Why We’re Saying No to Freebies (But Still Sharing Great Finds)

Who doesn’t love getting something for free? It’s fun to score a surprise gift or a great deal — and yes, even Oprah’s famous “favorite things” moments prove how excited people get about freebies. That said, we’ve decided to change how we handle gifted products and services for our home projects.

Going forward, we won’t accept free products or special “blogger discounts” for items we bring into our home, even when we genuinely love them. We’ll continue to run our weekly giveaways and pass items along to readers when possible, but we want to be clear: if we’re recommending furniture, a renovation trade, or a tool, it’s because we paid for it or chose it ourselves — not because someone offered it in exchange for exposure.

We have nothing against fellow bloggers who accept gifted products; it’s a real perk of the job. But because we both work on this full-time and already enjoy a lot of other benefits (like working from home with our dog and our daughter nearby), we prefer to keep our recommendations free from any potential conflict of interest. That way you can trust our reviews and project updates are based on experience and product performance — not special arrangements.

In the past we were transparent when an item was gifted — for example, this faucet and that lawnmower — and we tried to share freebies with readers when possible. We still value that transparency, but now we’ll avoid taking gifted items altogether so there’s never any doubt about why we’re featuring something.

So why make this change now? Our new house will need a lot of remodeling and furnishing over the next few years. We want to hunt down, buy, or build every piece because we genuinely want it and because it fits our budget. When we talk about needing a dining table or a new light fixture, we don’t want readers to wonder whether we were “fishing for a freebie,” and we don’t want companies to treat those posts as an invitation to offer a product in exchange for coverage.

Working within a real budget is a creative challenge, and it’s where many of our best ideas come from. We’ll keep sharing those ideas, including how we track down bargains, negotiate at garage sales, and score clearance items — all the practical ways to create a beautiful home without breaking the bank. While special blogger discounts and freebies are off the table for us, deal-hunting, couponing, and secondhand finds are very much still part of the plan.

We’ll also keep doing what we’ve always enjoyed: giving away things we think you’ll love. Many of our weekly giveaways come from items we find or special deals we’ve uncovered, and that won’t change. If we’re able to pass along a product to a reader, we’ll continue to do so — but only when it’s an honest, helpful find that any of you could replicate.

This is a good moment to remind everyone that renovating the new house will follow a real timeline. No overnight, $10K transformations like on some TV shows — we’ll be saving, planning, and tackling projects one at a time. Remember, our current house took about 4.5 years to get to where it is now, and our new place will evolve the same way.

Update — We often get questions about how we started blogging, how we grew our traffic, and how the site became a full-time job, so we shared our process and tips for how to start a blog and grow it into a career. If you’ve asked about the behind-the-scenes stuff, check out that post for more details.