*gasp* can I have your gossip bench (like I really need more stuff)???

I think the cat should get a say, and it looks like s/he wants to keep it!!

Always sit where the cats sit to do this kind of thing...they love spots that are warm that let them see the entire apartment.

So glad to know others buy something wonderful, then realize when they get the things home that they're just not...quite...um...damn it. It is very cute, but I've come to understand that cute doesn't always translate to right for the space. At least it was cheap!

I agree with the follow the cat around idea. I'm sitting in each chair at my dining room table (one at a time!) to get different perspectives. As a result, I outboxed a couple of items!

I have to admit I did this and was simply appalled! Once the Christmas decor is put up tomorrow I see major changes coming, much to my husband's chagrin (not to mention the "boys"!) Yes the males in my family are not keen on change and have issue with sharing their oftentimes quite vocal opinions. Yes as teenagers we are working on the finer points of tact right now! Oddly, the youngest, is the most diplomatic when it comes to expressing opinions. Enjoy your day! We most certainly will as today is the last day of winter break before jumping back into the hustle and bustle of middle school and high school activities!

Fortunately, the area I chose to contemplate was on my special projects list, so I know I'll be addressing it soon...the corner of my bedroom where I pile the extra pills at night (including my big reading bolster) and "store" my sewing maching, spare canvasses and craft tote. After putting away Christmas yesterday, I think I may be able to squeeze a few of those items into my one closet under the stairs. Now, if I can just figure out where to put the cat...Your kitty could be the twin of my own fuzzy one, right down to the "what are you doing NOW?" questioning look!

Wow, that should have read "pillows" !!!

I look forward to doing this exercise when I get home! From the photo you posted, I see you have a (gorgeous) long haired cat. I, too, have a long haired cat, and I'm wondering if you could share some tips for dealing with that hair! I find myself constantly battling clouds of that lovely, silky fur day after day after day ... Seriously, I'd love to know how you manage. Thanks!

Today, I sat in a chair that I normally only use to put on my shoes and let me just say that it was groundbreaking. First, I noticed how great my floors looked from the weekend, then, I noticed that I am so annoyed with the credenza our TV is on. There are too many electronics: TV, DVD player, Playstation, Apple TV, and our local cable box (we live in Spain). I need to find a way to minimize or clear off that stuff! Finally, I had a great idea as to how to style our bookcase that I am never happy with. After my ten minutes, I re-styled the bookcase and like it so much better! Now, what to do with those pesky electronics...does anyone have advice on how to minimize or at least remove them from sight?

To be honest, it's usually pretty hairy in here! Dante has a brother, Virgil, and they both shed like crazy. I have one of those rubber brushes that makes it easy to pick up the hair off fabric when I'm in a cleaning spurt or before people come over, but otherwise, they rule the roost. The joys of pet ownership!

In answer to minimizing the electronics clutter; try stacking them neatly (like you would books) and use zip ties to shorten the cord mess in the back (usually it's the cords that look so darn messy). I did this with the DVR and two Nintendo game consoles (that I refuse to give up) and it looks more intentionally organized.

I guess we were on the same wave length this weekend. My 10 minutes turned into a well-spent hour. The living room was bothering me. Standing at the top of the steps down into the room I realized that everything was revolving around the TV we never watch. I broke the space up into two separate seating areas and it's like I doubled the space. Now all I need is a great area rug and some new curtains and I will feel like I added a whole new room to the house! Has anyone tried those Safavieh rugs off of Walmart.com? They are pretty and I'm on a serious budget, but I am skeptical.

where will the poor kitty sit?

i agree though, gossip benches are generally better in theory than actually in ones home

Love the bench. If you're not using it for seating, it would make a fantastic plant stand.

Never seen or heard of a gossip bench before. Love it. I want one.

I rarely get to sit in the best seats in the house: they are constantly occupied by the Occupy Chairs Movement (Feline Contingent).

I love that Gossip Bench! I have one that was built into the hall and it just pulls out. But I get it , sometimes things just to get outboxed. Which brings me to my next question. Has anyone ever bought or sat in the Poang chairs from IKEA?? I need to get rid of two chairs but still need two.

Alicia

....Sorry. Bad spelling and I left out a word or two...:)

I was away all weekend so still catching up on the weekend task so spent most of this evening cleaning the living room carpet. All done and now am sitting next to the cat (good advice above) and surveying my living room. I've already put redecorating this room on my list but where I am setting I can see how bland the wall behind the sofa is. I will definitely be putting more pictures up on that wall. Also we have a floor lamp next to the sofa which is great for reading but from the other side looks a bit stark and scruffy. Plus from here I can see that one of my bookcases is leaning quite a bit which is worrying as I have a very old coffee pot on there which my mother-in-law gave me. I'm moving that right now!

I have that problem with a lot of my furniture. It's cute, I already own it (and thus its now cheap), but it just isn't right for the space. It's hard to put furniture in the outbox when you're on a too tight budget to replace it. I need to work on fixes to make it work, rather than replacing. :)

After many (WAY to many) years in the same house, we are finally going to build our dream home! ( Actually, MY dream house, my husband only cares about the final cost!) The process will take about 2 years and in that time I'm not going to allow myself to purchase a stick of furniture or other decoration, for our existing house. So, when I'm working on this year's Cure it's mostly about PURGING (since we've accumulated so much junk over the years!!!), repositioning and repurposing what we're keeping. I'm really excited about the process of trying to make my house look clean, refreshed and renewed without spending much (or any) money!

Love the advice on sitting where the cat does. We have a new armchair that's just off the sofa that the cat loooves to sit on the back of. I haven't really sat in it except to put on my shoes, so I think I'm going to do that today. Just need to get home before the boyfriend does so I won't have the TV on!

... OOPS forgot to add that for this assignment, I sat in the guest room/ office on the tiny sofabed that NO ONE ever wants to sleep on or even just sit on, and realized how uncomfortable it is and doesn't serve really any purpose in the room ... it's going!! Going to use the air mattress in the closet instead, when needed, and move a comfy armchair that's never used in my bedroom to this room, and see what happens!

Two rooms got some new love this year when taking down Xmas. The front room - Switched my desk and the sitting area to different sides of the room. Broke the sectional into two pieces to form a cozier space and added grandmas cedar chest as a coffee table. Then the family room got some love. Turned the couch on an angle (sounds horrid but somehow works), moved the hutch from the dining room into the living room and switched out the contents from dining room stuff to family room stuff (dishes to books, wine glasses to pictures, shells, etc.) And then created a little mini- bar in the dining room. Kind of loving it!

I love my Poang chair, I think it is very comfortable. Most people who sit in it then want to buy one (so far, two actually did).

I love the gossip chair too! I didn't know that it had a name. I almost bought one at my favorite salvation store here in San Bruno California,but I don't have the room for it
I love your cat he is a beauty ! I have two fur balls of my own. love them to death.
looks like he may miss the chair ones is gone,but can I have it :)
my outbox is full now. a friend is going to take some of its contents. can't wait !
I will probably refill it ones is empty.

That's a telephone bench; gossip works too. Some of those actually look kind of cool; and does make a great cat sofa.

What does the poang chair look like ? I'm going to look look it up in the ikea catalog.
Im curious to see what it looks like sounds confy.
It is such a good feeling, to clean out to make our place less crowded and at the same time
find some one else can benefit from the stuff you no longer need or want. I found that it is easier to let go of things when you know where they are going,and that they will be appreciate it and put to use.

I also love the idea of sitting where the cats normally sit... although in my apartment that means a box next to the radiator in the dining room or on top of a bookshelf.

For those looking for pet for control advice I have 2 things I HIGHLY recommend: a Furminator (pricey for a pet brush, but totally worth it, I promise!) and a good pet fur broom (I have the bissell pet fur broom and love it, but my sister has a plain rubber bristle broom which works very well for her as well).

I sat in the door to our bedroom. It was amazing to really look at what we see each time we step into that room. It doesn't help that the first thing there is the big, unneeded dresser, which is both in the Outbox...and my Outbox itself. Also need to get rid of the headboard, and generally clear out the closet, which doesn't currently close!

Kristy I feel your pain. I'm trying to figure out how to hide my electronics as well. I'm thinking about getting a credenza that has drawers so that I can hide away the HTPC, Xbox and Wii, when not in use. But I'm also seriously looking into getting a wireless HD transmitter, so I can put the electronics in a completely different room. For now I would say get rid of your DVD player, since your Playstation has one built in, and maybe upgrade your Apple TV to the small hockey puck size one. Good luck!

I sat in my small wing chair in my office. When I first moved into my house, I sat there all of the time to read or knit or write letters. Tonight, I had to spend a few minutes clearing it off before I could sit down. The entire room has been taken over by clutter over the past year and a half. I don't do anything productive in there anymore and it made me very sad and overwhelmed. I'm not sure where to begin. I also discovered that the tension rods from two apartments ago are too long for the narrow windows in my office and dining room, so I won't be able to hang curtains until I get new ones.

I took one of the dining chairs and placed it in the doorway between the only bedroom and the living. Spent time mulling over the bedroom and then turned it around and observed the living room. (I did make the bed first before judging the bedroom :) )
Bedroom - The cheap plastic Ikea laptop table has to go. I should just buy a brightly cushioned lap desk.There is way too much in the BR that is simply storage. Not attractive storage or storage furniture, but just variations on boxes and bins. Yuck. The wall space above the dresser is dead.
Living room - The sage velvet couch fabric got discolored while it stayed in storage in Texas for 2 years, but the budget does not stretch to replacement or a full reupholstering. And for all my love of strong colors the living room is bleh. But I should be able to afford fabric to recover the back pillows and bolster of the couch. I've got the sewing skills, just needed the push. The end table lamp shade is too dark,even with the light on, the corner is dark. One thing I was able to change tonight; I noticed that the side chair always faces the TV, as if that is where I want people to look when they are in my home, So a simple 60 degree turn...and instant conversation area.

Pure wsdom.

Is that what that awesome bench is officially called? A "gossip bench"? Because I need to have one! It looks super cool and is something I can use in my apartment.

We had a look at our office, and decided a little rearrangement. That idea was so obvious, why didn't I think about it earlier? Realy? Easy solution for our storage problem :) Thanks to the cure^^

A cousin of mine bought one of those chairs a few years ago - they wear just fine (changeable covers, etc) but I feel like the chair itself is either a love/hate thing. My cousin liked it, his wife hated it, I always sat on their sofa as I wasn't totally a fan of it myself.

My cat lies stretched along the back of the sofa under the window, where he has a good view of the bird feeder. So I did not sit where he sat, but instead in a chair tucked into a corner with a good view of the room.

I sat in my living room which is filled with sunlight but never used anymore. We used to sit in it all the time because of the warmth of the sun but we had energy efficient windows put in, which, ironically, diminished the heat of the sunshine.

We recently repainted, added some wainscotting in the dining room (which adjoins it) and rearranged the furniture in a way that looks much better. However, since we rearranged the furniture, we haven't sat in the room. So it's going back to the old arrangement. Plus, I really must finish the room. Get pictures up and figure out a window treatment that doesn't block the light, but adds some warmth. That was all on my original list, but it's good to remind myself how important it is.

The first 30 seconds of this exercise were amazing - I sat on my couch (itself not often something I do) and stared ahead at the wall, chair, and four inherited art pieces and masks that have been sitting on the ground there for months, part of the clutter I'm trying to deal with. I looked up at the wall and realized how exactly perfect they would look if I simply hung them on that wall, arranged with the other 3 pictures already there. It was so extremely obvious (the theme and coloring even go well amongst the pieces) that I was incredulous I hadn't seen it before.
I am in this room every single day.
I hadn't SEEN it before.