Thanks to all the Bookoo users that participated in our poll on the Bookoo Blog!

Almost HALF of you have made over $500 cleaning out your house!  That is fantastic!

17% of you have not sold anything.  This definitely leaves room for improvement.

Yard sale season is here, so be sure to list your upcoming yard sale on your local Bookoo site, price your items right, and be sure to post with pictures!

Here’s the poll results (as of May 21, 2012):

She sent us pictures of her living room (see below), she was able to complete it for only $500!  She bought nearly everything, including lamps, tables and couches on Bookoo.com.  Can you say, WOW?!

]]> http://blog.bookoo.com/2012/05/15/put-a-room-together-bookoo-style/feed/ 1 bookooblog Screen Shot 2012-03-16 at 3.25.57 PM http://blog.bookoo.com/2012/04/27/lets-share-our-bookoo-success/ http://blog.bookoo.com/2012/04/27/lets-share-our-bookoo-success/#comments Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:03:27 +0000 bookooblog http://blog.bookoo.com/?p=689 Continue reading »

We have received numerous amounts of success stories from our users.  If you would like to share your Bookoo success story whether it be about selling or buying, please add it in the Leave a Reply field.  Connecting with other Bookooers via the Bookoo Blog is a great way to meet others, share ideas and have fun!

Please take a moment to complete the poll.  Thanks!

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Spring has arrived, it’s time to get out of the house and enjoy the weather!  Here’s a list of fun things to do by yourself or with family.  Enjoy!

1.  Fly a Kite Alone or with Your Family
2.  Go for a Ride on Your Bicycle
3.  Plant some Tulips
4.  Enjoy the Extra Hour of Light
5.  Take a Walk around the Neighborhood and Say Hello to the Neighbors
6.  Wash Your Car & Vacuum the Inside, Don’t You Love a Clean Car? : )
7.  Make Over a Room in Your Home with Paint
8.  Take Pics of Sprouting Flowers and Plants
9.  Purchase a New Pair of Flip-Flops or Sandals
10.  Plan a Picnic at a Local Park

What do you like to do in Spring?  We would love to hear from you, please leave a comment. : )

I ran across these ideas for home design that I think are unique.  A couple I quite like.  Some may make sense to you and some may have you scratching your head.

The key to making a house a home is making it your own and livable to your own likings.  Check out the short list below.  Do any of these spark your interest?

(These ideas are from the Zillow blog By Inman News Inman News®  Editor’s note: This guest perspective is reposted with permission of Zillow. View the original item: “9 Unconventional Ways to Improve Your Home.”)

The Short List

1. Walk-in pantry instead of kitchen cabinets

Kitchen cabinets are expensive. Half of them are up high on the wall where they’re hard to reach, and the wall space they take up could be better used for windows. A pantry takes up less space, stores a lot more, is much easier to use, and costs less to build.

2. Comfortable shower instead of big bathtub

My firm does a lot of work in late-’70s/early-’80s neighborhoods that are loaded with huge tubs. We’re taking them all out, one at a time, and replacing them with comfortably sized showers (not the racquetball court-sized ones you see in home shows) that people actually use every day.

A shower takes up less space, uses less hot water, and is far more sanitary than a big tub.

3. Group windows together facing best views instead of scattering them around the house

Got a great view somewhere? Bring it into the house with lots of glass. Take excess windows from bedrooms and bathrooms and use them to connect the inside of the house with the outside.

4. Keep ceiling heights reasonable for the room size

“Volume” ceilings do not automatically make better rooms. They just make taller rooms, rooms that are harder to decorate and more expensive to heat and cool.

Instead, focus attention on a view, a large fireplace or other element — and away from the ceiling height. Use wall trim and multiple paint colors to break up the volume of the room and create the illusion of height.

5. Spend more time planning, and less money building

I toured a client’s existing home before we began designing the new one. “Of course,” she said as we peeked in on the kids’ rooms, “These bedrooms are way too small.”

“Really?” I thought. The smallest was probably 14 feet by 15 feet. But each bedroom had at least one door or one window on each wall.

Pretty, but the design left little room for furniture.

I suggested we more carefully design the new bedrooms, keeping the furniture placement in mind. In the end, we were able to easily accommodate each child’s bedroom furniture comfortably in smaller bedrooms than what they’d had before.

6. Consider the simple elegance of the box-form house

Subtlety and restraint used to be virtues in home design. These days, far too often, inexperienced designers attempt to attract attention to their homes by adding more stuff: more gables, more materials, more bay windows, etc. Others know that proper proportion, scale and details are what turn heads.

The simple box-house is a classic American form that’s survived 150 years of stylistic changes. Greek Revival, American Four-Square, Tidewater Georgian … all simple boxes. Great proportions, great details … done.

And here’s a bonus: The box-form is easier and cheaper to build, and because it encloses a larger volume in less perimeter, it’s less expensive to heat, cool and maintain.

7. Share part of the master bath

This isn’t for everyone, but it really tightens up the budget and the floor plan. Make the toilet and a sink in the master bath accessible to the rest of the house, instead of building a separate half-bath — it won’t be used much by you during the day, and rarely by guests at night.

Why have two baths when one will do?

8. Spend it when you have it, not before

Sure, it’d be great to have those granite countertops now, but your budget’s tight and granite is 10 times the cost of laminate tops. So how about putting in nice laminate tops now, and replacing them with granite in five years when you have the cash? You can easily do the same with light fixtures, flooring, window treatment …

9. Compartmentalized bath — two baths in the space of 1 1/2 baths

Each kid doesn’t need a personal bathroom, but does need privacy and room to share. A compartmentalized bath puts two sinks in one room and the toilet and tub/shower in another, so three kids can use the bath at once and keep a little more harmony in the family home.

I doubt any of these ideas will ever make a magazine’s list of “Best Remodeling ROI” projects. But every one saves you money over a more “conventional” design strategy, and every one increases the livability of your home.

Richard Taylor is a residential architect based in Dublin, Ohio, and is a contributor to Zillow Blog. Connect with him at http://www.rtastudio.com/index.htm.

Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of Zillow.

The grass is green, flowers are blooming and the windows are wide open. It’s finally spring! With spring also comes a time an abundance of yard sales. Yard Sale shopping can be a fun weekend activity that allows you to make smart choices with the money you spend.

Warning: this activity may become addictive!

1. Make a list of things that you need, want or have been looking for. This will help you when you are looking amongst all the items.
2. Look for upcoming Yard Sales on Bookoo.com or your local newspaper. Bookoo.com allows you to see all of the sales in your surrounding area. This will help you map out the sales you wish to attend. You will save gas by traveling along a specific route instead of driving around looking for Yard Sales. Be sure to look out for signs to the sale, also.
3. Download the Bookoo App. The app shows yard sales on a map around you, so you can keep sales right at your fingertips! This is available for your iPhone or Android. If you are out and about during the day, you might be near a sale.
4. Great items to look for are clothing, toys and other items that have a quick turnover. Since these items are used temporarily, usually you can find like new items at sales.
5. Knowledge of prices is key. If you are looking for something specific, do your homework ahead of time. You don’t want to end of overpaying for something you can find cheaper on Bookoo.com or even new at the store.
6. Don’t be afraid to negotiate! You can always ask the seller if the item(s) are negotiable. If so, go based off what you might sell the item for or if you have seen the item cheaper elsewhere, let the seller know what price you saw it for. Most likely, the seller will come down on the price for you. Be curteous and don’t low-ball someone, it might be offensive to the seller.
7. Look for neighborhood sales! This is great because you can park your car and walk sale to sale (getting some exercise in there too!). If you live in the neighborhood, attending the sale is a great opportunity to meet your neighbors or to simply say hello.
8. Make some money. You can always buy things for cheap and post on Bookoo.com. You can actually make a good profit!
9. Make sure to budget a certain amount for spending and have cash on you.
10. Have fun!

Spring has arrived!

It’s time to do some Spring cleaning in your home.  With Spring cleaning comes a great opportunity to make some money on Bookoo!  If you find things around the house that you no longer have a use for, put it aside, create a list, price each item, take some pictures, upload them to bookoo.com and make some cash!

Spring Cleaning Advice

Realistically, you won’t be able to complete your Spring cleaning in an entire weekend, so we recommend putting together a schedule and list to accomplish over a given time.  Here are some things to include in your list:  Kitchen, Refrigerator, Stove, cabinets/drawers, Bathrooms, Exterior, windows (interior and exterior) and don’t forget to add a Bookoo item selling list!

10 Quick Tips to Spring Cleaning Success

1. Make a Plan and Reasonable Goal
2. Purchase Cleaning Supplies, Look Out for those Coupons
3. Declutter Before Cleaning
4. Use Boxes to Place the “get rid off”, “Donate” and “sell on Bookoo” Items
5. Open the Windows
6. Play Some Music
7. Get the Kids to Help {or clean while they are napping}
8. Tackle One Area at a Time
9. Rearrange Furniture and Decorative Items to Freshen up the look of Your Home
10. In the End, Plan a Daily Cleaning Schedule to Maintain Your Hard Work

Download a Complete Spring Cleaning List.

Do you have any Spring cleaning advice?  Please share with us by posting a comment.

We’ll reward the best video short with $200 of cold, hard cash.  And we’ll give everyone who submits a video a free month of membership, just for submitting!

Interested?  Here’s what you do:

1. Make your slick, short (30 seconds), fun video of you using the app, browsing, sending messages, posting an item.  Use your phone, your video camera, whatever you wish.  Bonus points for good editing!
2. Post your video to YouTube
3. Email us a link to the video: blog@bookoo.com
4. Your deadline is 3:23 pm, Thursday, March 15, 2012.

That’s all. We’re soon going to announce the apps to the world (we’ve been keeping it quiet while we work out any kinks), and this could be your ticket to instant fame to the millions of bookoo fans!  Go nuts!

Bookoo Selling Tips

Curious as to how to sell your items quicker?  Here are some ideas to help sell your items faster and for more money!  Here is a list of suggestions to help you become one of Bookoo’s success stories:

Pictures, Pictures and more Pictures
Who wants to buy an item that they can’t see? This is the most important key to your Bookoo success. Take pictures of the actual item that is for sale, upload different angles and clear shots. Buyers want to see the actual item that might want to buy. So refrain from posting a copied image, such as an image from Amazon.

Be Creative
Provide a great description of your item for sale. Be sure to include size, measurements, color, and so on. This will give the potential buyer a better idea if they should purchase your item or not. Another thing that is nice to post, whether or not it comes from a smoke free and/or pet free environment and the condition of the item. Be honest, so there are no surprises when the item is to be picked up.

If it’s not Selling
Try reducing the price of the item. In the description, include previous selling price of item and mark it “reduced.”  Sometimes it also helps to add how much the item was originally, especially when the item is not that old. We have also seen seller’s post a link to where the item can be seen for the current price in the description. If it’s a seasonal item, sell it at the appropriate time. For an example, Halloween items are most likely to sell at the end of Summer or early Fall. You can post, however remember that it will take a bit more time.

Clean it
Make sure your item is clean. If you are selling clothing, wash it. If you are selling furniture, make it shine! If your item comes from a pet household, remove all dander and pet hairs. This is great Bookoo etiquette.

Happy Selling
Most importantly, the key to any Bookoo success is to simply have fun!

Do you have any selling tips?  Please leave a comment to share amongst the Bookoo community.