apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Good work, many people. Me, not so good. I have been a bit sick this week. But I worked on one thing: the smells of my duplex apartment. Having just moved in, I found the smells not welcoming, not me, and there was some remainder of stale cigarettes. Very unpleasant. So I did some research. This is what I have done (bravo to me): I cleaned the floors with soap and baking soda. I made pomanders when I was not feeling well (stick cloves into apples, oranges and lemons) and put them here and there. I bought an aroma burner and put it in the bathroom. I also cleaned and unclogged the drains, as some unpleasant smells came from that area as well. My place at least smells better now.

Bon courage to everyone!

Pomette,
Making pomanders sounds like fun, and I can imagine how wonderful they make your place smell. Feel better soon.

I feel a bit guilty, since I think all I've done this week is thinking about what to do and not only not doing anything, but worsening it. Our entry is a huge mess right now. Not that nice, really.

Thank you sciencegeek. I did add a few pictures now after these encouragements :-)(tikun2003).

Pommette -- those are some great suggestions. Thanks for sharing them!

I have guests in town, so my big thing this week was to get rid of my old household chemicals at the monthly Eco-Depot drop-off at the landfill.

Thank you robotsbuildrobots! Happy that my ideas can help.
Oh and i also isolated the doors, by sticking those sticky strips. This way even if my downstairs neighbor's smoke sometimes finds it way up, it does not come in when the doors are closed.

Any one have any leads on where to get a dinning table like the one in East Village Amy's dutch barn photo? I've been searching in vain for over a year. Not even certain what to call it - harvest table? Thanks for the beautiful photo.

Hey - it does feel nice to get a little strength from the group! Week one has been a little on the good side and little on the bad. I did get a large list of repairs made and was surprised to see that it wasn't as long as I thought it would be, and not too terribly daunting. However, I still haven't gotten the mopping done. Ug, the idea of moving all the stuff filling up the corners of my space makes it so hard to get started! I'm steeling myself to get it done today (my birthday present to myself!) by envisioning clear corners and good flow in a few weeks! I did buy flowers and tuck them into strategic spots safe from my plant-devouring cat. I've got to get some of those hanging vases! I EVEN took some PICTURES, and maybe I'll post a few if I have time after mopping later.

I've been sick too, but today my good friend came over and helped me install shelves on the kitchen wall!! I rewarded him with some apricot cherry cobbler (I cook when too sick to do anything, but not sick enough to lie in bed wanting to die).

My apartment is still pretty dirty though - the floor needs work - and I've been pulling everything out of my closets to get them reorganized so there's stuff everywhere.

Although I'm just a lurker, you all have inspired me with your Cure efforts. This evening I got done all of the chores that had built up over the last couple of weeks. It feels great - thank you!

why are there more women doing the Cure than men? Why every time where is a poll on AT asking something like "How often do you change your towels" people say "every day", but it sounds like people never wash their floors? It's all a little odd for me, that's why I'm asking.

I had been lazy all week but finally gave myself a kick in the butt Sunday.

Work that's done in my bedroom: I moved my old huge desktop computer into a storage space (my boyfriend wants to give it to a coworker, so he'll be taking it from me), gave back the old computer desk I was using to my roommate (she was letting me borrow it because she had two when we moved in, but her desk recently broke...good timing!) and hung some posters and framed pictures.

Work that still needs to be done: There are 3 garbage bags full of winter clothes sitting in the corner of my bedroom. I need to sort through these and wash/dry clean them...this will probably be the ongoing project this week (the perils of not having laundry in your building). I'd also like to clean my windows...I don't think they've been cleaned in years (definitely weren't clean when I moved into this apartment last year) and I attempted to clean them yesterday but it turned into a streaky mess thanks to the sun. I'll reconvene with window washing some night this week.

I've also received some great suggestions in the Flickr pool from other Cure participants. I look forward to implementing these in the coming weeks!

I had a rough weekend getting started. No matter what I did I ended up anywhere in my home I could other than the room I was supposed to be in. I got massively sidetracked and cleaned my entire house except my master bedroom...it was pretty sad. I have however started my list and I am blogging about it over at my blog www.theothertiffany.blogspot.com every Monday. I'm hoping all of my blog friends and family along with my new cure family can all get me off to a better start this week...any encouragement would be great!! I have a house full of people (my husband, two kids, my older brother and his three kids who are living with us) and sometimes it's a miracle just to walk in a straight line forward every day. But I know this will be really good for me so I'm in it to win it!!

Thanks for any encouragement and you guys are so creative! I can't wait to see everyone's work in progress!

Haha, I love the caption for my inspiration photo above. It's been a struggle for me to reconcile my love of plantations/farmhouses with my love for living in Manhattan. I did pick up a few pieces this weekend that I think kind of strike the balance. Photos to come.

For the first time in the Curing process I actually feel like I'm able to give strength. I'm loving our little group here and on flickr, everyone is so encouraging, inspiring and helpful. I think it's really beautiful to see all the hard work and little things that are being done to make our living environments nicer.

I got a late start this week after being hit by a car on my bicycle. Being unable to lift "heavy" (haha, more than 5lbs) objects has made it a little hard to get a lot of work done, but I still feel like it is worth it. My apartment makes me sad, and I want to fix it.

So far, I have vaccumed my bedroom and living room, and today I will sweep and mop the kitchen and bathroom and vacuum the hallway. I will also (finally) take an ugly butterfly chair out to the dumpster.

It is hard to get maintenance to make repairs on my apartment. Everytime I call about one problem, they seem to damage/defoul something else. I didn't put in a list of initial repairs when I first moved in (it is my first apartment, I didn't know!) and I am really regretting it. I am worried that they will try to charge me even more money to fix problems that were there when I moved in (in June), but I guess it is better that they get fixed. Today I will call about the toilet (that maintenance managed to screw up when they were repairing it last week), the caulk around my kitchen sink, and the cracked window in my bedroom. I will also ask for the name of the color of paint in my apartment. It is this terrible off white, and I'm not allowed to paint, but the painters did such a terrible job before I moved in, I think I'd just like to fix it myself.

Congratulations to everyone sticking to their plans better than I am. Good luck!

Pommette, how did you isolate your door with sticky strips? I have a small gap in between my door and the frame and would love to be able to seal it off. Thanks!

Not much got done this weekend. (ugh!) So tonight I am going to tackle the entry way and hopefully figure out where to put my landing strip. I did go through some of the piles of papers and sorted: junk/keep/shred.This weekend I am going to do my bedroom. I will definately need strength for that project. Every drawer is jammed packed,the closet is overflowing, the dust bunnies under the bed have become dust dinosaurs!HELP!!!!
Bought fresh flowers on Sunday for the kitchen and salvaged a few from last week and put in the bathroom.It's great to hear that others are feeling overwhelmed at times.We just need to plug along.The mess didn't happen in a day so we have to relize it's not going to go away in one. Landing strip tonight I promise.

Hahahaa I love it! Now mine are called Dust Dinosaurs, too! LOL