I have to admit I haven't been following along day by day, BUT this has been incredibly useful motivation and guidance nonetheless. Yesterday, I finally cleaned out my mess of a closet (I swear I haven't seen the floor in years) and I feel so much better. A big part of the delay, I think, is that I'm trying to save money by avoiding "little" purchases that add up, so even buying a lamp, or a mail sorter is an impulse I'm trying to curb.

Me and my husband worked on some projects tirelessly this weekend, catching up with just about everything! But alas, there's always something more to be done. So I'll take this day to tie up yet again some more loose ends! And I really should take some photos.

I have to admit I'm pretty much done with the cure. I live in a very small studio apartment, though, so it limits what needed curing! I've cleaned my closets, kitchen and living area. Reorganized drawers in all parts of the house. Completed a mini-update in my bathroom (fresh paint, towel bars and a new shelf) and gave away about 5 bags to goodwill. I even reorganized my photo collection. I feel great. I just want to sit at home and bask in how nice everything looks.

Catching up on: the bedroom deep clean (the closet is half-emptied but I have to finish + change linens) and general housework (my poor neglected bathrooms!). I'm in the home stretch of my goal project. This month has been a real learning experience for me. So glad I joined the cure.

I've also not followed the Cure to the letter of the law but it has been great motivation to get things decluttered and cleaned. The goal project is still a ways away from being done (requires husband's motivation/assistance) but I just need to get the mojo going from this month and we'll get it done soon. Hopefully it can be completed during the February cure. Ha!

This push by AT and January Cure was the perfect motivation to clean and organize the whole house, plus make a few fun decor changes like my shortish-long sag top drapes http://www.revamphomegoods.com/2013/01/houzz-sew-sag-top-curtains.html (GASP!). All of this work FINALLY set me up to take some good progress photos of our home which is a 1900 fixer-upper which needs a cure all its own. http://www.revamphomegoods.com/p/home-tour.html

I am going to need at least a week to catch up, but I will take a day too!! A photo at this point would make me look pretty bad.

All the work that I have done feels amazing, and delivering donations this weekend felt great! I even felt inspired to bake and cook this weekend. That is huge for me since I usually live off frozen foods. Going to the grocery helped!

My catch up list includes:
- Clean & declutter medicine cabinet (which includes a couple shelves in the hall closet and a small bathroom cabinet)
- Clean and declutter linen storage
- Thoroughly clean living room; I have delayed this since a large portion of it is also my outbox and the staging area for my chosen project
- Deliver more donations this weekend
- Lots still to do with chosen project but made great progress this weekend; I realized I don't have quite as many as I thought I did.

I think my celebration at the end will be with Ben & Jerry! Yummy!

Your house is lovely, Meg! I'm sorry to see the tin backsplash in the kitchen go, though I know sometimes these thing are less salvageable in the real world than it would seem by photos. The living room is probably my favorite of your rooms... really coming together nicely!

To be honest, while I would love the catch-up day be for the home, I really need to catch up on things professionally. I work from home and am interviewing for an office-based job this week that would start immediately; if I get the job then I will need all the time I can get to finish my freelance contracts.

Everything is looking fairly good though, and I'm continuing to organize as I go. I need to work more on the bedroom and clean behind my sofa and the wall (where I've tended to tuck things out of site).

This has been great! I've been doing really well in general, with the exception of...my goal project, which was to clear out a horrible closet/small room. It was a bad project to choose to do in a month because there are boxes and boxes of financial/tax things, keepsakes, correspondence, etc. -- each box takes quite a while to go through to find the three things in the whole box that need to be filed or otherwise kept! But I've made huge progress insofar as I can SEE THE FLOOR. Even though it is unlikely to be done by month-end, it will be done pretty soon, and that's a real breakthrough -- thanks for the structure and motivation!

Still need to buy flowers, but today is the day we put up our hooks in the entryway, which is our goal project!
I am so excited not to throw our jackets onto chairs anymore! I will definitely send pictures and information once we finish.

Good luck everyone!

I'm in the process of purchasing my first home and about to move in within a month, so I haven't officially been doing the cure. However, I did take a painting to get framed last week!! I can't wait to hang it up in my new home. Thanks for the motivation to get that done.

I've got so much to catch up on. The weekend turned out to be far more out-of-the-house social than I'd planned, so almost none of the little bits of work I thought I'd get out of the way happened. I did, however, make it to Freebird Books with two boxes of donations for Books Through Bars, and that made me happy. Thanks for the info on making that donation!

I chose two projects for this month -- organizing/decorating my front hall and decluttering and organizing the shelf/cabinet that holds all my junk in the kitchen. I'm just about finished in the hall -- need to get rid of the rest of my outbox stuff and hang the piece of artwork that's been leaning against a wall for 5 years.

The kitchen shelf ... not so much. I've trashed a bunch of things from the shelves -- including not 1, not 2, but 8 old phone books! -- but I've been stalled trying to figure out how I want to arrange the stuff I need to keep. That will be tonight's work.

This month has really been amazing for me. I can't believe a) everything I've accomplished in just a few weeks when I haven't been able to get this ish done in five years, and b) how easily and happily I've kept up with regular maintenance. Who is this woman you seem to have turned me into?

Like SamanthaD, I got lost off the beaten track. Something just didn't apply and beginning a half time single mom (husband travels for work during the week) I've got enough to do in the evenings. But we do have way more organized kitchen drawers, put away Xmas stuff, arranged the bookcase, organized the work room, and I tested paint swatches in the bedroom (still haven't found one I like). I've very impressed that I spent no money organizing the kitchen or the workroom (it helps we had already bought accessories for the pegboard). I never planned the party, but I think we will throwing two in February for friends moving out of state.

Thanks Jennifer! It's always nice to hear that it's coming along from someone on the outside. The tin backsplash was actually not tin at all, but the new fangled tin look-alike stuff. But, it didn't end up in the trash - we're finding it a new home as the backing of a bookcase.

Meg@Revamp Homegoods, I just poked through the before and progress photos on your website - what huge strides you've made! I particularly love the giant chalkboard wall in your kid's room. What a great idea. :) Thanks for sharing!

I'm behind on a lot of things, but also out of town this whole week, so not much is getting done. Except for the little list I left for my husband. ;) Still, I've been saving all the emails for inspiration, including the ones I didn't have time to do them in the moment, and every little thing I *have* done has made a difference! Even making the bed does make a difference in my mindset whenever I walk into the room. I made a deal with my husband that the last person out of bed in the morning gets it straightened out. This means it's me 95% of the time, but at least then he'll do it the rest of the time. :)

I also had to cancel the get-together this weekend because other things came up, but I WILL reschedule it for later in the month. Because of money and time (mostly money), this Cure needs to be a bit more drawn out than one month for me, but I promise to host a brunch as soon as it's done. I'm also getting weekly flowers from here on out!! Even if it's just one small bouquet scattered through tiny vases, it's such a nice touch that I don't want to give it up.

I've been able to keep-up better than I thought I would. This has been a great motivator and kind of fun, too. I haven't accomplished everything I want, yet, but I'm still working on things. I am pleased with what I have done and feel that our house is overall better organized, with a few pockets of nasty that still need addressed. I'm not stressing over it because I know I'll get around to it eventually. Thanks Janel! This has been good.

While we are pretty neat, and uncluttered before joining this challenge, we did learn a lot of tricks and ideas, including getting a landing strip by the front door to handle all the stuff we now have to put in various rooms (purses, dog stuff and computers in the stairwell, phones at the charger in the dining room), so now I'll get something from Ikea to hold everything at the front door, or else modify storage at the stairwell to accommodate all our "take with" stuff, including the phone chargers. Sometimes, the simplest solutions need someone else to point them out.

I'm pretty much done with everything after this past wknd. My hubby put in another shelf in the office closet so I could organize our extra bedding better & he changed out an old electrical outlet. All that is left is for me is to get another lamp for our bedroom which won't feel like a chore at all = shopping. :) Looking forward to a lazy but tidy February in our house!

I would like to see maybe a diet "cure" next January for the food section. Not so much for losing weight but for eating healthier. I think we all get in an eating rut & need suggestions on how to work in healthy foods to our everyday diet/meal planning.

As others have mentioned, the January Cure was a great motivator even if I was unable to follow every task to the letter. My family will continue to use the Cure to keep up with our projects.

We donated many items, I removed the loathsome stair carpet, floors gut scrubbed, drawers are tidier. The process wasn't pretty but the results are satisfying. I'm surprised by how satisfying it is to clean areas that NOBODY sees. My mother-in-law is never going to look under the cast iron radiators but I love knowing that we dug out a year's worth of cat hair, modeling clay, shells and Lego bits.

One of the best and hardest parts of the Cure was writing the complete project list for the house and garden. We stored our list in Cozi along with relevant dimensions for various projects. It might take us a couple years to tackle everything but just knowing what we want to do is half the battle!

It turns out that the Cure was the same for me as for many others - I couldn't do many of the major weekend cleans due to working weekends and budget, but I did get many things done that I wouldn't have done otherwise, and the walk-through list has given me more focus as to what I still need to do in my home.

I did take a "before" photo of my entryway, but it's not quite ready for the "after" just yet. At least we now have a coat rack and a landing strip!

Dogmom .... I love your idea for Healthy Cure! I would totally go for that as long as the options are reasonably affordable. I know I could eat healthier, it just needs to be easy to pull together for weekday meals. Convenience is the bottom line in determining what I will make after a long day.

Now that my home is a little more pleasant to be in, I do want to cook more.

I'll definitely be doing a little catch up tonight. I couldn't quite motivate myself to tackle the cords behind the TV (and there was tennis to watch!), or the full living room clean. Our living room is fairly tidy though. The boyfriend did dust the ceiling fan blades, which really needed it, and I caught up on some of the bathroom cleaning. And we did empty the stuff in our outbox that was going to donations. So glad to get rid of it!

I'll be doing a little more dusting tonight and re-arranging our big bookshelf I think.

Today will be my paperwork and clean landing strip make up day. I will also email my after pic. Sadly, I don't have a before pic. I might be able to photoshop a before. My wall went from blank to art & items hung.

I decided to join the cure just before the weekend, and leaped right into it after reading the posts and comments for a couple of weeks.... I am currently on day 4, but have jumped ahead and already decluttered books and media, found artwork to frame and rearranged my living room/dining area.

I look forward to finally get that push to deep-clean my kitchen and bathroom, and hope to organize my craft room, it is a mess!

I definitely need a catch-up day after my busy weekend! Today, I'm finishing the heavy duty cleaning of my living room/dining area (it's one long room). And we bought our new wood flooring this weekend for my biggest goal project! I'm beyond excited. We'll be installing it this weekend, just in time for me to be finished with my Curing. ;)

The Cure got thrown off course for us when my DH and I both caught a terrible virus - he's been sick two weeks, and I've been sick one. Now our 12 year old has it, too. BUT - we donated 5 bags of stuff to Goodwill, gave some little kid board games and DVDs away to cute little kiddos, and got a hell of a lot of other things accomplished! And just coming together and writing down our goals and getting ideas was a big step forward! I've pinned every day of the CURE to pinterest, and will revisit it again and again.

Janel, PLEASE do a Summer Cure! :-)

Catching up on my various project.It will be difficult to photograph today, the light is not very good with the bad weather!

At the beginning of "The Cure", I made a list of goals I intended to tackle during January. I am amazed at what I have accomplished. My linen closet, 13x7 clothes closet, office closet, laundry system, mail system and bathroom organization have never been so streamlined and efficient. For extra bathroom storage, I placed a smaller cabinet on top of a vintage wooden cabinet with metal top, painted them to match and bought matching pulls to create what now looks like a vintage apothecary cabinet. "The Cure" has been very inspirational to me.

Thanks so much, Cristie! That's definitely a favorite feature of the room, but it's also a toughie because I let my son have free reign with it. I often have to fight the urge to wipe it clean.

I am loving The Cure!

Havent been doing every single thing, but its a grea tmotivator and I feel like Ive really accomplished a lot this month!

I would love to have some sort of on going Cure for the rest of the year, for projects that wont get done this month.

I am loving The Cure!

Havent been doing every single thing, but its a grea tmotivator and I feel like Ive really accomplished a lot this month!

I would love to have some sort of on going Cure for the rest of the year, for projects that wont get done this month.

Ditto to marivigi's comment!

I've been working at my own pace and a little out of order but using the cure as motivation. Today's assignment was PERFECT for me! I took a few pictures of work that I've gotten done so I can refer back to them LATER when it all needs it again!

I'm not doing The Cure, per se, but all this activity has helped motivate me to work on facing some hard truths in my life mostly involving my guest room/craft storage area. I'm in the process of off-loading a lot of textiles and "kimonos" that I thought I'd "do something" with and trying to sensibly consolidate the things I am not ready to part with yet. As part of the consolidating, I spent hours Sunday afternoon winding ribbon into skeins from those bulky cardboard spools... I got a bunch at a flea market brand new very cheap, and I want to use it for gift wrapping, but I can't afford the storage space all that empty cardboard takes up. Turns out I can wrap a LOT of gifts!!! Maybe more than I will ever give!!! (I'm considering sharing the stuff with friends, but not just yet...)

It's all an ongoing process...

Well, I've been trying, but I've gotten way behind on the Cure. I can't do anything when my bf is home. (Cleaned out the kitchen cabinets; he was oh so dismayed when he discovered that I had thrown out weevil infested pasta and, two or three packets of couscous that had expired a year and a half ago! "I don't understand why you threw those out. They were still good.") One class that started last week, and one that started today, and that's pretty much the last two nails in the coffin. The one project I really want to get finished is cleaning off the kitchen table and the coffee table and figuring out a way to get them to stay cleaned off. Sounds easy, right? Not in this house!!! Hopefully I'll be able to get ahead in my classes and have a chance to at least finish this little bit before the end of the month. Just wish the Cure had been a little longer... even an extra couple of weeks would have helped.

Need to donate the books tonight when I get home from work. Happy to report entry way transformation is complete with a place for mail, extra hook for keys and coats! now I can walk into the door without running into a big coat pile after moving them to the opposite wall. I have also grown use to the smell of vinegar after all the cleaning tasks, now I associate it with a clean house. All I'm looking for now is a metal dish drying rack that can go into the sink to free up more space on the kitchen counter. The cure has been a great start of 2013! But I am also ready to slow down since I had a dream about organizing this weekend =P

I am extending my Cure into February. With getting sick and the end of the high school application process here in Chicago, I have fallen woefully behind. What I can say is that I have my list of things to do. Many of my chores involve things that you would never be able to see, such as going through boxes of school papers from my son and weeding the wheat from the chaff. But, my husband did bring a really nice hook with three parts home from Anthropology in LA which is for the front door landing strip. We will use it for the dog coats and leads. Now I need some nice baskets for bags and toys. Even though I am so far behind I am happy with my list and will follow along with the book.

I need a weekend cure, because I'm still on Day Three or Four. It's helpful, though.

I am so far behind at this point, that it might take me all of February to get caught up! My three year old and I have both been sick, so I have skipped a lot of the recent assignments. I finally bought hooks for revamping my entryway/landing strip, but haven't done anything with them yet (still need screws and anchors).

And my big project was going to be cleaning/decluttering/painting my bedroom, but I ordered my paint at least two weeks ago, and they had to order the correct base, but it's still not there. So I kind of lost my motivation on that one. I'll get going on it again once we're all healthy, but it's definitely taking longer than I planned.

Also, I must say (although I probably say it every Cure), that I very much preferred the weekly format of the original Cure. I know a lot of people lost motivation mid-way through, but it was long enough that you could get it back before the end! I feel like with these shorter ones, once you get behind, it's really hard to get caught up. I have a 2200 sqft. house and three kids, so it's a little more challenging to fit things in on a daily basis. I do understand that many of the readers of this site tend to be childless and have smaller homes though. I'm just saying what worked best for me.

I was sick with the flu From December 26 through January 15, so I wasn't able to Cure as I'd planned. But I posted the calendar on my desktop and have been following along with you each day. I decided to do the same cure but to start on February 1 instead. With a short month, the days won't match precisely but no matter--I'll have a schedule to follow. Wish me luck!

I got behind, then class started, and then got sick! I am super behind! I am NOT giving up though. I will persevere! I have class till 9:30 tonight, so won't get much done, but tomorrow...

Shoot just looked at tomorrow's task. I was all set to hang my artwork and I noticed a problem with the paper backing - so on Wed I am taking it back to Michael's and having them fix it.

Tomorrow I have contractor coming to give me an estimate on a new toilet b/n 5 & 6, a meeting from 6:30-7:30, so I will start playing catchup then.

Count me as another one who didn't follow each day's tasks religiously, but used the Cure as a jumping off point for tons of organizing. It has been astonishing and emotional. I can honestly say that there is no area in my house that I haven't touched or gone through in some way this month. I've made 7 trips to drop off goods at thrift stores (with one more due tomorrow), given away stuff to friends, and sold a few things on Craig's List. I've purged and reorganized every storage drawer, room, cabinet and closet. I built a new coat/backpack system for the back hallway. I made untold decisions about stuff that I'd been putting off, some for years. This is pretty much all I've done all month. I've got three more days to do a major clean, and then I'll be done. Really done. At least until spring when I need to repaint the kitchen cabinets and floor.

I have been doing well on the decluttering projects, and my entry, kitchen, living room, and bathroom are way more organized now. Completing some of the other tasks has been more difficult because of two things:

1) Money. Cord control, adding some lighting to the living room, and setting up a filing system will have to wait for February when I have money for it. I spent a lot of my "mad money" on little things for the home that added up. On a positive note, I put all my gift cards from Christmas to good use.

2) My husband, who is addicted to clutter. He's out of town often with his new job, so I've been able to dump and sort things without hearing him complain, but I desperately need to keep him away from the Outbox or it will turn into the Back In Box. I have yet to tackle the monstrosity that is our closet because he refuses to get rid of anything. Grrrr!

In the meantime, I'm doing what I can and shopping around for deals on the things I know I need to complete the Cure.

Didn't follow every daily task, but have the "Cure" mindset. The BIG project simply won't be done for a while. But, knowing cleaning beyond dusting has been done + all rooms; save the br (has kind of become the undecided stuff catchall roost; but not terrible (because of the daily made bed) I'm really pleased with the visual results. Still, it will continue in some form in February; which is win win.

Like many, I will not be finished at the end of the month. However, the house looks better overall and some areas are dramatically improved (desk in kitchen as landing strip, coat closet organized, bedroom and floors in better shape than they sometimes are this time of year). I think I will revisit the schedule regularly even if the days don't match as a method of staying on top of everything.

@ changaTX I can relate!! I found several that I had put in my outbox items were no longer there this weekend...

I haven't been following the Cure day by day, but I have been loving all the inspiration and energy of these posts and comments. In January, I deep cleaned my kitchen and got the worst trouble spot of my house in order, so that was huge. I also started a "Long List" of things to do - small tasks that will really add up. I plan to do one of the things on the list every weekend that we are home.

Most importantly, the Cure and all of you have got me thinking about what I keep in my home and why, and whether I really need it. I have developed a much better sense of what I really want to keep around me. I am much more willing to let some things go now. In fact, I can't wait to get rid of more stuff that I know I don't need any more. Thanks for the inspiration, everyone! Big thanks to Janel for making it all happen!!

A little bit of finishing up everything, and working on my big project (restructuring my landing strip). February is is set aside for repeating The Cure for my office!

Oh, I hear you on #2...I could do an entire Cure in my husband's cluttered office. I may just start taking things from the closet I know he hasn't worn in ages and just play dumb if he ever goes looking for them!

I set about cleaning my garage as the major project of my cure. An unusual cold spell where I live has made that slow going, but I won't give up. I can see the improvements brought about by my smaller projects and I have a ton of stuff to donate, so the garage clean-up will continue into February. I've already eliminated so many things I need fewer shelving units than I thought I would.

The dungeon slowly empties bit by bit everyday. As well, the 4" wide denim strip in now 100' long. Tuesday (Day20) I will finally - after 12 years - weave the willow chair seat. The result? My January Cure project will be finished. And one lovely chair will grace my porch. Take that Procrastination Queen!

I'm with everyone else who got a lot out of the cure but didn't do every day of it. My closet is amazing and I think ready for a second purge (yay momentum), I FINALLY wiped down and cleaned my grimy kitchen cabinets two years after moving in (felt sooo good--and I love the oil cleaning oil tip), and I'm still struggling with a good spot for a landing strip, though the need is there! I could have used a whole weekend on my project, thought the paperwork filing day was timely for tax time, and what about assigning one of the eves to put away all the xmas decorations? Definitely on the list for a cure day in February is the outside entry, which is now speckled in dirt and some sort of winter berry bird poo.

ERGH! I finished my goal project hooooouuurss ago (YAY!), but my computer has gone absolutely wonky and it has taken forever to get my post up!
The important thing is that it's done..phew

http://shoes-off-please.com/2013/01/29/were-hooked-goal-project-complete/

Meg@RevampHomegoods I love your home! I've run into some great blogs through the Cure.

The January Cure: good for the home, good for awake-at-night-nursing-and-blog-reading!

Though my large apartment is far from truly "Cure"d, it is much improved. I've skipped a number of days, but deep-cleaning my bedroom is probably the most pressing--and will be the most rewarding. I have plans to paint it later this Spring, so whatever I don't get to now, I will by then. One thing is true: doing housework all alone can be drudgery, so joining the group has made it feel like teamwork. Thanks for all the inspiration!

I have used the homework assignments more as motivating suggestions than fixed goals, which has worked extremely well for me. Example: I may not have a perfectly clean kitchen, but I did clean the fridge and got some art hung on the kitchen walls! I've loved this Cure, and definitely hope there will be more like this rather than the very brief ones that have been done recently. Thank you, Janel and everyone else!

Ditto @GirlGriot -- who is this woman I've turned into? I like her! But boy, does it ever take time to keep the house clean. I'm hoping that since everything will have a place, it will be easier to keep it clean. I think I'll review some of the posts about how to clean the house in 20 minutes (which usually means an hour for me, but with this new lean house, who knows?).

Biggest accomplishment: cleaning out the hallway bookshelves and consolidating what I have, artfully arranging the remaining single bookshelf, and hanging my newly framed artwork in the empty hallway. Wow. Now I can spend the next few months checking out what color I'm going to paint the hallway wall so that art sings even more. Donald Kaufman Color here I come!!

Brava, Janel! I love this Cure and have recommended the process to all my friends.