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My Funky (and Very Green) Travel and Music Inspired Living Room

7/14/2022

If you follow my Instagram, I am sure you're aware that I bought a house last year.
It was one of the proudest moments of my life-purchasing a home completely on my own!

My Funky Travel and Music Inspired Living Room

I moved in last November and lived completely on my own for the first time ever-and I could not have been happier! I absolutely loved being on my own, and finally having a house of my own to decorate and do whatever I want to, is perfection!
I am living my best life in this house right now!

When dreaming of my living room, once I finally owned a home of my own, I had a very specific look in mind;
I wanted it to be vintage, yet a bit modern feeling.
A little bit boho, with a clean and tiny bit upscale finish.
It also had to be music and travel themed.
And I knew that I wanted a green and gray color scheme.
And funky!
And for very little money!
Easy peezy right?! Ha!

So over the past nine months I (ok Chase too!) worked tirelessly on this room, to walk the very fine lines I had set, and to create the cozy and eclectic living room that I had had sitting in my brain for the last couple of years.
And I am so stoked to say that it has finally all came together so perfectly!
And for waaaaay under budget (I will be writing a blog post about decorating on the cheap here soon!)!
Ok enough blabbing, here it is!

I absolutely love the look, and the feeling (that good feeling is sooo important in a room in your home) of my living room!
Now for some before and afters (because you know I love those).

My Funky Travel and Music Inspired Living Room-Before

My house is very long and narrow, and so my living room is also quite long and narrow. It also has three doors that open into it, as well as two archways that lead into different rooms, so it was a bit tricky to decorate! Here is the first Before of my living room...are you ready for how it looks now?

After!
Holy moly can you even believe this is the same place?! Me either!

Before.

After!

Before.

After!

Move in day! My Dad, Chase, and Kramer.

I found this yellow table beside the dumpster in Atlanta! I nabbed it before someone else could, lugged it back to my apartment, and painted it up! I threw lots of fake plants (one from a garage sale, one for free from Ikea [sign up for their rewards card, you'll thank me!], lots from my Mom as gifts, and all the fillers less than $4 plants from Dollar Tree) into it, and there you have it! I absolutely love this part of my living room. The funky lamp was a gift from my sister she found at a vintage store, the yellow shade was bought at Target with some of my wedding money (I do not remember the price since it was so long ago, but I know I didn't spend an extravagant amount of money on it), the plant on top is from my boyfriend, and the pot it's in as well as the dish holding money from other countries and shells and rocks, I took from my grandma's house after she died.

The couch is from Big Lots, I could not be happier with it, I wanted something comfortable and cute, and this accomplishes all those things! Before tax it cost less than $400 (pro tip, sign up for a Big Lots card the time before you buy your couch. You get $5 off your purchase when you get the card, and I believe 15% off the next time you use it!)!
The yellow pillows were a gift from Chase, the gray blanket was a gift from a friend, and I made the other pillow. I took the print from a Cat Stevens album and framed it in a frame I already had. The table was made by Chase's Grandpa.

I love this corner! I have been dreaming about making a record corner like this for so long!
I got the record player and salt lamp as a gift from my parents. I used some old milk crates and fake plants (from garage sales and gifts) to make the leaf tower. The pictures on the wall are mine, with the frames coming from thrift stores, the marquee was a gift, and the floating shelf was a shelf I had previously that I painted the same color as the walls.
The records are both mine and Chase's that we have been collecting for years.
Most of my records are from garage sales, thrift stores, and gifts.

Because this is a slow, eco, and budget friendly makeover, the room is always changing. Whenever we stumble upon something new at a thrift store, make something, or just switch things up! But that's part of the fun of it!
I do have fabric for curtains that I will be making once the weather cools down, and there is a throw rug that we have been drooling over, and will purchase once there is a little more money in the home fund, but other than that, this is it!

I love this rug so much! I got it from my favorite thrift store for, $7!
All suitcases are from thrift stores, the big plants are Chase's

As you can see, the music and travel themes blend together effortlessly.
The old mixes with the new, and you get that little bit of a hippie/boho vibe, while still feeling quite clean and concise!
Exactly what I had in mind!

My living room recommendations:

All in all our living room is just so us! Combining us both so perfectly!

What do you think? Do you like our funky travel and music inspired living room makeover? What does your dream living room look like?
Comment letting me know!

Peace Love and my Living Room

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Expert Tips to Help You Achieve a Zero Waste Home-with Redfin

6/11/2022

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I was pretty stoked when Redfin reached out to me a couple weeks ago, asking me to contribute to their post about achieving a zero-waste home.
Of course I said yes!
And I am excited to share that post with you here, where I, along with some other eco-friendly bloggers tell our tips for helping you achieve a zero-waste home.
Find the original post on Redfin.

"With summer right around the corner, many homeowners have been thinking of ways to be more environmentally friendly. However, the idea of creating a zero waste home can feel overwhelming. With so many household items creating waste on a daily basis, where should you even begin?
To help you start making little eco-friendly changes in your home, we reached out to sustainability enthusiasts to share their best tips on achieving a zero waste home. Whether you’re renting a condo in Phoenix, AZ, or a homeowner in Baltimore, MD, you’re sure to find easy ways to live greener.

1. Start small
Do you want to change the world, go zero waste, and dramatically reduce your home’s carbon footprint? Start with the small, easy things, and every month add in something else until you and your house are a zero waste legend. Take baby steps like switching to reusable coffee filters or using glass food containers instead of plastic bags. If you jump in and go from 0 to making your own organic beeswax wraps, it’s not going to last. – My Peace Love Life

2. Keep your neighbors in mind
You might think the perfect place for your compost pile is at the north end of your garden, but if that also happens to be 20 feet from your neighbor’s back deck, you should really rethink that placement. Just like how you shouldn’t position your chicken coop outside of your neighbor’s bedroom window. Taking your neighbors into consideration isn’t only a nice thing to do, but it could also save you from getting complaints raised against you to the town or your HOA. – The Cape Coop

3. Be aware of the waste you create
On the road to zero waste, start by being aware of all the waste you create in your home and take action – things like composting your food scraps, recycling and eliminating unnecessary things in your life. For example, many single-use plastic household items have a sustainable alternative that won’t harm the earth – or your wallet. You may have swapped some already, but one you might have overlooked is single-use plastic trash bags used in your kitchen, bathrooms, or bedrooms that can easily be replaced with reusable bin liners. – TOMbag

4. Eliminate single-use plastic products
Eliminating toxic single-use petroleum plastics is essential to a healthy zero waste home. Using alternative materials such as glass, steel, hemp, and aluminum that are infinitely recyclable or home compostable is a great way to reduce waste while using reusable and refillable products. These products include hemp, paper, bioplastics, wood, concrete, insulation, fabrics, and many more amazing products that can be composted at home, creating a truly circular economy. – Dama Distributing

5. Start with your bathroom
Creating a zero waste household takes a holistic approach. Often, zero waste is pigeonholed into food and food packaging. However, your everyday self-care products are a major source of unnecessary plastic use – especially when it comes to dental products, shampoos, and more. Some innovative brands are taking a zero waste approach to self-care essentials and products like toothbrushes can be swapped out for bamboo. Brands are even creating zero waste shampoo bars now that contain no plastic packaging. – Roaming Vegans

There are some simple, sustainable product-swaps homeowners should consider when looking for ways to make an impact on the future of our planet. Oral-care products can be a great start because it’s a daily necessity for one’s health but can create a lot of pollution in our oceans and landfills. Switching to a zero waste, biodegradable silk floss and a bamboo toothbrush is an easy switch every family can make. – WooBamboo

6. Invest in a mattress that’s made to last
It’s estimated that 40 million mattresses are thrown away each year in the USA, with most going directly to a landfill. That’s why it’s important to invest in a certified organic mattress made with sustainable materials like organic latex designed to break down and oxidize over many years unlike mattresses made with polyurethane foams that continuously emit toxic gas and chemicals into our environment. Another way to reduce waste is to invest in a mattress that’s made to last and is backed by a solid 20-year warranty, ensuring you’ll be able to keep your mattress longer and reduce your overall waste. – Tim Masters, Founder, and Owner of My Green Mattress

7. Refuse and reuse
When adopting a zero waste home plan, always refuse and reuse. First, refuse what you don’t need. The easiest way to do that is by saying no to plastic bags, forks, and spoons from takeout orders. Then, only buy what you can reuse. Opt for glass straws, glass containers, reusable bags, and eco-friendly items. Nowadays, there are eco-friendly alternatives to your everyday items. Always refuse single-use plastics and reuse and repurpose as much as possible. – augustnoa

8. DIY common household items
Create a simple DIY deodorant with three ingredients – shea butter, arrowroot powder, and essential oil. It’s a simple, effective, and natural zero waste solution for fighting armpit odor. You can also try to create a DIY re-mineralizing tooth powder – it’s cheap, easy, plastic-free, and will naturally whiten your teeth and freshen your breath. You can make it with a few easy-to-find ingredients – bentonite clay, baking soda, xylitol, and essential oils. Finally, avoid buying single servings. If you can’t find something plastic-free, get the biggest size available, even if it’s plastic. This will reduce the overall waste. – Almost Zero Waste

9. Swap disposable items with reusable alternatives
Pick five products in your home that are typically bought in a single-use plastic container, such as laundry detergent, dishwashing soap, shampoo and conditioner, face and body razor, or paper towels. Then, replace these items with products that aren’t packaged in or are composed of plastic. Instead of liquid laundry detergent, consider laundry detergent sheets packaged in a paper box, and swap out your liquid dishwashing soap, shampoo, and conditioner with a solid bar product. Over time, replacing disposable items with reusable ones will bring you closer to achieving a zero waste home. – Plastic Free QAC

10. Get to know your local waste streams
Identify eco-waste streams in your city/municipality that’ll recycle or reuse your unwanted items instead of sending them to a landfill. Look for a hard-to-recycle center for hardware items like electronics, paint, and tires, seek out a community garden for your kitchen scraps, and determine shops or organizations that’ll take your unwanted clothing. – Fort Negrita

11. Start composting
Before chucking yard clippings or coffee grounds, think about composting to build the health of your soil and minimize your contribution to the landfill. Build the quality of your garden’s soil by recycling scraps from the kitchen and yard with composting. Anyone can start a compost bin – whether it’s under their kitchen sink (vermicomposting) or in a spot in the backyard (traditional or rotating cylinders). – Florida Gardenista

One great step to take toward sustainable living is starting your composting journey. There are a few easy items you can start saving to turn into valuable compost: eggshells, vegetable cuttings, bread, yard trimmings, coffee grounds, and tea leaves. Bonus, add a touch of organic dry fertilizer like Geoflora Nutrients to your compost pile for a boost of beneficial nutrients and bacteria that your garden will love. – Geoflora

12. Think in systems
Reducing food waste isn’t just about meal planning and avoiding plastic packaging: it’s also about shopping local to cut down on spoilage and transportation emissions and repurposing and composting scraps. Along the same line, a no-waste yard isn’t just about cutting down how much water you use: it’s about rainwater collection, improving drought tolerance by planting native species and using electric maintenance tools (gas will never get cleaner, but the grid will). Sustainable living is a journey – take it one step at a time and remember to celebrate your progress. – Green Beverly

13. Buy only what you need
Take that conscious step to achieve zero waste by buying and consuming only what you need, thereby minimizing food waste. Remember, you can reinvent leftover food into new and exciting dishes too. Finally, make that conscious effort to live a trash-free environment by ditching single-use plastic bottles and switching to using glass and stainless-steel containers that can be cleaned and reused over and over again. If you can’t avoid purchasing commodities in plastic, let your creativity work by upcycling them into useful and decorative projects. – SJ Wave

14. Keep good habits – even away from home
Don’t abandon all those good habits when you’re out and about or heading off on vacation. Convenience foods consumed on-the-go generate huge volumes of waste, so to pack your reusable drinks bottle, shopping bag, cutlery, and perhaps even a washable napkin as standard so you won’t be adding to it. If you have little ones, keep a damp napkin or facecloth in a resealable plastic box or bag to keep sticky hands and faces fresh. – Travel Without Plastic

15. Switch to an all-purpose cleaner
The transition to zero waste starts with the products we use to maintain our homes. Instead of purchasing multiple ready-to-use cleaning materials for the bathroom, kitchen, laundry, etc., consider all-purpose cleaners like AFM All-Purpose Cleaner concentrate to do it all. These liquids can be mixed with water to 20:1 for very light cleaning, or used straight as your laundry detergent. No chemical residuals, no fake fragrances. – Andrew Pace, Founder of The Green Design Center

16. Transition towards sustainable living practices
Connect with a local solar or renewable energy company. There are many contractors who’ll install a system at very little cost and then you pay your monthly electric bill to them until you pay off the system. Secondly, think about how you can connect locally to your food source. Find a local CSA and become a member or grow more of your own food. There are many practices that can offset our impacts, but overall it’s really important that we know our actions make a difference and we will take a level of responsibility for getting our needs met in a sustainable way. – Earth Mountain Education Farm"

What are your favorite zero waste tips for the home?

Peace Love and Zero Waste

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Why I Stopped Buying Clothes for Six Months

5/14/2022

5 Comments

I started my "Clothes Buying Freeze" in November 2021, and just finished it up at the end of April-Six months of not spending a penny on clothes, shoes, or accessories!

Why I Stopped Buying Clothes for Six Months

Shirt from a thrift store $.50, Skirt from same thrift store $2.50.

I will admit it-I love buying clothes!
I have quite the collection of clothes, shoes and accessories (if you follow my Instagram you already know this). But of course being the frugal gal that I am, almost every single article of clothing/shoes/accessories I own, are from garage sales, thrift stores, hand me downs, and bought while out of the country for super cheap!
So I do actually spend very little on clothes.

Why I'm Not Buying Any Clothes for Six Months

Dress was $1.00 from a garage sale. Earrings were $.50 from a garage sale. Purse was $1.00 from a garage sale.

So, if I really don't spend that much money on clothes, why then, did I give up buying clothes for an entire six months? Well I'll tell you why (and how, so you can do it too!)!

Shirt was from a garage sale for $2.00. Skirt from a garage sale for $.50, and shoes were also from a garage sale for $2.00.

First let me say, I have no intentions of doing this for longer than six months. If I do end up deciding to do it longer than that, then that's fine, but for now it is just a six month freeze.

Shirt was a hand me down, so cost nothing, earrings were given to me, and the pants were from Vietnam and only cost about $3.00 American.

The why I am taking a clothes buying hiatus:

The first reason, I had just bought a house!
As this was the most expensive purchase I have ever made, and the fact that I did it alone; saved up all the expenses myself, and paid for it myself, means I am buckling down, and putting my already frugal to the max lifestyle, under a frugal microscope! Since I already spend very little money, there is not a lot to choose from to cut (I have no car payment, my car insurance is only $55 a month, I have a Civic so I spend very little on gas, I pack my lunch every day etc etc.), so I decided to cut from my clothing budget.

The second reason, is that just having moved, as it usually does, it reminded me that I have way too much stuff.
Since moving, I am still in the process of going through absolutely everything I own and getting rid of everything that doesn't add value to my life, doesn't make me feel happy or look good, and reminds me too much of my past life. I have gotten rid of so much stuff, and it feels so good! So I did not want to start bringing in more things to clutter up my beautiful house that I have been working so hard on.

This dress was bought at a thrift store for only $.50, and the necklace was bought at a garage sale for $.50 as well.

The third reason was that I have some other very big financial plans and goals for my life, and that has given me even more incentive to trim all the fat off my spending!

Shirt, robe, and skirt were all $0-hand me downs, leggings were $1.00 at the thrift store, and the shoes were given to me.

The fourth reason; I have a decent amount of clothes.
That's the nice thing about getting all free/super duper cheap clothing, is that you can have lots more of them!
So I took these six months to really appreciate, and wear the clothes I already have! Focused on making fun, new outfits from existing pieces.
I also have this giant tote full of clothes that I've been meaning to upcycle, and make fun new clothes out of! So I want to spend time doing that, making new clothes for myself!

This shirt was a hand me down. Shorts from a garage sale $2.00. Leggings hand me down. Purse is a fake from China about $11.00.

So how on earth did I accomplish this crazy plan?
So glad you asked!

Bandana- $1.00 5 Below. Shirt- $1.00 thrift store. Shorts- $3.00 thrift store. Boots- given to me by my dad about 20 years ago.

The absolute best way to succeed at a Clothes Buying Freeze, is to remove temptation. Think about when you are most likely to buy clothes (when you're bored, stressed, on the weekends, etc.). Just knowing your triggers can help stop your clothes buying in its tracks! Next time you're bored, read a book instead, on the weekends find something fun that does not involve clothes shopping, etc.
Where do you like to buy clothes (a certain online shop, the mall, thrift stores [thrift stores are my weakness])? Unsubscribe from that stores' email list, avoid the mall like the plague, just stay away from the places you are most likely to buy clothes.

Shirt $3 Goodwill, Shorts $3 Rue 21, Shoes Free.

Fill your mind and time with other things.
For some people, shopping is a real habit, and something not easy to stop. That is not the case for me (although a couple weeks ago when my mother told the ladies at my favorite thrift store I was doing this challenge they were like, "Oh, so that's why we haven't seen her lately!" Hehe.). I did occasionally get that shopping itch, but it was pretty easy to ignore, because since buying my house I have been quite busy.
Even if you have not just purchased a home, I am sure you still have plenty of things to fill your time-So when you begin this challenge, why don't you start a list of things you would like to accomplish during these next six months (or 3, or 1, or 12!).
Add all those small things you've been meaning to get to and just haven't, those bigger goals and aspirations that have never been accomplished, and anything inbetween. During my 6 months of no clothes buying, I began a 100 Day Challenge, and it was a great way to make sure I was focused on the more important things in my life.

My Funky (and Very Green) Travel and Music Inspired Living Room

Expert Tips to Help You Achieve a Zero Waste Home-with Redfin

Why I Stopped Buying Clothes for Six Months

I'm Jessica!

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