resources and tools that have made big impact on my mixes

i'm relatively new to recording and mixing. I post here on occasion when i need help and thankfully, i usually get it! I'd like to share with those folks how may also be in my shoes having difficulty making mixes translate to other systems and sound good. What I've learned recently is the importance of trusting what you hear in your room and how your monitors and room acoustics are pivotal here. Resources and tools that have helped me in a near breakthrough way: 1) room acoustics: making DIY bass traps using OC703. I made 2, 2ft wide x 4'high x 6" thick panels. I bought a box of 12, 1" thick panels locally. immediate impact in my room ! ask me how i did it if you are interested. 2) built DIY monitor stands: bought 10' x 3" PVC pipe; 4, 3" pvc flanges (closed, so that when filled with sand, no leakage). MDF board. filled pipe with sand. ask me how i did it if you are interested. they work great! 3) sent one of my troublesome mixes to Danny Danzi (look him up here in the forum - he's a member here) for an analysis. This was a great help ! very professionally done and highly recommended. What this did for me is it provided perspective from someone who does this work professionally. I needed this. you get a well written and thorough analysis / report with graphs and details about what is going on with your mix - weaknesses and strengths. He includes suggestions and recommendations for improvement. I highly recommend this for those folks who are struggling with getting their mixes to sound good or even those folks who may have their mixes sounding good but want sonic confirmation/ perspective for a second opinion. On top of all of that, Danny is a stand up guy and even answers my emailed questions after the analysis ! Thanks Danny ! 4) Last but not least, I recently purchased the Groove3 mixing in sonar video for $30 via cake's store. I learned a lot from this and continue to do so. I highly recommend this to all who are learning the art. Money very well spent. I hope this helps some folks out there who, like me, have struggled with getting a mix to sound good. cheers, joe ps- apologies in advance if this is annoying to read (ie, sentence spacing, etc)