When our lease was up we decided that we were paying too much for rent, and as much as we loved it, it was time to move into a less expensive place, save money, and buy a house back on the tree-lined streets of Palo Alto. We now rent an apartment in Mountain View.

I stressed for weeks on how we were going to fit a house full of things into an apartment, but it actually worked out well. This place is 300 sq ft larger and has more closet space. CLOSETS!!! One of my most favorite things as a compulsive organizer.

Another thing that I stressed about was the community laundry room. I’ve been used to having a washer & dryer at every place I have ever lived, so the thought of lugging laundry down to the laundry room sounded horrible. It has actually ended up being AWESOME!!! I don’t need to stock pile quarters, as I can just load money from my debit card onto my laundry card, and I can do 5 loads of wash in 1.5 hours instead of doing laundry all.day.long with one washer and dryer.

My dishwasher died the first weekend we were here, and I had a brand new fancy schmancy one installed within a day. I can pay my rent online, no more checks! My heating & electric bills are cheaper & packages get delivered to the office so I don’t have to wait around for the Fed Ex guy all day.

There are things that bug me about apartment living too, but I like to focus on the positives of things, so that’s what I choose to do. Ooooohhhh…and dinner time around here! OMG we’ve got some nom-worthy chefs up in here! The smells of curry, cilantro, and sesame oil waft through the buildings around 6PM. I REALLY need to make friends around here soon! Can you say dinner party???

Have you had to adjust to apartment living ever? What are the things you love (or hate) about it?

Apartment Living Has It’s Perks

I wish I had a picture of my husband’s face when he walked into the kitchen and saw me wearing my new apron! His jaw dropped, and it was priceless. What man wouldn’t want to come home to his wife in the kitchen in a Flirty Apron. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. So get a Flirty Apron and get to cooking ladies!

Flirty Apron Coupon Code

They are marked to distinguish spices and flavors, steak temperatures, and they can help to avoid health or allergy issues. They have a serrated stem that holds firmly in your food, so you can flip and move it around without them falling out.

When you are done grilling, everyone knows which burger, steak, or chicken is theirs. Awesome huh? These would make a GREAT gift for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day right?!?!

4 Grill Charm Collections – 6-piece set $19.95

• The Charmed Life Collection – 6-Piece Grill Charms Set
• The Steak Collection – 6-Piece Grill Charms Set
• The Spicy Collection – 6-Piece Grill Charms Set
• The Pink Collection – 6-Piece Grill Charms Set

10% off coupon for all purchases in March – just enter the coupon code – twitter

Website: Grill Charms

Follow @GrillCharmer on Twitter.

Grill Charms As Seen On Shark Tank

The one thing that was never stressful was how we were going to get our things to our new house. I knew I wanted to hire a company to do the driving part, but I also knew I wanted to be the one to pack my own stuff. We chose to go with the Relo Cubes from ABF UPack Moving for a couple of reasons, but the main one was their social media presence. I work in the industry, and I think they do a great job of engaging their audience, and helping customers with their moving needs through these channels. They even checked in with me on Twitter during the move to see how I was doing with my move. How cool is that? Seriously…they are on top of their game! You can find them on Twitter, and on Facebook.

Twitter: @ABFUPackMoving
Facebook: ABFUPackMoving

Let me give you a quick run down on how the Relo Cubes work.

• They drop off the Relo Cubes on any day you want and you have 3 days to load them up. (Tip: Get them on a Wednesday, because they don’t count weekends, and you’ll get 2 extra days for free!)
• When you are done loading them, you just give them a call and they pick them up the next day. (Note: You don’t have to be there at pickup)
• When you get to your new house you just give them a call and they drop them off the next day. (Tip: Once again…have them drop off on Friday so you get the 2 extra weekend days for free!)
• When you are done unloading give them a call and they pick up them up the next day.

Everything ran smoothly, and they were at my house, on time, and every time they said they would be. All of my items arrived completely undamaged and in perfect condition, but you do have to remember that anything can happen during moving.

It was our responsibility to tie down each section of our cubes, and there are at least 50 places to tie rope inside each Relo Cube. We took extra time and precaution to follow their instructions and we had no damage at all. I’ve read several of the reviews of people’s things being damaged, and I’m willing to bet my next paycheck that they DID NOT take the time to use rope and tie downs. Just sayin’.

We got 4 Relo Cubes and they came on a large flatbed truck.

They used a forklift to set all 4 in my driveway

YAY! My stuff is here at my new house!

Here is a quick video I made with my Flip just after we finished packing them up. I’m exhausted, as you can hear in my voice, and I kept calling them pods. They are NOT pods, they are Relo Cubes! Sorry about that ABF…I was near zombie mode at this point.

We had measured for them to all be placed in our driveway, but I didn’t think about the trees and bushes at the end of our driveway possibly being damaged when they used the forklift to lift them in. The driver actually pointed this out to me, and suggested we put them in the street instead.

I hadn’t planned on needing a permit so I had to call our local police department to check how that all worked. I explained our situation to them and they sent someone right out to check it out. Since we live on a semi-private street they said they would let me slide without a permit; which we really lucked out on. They can be expensive, so keep that in mind when figuring in your moving cost using the Relo Cubes.

Thanks again to ABF UPack Moving for sponsoring my move! You really made our move enjoyable. Did I just say moving was enjoyable? HA! Well you know what I mean

Moving with ABF UPack Moving Relo Cubes

1. Ring Around The Collar – A Thing Of The Past
2. Protein Stains
3. Carbohydrate Stains

Today I tackled oil stains. Oil stains can come from many things including peanut butter and salad dressing. They also come from your favorite lipstick, and that is the exact test I did today.

Ooops, a lip stick stain on my bath towel

Pre-treat stain with Wisk® Laundry Detergent Stain Spectrum™ Technology

Rub it in and let sit for 15-30 seconds

Rinse under warm water

Voila! No more lipstick stain!

Additional information:

Visit Wisk.com

• Learn more about Wisk® Stain Spectrum™ Technology and the different categories of stains.
• Download a $1.00 dollar off coupon

Become a fan on Facebook too! www.Facebook.com/Wisk

Follow Wisk on Twitter! laundryhe and Wisk

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Wisk. I received monetary compensation for my participation, but my review and opinions are my own.

Wisk® Laundry Detergent Stain Spectrum™ Technology Put to the Test

Carbohydrate stains are things like chocolate milk, ketchup, barbecue sauce, and syrups. Pretty much all the types of foods your kids love to eat.

After seeing how easily the new Wisk® Laundry Detergent was at removing grass strains, I had no doubt in my mind it would work just as well on ketchup. And it worked like magic! See for yourself:

Additional information:

Visit Wisk.com

• Learn more about Wisk® Stain Spectrum™ Technology and the different categories of stains.
• Download a $1.00 dollar off coupon

Become a fan on Facebook too! www.Facebook.com/Wisk

Follow Wisk on Twitter! laundryhe and Wisk

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Wisk. I received monetary compensation for my participation, but my review and opinions are my own.

Wisk® Laundry Detergent Stain Spectrum™ Technology Put to the Test

Well that is what I love about the Febreze Set & Refresh. You just pop the oil cartridge into the holder and set it where ever you want a long lasting scent to be. They blend right into the decor of your home, and never look out of place. Consider it the anti-cone.

Febreze Set & Refresh are available in 6 fresh scents:

• Meadows & Rain
• Spring & Renewal
• Linen & Sky (pictured above)
• Hawaiian Aloha
• Thai Dragon Fruit
• Apple Spice & Delight (limited edition)

You can read more about the Febreze Set & Refresh on the Walmart website, and take the survey Are You Living With Cones. Share your results on Facebook and you could win a $5.00 gift card to try the Febreze Set & Refresh at home.

I also have three $5.00 Walmart gift cards to giveaway so you can buy the Febreze Set & Refresh right here on my blog. Good luck!

Enter to win one of three $5.00 Walmart gift cards to purchase Febreze Set & Refresh

THREE WINNERS: Storm, Edyta and Chrysa Duran

MANDATORY FOR CONTEST ENTRY

1. Tell me in my comments which fragrance from the Febreze Set & Refresh collection you would most like to try

EXTRA CONTEST ENTRY- make sure to leave a separate comment for each thing you do.

1. Follow @Febreze_Fresh on Twitter.
2. Follow @JustJulie on Twitter.
3. Like this post on Facebook by clicking the Like button on the top of this post
4. Subscribe to receive Julie’s Journal in your email
5. Tweet: Enter to win Febreze Set & Refresh from @Febreze_Fresh & @JustJulie http://bit.ly/cvfxSi (or by clicking the Tweet button at the top of this post)

Contest ends Tuesday September 25, 2010 at 12:00 noon PST. I will choose three random winners from all the entries and notify you by email. (U.S. only) You have 48 hours to respond. The Febreze Set & Refresh products, information and Walmart gift cards to give away were all given to me from Febreze through MyBlogSpark.

Febreze Set & Refresh Review and Giveaway – CLOSED

Protein stains are things like eggs, baby formula, and spinach. But the most common one you’ll recognize is the grass stains that are on your kid’s pants after they come inside from playing. After putting the Wisk® Laundry Detergent to the test, I’m fairly confident to say you won’t have any trouble getting protein stains out again.

See how nicely the new Wisk® Laundry Detergent Stain Spectrum™ Technology removed the protein stain:

Additional information:

Visit Wisk.com

• Learn more about Wisk® Stain Spectrum™ Technology and the different categories of stains.
• Download a $1.00 dollar off coupon

Become a fan on Facebook too! www.Facebook.com/Wisk

Follow Wisk on Twitter! laundryhe and Wisk

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Wisk. I received monetary compensation for my participation, but my review and opinions are my own.

Wisk® Laundry Detergent Stain Spectrum™ Technology Put to the Test

How many of you still pre-treat collars with your laundry detergent cap this way? I do, ha!

As the first liquid laundry detergent to market in 1956, Wisk® has been cleaning America’s laundry for the past 50 years. Now, they’ve upgraded their product, with the powerful new stain fighting formula, Stain Spectrum™ Technology.

When I was growing up my brother and I didn’t hang around inside the house watching TV or playing on the computer. We were outside, riding bikes, catching frogs and tadpoles at the pond, and getting dirty. My mom had some dirty clothes to clean!

Today, my teenage boys don’t get as dirty as I did, but my youngest is a skateboarder, so he comes home pretty stinky and sweaty. And don’t get me started on his socks…NOT a pretty smell, gag. The joys of having boys I’m really looking forward to trying the new Wisk® laundry detergent.

Here’s the new Wisk® laundry detergent of today…a whole new way to look at stains, forever!

New Wisk® with Stain Spectrum™ Technology is engineered to target the major stain groups:

• Carbohydrates such as milk chocolate
• Proteins such as grass
• Oils such as peanut butter
• Bio such as blood
• Bleachable such as coffee
• Particulate such as dirt
• Synthetic such as ink

Wisk® laundry detergent is available in August at major retailers nationwide, such as Walmart, Target and Kroger. Suggested Retail Price is $5.99 for 50 fl oz. bottles that cleans 32 loads.

Additional information:

Visit Wisk.com

• Learn more about Wisk® Stain Spectrum™ Technology and the different categories of stains.
• Download a $1.00 dollar off coupon

Become a fan on Facebook too! www.Facebook.com/Wisk

Follow Wisk on Twitter! laundryhe and Wisk

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Wisk. I received monetary compensation for my participation, but my review and opinions are my own.

Wisk Laundry Detergent – Ring Around the Collar Is A Thing Of The Past

Ordering my groceries from the website was really easy. I used the “Shop By Aisle” feature to quickly find the products that I wanted, which made it super easy. They also list the sales, and Von’s card savings items, so I ended up saving $25.00 on my order.

My delivery guy Rod was super professional and friendly. He knew that this was my first time ordering, so he gave me a tour of the truck to see where he stored the different type foods. His truck has a dry section, the freezer section, and the refrigerated section. My delivery number was 005, so he checked in all the sections for the crates labeled with 005.

I was pretty busy with my yard sale at the time, so I didn’t notice that I was missing some items until about 30 minutes later. I immediately called the customer service number on my invoice, and Rod called me back from his cell phone within minutes. He was back at my house with the missing items within 20 minutes. Now THAT’S excellent customer service!

I was VERY satisfied with this service, and will use them again when I know I’m going to be too busy to get to the store. Do any of you use home grocery delivery services? How do you like it?

If you haven’t used home grocery services before, I have an exclusive promotion code for free delivery and $7 off your first online order. Just go to Vons Home Grocery Delivery and use JLSJRNL at checkout. ENJOY!

I received two gift cards from DEI Worldwide to facilitate this blog post and help with the expenses. Special thanks to Vons Home Grocery Delivery

Vons Home Grocery Delivery Rocks!