Miss Aprril's Secret List of Freebies!

I don't know about you, but I LOVE free stuff! When I open my mailbox and a pile of little packages come tumbling out, my heart skips a beat! I've been compiling a list of my very favorite "free stuff" sites and here are just a few:

(Click the blue text for the link)

BzzAgent
I've been an active member of BzzAgent since 2008! This site allows you to join "campaigns" where they will send you free, full-sized products to try in exchange for your opinion and feedback. They also want you to spread your opinion about the product,(whether good or bad), and report back. You earn a score based on how active you are. This is by far my favorite site for free stuff. Bzzagent goes above and beyond when sending out "bzzkits". If you check out my "product reviews" link. You can see just a couple of the bzzkits that I've received.
Bzzagent is also connected to MyPoints which is a site that gives you points for online purchases and things. Bzzagent gives you points whenever you complete certain tasks. It may take some time, but these points eventually add up to gift cards and things like that.




Target Samples
Target doesn't have a ton of samples but one reason that this site made my list is their Summer Beauty Bag.
Right around Summertime Target offers a version of this little goodie bag:

Don't get me wrong, they offer samples all year long, just keep checking back.


Walmart Samples
Same deal as Target, check often for new samples.

All You Samples
They post a sample a day, every day. You can click the calendar to go back through the ones you missed. Sign up for their email list to get it sent directly to your inbox.

House Party
I just found this site recently. You sign up to host a party pertaining to a certain product line and they'll send you a big ol' party pack with a bunch of free stuff to host your party. Definitely not for everyone, but if you like to have get-togethers check it out.

Centsless Deals
Awesome site that tells you about the latest freebies as well as smokin' deals on the web and in the grocery stores. You can sign up for their email list too.

Free Kindle Books
Offers free kindle books from up and coming authors. Some good stuff here, and super-easy to use.

e-rewards
Yes, this is a survey website. No, this is not a referral link. Haha. Seriously though, I normally can't stand survey sites but this one has been pretty great! They've sent me products to sample and take surveys on and I've already earned almost $90 (in e-rewards, which can be used for gift cards). The surveys are simple and pay well.

Cravebox
Last but not least, Cravebox. Ok, in all fairness, this is not a freebies site. It's a subscription site that gives you 5-6 products a month for a flat $10. There are two reasons I'm adding this to my list:
1. Their Limited Edition Boxes are an amazing deal for $10. When you sign up you can choose which limited-edition boxes you are interested in and they will notify you when the box is available. You can then choose if you want to be in the drawing. The boxes that I have received so far are, to me, valued much higher than what you spend. In fact, sometimes I wonder how they can be making money at all since the 10 bucks includes shipping. The boxes are themes like Spring Cleaning, Summer Beauty, Dog Lover's, Coffee Lover's, New Mom's, etc.
2. The 2nd reason I love this site is their AMAZING customer service! When their Back to School box shipped late, they sent out an apology email and gave everyone a refund. We still got the box! When they sent me chocolate (to AZ, in the summer) I sent an email telling them they were melted and they responded the same day and gave me free stuff! I can't say enough about the CS at this company.

So there you have it. This list is by no means all-inclusive but it should give you a good start if you want to get free things in the mail nearly everyday.
What are your favorite freebie sites?

Cleaning Your Carpet (Without a Carpet Cleaner)

You can get your carpets "company-ready" without a carpet cleaner or a lot of effort with just a few simple tools. This will save you so much time and money, and you don't have to wait hours for it to dry! I use this method to make my carpet look brand-new even though it's over 6 years old.
Here's what you'll need: Vacuum

Carpet Rake
(buy this at Home Depot or any home improvement store for around $10)

Brush with a Handle or Sponge Mop
(Walmart)

Carpet Cleaning Foam
(Bissell is 1/2 the price of Resolve where I live but you can use any brand)

If you have pet stains you'll also need this:
Here is what the carpet looked like prior to cleaning. I removed most of the furniture. It's actually worse than the pic shows. It is somewhat matted and has some pet stains. (Click on it to enlarge)
First, vacuum your carpet thoroughly, use an attachment if you have one to get along the wall. I started out only doing half of the room so that I could show the difference.

If you have pet stains, spray the pet stain remover on them heavily enough to saturate, blot, and brush in.
Here's what mine looked like before starting:And the same spot after the entire process:

Starting at a far corner,spray a light mist of cleaner to about a 2ft x 3ft section. Use a slightly heavier spray on stains. After the spray has set for a minute, use the brush (or sponge mop) to somewhat gently rub it into the carpet. You don't want to be too harsh, but you want to make sure that it's getting into the fibers. Go in at least 2 directions. Then simply move on to the next section until your entire room has been sprayed and brushed in.

It will probably look something like the left side of this picNow let the carpet dry. It will take around 15 minutes to 1/2 hour depending on how heavy you sprayed. Once dry, vacuum again. Now, start back at the far corner and rake. You want to make sure that you're only pulling the rake toward you, (not too hard), and only pulling back about a foot or less at a time. Go across the back and continue in this back and forth manner until you get to the end of the room.

(for some reason the camera decided to make the color funky
in this one, but you can still see the difference)


It took me about an hour to do the entire room and look at the difference!
(click to enlarge)
This is something that probably shouldn't be done more than
once every three months and I would still recommend having carpets cleaned professionally about once every 1-2 years.

Amazing Grout Cleaner

I used to be on this everlasting quest to find a good grout cleaner. As you'll see in some of the pics, I had given up on that quest long ago and decided to let the grout just become a constant dark brown instead of the light tan it was originally. I had tried every product and concoction out there. In fact I had tried everything I could think of, short of paying a professional.
So one day I saw a pic on Pinterest of a floor with half clean grout and half really dirty grout. I wasn't sure it would work on my grout because it's not sealed but I gave it a try.

Here's the formula:

7 cups warm water
1/2 cup baking soda
1/3 cup ammonia
1/4 cup vinegar

Now this much liquid didn't even close to fit into my tiny little spray bottle and it probably won't fit in yours either, so here is the recipe halved and quartered.

Halved
3 1/2 cups water 1/4 cup baking soda
2 Tbsp + 2 tsp ammonia
2 Tbsp vinegar

Quartered
1 3/4 cup water
2 Tbsp baking soda
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp ammonia
1 Tbsp vinegar

I used the quartered version for the pics below. I also wrote the formula on a piece of paper and taped it to the bottle. Make sure never to mix bleach with ammonia, you will die or something...

Here is the method:

First mix the ingredients and give the bottle a good shake.
Spray the grout (I started with 2 tiles at a time) and let the spray sit and absorb a little into the grout. Be generous.
Grab a grout brush, scrub brush, or tile brush with a handle and scrub the grout vigorously where the spray has been sitting. Don't get it in your eyes, trust me.
Use a clean damp rag to wipe each line of grout right after you scrub it to pick up all that dirty liquid, might be handy to keep a bowl or bucket of warm water nearby because you'll want to continuously clean the rag.
Depending on the color of your tile, you may want to mop the whole thing when you're done because the baking soda may or may not leave some white residue. Personally, I mopped and towel dried the floor.

Here are the "before" pics
(Click for larger pic) After one tile Two sections
And finally, three sections
There are a few things to keep in mind when looking at these pics.

1. They're all the same 9 patch of tiles
2. The dark part of the grout in the pics is NOT wet. That's what it's gotten to in the last 4+ years. It's that dark! (and no, I'm not a dirty person, again we'll just blame it on the grout not being sealed)
3. I didn't mess with the photos in any way.
4. Also keep in mind that this 9 patch probably took me an hour. Now considering I have 700-800 square ft of tile, this is going to take some time. I'm going to look for some good grout sealer tomorrow before I do anymore.
If your grout is bad like mine and you can't (or don't want to) get on your hands and knees to scrub it, you could just spray it on and use a clean damp towel to rub off whatever came up. I guarantee that you'll still see remarkable results.

Also check out My Super Secret Freebies List