apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Sign me up! I am ready to jump on this bandwagon.
Amy (Chicago)

Horray! The Weekend post.

I hit a dead end discovering two drawers full of envelopes yesterday, but after seeing "Possessed," (check the AT:SF or AT:LA pages) I'm more than ready to jump back in!

We have a small 1/2 sized fridge to take to my Mom's, too. I'm hoping to get that done tonight or tomorrow. Not quite as easy as putting it on the curb: but what a relief for it to be gone!

thefarmersdaughter- how thick is that beadboard paneling?

Stellarmom--you're curing your house, right?

Is anyone else?

I have a house and I've done two cures--and i learned a lot about how NOT to do it!

I wrote a post dealing with this: http://prairiehometherapy.blogspot.com/2008/03/curing-house.html

Alana -- thanks. I have 2600 sf and am killing myself on these floors! I'm almost there but it's taken every bit of my spare time this week...I might have to adapt future weeks to suit my needs a little better :) On the other hand, maybe I should keep killing myself to get it done because I am REALLY enjoying the fruits of my labor so far. Just scrubbed 6 months worth of stains out of my bedroom carpet -- WHY didn't I do that months ago???

Metromom--it's your choice, but don't burn out!

I've reached something of an impasse. So far, I've just been sorting and purging--you know, putting all the art supplies in one area, the fabric and such in another, coralling strays and tossing whatever needs to go.

You would not believe the pile of empty boxes I have!

It's time to box and bag up the outbox, weigh it and take everything to good will.

I'm looking forward to next week, already.

I admit it, seeing my pic on AT gives me a little thrill. (the office with the toys)

I'm curing a house too, but it's a tiny house - 750 sq ft not including the basement or attic. And I'm not even attempting to work on the basement or attic, those are the SCARY storage areas.

But I still have not been motivated to do the floors, except the bathroom (which now feels DIVINE!). Maybe I should just do it now and get it over with?

I'm also pleasantly surprised to see so many fellow buckeyes. Anyone else in Columbus?

Ahhhh...I did it, the thing I was dreading most, vacuumming and washing the floors. And since there isn't any carpet in the main living areas of the house, that's a lot of floors to wash! Let's just say I need to do it more often. A lot more often.

Does anyone know of any green cleaners that are safe for Pergo floors? I've been using the special Pergo cleaner, but I HATE the smell. On the real wood floors I just use water and vinegar, which is much more pleasant.

Heads up: Wardrobe Therapt is beginning!
If any of you (and you know who you are) feel overwhelmed (or, even underwhelmed) by your wardrobe, JOIN US!

Wende in Phoenix hosts:
http://anotherdayanothercure.blogspot.com/

Candice,

I'm down in Athens, Ohio. Although I make trips up to Powell/Dublin occasionally to visit with the boyfriend's family. I'm originally from up north, west of Cleveland in Bay Village.

Hi, I signed up online already I think...just confirming, sign me up as margaretk! (My flickr name is Margusie).

I'm in Toronto - so Canada crowd.

My week has been pretty busy with work - I'm lagging behind. However I did the quiz and realized that our apartment is doing well on all counts except Breath - we have "too much stuff" for our small apartment.

I fixed this a week ago (I'm counting this as counting towards the cure) in the bedroom by emptying out 3! LARGE black bags of clothing into my parents' basement (aka our storage, hehe). This week has been a pleasure of maintenance of the cleanliness of the bedroom (so easy to put things away!), as well as getting dressed in the morning (so easy to make a choice! I left nothing but what I actually wear to work, and a small assortiment of things I wear for going out).

I got flowers! very happy I did that.

The kitchen will be a toughie. It needs a fresh coat of paint and a good wall washing.

Still haven't washed the floors - to-do for the day is to do the deep cleaning for this week. I'll report back after I'm done (and post photos, I hope.)

Oh seperately: my large goal for the cure is to fix our closet/pantry/coat closet/storage. Its pretty large and deep and weirdly shaped and I hope to fix it. Just no idea how - I've tried to tackle it about 10 times in the past year, and each time I make a small improvement but nothing significant.

Nothing in it is easy to get to, but it seems like we use everything. I don't know what to do!

Olya, do you have pics of your pantry area?
Directly link and we can comment. Maybe we can come up with something.

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who's been putting off floors. I know they need it, especially since we're trying to find ways to be both dog friendly AND not dog smelly.

Off to buy some new flowers! :)

Francesca- This is the very thin 1/8 inch beadboard. It is super easy to work with and covered up all the horrible holes, dings and dents in the wall.

Oh dear me.
I just washed the kitchen and living room floors.
(The living room is also the family room.)

Of course, I couldn't stop there. I also had to empty and wipe down most of the shelves. I had to vaccumm the furniture. Dust.

and SCRAPE AWAY AT CANDLE DROPPINGS.

ugh.

My daughter and her friend kindly went through all the puzzles, games and colouring books and got rid of a few.

I'm exhausted. and I think I've earned some web-time!

Oh, I meant to ask: when you mop with vinegar and water (on hardwood)--should you rinse with clear water?

This was my first time trying just the vinegar and water instead of using Murphy's.

You can use Bona for everything but hardwood floors to clean the Pergo. It's green, too.

Alana - I never rinse and my floors feel great. Although I don't use a lot of vinegar (1 cup to 1 bucket hot water), I try not to get them very wet and I dry the floors as I go. It's a pain, but I'm not 100% confident in the finish on my floors. I should have refinished them before moving in. :(

But you might want to search the net a bit and see what you think. Many people swear by vinegar and water and many others warn against it. It also depends on what your finish is.

I wash my floors quite infrequently.

Thanks Candice. I will.

My mother's pantry just lost 20 pounds.

(I must preface this with the fact that I live in the same building as my elderly parents, on a different floor. This has made any caregiving and household work I do for them sooooo much easier.)

I popped up to their apartment this morning to wish my Dad a happy 95th birthday (!) and Mum asked me to look on the top kitchen shelf for something. I didn't find it up there, but while I was standing on the step stool, I thought I'd do a little tidying (she can't climb up on anything any more, so can't do this herself). One thing led to another, and by the time I was finished (a little over an hour later), I had tossed 20 pounds of stuff! It looks so much better now, and it will be so much easier for her to know what's there.

So that's my start for Kitchen Week! Yay. (No pics of the process, I didn't think she'd want her kitchen displayed on the internet...)

Good for you, scb!

I bet you feel a whole lot more than 20 lbs lighter.

I have my first week's progress report done.

http://prairiehometherapy.blogspot.com/2008/03/week-1-progress-report.html

My flicker photos are posted to the group, but you can also see them here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46773919@N00/

(Btw, this was a major accomplishment for me. I got a digital camera for Christmas and I was so nervous about uploading them, I only did it last night! I think I may do it again before I have 194 pictures, however.)

I peeled the wallpaper off the walls, fixed all the holes, removed all the hardware, washed all the walls and woodwork, getting it ready for priming.
I did not think I would get much done this weekend, but I feel better if I do just a little bit.

Francesca--that's more than a little bit!
Good for you.

I can't believe how much everyone has done in just two weeks, already.
Amazing!

Yay SCB and Alana and Francesca!

I had a very productive week zero and an abreviated week 1 due to family illness. My list of everything I got done is here
just 1 more chair that's where all my cure stuff is- it's also linked to my profile. I am thefarmersdaughter on flickr where I have far to many photos posted.
It's good to be back and I can't wait for this week!