Condo Blues: January 2018

Monday, January 29, 2018

DIY Mad Scientist Mason Jar Bank

I need something in my laundry room to organize the loose change I sometimes find in the washing machine and dryer. My laundry room is too small for a cute piggy bank on the washing machine or dryer but I do have the wall space to make a hanging spare change organizer out of my favorite resource – a recycled glass jar.

My laundry room has a heroes and comedy horror movies theme since I think laundry is an evil chore (AND it keeps all of the odd toys and posters in one room  instead of throughout the house). I figure I shouldn’t make a normal laundry room spare change jar and instead made a Mad Scientist coin bank.

Hey, you never know, turning into a mad scientist could turn into a lucrative side hustle!

How to Make a Hanging Mason Jar Coin Bank


Thursday, January 25, 2018

Friday Favorites Linky Party 409

Let's get this party started! Time to link up and share your fantastic craft and DIY projects, recipes, tutorials, and ideas! I can't wait to see what you have in store for us this week.





Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Maisy at Becoming Alice - FB | G+ | Pin
Sheree at Stage Presents - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst | Inst
Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Kelly at Under a Texas Sky - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL





If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!

You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!

Monday, January 22, 2018

How to Make a Disinfecting All Purpose Cleaner without Vinegar

I like to keep the recipes to my homemade cleaners as simple as possible so they are easy to make on the fly. That’s why I clean my kitchen counter tops with one part vinegar to three parts water. Because in the world of being me, if I run out of counter cleaner, it is always when I am in the middle of cleaning something. Always!

Some of you tell me you don’t want to use A homemade cleaners made with vinegar. This is particularly true if you have granite or stone counter tops. The acid in the vinegar will damage or eat away at the finish.

I hear you. I have granite in my half bathroom.


Pin this idea for later and share it with your friends!


How to Make Homemade Granite, Natural Stone, and Countertop Cleaner


Thursday, January 18, 2018

Friday Favorites Linky Party 408

Let's get this party started! Time to link up and share your fantastic craft and DIY projects, recipes, tutorials, and ideas! I can't wait to see what you have in store for us this week.





Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Maisy at Becoming Alice - FB | G+ | Pin
Sheree at Stage Presents - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst | Inst
Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Kelly at Under a Texas Sky - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL





If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!

You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

12 Easy Ways to Save Money on Your Hot Water Heating Bill

Tens years ago, in 2008 my family started a year long product to reduce how much energy we use and our bill in our new home because a ton of Greenzillas said I couldn’t until I trashed all of my conventional and came new with the house major appliances and systems and replaced them with new super duper high efficiency (and expensive) everything.

I blogged about our new habits and inexpensive energy efficient DIY projects right here on Condo Blues in the very first year of this blog. Long story short, we reduced our use by 32% and kept it that way while staying toasty warm, clean, and well fed.

And using less energy than comparable families and homes in our area – including the Energy Star rated homes of which we are not.

Until recently when natural gas bill started to creep higher. Not break the bank,  we’rel going to starve high, but high enough to knock our house from constantly rating Very Good to smack dab in the middle of  Good. 

I wanted to figure out what’s going on because I had bragging rights on the line!

Turns out we were wasting too much energy heating water and after addressing  Tips One through Three we lowered our energy and hot water heating bill. 

Sunday, January 14, 2018

How to Make a Hanging Mittens, Gloves, and Hat Closet Organizer – Winter Gear Storage Made Simple!

My coat closet is a big, hot, disorganized mess! Hats, gloves, mittens, and scarves play hide and seek way too often. I can’t tell you how many times I took Lacey outside wearing non matching gloves because I couldn’t find a pair in the hall closet.


Disorganized coat closet BEFORE
I am not proud of this


I resisted organizing our hats and gloves using a hanging shoe organizer on the back of the closet door for many years because the pockets aren’t large enough to store scarves (hand knitted courtesy of my mother in law. Thanks Mom!) and they rip easily with heavy use.

The solution was to sew my own custom hanging closet winter hat, glove, and mitten organizer. If you can sew a straight line, you can make this project. It only looks complicated but it is not. I promise!

How to Sew a Closet Door Pocket Organizer

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Friday Favorites Linky Party 407

Let's get this party started! Time to link up and share your fantastic craft and DIY projects, recipes, tutorials, and ideas! I can't wait to see what you have in store for us this week.





Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Maisy at Becoming Alice - FB | G+ | Pin
Sheree at Stage Presents - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst | Inst
Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Kelly at Under a Texas Sky - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL





If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!

You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!

Sunday, January 7, 2018

6 Ways to Insulate a Drafty Sliding Glass Door

I walked from my toasty warm home office to the kitchen downstairs. It was so cold I almost felt like someone left a window open in the dead of winter. 

I found and sealed the interior air leaks around my windows, water pipes, and front and back doors years ago and mulled over what could be wrong when the cold air hit me.

I didn’t weatherize, weather strip, or check the sliding glass door for air leaks when I did the rest of the house.

I didn’t need to light a candle or stick of incense and run it along the patio door to find warm escaping because the air leak was so big and blatant it almost smacked me right in the face. There is absolutely no weather stripping between the stationary and sliding glass doors. Take a look!


how to winterize a sliding glass door
There’s yer problem!

Sliding doors can be tricky to weather-strip and seal to prevent drafts and leaking air if you need to use the door during the winter but it is not impossible.

6 Ideas for Winterizing a Sliding Patio Door

Thursday, January 4, 2018

Friday Favorites Linky Party 406

Welcome to our first creative roundup  of the new year! 

Let's get this party started! Time to link up and share your fantastic craft and DIY projects, recipes, tutorials, and ideas! I can't wait to see what you have in store for us this week.






Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Maisy at Becoming Alice - FB | G+ | Pin
Sheree at Stage Presents - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst | Inst
Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Kelly at Under a Texas Sky - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL





If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!

You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!


Tuesday, January 2, 2018

The 15 Best DIY and Green Living Ideas You Need to Try Right Now!

We’re celebrating the New Year by taking a look back at some of our favorite Condo Blues DIY projects for 2017.

From the looks of it, there are a bunch of you who like to garden but hating watering plant and  like to decorate and make things with recycled materials and add green home improvements to our homes, myself included!


Pin this post for later and to share with your friends!