I know. I’m late. I also didn’t post a June Restoration update, so… take that.

The truth is I was so busy the month of June. I was focused on my sister-in-law’s wedding celebrations while also being eyeball deep into planning our church’s Vacation Bible School, and as a result, I completely neglected some of my blog responsibilities. But now I’m back and (getting) focused, so here are some favorites from the second quarter of 2018!

Photo by Brigitte Tohm on Unsplash

Disclaimer: The posts in this series will contain affiliate links from time to time. This means I will receive a small commission if you purchase something, but it won’t cost you anything extra. No markups. No sneaky stuff.

For the Love of THE HOME

• Shark Rotator Professional Upright Corded Bagless Vacuum. OH MY GOODNESS. Ya’ll. When my vacuum died, I turned to Instagram to find out what everyone likes (that’s not a Dyson, because, you know, money). About a dozen people messaged me about the Shark vacuum and I am in LOVE. Our old vacuum wasn’t great, but it was functional, so we used it. We also have hard floors in the majority of our house (carpet is only in the 3 bedrooms, plus a rug in the living room), so we were used to just sweeping all the time because the vacuum would shoot everything all over the place on a hard floor. The Shark has changed my life! I can vacuum my hard floor now and it’s so much easier. The broom can literally go in the trash. This vacuum is my new favorite thing in our home!
• Boxed {get $15 off your $60 order}. Boxed is an online bulk grocery store that we use periodically to buy things like toilet paper, rice, fig bars, giant containers of peanut butter filled pretzels, Seventh Generation or Meyers soap, etc. I originally found it on the Ibotta app because it’s one of the online retailers that you can get cash back on, which is really cool. Plus, Boxed has their own cash back program built in so we often save quite a few dollars. We use the app, but you can also shop on a computer. One thing I like about Boxed is they always offer free samples of random items (coffee, fruit snacks, trash bags, etc), so you can choose a few things in every Box that you want to test out, and they’ll throw it in. Sometimes it’s a whole bag of goodies! Delivery is fairly quick and shipping is free when you spend $50. We use it to stock up on things we use frequently and make an order every other month or so (I’ve placed 7 orders since early 2017). I just open the Ibotta app first, see what they offer for cash back, and then go from there. I usually get my cash back for Ibotta within a week, and upon delivery from Boxed into my account. If you want to try Boxed, you can get $15 off your first order of $60 with my referral code: I4OOG
• Glass Food Containers. We have been anxiously wanting to replace all of our plastic food storage containers with glass for a few reasons:
  • 1. Even though the plastic containers we had claimed to be safe and “BPA free”, they were melting, warping, and staining. This can’t be healthy when reheating. I can’t even imagine all the toxins we’ve been consuming.
  • 2. They always look dirty, no matter how clean they are. Again, staining. It was so frustrating.
  • 3. They’re not multi-functional, whereas glass is microwave and dishwasher safe, plus oven (and toaster oven) safe.

We hit up TJ Maxx and bought several glass container sets for half the retail price (sometimes even less than half!) and I’m so glad we did. We only kept a few of our largest plastic containers for storing random things in the house (bath bombs, craft supplies, etc), and I kept my two sets of 21-Day Fix containers, but we replaced all of our food storage containers with glass. Most have locking lids, too. If you’re looking to replace your plastic food storage with glass, TJ Maxx is where it’s at! If you don’t have a TJ Maxx near you (or Marshall’s), these are the lunch portion containers I bought: FineDine Glass Meal Prep Containers (I only paid $7.99, so maybe look for a lightning deal).

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