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Apparently I am doing a hybrid. Really, I'm looking to one room remedy the storage space but it is hard to go down there sometimes, especially when it's nice out. I still intend on accomplishing it and spend at least 2.5 hours a week with it. For instant gratification I am also cleaning our kitchen cupboards and will do the summer/winter clothing switch.
What I've noticed about our behaviors:
The place is squeaky clean from Saturday to Wednesday then it all goes down the pot. My husband is a declutter and owns the most cluttery stuff. I am a deep cleaner. I wish we had a room for him that is lined with shelves.
I've noticed that I've done a lot of curing in the last couple of years. The problem is that it all went into the storage. Oops.
What I really appreciate is that I am now hyper aware of all the little things. The list is growing and I'll start to accomplish those soon.
Posted 26 months ago.
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well this is a hard week for us because it is the color and fabric week. both of which we normally stray away from. we always buy leather furniture because of our 75 lb dog that uses the couch more than us. and he loves the blankets too, so we only buy items you can wash. did i mention i cringe at buying anything with color? bad habit. i will make an effort to buy some color. i am really gonna try this time! some progress picture updates during the week. we have lots of dyi projects kicking around now that the light is finally done.
Posted 26 months ago.
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I am away from home till friday, and work on saturday, but sunday will be my big fat week 4-cure day. Will focus on decluttering in the LR.
Oh, and I need a new curtain rack!
I found two new chairs for the dining nook in the LR, I will get them tomorrow. So most of the LR related stuff will be done next week, I gess, as it is lot to be done....
Posted 26 months ago.
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We have a rug in the TV room which is essentially rainbow-striped, and we've decided to replace it with a solid color rug, probably dark brown. I think we should also get a new blanket for the couch - right now it's my childhood comforter my grandma made for me with a pattern of colorful kitties and puppies all over it. I think it should be solid or more subdued pattern as well, probably brown or pink.
In the living room, we're going to get a light blue desk. The living room needs some color. It's very brown/white/gray - boring. I'm trying to add red, yellow, and blue to that room and the attached kitchen. Without a desk there's still a few piles of boxes and clutter that need homes, but the room is at least liveable now.
I moved all the green and pink things into the bedroom last night. It really helped to decide on colors for each room, because I am able to quickly sort objects into each room, and then decide if I need them or if they need to be somewhere else/a different color/thrown out.
Posted 26 months ago.
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ha! william, i'm so with you! my dog's only 8 lbs, but he sheds like he weighs 75 - no light textiles for me, and everything EVERYTHING! must be washable. MACHINE washable. grr.......
Posted 26 months ago.
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This week will be a challenge for me. I am horrible with color. I have trouble committing to anything.
Posted 26 months ago.
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Thoughts on accent walls? I painted the big wall in my living room a wonderful spring green that I love....but I don't know if my entire living room could handle such a massive dose of color, especially since the living area opens up into the dining area (with a mirror wall...ugh) and kitchen...pictures to come...
Posted 26 months ago.
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The cooking thing is easy for me. I blogged about it today with a yummy recipe (http://mommymommyland.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/the-cure-cooking/) The catalog clutter however is really hard. But its all "Farmer porn" ie seed catalogs. We get tons of them, but because we order out of most of them we like to keep them around to review if we need more seeds.
Not sure about putting all the music on the computer, won't it slow the computer down? And what of my computer crashes yet again? I have a backup, but that has crashed before too, sooo....
Posted 26 months ago.
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@mizrahishopper you can get an external hard drive for your music so it doesn't slow down your machine. they are pretty cheap.
Posted 26 months ago.
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mizrahishopper - if your computer is slowing down because of music files, it's time to get a new computer. i have 55GB of music on my six year old hp desktop that doesn't even have 1GB of RAM. it's only got 448MB. they don't even make computers with that little RAM anymore!
i also have an additional 74GB of video on this thing. if your computer has the same specs as mine, you'll be just fine. if your computer has better specs, well then there is nothing to worry about.
how are you backing up your files? i use two external hard drives.
i recommend keeping all your files on an external and working off of that, that way if your computer's hard drive crashes, the only thing you lose is the programs you've installed and maybe a few files here and there. i've lost files before and it suuuuucks, so i store very little on my desktop and tablet pc.
Posted 26 months ago.
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Color and softness - scary!
Alahoop - I have the opposite problem - I get all kinds of colorful accessories and then realize they can't all go together. I think I'll be doing some sorting and redecorating this week. Plus, I don't want to buy too many new things as I may be moving in the next 6 months!
Posted 26 months ago.
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This is more than terrifying. I love white, clean spaces and am struggling to add warmth and texture on a newlywed/student budget while living in South Africa... Any suggestions are welcome!
Deep Treatment
- Clean up living room and related closets. (check)
- Repairs are being taken care of this week. (double check)
- Declutter books and all media. (next question please!)
- Cancel 75 percent of the catalogs you receive. (check!)
- Empty Outbox this week. (worried face)
- Confirm what you need to increase or decrease color in each room (worried face)
- Identify what you need to increase or decrease softness in each room. (worried face)
- Cook three meals at home this week. (check!)
- Send out your invitations. (Far behind on this one!)
Posted 26 months ago.
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kknina [deleted] says:
Week 4 - Deep Treatment
- Clean up living room and related closets.
- Repairs are being taken care of this week.
- Declutter books and all media.
- Cancel 75 percent of the catalogs you receive.
- Empty Outbox this week.
- Confirm what you need to increase or decrease color in each room.
- Identify what you need to increase or decrease softness in each room.
- Cook three meals at home this week.
- Send out your invitations.
Done. No to do.
Originally posted 26 months ago.
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kknina edited this topic 26 months ago.
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I painted my bathroom! I know, completely out of order cure-wise. We are also having a party in a few weeks, way before the end of the cure. It's not ideal but a friend will be staying with us and it's in his honour, so there will be no moving it. I think I'll have a smaller dinner party at the end of the cure to celebrate.
Now trying to figure out what to do with my bathroom. I was trying for slate grey and light grey, but it's turned out pretty high-contrast, almost black and white. So now I'm trying to add some warmth and colour pops (towels?) and figure out what to do with this funny little nook space next to the shower...
Posted 26 months ago.
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Oh yeah, I forgot to mention something - last week I cleaned the hell out of my stove. This week? The oven light and bottom rack are not working. No idea why. Anyone here a stove expert?? I'm going to replace the bulb and see if that helps, but otherwise it might be repair time. :(
Posted 26 months ago.
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we are buying the sofa. today. ohhhh boy. it is kinda large for our space, but if we wanted to put a sofa the 'short way' we would have to buy a love seat. which we don't want cause we like to lay down on the couch and watch a movie. so we will try this out and see if we can manage this couch and still not have the bowling alley effect.
Posted 26 months ago.
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guys, what do i do to add color to my all neutral house? I love my white walls and brown, black and beige prints, but I feel like I need pops of color somewhere. Any ideas would be much much appreciated :) art? plants? pillows? how do I do pops without it looking out of place and random?
@:) william-your light fixture is awesome
@white knuckles-i have the same doggie issues, i can't even have an area rug, oh my!
Posted 26 months ago.
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kknina [deleted] says:
@steph: Um, pillows maybe in that same red colour that you have both outside and inside (chairs on the porch, bread box)? It really *pops*. Or then a fresh, clear green maybe? Combination of both, not close to each other though? This way you can gently introduce some splashes here and there, without it becoming overwhelming.
Originally posted 26 months ago.
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kknina edited this topic 26 months ago.
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kknina [deleted] says:
@William: Love your light thingy, it's gorgeous! How did it go with the couch?
Posted 26 months ago.
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@steph: throw pillows? buying half a yard of fabric, and a pillow insert should cost you less than $10 - so a pretty small investment, should you end up passing it on. if you don't feel like sewing (and really, who does?!) you could applique some store-bought pillow covers. i was just cruising the ikea website (for a friend, i swear) and they have some really sweet punchy fabrics. also, the irma (?) pillow form is on sale for 1.99 cdn! if you get a premade cushion cover, you can unzip it and throw it in the wash.
and i've forgotten or never known where you live... is it conducive to flowering plants? i've been getting potted flowers instead of cut ones (mistake. every damn time...i am not allowed to own anything but cactus.) barring the fact that the dry atmosphere kills them slowly, they add lots of colour WAY on the cheap.
Posted 26 months ago.
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curing has been hard for me each week, but i'm getting a few things done corresponding to each room. still need to take pictures! i've gotten rid of a ton of stuff to the goodwill, i cleaned out my upper cabinets and refrigerator, and fixed up the entry way.
this week we are going out of town so my plan to fix up the media shelves won't be completed. instead i'm working ahead in the bedroom and trying some wardrobe therapy. hopefully i'll finish and end up with an empty dresser that i can move into the living room!
Posted 26 months ago.
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@steph_123 and @kknina
thanks! we are glad that light fixture is done too. it adds so much to the space. the cement box, as we affectionately call our apartment, is warming up.
whoo - the couch is purchased and will be delivered the first week in may. we bought the one from our inspiration photo from ABC carpet and home. we will retire our 10.5 year old american leather couch. it is still a great couch, i think we might sell it on craigslist. we have not bought a couch in 10 years so it is very hard to pick one out.
this week we have some images to post, new curtains, a new vintage blanket (must be DRY cleaned, hardest purchase we have made yet) and we are 'thinking' of putting the rug in the bedroom and buying something new for the living room.
Posted 26 months ago.
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I love that the topic line *retail therapy* keeps popping up in my reader every time someone post a reply... I get a good chuckle... For the first time in a long time I am NOT thinking about shopping... But cleaning. *With all the cleaning and Curing going on around here, who has time to shop? I gotta keep moving!*
Posted 26 months ago.
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I'm definitely a little behind on my Cure. I had an impromptu trip home for Easter (thanks to mom for buying the plane ticket!). My problem with color/pattern is I pretty much like everything I see. So I have an overwhelming mish-mosh of things that I don't think necessarily fit.
I'm slowly pulling it together though. I purchased a few throw pillows from Dwell Studio for Target yesterday and swapped out a print for the wall in the living room. We're going to try again with the furniture layout this weekend. Not really feelin the new layout because half of the room goes basically unused.
I'd like to bring in some additional color to the guest room by way of a new coverlet (something light for the summer). I'm hoping to find something before my parents come to stay in 2 weeks. If anyone has any suggestions for the room with the beachy art that would be wonderful.
I'm still working on the landing strip. Not exactly sure how to make the laundry room "welcoming" since it's so small and dark.
Posted 26 months ago.
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@Christine_Z: did you pull out the elements when you cleaned it? You might not be getting a proper connection if you did that. I'd check and clean again any connections and replug and see if it works.
Posted 26 months ago.
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I definitely got some homewares retail therapy on my holiday to Sydney over Easter. I'm not sure its exactly what Apartment Therapy had in mind but I enjoyed it hehe. I blogged about some cool homewares stores around Sydney Australia on my blog littlegreenhaus.blogspot.com
Consequently I'm going to be subtracting some possessions and adding them to the outbox which I'll be clearing during the week to make up for the new stuff that I've added. I'm also ready to start painting the study on the weekend which is the focus of this cure (I'm doing a combo of the deep treatment and 1 room remedy).
So everything is just about on schedule. Now just for the actual hard work painting!
Posted 26 months ago.
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I feel like I haven't accomplished much with this cure. I seem to be doing more spring cleaning than transforming a room. For instance, my project for this week has been to completely clean the windows. I had no idea how dirty they had gotten until they were taken apart and I almost don't want to put the screens/storm windows back up because the view is so nice. As far as the actual list for this week, I do seem to be doing ok, because several of the things don't apply to me.
- Clean up living room and related closets. - Need to do.
- Repairs are being taken care of this week. - Not hopeful it will be done this week, but hoping it will be done by the end of the cure.
- Declutter books and all media. - Books are in bookcases, but will be reorganized later. There is a firm plan for that. As far as dvd's and cd's, that was completed last year. We bought several cd cases and all of the media is stored under the entertainment center.
- Cancel 75 percent of the catalogs you receive. - We don't get any catalogs.
- Empty Outbox this week. - Need to find a decent place to set one up that isn't by the front door. I tried that once and it made things look very cluttered.
- Confirm what you need to increase or decrease color in each room. - The dining room needs a punch of color, so I'm toying with the idea of making something out of fabric. Living room needs to be painted and our pictures put up.
- Identify what you need to increase or decrease softness in each room. - Dining room is good, but the living room needs colorful pillows for the couch and curtains.
- Cook three meals at home this week. - Doing this for years already.
- Send out your invitations. - A bit early for this one. I'm toying with the idea of having an anniversary bbq sometime in June.
Posted 26 months ago.
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kknina [deleted] says:
I just baked. It probably doesn't qualify as cooking at home, but for me it's huge. Haven't had an oven for years really (in the secondary home in Denmark), except when sporadically in this (primary) home. Just made cinnamon rolls and right after they went into the oven I asked my husband "Considering these are my first cinnamon rolls ever, should I sit here watching them until they're done?" to which he for some mysterious reason just laughed. I decided it would be a tad too much to hang out for minutes in front of the "tv" but they turned out fabulous without my watchful eye anyway. Now the husband and I are content after a glass of milk and a couple of rolls, while the home is smelling of real home. Thanks AT!
Posted 26 months ago.
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Progress - Walking into a store and seriously thinking about whether the purchase would add to my apartment or not...this is huge people!
Posted 26 months ago.
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@kknina:
i used to sit in front of my danish nana's oven THE ENTIRE TIME the cinnamon rolls were baking. your people are the uncontested champions of breakfast pastry.
so far now this week, i've decluttered and organized the bookshelf and the dvds are all in hidden storage. now that i've found a home for that expedit shelf i bought for record storage, the yellow credenza can now house my out-of-rotation decorative items ( i hate getting rid of something i like just because it doesn't "go". for now.) and the entire media collection. i've already tossed out one outbox, now i have another two full of books to go! today i post the items i want to sell on craigslist, and hope for the best! my cure's been totally derailed the last couple weeks, and i'm starting to have a really hard time doing the necessary daily/weekly cleaning PLUS all this organizing and culling.
Posted 26 months ago.
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Oh man. Cinnamon rolls. I'm so hungry now! I just bought some sheets and other things that I'd been putting off buying. The last time I did the Cure, I ended up spending a lot on nice-to-have items and running out of money before I could get the more need-to-have items. New sheets, a power strip, and some other odds and ends are heading my way soon.
I reorganized my living room last week, and now I'm trying to get back to my one-room cure on my bedroom. I'm thinking of making Union Jack pillows, but I can't decide on the color combination. Anyone want to share their thoughts?
Here are the possible pillow colors and the quilt I have and sheets I just ordered:
www.flickr.com/photos/nsolis/4508850033/
Here's a terrible photo of my bedroom:
www.flickr.com/photos/nsolis/4461088647/
Nicole
Posted 26 months ago.
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Week 4 has been weird because I was 'work' focused this week and will be next week starting tomorrow. Funny because the work I'm doing has to do with presenting solutions that make the home energy efficient and other work regarding books, music and movies. Ha. I'm also dog sitting which means the floor cleaning task of week 5 will definitely be required.
I got through a lot in the storage room on Monday and today we hauled a bunch of it away. We made a whopping $4 on books and the rest was donated. Tonight I also checked off the beginning of another project that I've wanted to start. I'll be experimenting with growing tomatoes, onions, arugula and other herbs on the fire escape.
Thus far the weekend was inspiring. Friday I woke up and did some cleaning before work! Also went to an open house at one of the premier letter press studios, Studio on FIre and now have a print to frame. Then we went to a clothing boutique, Cliche, for the summer fashion release. It was refreshing to have such a fun night.
Tomorrow i will be cleaning a nasty winter worn front window. I can't believe I've waited this long. Then, the work I brought home.
I jumped started chapter 5 and am pleased that there was concise information about what paper to keep and how long. There were some details that I never considered. I've thrown a lot out in the past year.
Finally, Apartment Therapy was plugged on page 110 of Lonny Magazine.
....My major fix for the week is my bike. Some twerp stole my seat, post, reflector and light. BOOO
Originally posted 26 months ago.
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AmandaDT edited this topic 26 months ago.
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thesoybean - That is what I used to do, or I'd buy stuff that only worked in one room of my house, and only for a short time (because I am too fickle). Eventually I got tired of donating it all and quit buying anything with color. Now I can move things from room to room, but they are all kind of blah!
Posted 26 months ago.
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Well, I have a new front door knob amd arranged a new glass for one LR window. Yay! Rest of LR decluttering will be done this week, also some small rearrangement, as I got two "new" vintage Saarinen chairs. I picked them with my sister in Munich and drove them home south. I gave them a good cleaning and need now new pillows, as they are shabby. So one Eames chair has to leave the LR, will include it in the bedroom where I need a chair to host the clothes overnight. I was also at IKEA, but I forgot the bring the messurement for the new curtain rack...
And I need need need new flowers!
Originally posted 26 months ago.
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nicolezh edited this topic 26 months ago.
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Ok, oven is beyond our DIY fixit capabilities. We replaced the oven light and even tried replacing the element - nothing. Time to call in the experts. :(
Posted 26 months ago.
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Im a mess and all over the map. Ive yet to complete one week's worth of tasks on time. Though I am getting stuff done and there is an improvement....i feel like my focus is not there...and I only have a studio!!!
within the last month my place was flooded and burgaled with my laptop and noted progress..(sigh), but since i already sent out my AT party invite, I gotta get crackin...
ok, thanks for the rant. back to our regularly scheduled program..
Posted 26 months ago.
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