Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It is time to celebrate!  Do you have your green on?  We hope you have a safe and happy St. Patrick's Day!

Read more »

Make Your Bedroom An Oasis

Your bedroom should be the oasis in your apartment, so you want that space to feel as large as possible, whether it is actually large or not. You can use the decor and furniture pieces in your bedroom to manipulate the size of the space. So how do you make a room feel larger than it is? Try these tricks from Apartment Therapy:


1. Bed drawers and multi-tier nightstands
It's not within every budget to buy a bed that has built-in storage, but in this small and closet-less space, it appears to have been a vital element to ensure this small space actually functioned the way they needed it. Another fun storage feature? Not just one nightstand, but three, on each side! Floating nightstands have long been a smart choice for small spaces, but here, the addition of even more wall-mounted (or in this case, headboard-mounted) ledges means more room for both needed and decorative objects.


2. A large, horizontal wall-mounted mirror
We all know that wall-mounted reflective surfaces like mirrors work magic in small spaces, and in here it's no different. They chose to add the mirror to the wall opposite the door, which is a smart move since it'll reflect an image of the other room, making it feel a little more open than it actually is.


3. A sliding door
For privacy, you can't beat a door. For saving space and adding privacy, you can't beat a sliding door, which they made here themselves using mostly items found at Home Depot.
DIY Home Decor: How To Make a Sliding Door for Under $40


4. Light-colored black-out drapes that blend
For those who need a lot of darkness to sleep peacefully, black-out drapes (lined with dark, light-blocking fabric) are a must. But keep the side of the drapes that face the bedroom a light color, preferably a similar color to the wall. This will help them blend in and expand the look of the space visually.


5. A minimal style
It just makes sense — small spaces need less stuff, and keeping the decorative elements to a minimum will help keep a small space from feeling cluttered. But, that doesn't mean you have to keep everything out. As this small bedroom proves, you can find a good balance between art, decorative elements and more and still have a room that feels spacious for its size.

Read more »

Parmesan French Toast

We love breakfast and brunch.  They are the best meals of the day in our opinion.  However, instead of going out to brunch this week, you should try this delicious recipe.  This Parmesan French Toast will quickly become your favorite go to breakfast recipe.  You can learn more at The Kitchn.

Read more »

11 Fixes For Your Household Pet Peeves

Do you have pet peeves throughout your home?  These could include a crooked picture, clothes not staying on their hangars, or bunched up duvets. Apartment Therapy has 11 easy fixes to get rid of your home pet peeves.  These will only take a few minutes, and it will give you some time to focus on other household chores.

Every household has minor, but needling, annoyances that repeatedly drive you crazy. Picture frames that won't stay straight, bunching duvet covers, and wobbly furniture are first-world problems to be sure, but exasperating nonetheless. A few quick fixes and modifications can relieve your pain, and make your home enjoyable instead of endlessly frustrating. Here's how to fight back against some common pet peeves, in five minutes or less.

1. Crooked Art or Picture Frames: Solve this nagging issue by putting rubber feet on the back corners of each frame. They will provide enough friction to prevent them from sliding around on the wall.

2. Clothing Slips Off Closet Hangers: Wrap rubber bands around the ends of each hanger to prevent especially slippery materials from sliding right off and onto the floor.

3. Losing the Start of the Tape: After you tear off a piece, wrap the end in a toothpick or paper clip to mark the spot. You'll won't have to run your fingers around the roll, feeling for the start.

4. Stuck Drawers: Aim a heat lamp at the affected furniture to slowly rid the wood of its moisture, which is the usual cause for wood expanding. Or use a toilet plunger for extra traction needed to pull it open by force. Once you've coaxed the drawer out, apply soap, paraffin, or paste wax to the runners and sides.

5. Sticky Price Tags: Once again, put heat on the job! Hold a hair dryer up to the sticker for about a minute, then test a corner of the sticker and see if it peels away easily. If it doesn't, continue the hairdryer treatment until the residue loosens. Work in sections if you have larger stickers.

6. Sliding Dish Towels: A lot of people hang kitchen towels over stove and fridge handles. And then constantly have to pick them up when they slip off. To remedy this, attach strips of velcro on each end of the towel and loop it around the handle.

7. Bunched Up Duvets: When left to their own devices, duvets constantly creep and migrate to the middle of the duvet cover. Stitch two pieces of ribbon to each of the corners of the duvet cover. Tie the ribbons around the corners of the duvet to make it stay put.

8. Stubborn Trash Bags: This is a two-parter. If you have a suction issue that prevents you from removing the bag easily, drill holes in the bottom to relieve the pressure. To prevent liners from slipping into the can, attach the bag to the can with clips. Or, if you have a metal can, fold the bag over the top, then use magnets to hold it in place.

9. Errant Cushions: Try putting some rubbery non-slip drawer liner, or a cut up rug pad, underneath. We've also heard to stick strips of velcro on the sofa and the cushions helps prevent the slide.

10. Wobbly Table: Before you do anything, try rotating the table around and see if that helps. Sometimes uneven floors will cause furniture to wobble, and shifting the legs around can help you find the sweet spot where everything is level again.

11. Squeaky Door: Remove the hinge pins one at a time and lightly coat them with petroleum jelly, soap or wax. Reinsert the pins, wipe off any excess, and open and shut the door a few times to distribute the lubricant.

Read more »

5 Things To Start Your Day

After you get ready in the morning, do you go to the kitchen?  Getting your day started can be tough.  However, these five steps may get your day off to a great start in the morning.  Keep reading to learn about the five things you should do in your kitchen.  You can learn more at The Kitchn.

1. Have some water and lemon.

What? No coffee or tea? We'll get there, don't worry. But before you grind those coffee beans or drop that tea bag in your mug, drink a glass of water. Add a slice of lemon if you want. It's good to rehydrate after a long night's sleep. If gulping down a tall glass of cold water in winter doesn't sound like a good time, sip on hot water with lemon. We all know drinking more water is a good idea, so this is a great way to get that habit going.

2. Put all clean, dry dishes away.

If you followed our suggestion here, then you have no dishes to put away in the morning! Yay! However, many of you said you prefer to let dishes air dry overnight, so if that's the case, put those dishes away first thing so you free up your drying rack and dishwasher for the day.

3. Water the plants or change water for herbs and flowers.

Have anything plant-like living in your kitchen? Take a few minutes first thing in the morning to pay attention to them, and you won't have to worry about forgetting later. Water the plants and refresh the water in any herb glasses or flower vases you have going.

4. Take five minutes to think through your day.

Before the day gets crazy and you suddenly find it's 5:00 and you haven't thought about dinner plans yet, take five minutes in the morning to think about what you plan to cook and eat that day. Make sure you have everything you need, or make a list of anything you need to pick up at the store. If something for today or tomorrow's meal needs to start defrosting, take it out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator.

5. Set out any necessary cookware for the day.

After you've thought about your cooking plans, go ahead and pull out any cookware you're going to need and set it on your stove. You might keep your slow cooker on a high shelf in your pantry, or your heavy Dutch oven on the bottom of a stack of pans. Take the effort to get it all out now, and you'll save yourself a little time later. That pot or pan can be a cheery, welcoming invitation to cook as you walk back in the door.

Read more »

Cupid's Run in Pittsburgh

Are you and your loved one both runners?  We have the perfect way to spend your Valentine's Day!  You can start your day with a 5k.  The Cupid's Chase is in Pittsburgh this weekend.  The race will start at PNC Park.  You can learn more in the blog below and at Living Pittsburgh.

Community Options, Inc. will hold its Annual Cupid’s Chase 5k Run that will take place on Saturday, February 14, 2015, in twenty-seven race locations.

Community Options, Inc. is a national non-profit organization incorporated in 1989 and headquartered in Princeton, NJ. Our mission is to provide housing and employment support to people with disabilities.

Race Location

PNC Park

Hall of Fame Club

115 Federal Street

Pittsburgh, PA 15212

Registration: 8:00AM

Race Begins: 10:00AM

Early Registration (Before February 13th): $30.00

Race Day: $50.00

Registration Packet Pickup Information:

February 10 & February 11, 2015

9 AM-9:30 PM

Dick’s Sporting Goods

South Hills Village

301 South Hills Village Drive, Suite #201

Pittsburgh, PA 15241

(412) 831-5570

Contact Information

Cupid’s Chase Race Director

900 Sarah Street

Suite 205

Pittsburgh, PA 15203

412-431-7079

Printable Paper Registration

Course Map

Read more »

Organize Your Junk Drawer

Do you have a junk drawer in your kitchen? If things are falling out of your drawer, it might be time to organize it. However, that does not mean you need to buy an expensive drawer organizer. Here are some ideas on how to organize your drawer without spending a dime.. You can learn more on Apartment Therapy.

This is how I organized my junk drawer without buying a thing.

Why Didn't I Buy Anything?

First: What was the reasoning behind not buying any organizers?

It was about more than saving money. In her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, tidying guru Marie Kondo says that your home already contains all the storage it needs:

She goes on to sing the praises of shoe boxes, check boxes, business card boxes, jewelry boxes — "basically, any square box or container of the right size will do" when it comes to finding storage for your tidying projects.

I liked her thinking on this, so I searched through my apartment and picked up anything I thought could be used to organize the junk drawer. Here's what I found — all items that have been in my possession for at least a year.

The Boxes and Containers I Found Around My Apartment
A shoe box lid ("the lid of a shoe box is shallow and can be used like a tray" — preach it, Marie Kondo!)
A cardboard box for checks
Metal lids from some tin containers in the kitchen
Various cardboard boxes — bottoms and tops — from an old Birchboxsubscription (bonus: they have cool interiors!)
A couple small pink and green boxes I'd had around for years
A small ceramic bowl
A birch wood container from IKEA
A jewelry box
The lid from an (almost) empty stationery box

I knew I wouldn't need all of them, but it was nice to have options for the next step: finding an arrangement that would work in the drawer.

It took about 10 minutes and a lot of swapping various boxes in and out — changing their orientation, moving up, down, and around — until I found an arrangement that used up the most available space in the drawer, and resulted in a tight fit, with most boxes nestled snugly next to each other.

Then the fun really started:

I assigned a storage task to each container: a box for all our pens, pencils, and dry erase markers; a box for paper scissors; a few boxes for our medicine bottles; and another box for my label maker (http://www.amazon.com/Epson-LabelWorks-LW-300-Label-Maker/dp/B005J7Y6HW/ref=sr_1_2?s=office-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1423069340&sr=1-2&keywords=label+maker&tag=apartmentth0a-20I have this one and I love it).

I used the shoe box lid to hold my two kitchen scales, and the ceramic bowl for rubber bands. Two more boxes went to hold all our batteries (which I left in the plastic packaging so they wouldn't roll around and become a fire hazard), and a roll of masking and painter's tape (a very handy thing to have in the kitchen).

And the jewelry box? I stuck the safety pins in there. This solution made me a little giddy, actually. The jewelry box has a snap closure, so the lid doesn't open unless you really pry it open — which makes it the perfect box to store a collection like paper clips or safety pins that you don't want spilling all over the floor.

When I was done, the whole thing looked like this:

And that's how I revamped my junk drawer for $0.



If this project has also been on your to-do list, I encourage you to go around your house and see what little containers, boxes, and storage goods you already have that can be repurposed or recommissioned. I was surprised to find I owned so many readily available containers. Believe me — I love a good "official" organizer as much as the next person, but doing it this way was quite satisfying.

Read more »