It's the Small Things

People often say that it's the small things that make life utterly wonderful or utterly unbearable. Well, this is a very small thing but it makes a positive difference in my morning routine.

I got the idea for the cup & mason jar from Pinterest, only I put flat little cotton pads in mine. I've had it set up like this ever since I moved to my current apartment and the system works really well. The mason jar is one I got from my mom and the cup that rests inside the rim is a $0.50 find from Goodwill.

The clock is a very recent addition (found at Target for around $6!). I was having a hard time keeping track of the time when I get ready for work/school/life in the mornings, so I bought this clock to help me stay on time. I love its shiny finish & the roman numerals.

Harmony & (A)cord in the Dining Room

I may have mentioned before that my apartment's dining room is really, really small. So small, in fact, that my roommate and I decided to skip a table & chairs and just get stools to eat at the kitchen peninsula. So for the past several months, the only thing in our dining room has been some boxes waiting to be put away and the cords for our internet modem and router.

The cords were quite annoying and looked really messy because the one phone jack in our apartment is halfway up our dining room wall. Definitely a reminder of the day when phones were mounted to the wall and you could just follow the coil cord to find whoever it was that was talking on the phone! Anyways, thanks to a recent IKEA trip, I was able to make our messy cord situation not so messy, all while adding some additional shelf space to our apartment!

This was my first time building something from IKEA entirely by myself. It was exciting! I started by laying out all my pieces and from there the entire process was incredibly smooth.

The final screw! Almost done and I decided to take a break to mess around with depth of field.

Assembling this bookcase was super quick & easy! It took me less than an hour to assemble it and if I hadn't been sidetracked by texting friends, it would have taken even less time. Overall, I'm happy with how the bookcase turned out; it could be better in some places - those IKEA peeps are certainly no perfectionists - but it looks decent and is sturdy enough to hold what we need it to (the instructions said each shelf can hold up to 25lbs).

All done and already looking much better...but it's missing something.

There it is! Does my heart good to see those shelves actually being put to use.

5 More Quick Tricks for Saving Money on Clothes

For tips 1-5, see the original post.

6. Not everything that says "Dry-Clean Only" has to be only dry-cleaned. Some of it will survive a wash on the delicate setting just fine. But you have to be very careful with this and know the fabric you're dealing with. Silk should always be dry-cleaned - and your best bet with wool is to dry-clean, it, too. But if it's some sort of blend or knit and you have something similar in your closet that says you can wash it on the cold cycle, then chances are you can wash this garment on the delicate setting too. I've found that a lot of higher-end brands tend to put "Dry-Clean Only" on their tags, but I have yet to come up with a satisfactory explanation for that practice.

7. Never buy anything full-price. It is very, very rare for an item to sell so well that it is never discounted. If you're willing to play the waiting game, it is almost guaranteed that you can get any item you want at 20% or more off the original price. I can't remember a piece of clothing I've purchased in the past 3+ years that I paid full-price for.

8. Only buy clothes that fit and look good on you now. Don't buy something that will fit once you lose the 5 pounds you're planning to lose in the next 3 weeks. Don't buy something that will look good once you start doing 50 crunches a day and have toned abs. Don't count on those things happening. If you don't have the body to wear the clothes at the moment you purchase them, they should stay in the store and your money should stay in your pocket. There will still be clothes around to purchase after you lose that extra fat or gain some additional muscle.

9. Figure out what your style is so you can instantly decide whether or not an item will fit with the rest of your wardrobe. Don't buy pieces that don't go with anything you already have. You shouldn't have to purchase a whole new outfit every time you buy a new shirt. Figure out if you enjoy wearing bright colors or if you prefer neutrals with splashes of color, and then buy items that fit with that aesthetic.

10. Buy fewer, higher-quality pieces rather than many, low-quality pieces. In my not-too-distant teenage years, I bought most of my clothes from stores like Target, Aeropostale, and Old Navy. Unfortunately, most of their tops are not of the best construction and don't last very long. Over the last few years, I've purchased most of my tops from stores such as Ann Taylor Loft, Gap, and J. Crew and as a result I've spent a lot less money because the clothes last longer and I have to replace them less often. The phrase "you get what you pay for" is particularly true when it comes to the quality of your clothes. Catch things on sale and you'll hardly be spending more than you would at the lower-end stores.

5 Quick Tricks for Saving Money on Clothes

Here are a few things I've learned over the past couple years that have helped me save money on clothes. Some of these may seem basic to some people, but a "refresher course" never hurt anyone!

1. Always, always, always wash jeans inside out! The fabric will retain it's color for a much longer period of time.

2. On second thought, wash ALL of your clothes inside out. What's true for jeans is true for everything else in your wardrobe, too. The only things I don't always wash inside out are my sweatshirts (when they're especially dirty) and clothes whose color I don't care about - like my workout clothes and pajamas, for instance. Extra tip: turn your clothes inside out as you take them off or throw them in your hamper; this will save you an irksome extra step when you go to throw it all in the machine.

3. Know your delicates! And treat them as such. Always wash your delicates on the delicate cycle and never ever tumble-dry them! Delicates should always be hung-dried - tumble-drying creates all kinds of friction that wears down the fibers in your garments, causing them to have a much shorter wearable life.

4. Wash most of your other clothes (especially jeans! Again, this will help with color-retention) on the delicate cycle, too, and hang-dry them whenever possible. Refer to Trick #3 for the reasons why. The only clothes I don't regularly treat like delicates are my pajamas, workout clothes, sweatshirts, socks, and underwear. Everything else: if in doubt, it goes in with the delicates.

5. Safety-pin socks, etc. together so they don't get separated. Some people who know I do this have accused me of being OCD (and I probably am), but since implementing this little trick about a year-and-a-half ago, I've only lost 1.5 pairs of socks and haven't needed to purchase any new ones. And that also includes my hiking socks, sock liners, and knee-highs (I know, I know! but they're great for when I wear pants to work). I'd estimate that this trick saves me $15+ per year, easily!