Moving can be stressful...especially if it's your first time or if it's been awhile since your last move. None of us want to be pros at moving. The only thing I like about it is the chance to totally clean out my entire home. I'm able to get rid of things I truly do not want. Who wants to move anything they don't need to?
Many readers seem to be moving soon or have just completed a move. Many have just bought a house (congratulations!) and others are relocating for jobs. It's something that we all do at one point or another in our life. So why not make things easier?
Lucky for you, I've been collecting tips from readers over the last few weeks. (Thank you to everyone who contributed!) I have a moving checklist, moving tips, and some box labels for you.
Overwhelmingly, many readers suggested color coding and labeling boxes. I couldn't agree more. Many ideas were given (view them all in the moving tips document), but I really love the color coding idea. On the box labels I created, there's a spot for a sticker. The stickers you could use are garage sale stickers (the .75" diameter colored stickers that are blank). Each room gets it's own color sticker.
Here's a preview of the labels I created.
The first set can be printed on regular paper and taped to each box. Below is a sample of what it may look like when you write on it. (None of the labels have "The Nest Effect" printed directly on the label.)
The next label can be printed as is and cut up into 6 labels, but it's made for use with Avery Shipping Labels #8164. It may be easier to print 6 labels per sheet on stickers so you don't have to tape each label on each box.
Another tip suggested by several readers is to create a moving binder/notebook. Keep track of account numbers, important moving info, quotes, change of address requests, etc. all in one place. I think this is such a good idea, especially if organization isn't your strong point. This is one way you can make your move a little more organized and a bit less stressful.
You can download the moving checklist here and the moving tips list here. Both are in black and white to save you ink on something that (hopefully) won't be long term. After all, once you move, the boxes are going to be history anyways.
I hope this post has been helpful. Bookmark or pin this post for future reference!
Have any tips to add? I'd be more than happy to add them to the list!
I've had some questions come my way regarding how to create a cover photo for your Facebook business page. I have a quick tutorial to help you out.
First of all, let's take a look at a personal FB page with the new timeline setup.
Here's my personal FB page. Do you see how my cover photo doesn't start at my personal photo? It begins behind the personal photo, about 2/3 of the way down.
Your FB business page will also begin the same way. So if you try uploading your regular blog page header, it will get cut off behind your page's logo or photo (in my case, it's a picture of me).
Now, to make things easy, I wanted to simply use my blog's header. My page size, in Blogger, is set at 1040 pixels. I knew I didn't want my header to be the full length of my blog's size, so I settled with 875 pixels wide. The height of the header can be any size. I chose 200 pixels.
To ensure that my perfectly sized header wasn't stretched out at all by Facebook's page editor, I used a blank canvas that was wider than my header. The size I used for my canvas is 926 x 442 pixels. I had to play around with the size of the height and width until I got the size that I wanted and that looked good on my page.
If you want the blank white canvas I used to create my cover photo, click here.
Right click on the white rectangle and select "save image as". The file
is a JPG image, so you can open it with Photoshop or whatever program
you use to create your header and other blogging images. I use Microsoft
Digital Image Suite 2006 (which is no longer available for purchase) to
create all of my blogging images. I'm going to attempt to learn
Photoshop this summer though.
To upload your new cover photo, hover the area where it belongs and a "change cover" button will appear in the bottom right corner of the section. Select "upload" and wait for it to load. If the image is bigger than the cover area, you can reposition it to show what you want.
It's no secret that I love Thirty-One products. My first bag was the organizing utility tote. I now own two, and also own a bunch of other products as well. I wish I had pictures to share of the Thirty-One that I'm using in my classroom, but I'm on spring break this week and don't have any pictures on my camera. {You can view all of my previous Thirty-One posts here.}
The organizing utility tote can be used in so many ways. I was using mine as a portable office before I turned our kitchen table into my desk.
organizing utility tote
I use one of my totes for school and bring it home on weekends for grading papers and planning.
organizing utility tote
I've seen others use their tote for cleaning supplies, a business on-the-go kit, and toting picnic supplies. I've also seen, on Pinterest, using the tote as a baby gift, filling the pockets with wipes, toys, pacifiers, etc. and filling the inside with diapers, blankets, etc. So cute!
Here are a few of my other Thirty-One products.
fold-n-go organizer
fold-n-go organizer
littles carry-all caddy
five-pocket clutch
five-pocket clutch
There's a promo running right now! For every $31 you spend, you can get any purse at half off. Purses that are included in this deal are the skirt purse and skirts, organizing shoulder bag, pop crossbody, 5th avenue bag, casual cargo bag, demi purse, retro metro, and mini retro metro. I own the organizing shoulder bag and love it. I use it when we walk someplace or go out at night. It's so much nicer to have a bag that is comfortable to wear and not have to worry about it killing my shoulder all night. It's definitely my "on-the-go" bag.
Because I love Thirty-One so much, and because I have an amazing consultant, you can win an organizing utility tote! There will be two winners and you can enter two ways. Enter by using the Rafflecopter widget below and enter a second drawing if you make a purchase. You can purchase anything...it doesn't have to be an organizing utility tote.
Prize: Thirty-One Organizing Utility Tote
Number of Winners: two (one winner by entering via the Rafflecopter widget and one winner who makes a purchase)
To Enter: #1 - You must use
the Rafflecopter widget below. It's really easy to use and makes
giveaways a lot easier for me to manage. The widget will tell you what
your commenting topic is! (mandatory)
#2 - If you make a purchase, your name will be put in another drawing. Purchase through this link to be entered. Any purchase will qualify - it doesn't have to be an organizing utility tote. (optional)
Giveaway Ends: Saturday, April 14 @ 12:01 a.m. (Eastern Time) for this post entry. Friday, April 13 @ 5 p.m. (Pacific Time) for the party/purchase entry. One winner will be chosen using the Rafflecopter
widget. One winner will be chosen by random (who makes a purchase). The winners will be announced on this post and will be emailed to claim their prize. The winner has 48 hours to respond to my email to claim their prize.
To join Jessica's Thirty-One Facebook group, click here.
You must be a follower (through Twitter, FB, GFC, or RSS/email) of The Nest Effect to win.
The winners will be chosen by rafflecopter.com for the comment entries and at random for the purchase entries.
This giveaway is open to readers living in the U.S.
Please make sure your email is either linked in your profile or on
your blog OR that you include it in your comment. If I can't find your
email address, I can't contact you as the winner.
You must comment as your first, mandatory entry. All entries will be verified when the winner is chosen.
One entry per method per person (3 total).
This giveaway is sponsored. The prize, information, and giveaway have been provided by Jessica Wright, a Thirty-One consultant. Any opinions about products stated in this post are completely honest and purely my own.
Thursday I'll be posting a much anticipated post about moving tips/organization! I'm compiling a list of tips from readers, and I'd love for you to share any tips you may have to make moving to a new home more manageable. Your tips can literally be anything super simple or something more in depth (what you may think is "common sense" may not come to others naturally...so please, share away)!
I can't wait to share the tips I've compiled already. If you're in need of this post, be sure to come back Thursday!
Isn't it amazing how a refrigerator can collect so much nasty hair, dust, and other grossness, considering it's "closed off" from everything? I'll admit...I'm a clean freak. Not as much as I used to be, but, for example, I always make sure that food products don't get nasty around their lids/openings. If they do, I promptly clean whatever it is up. I don't like stickiness or grime.
But anyways...my refrigerator was looking a bit grungy. Spilled food hidden under containers, hair/dust under the crisper drawers, stickiness all around. It was time to take 10 minutes to wipe everything down and throw out the old food (which surprisingly there wasn't much of this time around).
Now, before you say/think, "that doesn't look that bad", I'm not going to take pictures of all of the grossness going on in there. Those aren't pictures I want on my blog. The one before picture below is not the worst of it, it was the least-gross example I could show.
So I literally just took 10 minutes to clear off the shelves on the door and wipe them down. I didn't see any gunk on the wire racks, so I didn't clean them. I wiped down the bottom shelf and took out the drawers to clean underneath. I also wiped the rubber seal (around the door frame) to clean out the crumbs that had collected in the fold. Super quick and easy.
Since it can be easily forgotten about, take 10 minutes to go and clean your fridge today. =]
