouse table that, yes we started last year and it got put aside with all the busy schedules of work and opening a boutique. Please excuse my lack of other decor and table scape at the moment.

I will say, I am in love and you are going to need to build one asap if you have not already. If you are like me, you have fallen in love with the restoration hardware table but not the price tag. I just do not have thousands to spend on a dining room table so I went with the build it option. I love DIY’s so it was a no brainer that we could make this table for around $100 and we did! After purchasing all the materials, my handy builder, my husband got to work with the building of the table. Keep in mind all of the tools and major things we already had on hand. Halfway through the project, we took months, yes months off and came back to it this month. He was the builder, I was the supervisor and I stained the table. We did not use an exact template as we changed somethings about the look but I would recommend going to DIYer Ana White for a great step-by-step tutorial. You can paint it or stain it whichever you prefer. We made it a seating for six but you can make it for four or you could make the table longer to accommodate more than six guests. Our dining area is only so big so we went with around a six foot table. My dining area is so transformed with this table and chairs. The chairs are from Target, I bought them online late last year. I also did not want things to be match, so I am okay with my chairs not being the same exact stain color as the table. I think they work well together and the overall look of the set up went beyond what I had expected. I am so happy how everything turned out and now we can have more guests for dinner. You can also find my DIY on these placemats here.