apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i am feeling overwhelmed at this point, started with just doing the cure on my bedroom and then added the dining room, hallway, and kitchen. i think i will save the kitchen for the fall cure, budget and creativity block. the bedroom and the dining room are on there way and i am excited about it. to add a confession on here, i am not going to have a party, i know it is an important part of the cure, but maybe after the fall cure and me doing my own summer cure to get the stairwell and bathroom done. thanks for all the support.

Raikenn, it is entirely normal to feel overwhelmed at this point. Setting priorities this week is absolutely crucial to conquer the Great Overwhelm. I'm hitting it every day. Well, except for today. Today I've decided to make a run to Good will--a box of books, a box of odds and ends and two bags of cothes. Grand total: 75 lbs!

And I'm not having a party either--except on-line.

I understand the feeling overwhelmed. I have made the most progress in my sewing which is good since it was one of the main room I wanted to cure. I keep getting distracted by doing things in rooms I wasn't planning on curing like new curtains in my bedroom.
My party will be my sister's college graduation party so hopefully it will all get done in time.
Keep going Raikeen and don't worry about getting everything done.
Good job Alana on the Good Will trip. That is always a good feeling to get rid of 75lbs!

How do I send in photos again? I recovered my sofa this weekend and wanted to share. It was stressful but almost complete. I also got all the cobwebs out of the livingroom. Yuck

I had my in-laws (mother, father, brother, and nephew) in town for 4 days/5 nights a week ago, and then this past Saturday we had 50 people over for a cocktail party. I'm a little worn out from all the entertaining, so I probably won't get around to posting pictures until this weekend. The party was pretty fun and less stressful than years past as far as getting ready thanks to what I've done so far for the Cure. It would have been nice to have had the kitchen completely cleaned beforehand. Oh well.

Ugh...I still have to do taxes too!

Affordable (less than $500) non-ugly toilets anyone? The one I had picked is no longer available.

Posting pictures--Create a flickr account.
Join the Apartment therapy chicago group. (I forget how I did that, though).

Choose "upload photos" and follow the instructions. Change the title to something informative and under "description" write want you want to tell us about it.

Once the picture appears as done, click on it and look for a tab that says "add to groups." Click on that, a pop up menu appears, choose apartment therapy cure and it'll ask you to confirm. Do so, and you are done.

I think that the hardest thing for me to accept is that there is always SOMETHING to be done. You are never actually finished.

This process has been amazing because I have been having a hard time personally lately. The cure gives me something to focus on and is really helping with my general attitude about things. I am simply happier in my space and it seeps into my life also.

My greatest accomplishment so far has got to be my dining room. It used to be a space that I never used and now it's my favorite room in the apartment. I can't wait to entertain!

http://harmonyfrance.wordpress.com

Francesca, what a pain in the butt. I had to pick out a new toilet just a few months ago...and I wouldn't even consider something over $300.00. Where are you looking?

I had to fit mine into a small space, it had to be low flush and without all that ugly fancy stuff on the base (which look like bulging kidneys to me and would be nasty to clean).

We got ours--an American Standard, from a big box home store (Revy's/Rona's).

The whole saga is here:
http://prairiehometherapy.blogspot.com/search/label/bathroom

hth

I'm still plugging away. I am leaving for vacation for a week (yay!) and didn't adequately factor in the extra work of preparing to go away while also trying to squeeze in an extra week of curing - so in some ways, I'm behind on the curing, but any progress is good progress, right?

This week I sorted through my file cabinet and threw away 15 lbs of old papers, assembled a rug for the family room which I'm *very* happy with -- some much-needed color and much-needed softness, continued with the stripes in the entry, and am pondering paint colors for that entry dresser. On item that I had ordered for the entry ended up not being to my liking, so I still need some decorative items, but I'm going to wait and buy what I love. The Worlds Fair print is here and very cool - probably won't be framed until after vacation though. And I'm still waiting for my Ork poster.

I'm still plugging away- we have the walls fixed in my son's room, the shelves up, and new curtain rods. I still have to hem the curtains, do the curtain for the toy shelves, frame his prints, organize his shelves, fix the pillows for his bed, take down the Heywood Wakefield and bring up the smaller dresser (which also needs to be painted) so I still have about a week of work to do on that room.

I also need to finish the laundry room, bring up the big blue rug for the living room, and figure out something for the main bathroom, but I decided to put my bedroom paint job on hold- it's to cold to open those windows and paint yet- so I think that will happen further in spring and not during the cure. I did manage to get the new curtains and pillows for the bedroom all done though, and some new accessories for the room. Boy, I have a lot of work to do I guess.....

Alana in Canada: your bathroom was really a challenge! I'm not having it so bad and I do have some time to decide, while I'm working on the top half.

Thanks, Francesca. I appreciate the sympathy. Having one's bathroom is disarray is never fun.

I'm knee deep in sorting fabric and tablecloths, pillow covers--and 1/2 finished sewing projects. You know the kind: curtains you were going to shorten, curtains you were going to lengthen, curtains you were going to make two panels of, but got one done and called it finished, pillow projects; doilies (yes, doilies!) you were going to make into pillow covers, bits of embroidery off of old pillowcases you want to do something with....

I've read that clutter is just a deferred decision---so there are many, many decisions to be made today.

I'm feeling especially relieved that all of the work I did last fall has held up pretty well. I'm still in the process of getting things to where I feel content, but I'm realistically aware that it sometimes is never done!

I'm taking it just a little at a time. It's provided a welcome distraction from a stressful time at work.

My biggest accomplishment so far is keeping up with my cleaning and NOT bringing in a bunch of unnecessary items into my home.

My favorite thing so far is watching how everyone has pulled together, drawn strength and inspiration from each other, and gotten SO MUCH done!