I am so excited! Last time the cure was being done we were in the middle of a major renovation and weren't even living at home so I was limited in how much I could participate. This time round the structural stuff is all done and I need the motivation to put on the finishing touches like painting, hanging pictures and de cluttering so this will be GREAT. Hope there are some more Aussies out there to keep me company!

Hi Catherine & those to follow.
Doing my first cure, very excited. Hope to clear out some of the clutter and doing odd jobs around the place but focusing on 3 main areas- guest room, work desk and FINALLY finishing bathroom reno. Look forward to hearing everyones updates throughout the cure.

Hi everyone,

How exciting to have our very own Australian forum!

This is my first cure too, I also signed up for the kitchen cure. We've just bought a house and are moving in in about a month so I am hoping to get some good ideas for how to start off uncluttered and beautiful!

I think moving to a big suburban house from our inner city terrace is a good start; can't wait to just spread out in all that space..

hb

Hi all,

It's also my first cure. I'm pretty nervous about it. I really want to keep it up and finish, but I'm a very efficient procrastinator.

I have lots of decluttering to do, and plenty of improvements that have been languishing. Hoping having you guys and the rest of the AT curees virtually with me will help keep the motivation going.

MrsG

Hi Guys
We are in the middle of a major renovation and to make it worse I'm an artist who works at home so I tend to do a lot of research ( this for the non artists among us means lots of Procrastination) involving spending aeons of time looking at stuff and leaving the cleaning and organising to look after themselves - why don't they do that?
I'm thinking my project will be the bedroom - I have just made funky black and white spotty curtains with bobbly edges and heavy linings and a sweet little throw pillow to pull together the decor with whatever is on the bed - I'm thinking taupe walls a new built in/walk in robe and new floorcovering. I have chunky timber bedroom suite that is new and picked up a heap of cool doona covers with 75% off at Myers and K mart recently - now I'm looking at trying to make it beautiful instead of ordinary so looking for different ideas all the time.

Thanks JennyB for your post on 52 Suburbs a while ago. I've subscribed to that blog!

I'm so glad there are some people in this forum. Are you guys going to get right into putting photos on flickr etc?

And just out of interest, are any of you from the vogue forums? (I posted a while ago about wanting to do this on there).

How great is 52 Suburbs?! I love when a new post appears in my reader.

I'm planning on taking before pics this weekend and popping them up on flickr. Will be nice to track how far we've come.

Maybe we can all check in on Sunday PM/Monday AM and update how our week has been, what we've achieved and what we aim to achieve in the next week?

Not on the Vogue forums Catherine, are they worth a visit?

Hi everyone
Like MrsGideon, I'm an expert procrastinator so having a group of Ozzies for support and sharing ideas is perfect for me.

My goals for this cure are to get rid of the clutter and transform my bedroom from a blank canvas into my own personal space.

Posting our updates by Monday am sounds like a great idea. And I'm off to check out 52 suburbs - thanks for the tip.

Lil

Hi All,

Sorry, didn't get around to photographing our house- ran out of daylight. Will post the link in the next few days.

Here's my week 1 review:
*Made a list of everything that needs to be done at our place & I'm now carrying it around in my bag for when I remember something I can easily add it
*Moping and vacuuming are a normal part of the weekly clean but we cleaned extra well this week
*Tonight we're listing a handful of extra furniture that I've been struggling to let go of on eBay starting at 99cents [our neighbors would vandalize anything we put out the front as soon as the front door closed]
*I was given 2 lovely bunches of flowers this week and picked a bunch from the garden
*Sat in our nightmare of a spare room for 10 mins- can't wait to tackle that room now
*We already use Murchison-Hume products, they are fantastic.
*Started collecting images for new paint colours

Okay, here is what I'm aiming to do for week 2:
*Fix something- what exactly is undecided!
*Clean out and clean the kitchen cupboards, pantry and fridge getting rid of as much as possible
*Touch up my unit walls
*Create an Outbox space and use it
*Buy some flowers
*Cook a new recipe from Maggie Beer's new recipe book I received this week
*Decide on a housewarming cocktail party- Turkish apple martini is the theme
*Make contact with tradies for quotes in the next few weeks
*Find and order a new light fitting for the hallway
*Order fabric for new bedhead
*Will look into a water filter [but I'm not sure about this one]

I'm really trying to complete everything in the book as I know it's there for a reason. How has everyone else gone in the past week? What's the plan for the coming week?

Hey Jennyb where did you get the book from? I am doing this blind - has everyone else got the book?

I bought the Woolies homebrand Jug water filter for $10 and it works greatif you dont want to spend a fortune on a fitted one.

Last week
*I threw out a concrete garden ornament - an eagle which had somehow found it's way into my backyard via some teenage boys who used to belong to me a few years ago.
*I pulled out the old not working very well dishwasher and put it on the local "Freecycle" group and lo and behold someone came and took it away for me - I bought a new dishwasher which is quiet - and water and energy efficient!
*I rearranged and spring cleaned the lounge room
*I made the bed every day and tidied up the kitchen (because I now have a u beaut dishwasher!)

This week
I will
*Tidy up and clean out my pantry and throw out stuff I am never going to use because I haven't used it in the last year!
* Throw out the dead flowers and replace them with fresh flowers
* Frame the portrait I did which is going into a local art gallery in December so I don't have to worry about it
* finish another landscape which is going into a Christmas selling exhibition and has to be at the gallery before 18th November
*finally decide on a wall colour for the bedroom now which shade of Taupe was it again?
* Take a box of books to the Sallies for recycling
* Take down all the artwork and rehang it at the correct heights instead of using someone else's hooks - buy a tin of touchup paint to cover the holes!

Hope everyone else is having fun

Millthumpian, I always use www.booko.com.au when shopping for books, they'll give you the cheapest option in Australian dollars including postage.

The book is worth getting but you can play along without it.

Last week:

* Listed some old clothes and furniture I wanted to get rid of on E-Bay and other forums. Sold a couple of pieces, will donate that which didn't sell to Charity.
* Designated an outbox area (it's a whole room and it's already filling up!)
*Contacted floor sander to finish the rooms in the house that haven't been done in the new style yet

This week:

*Continue to use the outbox and give as much away to charity as possible!
*Investigate buying a canvas big enough to stretch a huge piece of Marimekko fabric over it
*Get my vintage tram scroll on the roller blinds we bought from Ikea to hang it
*Keep reading my Domino home decorating book for inspiration. That book is SURPRISINGLY good and has similar elements to the Home Cure. They work well together :)
*Clean bathroom and bedroom thoroughly

Great to see everyone getting into it - a fantastic start. Some of the issues sound so familiar, it's really encouraging to see how others are making progress.

Jennyb, sounds like you've got the neighbours from hell? No one in Perth stocks the book, so I've ordered one via Borders on-line. I'm getting enough information from the posts to get by in the meantime.

Week one, a slow start, I've come down with a bad case of flu but I managed to:
* Clear out the grey file cabinet (oh my, why did I keep that ugly thing for so long?) and it's ready for a council pick up this week.
* Listed a bronze statue on e-bay
* Dropped a pretty rattan chair and two bags of clothing to a charity shop. They loved the chair so I made someone happy.

Now I'm on a roll, there will be more stuff going in the outbox. I'm finally saying goodbye to some treasured things that just don't fit with my vision for my home and I find that the fear of letting go is being replaced by excitement - and it feels good.

Week 2:
* Kitchen scrub out and sort the plastics cupboard.
* Open and actually use those good looking cook books. I commit to make two new recipes a week throughout the cure.
* Finalise plans for a raised garden bed and book a bricklayer.
* Finish off my patio sitting area.
* Choose my bedroom colours - I know I can do it! I'm sure the staff at a certain interior design store are running a sweep on how many times I can go through their catalogues before making a decision...sigh

Good luck everyone.

Crumbs! How on earth is it Thursday already?!

How did everyone go for week 2?

Personally I fell way behind and it was only on Tuesday that I finished cleaning out the kitchen. We did buy a new kitchen over the weekend and hope to have that installed before the Cure is out. I'm excited but also overwhelmed.

Over the next few days I'm going to get our landing strip back in order - our main issue is mail & paperwork - and clean off the desk that has been sucked into being part of the landing strip simply because it's a near by surface.

There is still lots on my to-do list.

Overall I'm feeling a bit annoyed at myself for falling behind and it only being week 3. However there is still plenty of time to catch up and I plan to do it!

I am also behind. Reason being that we've decided to have 3 bedrooms and our study's floors sanded. It's all happening Monday so we've been frantically clearing those rooms of furniture. Our living areas are like furniture mazes! Consequently though we're culling superfluous stuff as we go which has been a good thing!

I look forward to creating new 'cured' spaces once the floors are done in those rooms.

Melbourne Cup, Kids, Dogs, husband are all conspiring to make me fall by the wayside.
Today I rearranged a bit of my Kitchen but I have to re rearrange it when my beautiful 2 door fridge finally progresses from the hallway upstairs to the kitchen
This requires serious amounts of manpower and an electric winch to pull it over the balcony as the stairwell is too small to accommodate the beast - once its upstairs then we have to jiggle some cupboards and a benchtop for a final solution which will involve at least one new cupboard to be constructed to house the microwave under the bench and another cupboard to span the monster fridge/freezer. Still my pantry is organised and I made Yoghurt Vanilla Panacotta for desert today. All in all I think I am getting there.

I've managed to sell all but one of the things I listed and the cash is a lovely little bonus for Retail Therapy time.

Five new recipes so far and far from being a chore, it's definitely a highlight of the cure.

Since the bedroom deep clean, I have a really clear idea of the colour scheme but I've been good and resisted the temptation to drop everything and start painting (what I usually do).

I'm not terribly worried about falling behind. It's been six months of confusion, not knowing which way to go with my apartment and now I have a clearer vision and a real sense of excitement - so it's all good.