I had mixed success completing the daily tasks for the January Cure this week, but the overall result is that I have a cleaner home and a clearer idea of how to improve it.
Day 4: Get a fresh perspective in just 10 minutes.
As a longtime apartment dweller, I know one of the luxuries of my home to be the TV-less sitting room (shown above). With its exposed brick, original floors, and original marble mantel, it's aIso the room that sold me on the house. I usually sit on the love seat facing the hearth, and my husband usually sits in the leather armchair across from me. The third seat is an Eames knockoff that I like to look at but never sit in and which I didn't really miss when we temporarily replaced it with our Christmas tree.
Ten minutes in this un-cushioned seat confirmed that I want to replace it with a slightly bigger, softer, and more inviting chair. The view from there is a good one (shown above). The two issues I noticed while perched were organizational: the stack of opened mail floundering on the entry table and the basket that was intended for our dogs' accessories but which becomes a catch-all for magazines, etc. I'm considering finding a small mail basket for the floor next to the entry table and a barely-there side table for over the basket by the couch.
Day 5: Select one project to complete this month.
I wanted to pick my kitchen hardware project of shame, but based on my habits and schedule, I know it's not going to happen on a Tuesday night. I decided that a realistic project is to re-hang the curtains in my bedroom so that the rods are wider set. Right now, they look cramped. I like this project because it's free!
Day 6: Choose a piece of artwork and get going on framing it.
I have the frame, but I need the art. I have been using a Parisian map, turned on its side, as a placeholder in a poster frame in my dining room (on the far left). The colors work in there, but I can only leave my favorite city off kilter for so long (only like, oh, several months).
Day 7: Get your get-together together.
I failed. I did cull enough clothes and shoes from my closet to fill my outbox, though, and gave my coffee table a desperately needed clearing and cleaning.
Day 8: Flowers, kitchen cleaning & make yourself a meal.
It felt really, really good to clean my kitchen, where the patterned granite hides crumbs and the white tile shows paw prints. I cleared everything off my countertops and scrubbed them with an orange-scented Method cleaner. On Monday, a day late, the same spray gave new life to the inside of my fridge. I'm pretty sure my homemade meal, a giant dish of Martha Stewart's macaroni and cheese, is the cheesiest thing I've ever made. I set the table with grocery store tulips.
MORE OF KIM'S JANUARY CURE:
• Week One
(Images: Kim Rinehimer)
Small Cool Lessons: Discovering Small Space Design Ideas That Really Work
Beatriz's Fun & Functional Workspace
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Sheex Bedding
A Work Week Menu Plan That You Can Do
How to Make Fresh Pasta Dough in the Food Processor
You could use one of these for your shoes and as a landing strip near the front door http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40216908/#/60156121
Nice work on your cure! I don't necessarily think you need a shoe rack. The shoes look neat as they are. But if you did want to get one I'm guessing one of these would be more to your taste. http://www.potterybarn.com/search/results.html?words=shoe%20rack
Love the smiths poster, and kudos on ditching a nice looking but uncomfortable chair.
It all looks really nice, comfy and welcoming. One note..please either water the plant to the left on that top shelf or replant it. It looks like it's hurting.
Regardiing shoe rack, I suggest to go out to craigs list.
I second that! I have the Hemnes shoe cabinet in white, with only two shoe drawers (and a small top drawer), and it makes my small 2x3 entryway seem spacious and it's a great place to throw down keys and mail.
oh man oh man, i've been working on a complete entryway redo, and while i love what i've done, that hemnes cabinet would have been so much easier and less time consuming. foiled again for not living near an ikea!
Those poor houseplants! I think some weeks the cut flowers can be skipped for a little houseplant TLC (or at least water).
Thanks for your kind words.
You're right about that pothos plant looking sad. I'm not proud! I have a lot of houseplants that have lived long lives, and I've learned that I'm safer watering less frequently (especially since pothos usually springs back quickly). I did water that guy this week, but clearly I waited too long. I'll be giving it some TLC.
I appreciate the rack suggestions, but I'm OK just lining the shoes up. The room isn't very big, and I'm not sure I want to add another piece of furniture.
I really love the method cleaners for cleaning fridges. My fridge ended up smelling like pear/ginger instead of gross cleaner smell. I love the layout of your spaces by the way :)
You have a neat space. I love he exposed brick wall. One of your trailing plants needs some TLC. Maybe snip it back and give it some water. If you like the shoes lined up, that's fine. I would have to have them contained in some way, but I understand where you are coming from when you say you don't another piece of furniture. But if there's room for them some where else, I'd at least try getting them out of sight. I think you'd be pleased with a bare space instead there instead of the shoe family. BTW, those tulips are stunning! Good job on your selection of flowers.