Bargain Shopping

I told myself that I wasn't going to buy my daughter lots of unnecessary toys. While that still holds true, it seems I get more excited now about purchases for her than for me. "She" got an exersaucer for Christmas from my parents, but because she's apparently shorter than average, her little chunky feet can't reach the floor, leaving her just dangling and unsteady. I also recently purchased a Johnny Jump Up that hooks in the door way (my mom said when I was little I would bounce in that thing for hours). Well, guess what? She's too short for that too. She looks SO tiny in it and her feet are nowhere close to the floor. So in a last ditch effort to get her something that she could enjoy from an upright position (she's getting antsy just laying on the floor to play), I bought her the contraption seen bottom right.

For the record, these things are entirely too pricey for being made of a bunch of plastic. This one retails for close to $100. Yeah to the freaking right. I found this one on Craigslist, my go-to place for otherwise expensive items (strollers, furniture, etc).  I got this one for a quarter of the retail price. The seller was asking $25, but it didn't say "price is firm" in the ad, so I asked if she'd take $20 and she agreed without question. :) Score! I picked it up last night and gave it a good clean. If you're ever in need of a sanitizing solution (not store bought), just take a ratio of 1 TBSP bleach to 1 Gallon of water. That's the recommended solution to be used in restaurants as indicated by the health department. It worked like a charm and jazzed this thing right up. I threw the seat cover in the wash with some Oxiclean and let all the chew toys sit in some sanitizing solution, and now this thing looks brand new. I do wish it bounced, but I guess she'll eventually grow into the Johnny Jump-Up. 

Yesterday, I mentioned how I was starting my 30 day cleaning challenge. I lied. I did not start yesterday as planned. I do, however, plan to start today. I think I'm going to just start on the 22nd day of the challenge and work my way through until I reach the last item on the list. So, I'm kind of working backwards. That means today is "spices". Well, I recently went through my spice rack, so I may try to do the 3-bags-in-thirty-minutes thing. If not, I'll choose the next item on the list and start there. I'll keep you updated. 

My sweet mama offered to babysit Emerson for a few hours tomorrow so I could get some stuff done. I REALLY want to go thrift store shopping. A friend of mine told me about a Goodwill that is like an outlet store and you pay by the pound. SHUT THE FRONT DOOR. I would leave there with wayyyy too much stuff. Until I finish decluttering my house, I may try to refrain from doing any shopping. I feel like once I declutter and whatnot I'll have a better idea of items that would benefit us. This is totally random, but is the rule that you aren't supposed to end a sentence with a preposition still a thing? I just retyped the sentence before this like 5 times trying to avoid a preposition at the end of the sentence. I think I learned that in middle school and somehow still remember it. Though, it makes it tough because I don't recall all of the prepositions. Thank goodness for Google because it just told me that I'm in the clear because 'us' does not fall under the list of "English prepositions". As for other countries, I'm not entirely sure. :P  

 I better get off this piece of equipment and get to de-cluttering while I have some free time (aka: nap time). Have a great Thursday, friends! It's almost Fri-yay! :)