I approached the January Cure with a certain degree of trepidation. I'm not the most naturally organized person. I tend towards the impulsive, and I'm so up in my own head most of the time that I don't notice I've laid something out of place until I come home one day and wonder when the Dothraki hordes sacked my apartment. But one week in, the January Cure already seems significantly less scary than when I started.
What we've got to work with: My husband and I moved to Germany in August, and it still feels like we're in the move-in stage. The apartment is a new-ish construction that seems to be a giant concrete box, which makes it virtually soundproof but very difficult to hang pictures, and means that very little natural light makes its way over to us. The walls and ceiling are white and popcorn textured, and we aren't allowed to change them.
The apartment as it stands is furnished with a mixture of things I love that we brought from our last apartments in New York and Beijing, things I don't love that came with the apartment or were left over from the previous tenants, and gaping holes where there should be lamps or storage or furniture items that just haven't made it into the budget yet. (All the art, for example, is in a folder waiting until we can get frames and hang it.)
The budget was one of my biggest initial concerns. How many things could I really improve without spending money? With a limitless budget this place could look like Versailles, but I'll just have to see what I can get done on my own.
Day 1: Make a list of projects.
I got a late start due to traveling and had to get my first week all done at once. (That might have added to the panic.) I started by making a list of problems to fix. Mine was four pages long. That's normal, right? How long were everyone else's lists?
I initially felt overwhelmed by the number of things I'd have to do and fix. I was sorely tempted to put the pad down and immediately start doing laundry or straightening shelves. But then I remembered that the January Cure is a month-long project, not a problem to be solved in one fell swoop. "Don't organize that shelf right now," I said. (I talk to myself.) "There will be an assignment for that later, and you'll do it then. Just do today's assignment today."
Phew! Suddenly everything seemed so easy and less panic-inducing. As long as I trust the schedule, everything will be fine. And as I went along, I started to see that only a few of my problems would require spending money. I decided to just put those off and concentrate on the others.
The biggest problems stuck out instantly:
• Dead Plant x 6
• Light Fixtures Missing Bulbs/Not Attached to Ceilings
• Every Surface = Laundry
• Bedroom basically undecorated
I swear the plants were alive when I started making that list. And I beg out of blame for the light fixtures because they aren't my light fixtures; they belonged to the previous tenants who never installed them properly because the ceiling is concrete and almost impossible to screw into. I wish I could just replace all the lights with gorgeous vintage chandeliers, but for now I'm stuck with them. I might as well get them hanging properly.
The laundry is totally my own fault.
After going through my list, I decided my main goals for this Cure are going to be:
• Hang artwork. (I secretly want a frame cluster.)
• Learn to take care of plants, or acquire plants that cannot be killed.
• Arrange bookshelves artfully.
I recently installed a set of faux built-in bookcases made from IKEA Billys, and I love them. But our books don't fill them anymore since my husband moved his academic books to his office, we both got Kindles, and I decimated the remainder of the collection with a particularly psychotic culling during the last move.
Day 2: Set Up The Outbox.
The Outbox is alien to me. I always feel more like I need to acquire missing items than like I need to cull the ones I already have. But I set up the box and went around looking for something to put in it.
My de-cluttering instincts appear to be broken, because the first things I picked up were a smoke detector and my husband's Ph.D. diploma. I retrieved those from the box and replaced them with a Pokémon plush toy and a shirt I haven't worn in a few years.
Day 3: Clean Floors, Buy Flowers.
Cleaning the floors is not my favorite task, but it's finished. If dust bunnies were real bunnies, under my bed would have been Watership Down.
But with that finished, I went out to get flowers.
Now that I look at it again, I'm not sure this plant counts as a flower. (People who know things about plants don't wind up with Dead Plant x 6 on their Cure lists.) Whatever, it's pretty. I've named her George.
What's going on with your January Cure? What was the weirdest thing on your to-do list?
(Images: Elizabeth Licata)
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The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
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wow those billy's do look built in! Maybe get some storage boxes to break up some of the space and hold seasonal/ugly items?
if you've moved fairly recently an outbox seems less important as you've recently culled, IMO.
I feel like I'm doing my cure all wrong because my living room has been dismantled into a cat tree staining room for the past week. It's going pretty slow but I'm pushing myself to be done by the weekend so I can catch up on the cure! (I desperately want to mop. I can't believe how much I want to mop. I will do anything but trap myself in a fume room right now.)
Perhaps the plants are dead b/c they are sitting at a drafty window with the heat on their roots? If you can install a thick shelf above the radiator, maybe the new ones won't get their bottoms burned. Sometimes plants take to a certain area, sometimes not. I used to keep plants on a thin board on a radiator, until one day while watering them, I touched the pot & it burned my hand. I moved them to the window sill & they were fine after that.
Yes four pages long and I actually am calling this the year of the house. I did not add anything to the kitchen/bath lists as they are gut and start fresh projects. Summer for those since I am a teacher.
Weirdest item-paint print tray that holds my Fisher Price Little People collection.
I SO feel your pain about the light fixtures and living overseas; we live in Spain and, for some reason. getting light fixtures actually attached to the ceiling seems like a huge undertaking. Even putting up a picture involves drill bits being broken and my husband totally frustrated! Anyway, your apartment looks beautiful, IMO and I think you are off to a fabulous start! Personally, I did not purchase fresh flowers either because it's so dry here and they would die in about 1 hour. I did get a roesemary plant and another houseplant, so I think that's a great start. I also LOVE your Billy bookcases! They look incredible! I think that it's OK to leave some shelves empty for right now; you are probably going to travel around Europe and, I'm sure, will have them filled up in no time. I de-cluttered a LOT of my books, but am saving a special spot for the "Farewell to Arms" copy I will buy at Shakespear and Company, in Paris, at the end of the month. Personally, I LOVE a space that represents where you have been; I think that makes it personal and stylish at the same time.
P.S. I thought your house was actually a House Tour when I first opened the AT page, so you are doing a LOT of things right already!
Those bookcases look great! Truly built-in! Some of your shelves have nothing, and some are full, so maybe spread the love around! ^_^ Build little vignettes. Add some of those plants to that area (the ones that maybe don't need as much sun), and then the bookcases shall look thoughtfully put together, but not crowded. (I know there are several posts on AT about arranging bookcases.)
dznomore: The Year of the House. I like that! It's a lot like part of my New Year's Resolution.
I'm doing the Cure too... I've outboxed some stuff and flat-out pitched other stuff and I'm almost caught up. I still have to do the 10-minute-new-perspective from yesterday. I could not think of somewhere that I don't normally sit to observe my apartment! (At least, the public spaces, and my bedroom is all but standing room only unless you're sitting in the chair or sleeping in the bed).
Haha, love the Dorthraki hord comment. With a 10 month old son that loves to spread his toys around, a husband that does the same and a constant trail of unfinished chores in my tail my biggest challenge is to keep up. My reason for joining is not only to keep up, but to get ahead in creating a warm and comfy home that's a reflection of it's inhabitants and easy to keep that way.
Biggest challenge: changing the mountain of muck in an empty diningtable
Fun-non necessity on the list: making a tablescape of unbreakable toys
Chances are your plants are dead because they are on top of the radiator.
On a side note and to save you a headache: please don't "screw" anything into German concrete walls or ceilings. Get a heavy duty drill and the right anchors. For light objects, you can use a short nail and stick it in the plaster, but anything heavy needs concrete anchors.
2 pages long, written in small print; but i have 3 rooms that are basically inaccessible due to boxes and *things* filling them and those rooms have the word "clean" written under them, which makes me feel helpless.
i am in awe of anyone who will publicly blog their way through the cure; i don't have the guts to put myself out there that way.
it's 5:30 pm my time, i still haven't picked an item from my list to do! LOL!
The January cure is actually going pretty well. I really like having flowers on my office desk :)
The weirdest thing on my to do list.... probably wallpaper the walk in closet lol It's actually a small room that I've decided to convert into a giant closet.
Your Billy book cases look great! I used some really pretty fabric to cover the back of mine. Just used double sided tape to hold it in place. That might help fill in your empty spaces.
cheers!
I hope that you can get past the feeling that your home is "missing" things. To me it looks well-furnished.
I hope we can all get over the notion that every drawer, closet, square foot of floor space and bookshelf needs to be crammed with stuff.
I started off great, then fell behind over the weekend. My list was initially 3 pages long but is growing as I go. Initially making the list freaked me out because it's so long! I've found that I love crossing items off so that is helping to motivate me. I try to do at least one thing every day and so far my apartment is looking better and better every day!
My weirdest thing on the list: Convert cat-box closet into utility closet. (Moving cat-box into basement pass through)
Also, Since the beginning of January I've had 4 friends try to give me stuff they are letting go. I've been able to say NO! each time - Yay me!
Love your sense of humour, would love to hear about your progress again if you can manage it. Cheers
For the art, you should use those 3M Command picture hanger strips. The best part is that the art doesn't tilt over time. I just use them to put up my gallery wall (which had been sitting in a pile for about 8 months).
And that plant is a bromelliad if you want to search to see how to take care of it.
I seriously LOL-ed at "I swear the plants were alive when I started making that list."
I actually have a very small list, as I culled it substantially after first writing down anything that passed through my mind. I knocked off a couple of items that took five minutes or less, so I felt I'd made progress.
Our last set of plants met the same terrible fate as yours, so I'm not replacing them for now.
I think its ok to have a 4 pages list after moving into a new apartment. Stuff needs to be done, things have to find their space.
And the wall-problem you have... well, welcome to germany^^ My husband refuses to drill holes in our walls, because you'll never know what you find (bricks, cement or some place with just filling stuff, where you cannot hang anything because it will just crumbel out of the wall immediately!!!). After living here, I broke 3 drills because I chose the wrong one (surprise!)...:)
Your outbox segment was pure gold! If my husband didn't lose his diploma, I'd probably throw it in the outbox too haha!
Weirdest thing on my list was probably 'store garlic'. I had garlic and onions drying in my living room in the fall, and the last of the garlic has finally been stored out of sight, thanks to my to-do list.
Lilly Skill: I am having the same issue in Spain; we have broken 3 drill bits already. Do you think the 3M way is a good option? I'm worried about it pulling off the pain/plaster when we decide to remove it. If you have any tips/suggestions, please let me know!