How To Make Your Home Smell Great

When it comes to selling your home, it’s important to make a good first impression with potential buyers. An important thing to work on is the way your house smells. Even if you have decorated and staged your home perfectly, if potential buyers walk in and detect an unpleasant odor, they could leave fast! On the other hand, good scents can entice them to linger.

 Everyone has different thoughts on what smells good, so it’s important to keep scents subtle and not overpowering. Here are some tips for making your home smell amazing before home buyers arrive.

Clean
 The first step to a good-smelling home is to get rid of any unpleasant odors. Scrub all surfaces, wash the rugs, clean the carpets, and take out the trash. Without doing this, you’ll only be masking bad smells.

Bake
Throw on an apron and bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies, or banana bread. The smell of freshly baked cookies can evoke a warm and homey feeling. Not only will this make your home smell enticing, but it can also double as a snack for potential buyers.

Simmer Scents
If you don’t have time to bake, you can create another appealing sweet scent by simmering vanilla extract diluted in water on the stove. You can also mix 5 cinnamon sticks, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 2 tablespoons cloves, 3 bay leaves, and an orange rind to a pot of simmering water for a pleasant fall-like smell.

Just Add Soap 
Take your unused bars of fancy soap you’ve been gifted over the years, and place them in a pretty bowl on the bathroom counter. Dove brand soap also works great for this. This can fill a room with a clean scent for weeks.

Essential Oils 
Essential oil diffusers can be very useful as well. Fresh, neutral scents such as lavender and lemon are best. If you don’t want to invest in a diffuser you can dab a drop of oil on cold light bulbs before turning them on. As the bulb warms up it will give off a subtle fragrance. Avoid using plug-in air fresheners or candles as they can be too strong.

Clean Air 
If you have an air purifier, use it! They can be extremely effective in removing any lingering odors. Also, open the blinds, and crack your windows to allow fresh air inside.

Fore more tips on how to make that first great impression, give me a call- Carrie Summers 970-759-2540.

The Heart of a Mother

Today is the first Mother's Day, since my Mom died.  Been super hard, so I kept super busy.  Hike at dawn, church and then unpacking stuff from my parent's home.  The above picture was a simpler time.  My kids were little and we did lots of adventures.  Now they are off creating lives of their own.

The heart of a Mom is quite unique and the good thing is that everyone can learn from it.  Whether you are a mom or you tend to "mother" your co-workers or friends, God designed us with a mission.  No matter what curve balls life throws at us, I know that I have a God that has the final word.  This is why I talk with God throughout the day, and try to keep my eyes focused on Him.  Yes, the devil is a liar, and tries to rob me of my peace, however I have God on my side.

My Mom was an excellent listener.  I'd call her several times a day to vent and she wouldn't put in her two cents.  I know that she prayed for me and my kiddos daily.  My Mom's love was consistent and never based on my actions.

I was with my Mom, my best friend for the last chapter of her life.  I saw her strength as she organized her affairs and she even planned her funeral and wrote her obituary.  She did the dirty work, as unpleasant as it was so that her kids wouldn't have to.  Now that's being selfless.

I hope I will be more compassionate to the people who are difficult, slow to speak, and love others for just the way they are designed.

Happy Mother's Day.

Christmas Memories

What are some of your best Christmas memories?  Were they when you were a child?  Was it a toy or an experience?  For my family, Christmas is all about tradition and being together.

As a child, my grandmother Nanny would pull up in her old white Ford car to our back door and pop the trunk to unveil it stuffed with presents.  The excitement my two sisters, brother and I had was pure joy.  Of course Nanny would come with her famous Christmas Coffee Cake for Christmas morning.  Christmas Eve was celebrated with  a traditional Mexican dinner of queso, chips, guacamole, red & green enchiladas, tamales and lime sherbet for dessert.  YUM!!   It was always followed up with opening one Christmas gift.

Christmas morning, we would wake around 5 and get my parents up.  We opened our stockings and then Daddy, would play Santa and hand out the presents. We opened one at a time, taking the time to experience each persons joy while they opened their present.  Mom would prepare a wonderful dinner of shrimp cocktail, artichokes, prime rib, baby potatoes, rolls and for dessert a cranberry torte.

This year my sisters and brothers came back home.  We all hadn't been together for Christmas in decades.  Mom is 88 now and her health is failing. Daddy died two years ago so we have all changed roles.  My sisters and I cooked then after dinner husbands, boyfriend and my brother cleaned up.

Christmas Day before dinner we went on a hike up Bernal Mesa, quite the hike, while Mom and my daughter stayed inside.  Spending time together reminiscing about the past, hope for the future, and scrambling up to the top of the mesa will not be easily forgotten

Christmas for me is about being with my family and remembering that my life is centered around my anchor, Jesus Christ.

May you hug and tell the people that are close to you that you love them.