Linley Diane

Mom Help for a Happy (ish) Home

Categories: Home, Mom-ing

Hotel Safety | Travel Safely With These Self Protection Tools

This post is all about Hotel Safety!
Travel Safely With These Self Protection Tools

Are you planning to travel again soon? It’s always a little hard to leave home but it’s especially nerve-wracking after the year we’ve had!

Or maybe you just like to be prepared in general? (I know I do!)

Plus, I am the biggest germ freak ever, even before Covid!

I’ve rounded up the best products to keep us safe from both nefarious people and nasty germs when we stay in a hotel or rented property!

(This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a small commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you).

Hotel Safety: Safety From Intruders

Portable Door Lock

As their ad says, think about who else has a key to your room. If you’re in a hotel, it’s the staff and management. If you’re in an Air B and B, it’s the owners. Take away the “extra key” worry with your own portable lock.

Portable Door Jam

It’s adjustable and heavy duty and you just pop it under your door handle. It works for sliding doors too! Sleep a little easier knowing you have this extra level of protection from intruders or drunkies trying to get into the wrong room.

Mace

Carrying mace is a good idea, especially if you use a parking garage or have to walk alone anywhere. This one can spray from up to 12 feet away, has a safety cap over the trigger, and leaves a dye on the attacker. Hopefully you never ever have to use it but it’s a nice to have it on your key ring just in case.

Just be sure you don’t leave it lying around if you have kids who may try to trigger it.

Hotel Safety: Safety From Germs

Portable Bed Sheets

I’m a HUGE germaphobe. I hate staying anywhere because of it. And we have all seen the news reports of bedding not being cleaned between guests. That’s not even to mention the possibility of undetected bed bugs or scabies on the sheets. Ugh.

I’ll always be grossed out, no matter what, but at these sheets help immensely with my level of comfort! And these ones that I linked are silk so they will even feel luxurious!

Disposable Masks

Bring throw away masks with you since you won’t have a washing machine available.

Lysol

I spray everything in my hotel rooms before I touch it or let my kids in the room. Light switches, door handles, bathroom knobs, etc.

I also use disinfecting wipes on the hard surfaces and put the remote in a Ziplock bag. Don’t forget the headboard!

HOT TIP: If you forget a bag for the remote, use the clear shower cap that most hotels have!

*I’m linking these for you but you can likely get Lysol cheaper in your local store if they have it in stock. Covid seems to have highly inflated the online prices!

UV Sanitizing Cell Phone Case

Our cell phones are always gross. But especially gross after laying them down somewhere public, like a hotel room used by different people everyday. Travel with this to disinfect it on the reg.

The one I linked fits large cell phones too, including the I-Phone Pro Max 11.

Bathroom Germs – Yuck!!!

Shower Shoes

You know how many people pee in the shower? A lot. Enough said. Don’t forget to bring a plastic bag to put them in when you are ready to re-pack so they don’t touch your other luggage.

I also recommend slippers to put on immediately after your feet dry so your socks aren’t touching nasty hotel carpet and then getting in bed with those germs.

Toothbrush Clip

I don’t like to put my toothbrush down on the bathroom counter, even after wiping it off. So, either pack your own disposable cup to put it in (and then throw that cup away when you check-out) or get some type of clipping and cover device, like this.

This post was all about Hotel Safety!
Travel Safely With These Self Protection Tools

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Categories: Home

Genius Winter Decorating Ideas: What To Do After Christmas

This post is all about Genius Winter Decorating Ideas: What To Do After Christmas

Winter decorating is both peaceful but overwhelming!

On one hand, it feels refreshing to get rid of all of the extra stuff sitting out from Christmas and all the holidays leading up to it.

On the other hand, it can leave you home feeling bare and uninspired.

While I always welcome a change of decor and a clean palette to work with, I think the months of January through March is the absolute hardest time of year to decorate for. Afterall, how to you make your home feel cozy, warm, and inviting when it is dark, cold, and lifeless outside?

Lucky for you, over the past 15 years, I’ve played around with several ideas of what to do in my home during these stark winter months.

The solution is easy and revolves around just 3 key elements:

  • Lighting
  • Greenery
  • Texture

(This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a small commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you).

Winter Decorating Ideas: Lighting

As a professional photographer, I really notice lighting! Including the important role it plays in creating the ambience of a room.

Here are a few of my favorite ways to add quick, easy, and cozy lighting elements to your home decor: puck lights, fairy lights, and candles.

Puck Lights

Puck lights are super cheap and you can easily stick them anywhere. These are the ones I purchased and put under my upper kitchen cabinets so they light the counters in the evenings. They can be controlled by a remote and use battery power so you don’t need a cord or an outlet nearby. Just use some double sided sticky tape or Command Strips so I didn’t need any tools or anything to put them up.

When we turn them on in the evening it makes it so peaceful!

Fairy Lights

Fairy lights are pretty anytime of year! I have these ones that are battery operated since I didn’t have an outlet where I wanted to use them. You may want to consider getting rechargeable batteries like these if you plan to turn these on a lot.


I have mine in a candle pillar on my fireplace mantle and I plan on getting a few more strands for my entryway table.

Candles

Candles are amazing. So many pretty ways to use them, accessories to go with them, and some of them smell amazing!

Tip: Use candlestick holders and pillars as one of your texture elements!

You can either get real candles if there is a particular smell you love, or the flameless kind that take batteries. I bought the exact one that I linked above. It has an on/off switch and a 4 hour timer option which is great because I forget to turn it off a lot!

Tip: Consider the flameless kind if you have kids or pets who you are afraid might knock over a lit candle. Use an oil diffuser for scent instead. Also, if you go flameless, it’s another good time to use rechargeable batteries.

Lighting You’ll Love For Winter

Winter Decorating Ideas: Greenery

When it comes to greenery in the winter, I go faux. That’s because I kill every plant that has ever entered my home. If you have a green thumb though, you should definitely use real plants!


I like to stick to greens that are basic and (mostly) still typical to see outside this time of year, so basically, pine needle stems, basic green leaf plants, berries, and evergreen bush cuts. I also love eucalyptus and magnolia leaves. You want to avoid spring or tropical flowers right now.

You can get greenery at any craft store or online, like the ones linked below. I particularly love mixing different styles, especially the string of pearls hanging down next to a potted green.

Last year, I bought this inexpensive planter wall hanging piece and it looked great in my kitchen. I will definitely be using it again this year, but I’m thinking of spray painting all the cans a matte black. You can get a lot of use out of this all year long by just switching out what’s in the pots.

3 Tier Potted Plant Shelves

Pro Tip: Another great way to incorporate texture is with the pots, jars, can, baskets, etc that you put your greenery in!

Greenery You’ll Love For Winter

Winter Decorating Ideas: Texture

With texture, there are so many ways you can incorporate this! Think pillows, throw blankets, area rugs, wall hangings, vases, etc.

Personally, all of the staple pieces in my home are white, gray, or wood so this allows me to go in any decorating direction for each season, since the base is so neutral.

If this is you too, you can pretty much go for whatever color scheme you want with these accessories. That said, I recommend sticking to whites/neutrals with (maybe) just a few accents shades and letting your lighting and greenery do the heavy lifting. Or having one larger accent piece be a big color statement. (I’m thinking a yarn or macramé wall hanging in muted jewel tones would be sooo pretty!)

This is just one of the many beautiful options you can find on Etsy.


If the base pieces of your home are already patterned or in a bold color, you will want to stick to accent pieces that compliment that!

Texture Pieces You’ll Love For Winter

I hope this helps with your winter decorating ideas! I can’t wait to get started on my own home this year!

This post was all about Genius Winter Decorating Ideas: What To Do After Christmas

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Categories: Gift Guides, Home

The Best Cleaning Supplies From Amazon To Always Have Around

This post is all about: The Best Cleaning Supplies From Amazon To Always Have Around

Yesterday, I spilled my venti mocha coffee drink all over the arm rest and cushion of my couch. Later that day, my son got red hair spray paint all over another cushion of the same couch. Ugh, 2020.

I used my new Bissell Little Green Machine, which I love, to try to conquer the messes. It worked pretty dang well considering the scope of the red and dark brown stains on the light gray couch.

But, I wanted to see if I could get the stains out totally, so I do what I do best and asked the good people on Instagram.

This isn’t the first time I’ve asked a cleaning question on my page and my follower/friends always come through! So, I decided to put their recommendations along with my own in one comprehensive post for you! Best yet, you can order these all online if you don’t want to go to the store!

Now is a great time to stock up a bit on cleaning supplies. Not only for Covid reasons but also because winter is coming and that means everyone will be inside. Making messes. Trudging in slushy snow. Sneezing and coughing. Spilling things. I could go on, but I digress. Let’s just get to the good stuff!

Gift Idea Alert:

Use the items in the essentials portion of the list to make a gift basket for the new homeowner in your life! Or yourself!

(This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a small commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you).

THE ESSENTIALS:

These are the multi-purpose cleaning staples you want to always keep on hand!

Bleach

Disinfecting Wipes

Hard Surface All Purpose Cleaning Spray

Aerosol Disinfectant Spray

Glass Cleaner Foam

White Vinegar and Apple Cidar Vinegar

Baking Soda

Magic Erasers

Blue Dawn Dish Soap

Washable Scrubbing Cloths

In these next sections, I’ve broken out the cleaning supplies you’ll want to keep around for specific uses.

*Note: At the time of writing this article, some of these items are low in stock or higher in price than usual due to Covid-19. If these items seem higher in price than you can get them in your local store, don’t hesitate to get them when you see them in stock locally!

BEST AMAZON CLEANING SUPPLIES:

FOR YOUR LAUNDRY

Downy Infusions Lavender and Vanilla Bean Fabric Softener

This smells so friggin good. Your sheets will thank you, your nose will thank you, anyone within sniffing distance will thank you!

See My Post On Deep Cleaning Your Laundry With These 3 Items

Arm & Hammer Laundry Booster, Borax*, and Tide Powder

I also use the Tide Powder for all of my regular laundering (and when I mop the floors -mixed with lots of hot water!)

Stain Stick Spray

Using a spray or gel to pretreat anything my kids get on their clothes is my only hope of ever getting the stain out. My kids are little and MESSY with grass, dirt, or food on their clothes every single day. You can leave this on for up to a week before you actually wash the item! I go through a lot of this stuff since I don’t do laundry every day!

BEST AMAZON CLEANING SUPPLIES:

FOR YOUR FLOORS

The O-Cedar Spin Mop And Bucket

This mop can be used on pretty much any hard surface you can imagine! I use it on my hardwood floors and I’ve even mopped my Trex deck with it.

You won’t believe how dirty your floors actually are when you dump out the water! It’s nearly black! Bleeeegh!

I use mine with 1 little teaspoon of Tide Laundry Powder mixed with very very hot water. The Tide smells great while mopping!

Reader Recommended!

Spot Treatment

If you read the opening paragraph of my post, this is the number one spot treater that my reader friends recommended for my couch stains! Would work on carpet and upholstery.

Carpet Vacuum and Hardwood Floor Vacuum– I don’t have a link for either of these because I have not found ones that I love. It will be different depending on your own home- type of flooring, if you have a pet that sheds, etc. For example, the Dyson Cordless Stick Vac was great for dog hair but terrible at picking up crumbs.

BEST AMAZON CLEANING SUPPLIES:

FOR YOUR KITCHEN

Bar Keepers Friend

Bar Keepers Friend was another recommendation from my Instagram community and the number of people that recommended this for a sink stain I had was overwhelming. Like, I had this stainless steal sink stain for 5 years and I tried a lot of different things to get rid of it, including Magic Erasers which usually work on everything!

But, it was the Bar Keepers Friend that worked like magic to get rid of the marks after FIVE YEARS of set in stain.

(I tried the powder kind too and I prefer the liquid)

Stainless Steel Cleaner

If you have stainless steel appliances, this is a must. Other products will clean them, but you need this special polish to get them streak free, shiny, and pretty again.

BEST AMAZON CLEANING SUPPLIES:

FOR YOUR BATHROOMS

Comet with Bleach and Scrub Brush

This cleaning product comes recommended by my mom. I clearly remember her scrubbing our bathtub on the regular with this stuff.

Unfortunately, I did not inherit my mom’s penchant for cleaning bathtubs and ours have built up and gotten scuzzier than I’d care to admit. I tried a few sprays made for tubs and showers but the Comet with Bleach and a nice stiff scrub brush was the only thing that worked. And it worked well! My tubs look brand new after I use this!

Clorox Toilet Wand

There is nothing grosser to me than cleaning the toilet. But then, to leave the brush that you scrubbed it with just sitting there in bathroom. NO THANKS!

So, I use these disposable things and I keep a set in each bathroom.

FOR YOUR FURNITURE:

Spot Cleaning Machine

I recently bought the older version of this (no longer available on Amazon Prime) and it has already come in handy several times! I used it on my steps and it got out all kinds of stains, on my couch for my recent spills, and in my studio where it got out a champagne stain that sat there for about a year and drove me nuts until I finally used this on it!

Dry Dusters

Gawd, why does everything get dusty sooo fast?! I like these because they are quick to use and you can reach high spaces with them. DUSTING SUCKS but at least these make is easier!

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Categories: Home, Mom-ing

Covid Thanksgiving: How to Celebrate Safely in 2020

Are you looking to celebrate Thanksgiving as safely as possible this year? Me too!

Personally, I love Thanksgiving. It’s a top 3 holiday for me and I do not want my kids to miss out on anything else in this shitshow of a year. Of course, I also don’t want anyone to get Covid!

This article gives my personal suggestions to make Thanksgiving as safe but as normal as possible this year.

While this may be obvious, I want to explicitly state that I am not a doctor or infectious disease expert of any kind. I’m simply a mom who wants her young children to have a special Thanksgiving.

It is up to YOU to decide your level of comfortability with any activities this year. You know what is best for your family. There is inherent risk in anything we do, so it’s up to you to make the best informed decisions for your circumstances.

I hope you find these ideas useful!

This post is all about Covid Thanksgiving:
How to Celebrate Safely in 2020

(This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a small commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you).

Have A Designated “Drop” Area

What I mean by this is to have an area right by your front door (or wherever guests are coming into with a specific and obvious place for them to take their shoes off, hang their coats, stash their purses, etc.) I’d also put a bottle of hand sanitizer there too.

A lot of times, people use their beds as coat storage or let their guests wear shoes in their home, especially if you tend to dress up a little for Thanksgiving dinner.

But, it makes sense this year to have coats hung on a rack, shoes left out front, and purses stashed out of the way. (Did you know that the bottom of purses have more germs than a toilet seat? You DO NOT want someone slinging their bag up on your food prep area!)

And lets not forget that we are taught to sneeze and cough into our elbows. You don’t want Uncle Ned’s jacket with his sneeze germs laying on your bedroom comforter!

READER SUGGESTION: Use plastic bins to keep items separated from other guests.



Tip: Make the drop area cute and festive with a mum, pumpkin, or fall floral arrangement on a little table and put the hand sanitizer in a cute pump dispenser. Get a fall welcome mat.

Here are some things that can help you accomplish the drop area:

Go Disposable

While you may be tempted to use your fancy dinnerware for your Thanksgiving meal, it may be best to save it for next year. The less touching of other people’s forks/spoons/etc, the better. And forgo the cloth napkins as well.

I know, this isn’t the best things for the environment but it will save you TONS of time cleaning up. So even though you are producing more trash, at least you are saving water!

Tip: Don’t forget about the non-dining area. There is nothing grosser than using the same hand towel as someone else after they used the bathroom. They barely rinsed their hands for all we know! Get disposable hand towels for the powder room and have extra tissues and paper towels handy. (I actually recommend this all year round.)

Here are some pretty disposable things to try:

Have Masks Available



If this is something you’d like to ask of your guests, make is festive with fall themed masks.

Tip: Just be sure to order them with plenty of time to ship. Many of the turkey masks are not Prime.

Here are some cute ones you can get online:

Utilize More Seating Options

While its customary for everyone to gather around one big table for Thanksgiving dinner, it could be smart to have a few eating spaces available so that you aren’t elbow to elbow this year.

You can do this with tray tables or some card tables. Just cover them in a cute table cloth and you are good to go!

Here are some pieces to utilize:

Crack The Doors And Windows Or Eat Outside

If you live in a warm enough climate, consider eating outside! It could actually be really fun. Get a tent and some string lights and it would be sooo pretty! You could use a small fireplace for warmth and smore’s too!

If you live in a colder climate, you could probably at least crack some doors and windows for fresh air circulation.

Use These For Some Outdoor Dining Ambience:

If All Else Fails, Have A Zoom Thanksgiving

Maybe you just can’t have a family Thanksgiving in person. It could be because of travel restrictions, a recent exposure or diagnosis, or simply, preferring to be on the safe side.

If this is the case for you, you can still “see” your family and eat together, it will just require some screens. You could stream your video call to a larger screen TV that you can see from your own dinner table. Open concept living space pays off!

If you have the time, you could even deliver a Thanksgiving-to-go meal to your elderly family members that live nearby but can’t attend in person.

This post was all about Covid Thanksgiving:
How to Celebrate Safely in 2020

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The Ultimate Thanksgiving Hostess Gifts For Any Budget

Are you looking for ideas for the Ultimate Thanksgiving Hostess Gifts? Look no further!

This year, you are probably extra thankful for your family who you may not have gotten to see as much as you wanted. Thanks coronavirus.

So if you are getting together with a small group of your family this year, here are some easy and special ideas for Thanksgiving gifts for your hostess.

This post is all about the ultimate Thanksgiving hostess gifts for any budget!

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a small commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you.

The Cutest and Most Festive Turkey Salt and Pepper Shaker

These are so cute and can be used year after year! At $15, they are the perfect hostess gift, costing less than the actual turkey!

Beautiful Cheese / Charcuterie Board

This idea is great because not only will you contribute to the meal with some awesome pre-dinner snacks, you can let the hostess keep the beautiful board that you brought the snacks on. Go big or small with this, the possibilities are endless. You can even create a cute turkey themed display like this one.

Get the look


This idea would be so fun to create for your own home too!

Vase with Fall Foliage

This is such a great idea because it’s so versatile. You can do this in a really inexpensive way by just using actual fall foliage that you collect outside. Or, you can buy faux so that your hostess can decorate with it year after year. You can also customize the vase style and foliage colors to coordinate with the style of her home.

Get the look

Turkey Platter

If this is the first year that your hostess is hosting, this is a wonderful gift to give and one that can be used year after year.

Even if you take turns with hosting duties, make this your special family platter for a sweet tradition. You can even pass this down through generations!

Another fun tradition to start is to add accessories to match this year after year. It will make choosing a hostess gift easy for the foreseeable future! Next year, try a coordinating serving bowl or gravy boat!

Get the Look

Wine is NEVER a bad idea!

Wine With Keepsake Charms And Accessories

Alcohol- the gift that never fails. For so many reasons this year, we all probably need an extra glass of wine in our lives. Whether its the pandemic, the election, or just your family in a group, come prepared to dinner!

The wine may be gift enough, but if you want to go the extra mile, consider adding in some cute Thanksgiving wine accessories.

(For this year, I especially like the idea of the charms. NO ONE wants to mix up their wine glasses with cold, flu, and Covid circulating around!

Get The Look

This post was all about the ultimate Thanksgiving hostess gifts for any budget!

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