I have always joked, “I’m not a crunchy mom, I’m a soggy one.” And most I say this too usually have understood it. But there are a select few who haven’t. So let me break it down for you.

A crunchy mom is someone that practices natural parenting, and according to many is a “neo-hippie.” They are known for using more natural products, such as cloth diapers, and eating things that are only organic. They believe in less medical intervention, zero waste, and anything that is home-made. 

Now a soggy mom is a term I basically coined. Because there are other terms that exist on the opposite side of “crunch.” Such as “silky” or “scrunchie.” I don’t know about you, but I think soggy sounds a bit more appropriate. I love what I see crunchy moms do but I am much more watered down. Realistic if you will. I try my best to incorporate as many “crunchy” things into my life, but I also believe in balance. And I don’t really want to completely overhaul my lifestyle. Diet Coke is my best friend, disposable diapers float my boat, botox and I get along just fine, and my kids have burger king usually once a week. But we try and I think that counts. Wouldn’t you agree?

So with that in mind, I wanted to dedicate todays post to some of my all time favorite “soggy mom” swaps with the help of Plant Therapy. Plant Therapy is your one stop shop to get affordable, clean natural living solutions with essential oils at its core. From home essentials, kid safe & pet safe options, beauty products and more. Plant Therapy has everything you could need and TRUST. With the help of excellent customer service and quality reports, you can not only rely on where your oils are coming from but also learn how to use them safely.

Below are my top 5 ways I have incorporated Plant Therapy into our daily life. So simple to do, I bet you will want to try them yourself:

1. Replace Laundry Dryer Sheets

This wool dryer ball set, along with the 3 essential oils it comes with, can be used to replace dryer sheets. Dryer sheets can surprisingly be one of the most toxic cleaning items in our homes. Did you know that? We now put a few drops of Lavender, Peppermint or Grapefruit onto 3-6 wool dryer balls depending on the load size for chemical-free drying!

2. Say So-long to Candles

Did you know that candle fires cause an estimated 15,600 fires, 150 deaths, and 1,270 injuries each year, resulting in 3% of all fire related incidents. Personally, when growing up, I knew a family in town who lost a child due to a house fire all because a candle got knocked over. Being a mom of three littles myself, that is a risk I don’t want to take. So instead, I stick to diffusing a blend. One Love is one of my favorites. 

3. Make an All Purpose Cleaner

Now while there are a ton of recipes you can follow where you can mix in various essential oils, Plant Therapy takes all the guess work out. With premade multi-surface cleaners, you just need to mix them in with water and call it a day. 

4. After Sun Care

Having fun this summer. Here is our favorite kit to help to soothe skin after sun exposure. Helps with sunburn, which my beach babes certainly have had to fight off.You can refrigerate for 30 mins before using for an extra cooling sensation.

5. Keep Monster’s Away

Lastly, if you have littles who frequent your bed in the middle of night due to fears of “the monster under their bed” like mine do, then this is the spray for you. Not only smells amazing but works like a charm in easing my little ones worries. 

So fellow soggy mamas, what do you think? Ready to try these out? If so, be sure to head over to Plant Therapy today and scope out their entire site. I promise, you’ll love them just as much as I have these past few years. 

I feel like I’ve mentioned this many, many times before, but I love decorating my house. However, I HATE spending money. So as you can imagine, that presents a little bit of a conundrum in my ability to get things done. Thankfully though, I never mind doing my research, putting in a little sweat, and getting creative to help achieve the look I’m going for.

So when it came to our fireplace, it really wasn’t bad, to begin with. It has beautiful gray marble around it but I wanted there to be a little more. I love having that pop! So when looking at Pinterest (the place that always inspires my best ideas), I found this amazing company that sells custom made vinyl tiles that are both heatproof and waterproof. Not only were the reviews amazing but the images from customers were too. I knew that this would be my way to add a “pop” of change and best of all, I could do so while on budget.

So now in true Mary fashion, the video I recorded of me applying this new face got deleted. But truth be told, this was not difficult at all! Seriously, all I needed was a bit of painters tape, scissors, an Exacto knife, and patience. Since I worked with the Etsy seller to customize my measurements, I didn’t really have to cut much, only in areas where the mantle jutted out a bit more. All-in-all, it was like applying a big BEAUTIFUL sticker.

Before I reveal, take a look below to see how it used to look. Fine but honestly, just a little boring. I knew I could do better.

BEFORE

But with a little help from Home Art Stickers, Habitat for Humanity Restore, and Hobby Lobby, I was able to welcome fall and bring this mantle to life!

AFTER:

So what do we think?!? I honestly can’t believe how amazing this all turned out. And the best part, all of it (decor included) cost me less than $200. Talk about incredible.

While I wish I had the video to show you just how easy this application was, I wanted to post this up regardless to give you a reminder that you don’t need an extraordinary amount of money to create a beautiful home. All it takes is just a little creativity and open-mindedness.

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To find out a little more about where I got my decor, take a look below where I can supply the links for whatever I can. Some items were thrifted so I won’t be able to link everything

Links for decor:

Mirrors & books- Unfortunately I got these at our local Habitat for Humanity Restore as a thrift item. Together, they cost me $29. Goes to show, never hesitate to check out your local thrift!

Orange Floral Wreath- Stole (well actually I was given it) from my mom who didn’t want it anymore. I’ll take anything free 🙂

White Candle Holder

Brown Candle Holders

Flameless Candles

Amber bottle- this used to be one of the lotion bottles I had. I wasn’t crazy about the scent so I cleaned it out.

Faux-Florals- Hobby Lobby again for the win but I can’t seem to find the exact matches online.

Tapered Glass Vase

Sticker for fireplace refacing

When we first moved into our home (a little more than 2 years ago exactly), I used all of my saved up money to hire professionals to paint a majority of the rooms, including our laundry room. I had a previous color I had like for our bathroom back in our old home, so I figured I’d just stick with that. No testing it, no reconsidering, I went forward and as you can guess, I HATED IT!

So after paying a nice $200 for this catastrophe of a room, I sat for a whole year, hating my decision. It was way too blue and way too dark, still kind of gross and while I think laundry will always be one of my most hated chores, the room’s aesthetic certainly didn’t help motivate me. Finally though, thanks to wonderful COVID [note the sarcasm] and New Jersey lockdowns, I had the excuse and time I’d been needing to start a new project. Not willing to spend any more money on this room, I did this all myself and all for under $250. Yes, I know that technically means in the long run I spent $450 on this project, but we’re just going to pretend like my waste of money never happened…

BEFORE:

After:

Walls

Starting off, I think its best we begin with the biggest change of all–the walls. Lets start off with our accent wall. Knowing that I wanted to give our laundry room a little change but within budget, I knew hiring someone to install real tiles weren’t an option. However, after seeing ads and good reviews for peel & stick tiles on amazon, I figured I’d give it a go. For this specific space, I only needed 4 orders of the tiles since 10 sheets come in a one pack and measure a little under 12×12. On top of being super easy to install (its like a giant sticker), they were super affordable and don’t require really any other tools for install. Scissors and a ruler are all you need, incase you have to make cuts. Done in less than two hours, this part of the project was so simple and made such a big impact. Oh and incase you are wondering about upkeep, its been over 2.5 months since installing and they are still stuck good the wall.

As for the rest of the walls of the room, I went with DuJour White by Valspar. Recommended to me by a great Instagram account, @littlelattihouse, this white is as close to perfect as white paints come. It’s not too cool or beige, has no pink, blue, grey, or yellow undertones, and is just dreamy. In fact, I will probably end up using the same exact color when it comes to us redoing our bedroom because it’s just that perfect.

Sink

When we moved in, there was already a plastic slop sink in place but it was old, stained, and just plain gross. Additionally, the house’s previous owners built the stand it was resting in, which was a little rough looking. I’m pretty sure they built it with scrap wood. When I first planned this makeover, I really wanted to rip it all out and get a nicer sink. However, I soon realized that this would have been a much bigger headache because when they installed our new floor, they installed it around the existing plywood. Had I taken it out, there would have been a big gap of no floor to work around. So with that being our situation, I had to keep the wood stand and decided to just replace the sink. After installed (a job I’m proud to say we did solo), I then decided to take a thin piece of plywood and use it to cover the base of the sink. I then topped it off with a fresh coat of paint and while it’s not the nicest thing, it is 100x better looking. Plus it ultimately saved us money to go this route so I really can’t complain about that!

Shelves

Even though it’s hard to tell in the before pictures if you look closely enough you will see what the shelves looked like originally. Both are pure wood and used to be in a dark stain. The middle two were actually purchased from amazon while the lower shelf was one I constructed with the help of my dad. It was also stained in a dark walnut to match. While I could have kept them the same, I have such a love for all things light/natural wood. Because of this, I decided to strip them down. Using just a palm sander, it was long and tedious work but it was totally worth it in the end.

As for brackets under the long shelf, these are the ones we went with.

Hardware

Spray paint has come so far in the past couple of years! Seriously, they have paints that look like metal, sea glass, chalk paint, and more. Don’t believe me? Go to any hardware store and look at their selection.

For this project, I had the existing hooks that I really didn’t feel like replacing completely. Instead, I decided to buy this flat black spray paint and they look SO GOOD! I have actually used this paint for doorknobs and lamps in our home and they also turned out so great. Highly recommend this paint.

Decor

Last but not least, I grabbed what little decor I could find from my new favorite store, Habitat for Humanity Restore. I had no clue our town had one and after recently discovering it, I am a frequent buyer. Best of all, all of the decor I find from there is usually from the dollar shelf. In fact, I recently found a vintage laundry wash board and paid 58 cents for it!

In the future, I plan on making a new post here about how to navigate a thrift store because while it can be overwhelming, it can pay off tremendously.

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Now, tell me, what do you think the chances are of me actually enjoying laundry? I’m thinking zero but hey, miracles happen!

If you have been following me on instagram (IF NOT, COME CLICK HERE AND SAY HELLO!) you would have seen the quick, easy and cheap DIY project I just recently tackled. Using this quarantine as a time to redecorate/reorganize my entire household, I decided it was time to address my living room situation. What is currently just this mess of a room, I wanted to clean it up. However, as a stay at home mom on budget, I want to do what I can without spending a fortune.

As I have talked about before, Facebook Marketplace is my go to when it comes to furnishing my home. Yes, while there are some things I will buy brand new, I also try and refurbish what I can. I love little projects like this for multiple reasons but mostly because of how budget friendly and cathartic they can be. Seriously though, if you’re a mama in need of a break and stress relief, pick up a power sander. I promise, it will be just the thing you need to blow off some steam. Better yet, pair that with a glass of wine and you’ll thank me!

Anyway, with this is mind, I found a gorgeous but beat up antique dresser. For just $100, my husband was able to pick it up from a local seller and 2 hours later, we ended up with a beautiful staple for our living room. Seriously, if you can look past the exterior, carve out a little time, and put in a little work, you can end up with amazing results.

So before I walk you through what you’ll need, should you want to try this out yourself, lets do a little before/after.

Before:

After:

Incredible, right?!? Keeping all the original hardware, this piece turned out better than I could have ever imagined. It is perfect to help give our living room a little life!

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Have a piece you want to do this too? Awesome, you can do this with anything you want. Regardless of if it is painted or stained, as long as its made out of wood, you are good to go. Take a look below and I will walk you through it all!

What You’ll Need:

Power Sander: This is the one I use and absolutely love

60 & 220 Grit Sand Paper- They sell ones specifically for your power sander

Water Based Polyurethane : Make sure it is a water-based poly. Especially if you are applying over a lighter piece. If not, you’re piece will yellow and look not so pretty

White Furniture Wax: You can always make you’re own with regular furniture wax and white paint but if you are wanting to skip that step, check out Behr. This stuff works great and is one of my favorites!

Paint brush– This is one I love using for pretty much everything

Clean rags

Getting Started:

1. First thing first, make sure you are working in a clean and open space. Sanding greats a whole lot of dust, which if you aren’t careful, will get over everything. Actually, now that Im thinking about it, make sure yo have a old pair of clothes you can wear and not worry about ruining and then a face mask. Trust me, you don’t want to inhale all that stuff!
2. Time to get on sanding. Take your 60 grit sand paper and go to town. Your goal is to remove as much of the original paint/stain from the piece as possible.
3. Once everything is sanded, its time to poly. Apply a thin coat of the water based poly to your entire piece. Let it dry and then take your 220 grit sand paper and lightly sand until smooth. Clean off the dust and reapply another coat of poly. You can repeat this process as many times as you’d like.
4. Once all the poly has dried and sanding complete, apply wax with a paint brush to dresser.
5. After all areas have been coated with wax, use clean rag to wipe it off.
6. Let cure! Don’t set anything your dresser for 48 hours in order to make sure surface has enough time to set

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And that is it! Seriously, this is the simplest furniture transformation with the biggest reward!

So tell me what, are you waiting for?