Challenge Accepted: January Cure Week I

I decided to try Apartment Therapy's January Cure this month. I've done the full blown version before, which is quite the commitment. So far the one month version is much more my speed. Plus, what else is there to do when the high is 15F?

Day 1: Organize a drawer
The January Cure kicks off with an easy win: Pick a drawer and organize it. I picked one of several kitchen junk drawers and weeded and organized them. The one on the right wasn't in too bad of shape. For the "cat drawer" on the right I weeded out some expired treats and medical items and now things fit much more neatly. While on a roll, I also checked out our big junk drawer but it was in fairly good shape.

Lucy poses distractedly above the after.

Day 2: Make a project list

The task for the second day is to do a walk-through of your home and jot down areas of improvement. I stuck to the main floor for this and while there is less to do that there was in the past, I still have a big list. It's a combo of cleaning chores and projects. Then you narrow the list down to three to fives projects per room that you actually want to tackle this month. Several painting items and other jobs will have to wait until it's warmer, but I'm pasting the hole list below for future reference. I'm hoping to tackle the italicized items during the cure and am debating a few others. I'm trying to be somewhat realistic about my motivation!

Kitchen
1. Declutter cabinet under TV
2. Clean light fixtures
3. Add remaining cabinet hardware
4. Fix scuffs on cabinets over fridge
5. Clean kitchen roman blinds
6. Paint cabinet molding
7. Replace cabinet molding or patch cabinet by doorway
8. Repair third dining chair
9. Paint back door
10. Paint basement door

Living room
1. Fix fireplace wall & paint (weather dependent)
2. Clean cobwebs off ceiling
3. Paint fireplace floor
4. Clean curtains
5. Paint baseboard

Bathroom
1. Paint hallway side of door
2. Touch up backsplash paint
3. Sweep fan blades
4. Beadboard touch ups
5. Buy new hand towels

Bedroom
I'm not quite sure how far I want to go with this, hence the commitment to just one item so far.
1. Fix ceiling + paint touch ups
2. Redo over bed area
2. Paint doors
3. Paint moldings
4. New window treatments

Hallway
1. Fill and paint closet
2. Clean light
3. Paint baseboards
4. Hang art

The bedroom, looking cozy after cleaning, but pre-projects.

Day 3: Set up an outbox

The outbox is a holding space for items you may want to part. The thought is that by leaving them there for a couple of weeks some of your attachment will lessen. I set up a bag in the spare room closet and filled it with several items.

Day 4: Floors & Flowers

I was dreading this weekend assignment which challenges curers to first do something sweet by buying flowers or a plant for your home, then vacuuming and mopping all of your floors. Since all of the main floor can technically be mopped, that's a big job!

I vacuumed everything and mopped the kitchen and bathroom -- two rooms that definitely needed it. The floors in the living room, two bedrooms and hallway are all wood, so they can be mopped too, but the finish is old and not waterproof so I use very little water and wash a small section then immediately dry it. It's a big hands-on-your-needs job and since we don't wear shoes in the house (or aren't supposed to at least) I only did the living room and bedroom. I did a lot of scrubbing! They do look better now and I'm happy I did more than the minimum. But I didn't move major pieces of furniture like the sofa and entertainment center because it just didn't seem worth it. Under my bed is already spic and span since I cleaned it in December when my new mattress was delivered. This project makes me wonder how often others clean their wood floors? I do it very, very infrequently. Ike embarrassingly infrequently.

I haven't bought flowers yet, maybe something will catch my eye when we grocery shop tomorrow. If not, I'll count the candles I bought last weekend because in this wicked winter weather they are certainly making the space feel cozy.

So week one ends on a positive note and I'm feeling quite accomplished! We're only one week in, so there's still plenty of time to join the January Cure!

Decluttering Slump

This adequately illustrates the current state of my decluttering efforts

Much like my recent blogging efforts, my decluttering efforts have seriously dwindled to, um, nothing though it might not look like it since I was decluttered way more than an item a day a few weeks ago. Part of this is due to time and focusing on other things right now, and part is due to pain levels since most, but not all of the easy stuff is already gone. Note that I didn't say it's because my house is decluttered, because although there's been some improvement, it decidedly is not.

I've been trying to figure out why it's so hard for me to let go of certain items of clutter. I'm not even talking about items that have sentimental value. So what am I talking about?

1. Wooden dish drying rack - I haven't used this in at least three years, not since I fixed my dishwasher, and yet, because there is space for it in my cabinet and I "might need it sometime," I can't manage to discard it.
   
   
2. Gameboy - I haven't played my original gameboy in years and years. But it still works and hey, it might be worth a lot someday to some videogame nut. Regardless, I just can't let it go.
   
   
3. The rest of my fat clothes - I've lost several sizes in the last year, but somehow I can't quite part with all my fat clothes yet. Because what if I gain the weight back? I have managed to part with the clothes that are now three sizes too big, the ones I never wore, and the ones that needed repair or were stained. That still leaves way too many though.
   
   
4. Plastic plates - For all of those dinners outside I never have. I don't even think I've used the darn things.
   
   
5. Books I want to get rid of, after I read them one more time - You know, just in case they suddenly became uncrappy in the last several years. Olivia Jules, I'm looking at you.
   
   
6. Last year's IKEA catalog - I used to keep every IKEA catalog I ever received, which wasn't that many really. I've purged a couple, but still have more than one, which is silly.
   
   
7. Those ugly dark green towels - I bought these for college, which was, I'm not telling you how many years ago. I keep hanging on to these because they are so useful: gym towels, rags, etc. Guess how many times I've used them? Yep, none.
   
   
8. (to be continued)
   

This is just a sample of course, there is much more stupid crap I'm still hanging on to. So how does one overcome this?

• Try, try again. Things change and one thing that works for me is persistence and regular decluttering efforts. I've been going through some of the same boxes of mementos for years and I've found that what seemed incredibly important a few years ago, I might be willing to let go over the next time.
  
  
• Limit yourself. Set a limit for how many things you don't use but still want to keep that you're willing to hold on to.
  
  
• Check for substitutes. Check and see if your local library has a copy of a book you don't love but might want to keep, or maybe a neighbor or friend will let you borrow that tool you have but hardly ever use.
  
  
• Write about it. Seriously looking at the list above is making it sink in just how silly some of these things are. While the Gameboy is safe, Olivia is on her way out.
  

Obviously, I'm still struggling with this myself, so what tips do you have for me?

Getting Organized 15 Minutes at a Time

Though most of my clutter is carefully hidden away, lately I've been feeling a bit squished in my little house because there's TOO MUCH STUFF! As is my typical way, I first blamed the boyfriend. Afterall, I didn't feel so squished before he got here. But then he reminded me that 99% of his stuff is contained in one single room, manland. He's got me there. It's my crap that's out of control.

I couldn't find the time to fit in a massive organizing session, so I've been finally taking some of great organizing advice to start small and keep at it. In just four short sessions of around 15 minutes I've already tackled my over-flowing coffee table drawer (shown below after being attacked), bathroom storage cabinets and closet. I forgot to take a before of the coffee table drawer, but trust me, you couldn't fit another thing in there when I started.

If I don't love it and use it, it's out of here! And if you need to declutter, try just working on it a few minutes at a time, you might be surprised how much you can accomplish.

Starting the Day Off Right

Another part of the Apartment Therapy Kitchen Cure is cooking more at home. I'm doing much better in this area than with the cleaning, let me tell you. Today's breakfast of French toast, strawberries and coffee is just the treat I needed to tackle some kitchen cleaning.

And if you use reduced calorie bread, egg whites instead of whole eggs, and skim milk, this French toast doesn't have many calories either (about 350 calories by my count with syrup). Add in plenty of flavor with vanilla, cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg and you definitely won't miss those calories!

The Kitchen Cure

I wanted to sign up for the Apartment Therapy Cure again this spring to help with spring cleaning and sprucing up the house, but I knew I didn't really have the time to devote to it so I resisted the impulse. Luckily, I saw that the AT Kitchn Cure was kicking off this week and believe me, my kitchen needs a good scrubbin'. Since the Kitchn Cure is spread out over five weeks, it looks entirely manageable.

This week the assignment is to declutter and clean the fridge and pantry, which I spent a couple of hours doing on Saturday. I'll spare you the befores (though they're on flickr if you really want to see), they don't look that much worse than the afters below, except that the fridge and pantry are sparkling clean now and there is no expired food in sight.

So if your kitchen could use a good scrubbing as well, why not join in? Week two starts tomorrow, so there's no time like the present.

Pillow Shopping

When it comes to decorating, purchase creep is practically unavoidable. First you buy one new decor item, which leads to another purchase, and another.

Some of the purchase creep I'm currently experiencing in my living room was planned. Part of the reason I waited to buy living room curtains, was because I needed to purchase furniture first. Of course, I got the new couch and chair last November so it still took a wee bit of time to find the perfect curtains. I also got a new rug and now I desperately need new pillows because the old green and pink ones don't go with the new blue curtains. Yep, purchase creep.

So anyway, I'm now scouring near and far for the perfect pillows (in my budget of course). Here are the current candidates:


First up, the blue pillow with brown circles sitting on the chair, was found today on sale at Marshalls. I like it, but not as well as the similar yet more stylish pillow at Target (which isn't online, what's up with that?). The other three blue pillows are from the fab Etsy shop, Ruth's Crafts. Her pillow are stylish and reasonably priced! The tempting yellow pillow is from another Etsy seller, joom.

Ideally, I would like to have some pillows with various prints and designs that look well together, but aren't too matchy-matchy. But I'm not so confident I'll be able to pull that one off, especially given how hard it's been to find anything I like in the first place.

Any words of wisdom, all-knowing Internets?

Cure Update, Weeks 1-3

I may have been tight-lipped about the Cure so far, but rest assured I've been sticking with it (unlike the last time I tried) and working pretty hard. And it's been worth it. Here's the update:

Week 1: I started off with a bang and:

1. Dusted, vacuumed and mopped the kitchen, living room, bathroom, office and bedroom. You do not want to know how badly the kitchen floor needed to be mopped. *shudder*
   
2. Cleaned out the fridge and rearranged the freezer
3. Cleaned one kitchen cabinet, the counters and stove
4. Decluttered my growing collection of mags and catalogs and even recycled two old IKEA catalogs (I don't know why I was keeping them either)

The boyfriend even got into the act and cleaned manland (the family room) and the landing strip.



Week 2: Oi, kitchen week was a bit of a motivation killer, the idea of pulling EVERYTHING out of all the cupboards and drawers is not my idea of fun. However, I still managed to:

1. Did the usual cleaning bit (dusting, vacuuming, laundry and general cleaning)
2. Bought and hung curtains for the living room (yippee! Big reveal coming soon). The boy installed the curtain rods of course.
   
3. Took everything off the open shelves in my kitchen, cleaned it and put it all back. Definitely a job I should do more often.
4. Straightened a few cupboards
   
5. Washed and rearranged the silverware and utensil drawers
6. Bought some lovely orange tulips

Week 3: Landing strip week. Since my landing strip arrangement (aka place to put coats, hats, mail and other things you need when coming in or out) is in as good as shape as it's going to get, it only needed some straightening up. So in theory I have plenty of time to finish deep cleaning the kitchen. Oh boy.

1. Did the usual cleaning bit (dusting, vacuuming, and general cleaning)
2. Straightened up the landing strip
   
3. Cleaned two more kitchen drawers. The others were reorganized recently and are still looking good.
4. Emptied, cleaned out and reorganized three big cabinets and one little one that really needed it.
5. Cleaned the "pantry"
6. Finally used my outbox. It really does help to put those "I might need it someday" items in a temporary place.
7. Bought two bunches of daffodils (for just $1.49 each. TJ's is now my first choice for weekly flower purchases. Which will of course all be daffodils as long as I can get them).
   

It's so nice to know the house is squeaky clean, well most of it anyway.

Blue or Green?

So after 2.5 years, I'm on the downhill stretch of finally getting curtains for the living room. I found them at Target of all places (first place I looked actually).

I bought a sample of each color from Target and had a mini curtain fashion show (a fantastic idea totally stolen from This Young House, thanks!) I just have to pick a color. It's definitely the blue ones, right?

I must admit that it kills me a little to pick the blue ones, because the boy said the blue ones were better from the very beginning and he'll never let me live it down. I was SURE I'd prefer the green, cause I have that green elsewhere in the room and like it. But the green curtains just don't have provide enough contrast. Drat! Now I have to go pillow shopping... although the boy volunteered to sew some. I don't know if I can handle it if it turns out he can sew and I can't.

Also, anyone know where to get cheap curtain rings? They really do make a big difference, but I need a LOT of them.

Cure Goals

It's time to nail down exactly want I want to accomplish in this Cure. Some of these come straight from my to-do list for the year. I also need to figure out the budget

1. Major deep cleaning treatment of the entire house (this is long overdue) - $0
   
2. Decluttering (especially the linen closet, under the bed and the kitchen cabinets) - $0
   
3. Purchase and hang new window treatments for living room (the hardest part of this one is picking window treatments) - $300
   
4. Find art for the living room - $50
   
5. Fix living room walls and repaint (there's a moisture issue I've been trying to fix with free help, but it's time to call in a pro. I have no idea how much the repair might be. I'm hoping less than $300)
6. Install shelf and lighting above bed - $70
   
7. New fanlight for bedroom - $100
8. Art/wall interest for bathroom (maybe a decal?) - $30
9. New towels? (having all matching towels would be nice, I haven't bought towels since college, but since I have ones that are perfectly fine... I dunno)
   

Wow - it all adds up quick, doesn't it? The $850 budget is definitely a maximum, I hope I'll come in much lower. Maybe I'll get lucky with the moisture repair, even though I'm fearing the worst.

updated 3/13

Could Your Home Use Some Lovin'?

Soon my favorite home design blog, Apartment Therapy, will be kicking off their 8-week Spring Cure. The cure, which is detailed in Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan's book Apartment Therapy: The Eight Step Home Cure, is about all about creating the best home possible for you.

This will be my second cure. I tried the spring cure last year, but fell off the wagon after a couple of weeks. It can be a LOT of work in eight weeks. But even though I didn't finish, I still think starting the process helped me do even more to personalize my home over the past year.

I must warn you the first time I read the book I stumbled on some parts that felt, well, a little hokey to me. Things like feeling all the walls in your space, buying flowers every week, and switching to all green cleaners seemed a bit much to me, but after some time passed I eventually tried most of the things and ended up liking them. Now I mostly use green cleaners, I buy flowers a few times a year and bring them in from the garden even more frequently, and I'm investing more time and energy in making my home a place I really love.

The book tells you everything you need to know to do the cure on your own, but the group cures are way more fun because there's a great community of people to share the experience with and get feedback and ideas from.

So if your home could use a little lovin', check out the book (my library has it; yours might too) and join the spring cure!

Fresh Flowers

Buying fresh flowers every week as an offering to your home is one of the suggestions I immediately dismissed from the Apartment Therapy: The Eight Step Home Cure book (although on the whole I liked the book). Buying flowers that will just die every week feels a little too extravagant to me (did I mention I'm cheap?). I'd much rather invest in a perennial for the garden that's going to bloom and bloom. But I'm starting to get spring fever and I do love how flowers brighten a room up. I'm not a houseplant person, but I really need to see some blooms!

I also love, love, LOVE daffodils and tulips, so when I spied $4 tulips tonight at Wal-Mart, I had to get them. My plan is to photograph the tulips to track just how long they cheap tulips can last. Stay tuned! This way it won't just be an impulse buy, it will be valuable research!

The Cure

I'm kinda, sorta doing the Cure, although I've already fallen behind. This week is the kitchen. I finally did a little organizing and cleaning tonight. It was worth it.

Step 1: I finally got rid of several of the mismatched mugs I've had since college. Step 2: I replaced them with some fun, colorful mugs I found last night.

Funny that something so simple can feel so much better.