apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I finally bought a repair kit for the kitchen backsplash. Still not sure if the wall is drywall or plaster (I think plaster), but I'll swing by a hardware store with photos and ask.

Let's see where the day goes.

so much stuff to dispose of! and a friend just donated a new (to me) mattress so now i have another gigantic thing to get in my way! i just want to have room to clean everything!

Hi, i've been twice to the recycling center today, threw away a lots of catalogs and magazines, and stuff i've sorted out of my built-in closet in the home-office. I'm happy ! It is quite a relief each time i go and throw out stuff. And each time i ask myself why do i keep so much stuff i don't need or use anymore ?
Some things will go to BetterUse.org ( swiss equivalent of Freecycle) others will be sold on the net.
Pics are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/36m2/2390032944/ and here http://www.flickr.com/photos/36m2/2388846597/in/photostream/ and here http://www.flickr.com/photos/36m2/2388846517/in/photostream/ and here http://www.flickr.com/photos/36m2/2388846419/in/photostream/ and the last one for this weekend http://www.flickr.com/photos/36m2/2388846313/in/photostream/
Next week i'll tackle my living room !
And i have a lot of strength to give to you ! Voilà !

I'm a little behind, just finished up getting rid of two 1,000 pound garbage bags from the kitchen. But at least I am no longer afraid to go in the cabinet underneath the sink...
Check out the before and afters here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/39185427@N00/pool/
Or here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/itsamio/sets/72157604123730508/
Whew!

It's amazing how much freer you feel when you throw things away. I cleaned my storage room yesterday, and wow. Even just throwing away empty cardboard boxes really helps a LOT!

Nice closet work, Jany!

Due to our remodel, we had to rearrange all of our belongings to fit into 2/3rds of our home. It will be in this configuration until the end of June or longer. Condensing our usable space did wonders for our week 4 cure purging! Many, many boxes of things headed to the thrift store this week.

I'm giving strength too! Drastic and good changes are happening around here.

I met with a contractor yesterday and he's working on a quote for my bathroom remodel. Whoo hoo!

I was able to give strength this week and it felt so good! I think the fact that today has been sunny and warm really motivated me to do some stuff around the apartment. That and I just found out I'll be needing surgery soon so I guess I'm in the mood to "nest" and be able to control SOMETHING in my life. I will probably be taking a break from the cure when I find out when this is all happening... hopefully it will be asap.

I think another reason I'm feeling so good about the cure right now is that I have officially NOT chewed off more than I can handle. There are tons of things I'd like to change in the living room right now (not that its horrible! its still quite comfortable) but it all requires more time and money than I currently have. That and being unsure about if we'll be here next year has made me decide to focus on the LR for the fall 2008 cure. I feel REALLY good about this decision and it has let me chill out a bit this week. I was able to concentrate on our three bookcases of books, dvds, and cds instead of worrying over everything else. I pulled everything off the shelves and completely reorganized them by type, then alphabetical by author. It looks so nice right now and I know I will be able to find exactly what I am looking for if I need it. What a great feeling :)

I did play around with some ideas I have for the future Living room cure which I posted here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/suziegoombs/2387608757/

Here are the newly organized bookshelves:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/suziegoombs/2390679546/

And on a completely different note, I bought these awesome pink and purple roses this week. I LOVE them. I realized the other night that it is the only pink object I have in our apartment right now. It looks really nice with the green and yellow chairs so I'm thinking of trying to add some pink accents in the dining room BUT I'm not sure if its going to clash too much with the Orange/blue thing I have going on in the living room (since the rooms open up to each other). hmm hmm.
Flowers are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/suziegoombs/2389844385/in/photostream/

Suziegoombs, good luck with the surgery.

man, i really need strength this week as it has been horrible with a car wreck and an unrelated trip and day spent at the ER. thanks you guys.

Strength, strength, strength to MFlick!!!

I'm still scrubbing the contact paper residue off the kitchen backsplash. It will be ready to spackle tomorrow afternoon. My right arm is currently on life support.

Exactly two weeks to my party. Onward.

LadyJ--have you any goo gone--or lighter fluid on hand? That might help save your arm.

And ditton strength to Mflick and Suziegoombs and the one who had that fire in the neighbour's apartment last week. (Drat, I'm drawing a total blank as to name--sorry about that!).

I have been scrapping paint off of rivets. Yes, it's about as exciting as it gets on a Saturday night. Whoo. hoo.

(Actually, I'm thrilled. It's all prep for painting the darn trunk).

I'm using Goo Gone. And it has been over two hours of apply, wait, scrub, repeat. My arm is dead.

And a Brillo pad brings it home just before midnight.

Hooray for LadyJ!

Wow. Sleep well--and ice that arm.

This is the first time I've marked get strength. I too had an accident and a night at the ER and it has gotten me behind in my schedule. My whole body is sore and I have to be ultra motivated this week. :)

I had to get strength this time, not so much for strength, but for inspiration. I have been trying this whole time to redo my art studio in my apt. ... I already purged junk and donated my nice office furniture suite and i'm slowly recycling in some vintage pieces ... BUT somehow I still have a bunch of stuff sitting around that needs to be put somewhere (some of it is from other rooms that have been cured already) and it's one of those things where I don't know where to start, so I don't and I close the door and go reorganize my pantry again. ugh! I want to get this place done so I'm inspired to work in here again, and also because I want to finish rehabbing my giant steel tanker desk, but I can't until this room is cured. I need a curing muse to get started!

Also, what do you do with plastic hangers?? I just switched my bedroom closet to all wood hangers and now I have like 150 plastic hangers piled up in the middle of the studio ... it's one of the things I don't know what to do with. You can't recycle them and I feel bad throwing them out. What to do???

And extra good vibes going out to suzie, flick and harmony.

Last week my husband and I determined that we would have to renew our lease on our apartment. I felt that I should figure out a way to make my son and daughter more comfortable in their shared bedroom, as they have grown rather tired of the arrangement--and each other. So this week has been spent purging and redecorating their space.

They had a huge dresser that took up way too much floor space, so we gave it to a single mom with two kids who really needed furniture, then we dismantled the bunkbeds and pulled both boxsprings out of storage. I covered the boxsprings with bright red fitted sheets and placed them in and the mattresses an L-formation in one corner of the room, leaving the corner open. I found a small stand on sale at Target for $13 to house the TV and X-Box, which previously were on top of the dresser. And I repurposed a stainless work table and counter stool as a place for the kids to do homework and art projects. I picked up a piece of plywood and had it cut to snugly fit the corner opening between the beds, which I have sanded and am now awaiting a dry day so I can paint it red. It will be placed on top of a weighted down storage bin and used as a table in that open corner.

Since I had removed the dresser, the kids needed a place to store their clothing. I found 2 large plastic storage drawer units on sale (also at Target) for $17 each, which have been placed at each end of the large walk-in closet. Toys are stored in the closet as well, leaving the bedroom open and minimal.

Handmade denim quilts and lots of pillows make the two mattresses into sofas during the day, giving the room a lounge-like feel. At night, the kids just remove the pillows, and their beds are ready for use.

We call the room the "BK Lounge," to steal a term from Dane Cook (which is okay since he steals material from everyone else). The "BK" stands for "Big Kids," which is exactly what they feel like in the room. They love it. And yesterday, to celebrate the grand opening, they had as many as 7 friends in there at any given time. The BK Lounge appears to be a big hit, and my total investment for the project was only $67, as most everything was recycled from other spaces and from storage.

Next I'm tackling my home office space and the patio area.

Again another weekend of not being able to do any work on my place. The week was full of 12 hour work days, as was Saturday and today I'm back at work again. I don't need strength, I need a tear in the space time continuum and an ability to move furniture around and do some hammering completely silently.

In good news, I managed to clean out one more box from the moving process (winter coats and boots), as well as find a place for my science textbooks. This was accomplished at 11pm, quietly.

Sorry to hear about people's car accidents and impending surgeries. I'll beam good thoughts in the direction of any aches, pains and wish you all speedy recoveries.

Thanks for the props Maxwell! Things are really starting to come together!

Ridge - I think you can take hangers to goodwill or salvation army to donate. They will actually use them to hang the clothes they have for sale!

Good luck everyone!

Good vibes to those who need to undergo surgery, who had accidents and those who struggle at this point of the cure.
And Alana in Canada, i'm looking forward to see the trunk painted ! ( Actually, i'm thinking of repainting my trunk, too...in the case that i'll put it from the bedroom to the living room as coffeetable..not so sure about that yet.)

Key word for me this season is "edit", via Craigslist & Vietnam Vets. : )

As usual, I crammed in my sure stuff at the end of the week.

My friend who's supposed to install my ceiling fan canceled, so hopefully that will get done next week. Bummer.

Things that DID get done:
- alphabetized cds, organized media shelf
- wiped down bookcases
- sent out invitations
- added more crap to the outbox
- emptied the outbox!
- bought tulips
- decided that a small decrease in color would add to the light/brightness and sophistication of my living room- so i'm buying white flowers, going with white pillows, etc. it feels crisper & more spring-y
- decided that while i really dig the patterned window films from 2Jane, $78 a roll is out of my budget (and silly). i'm going to choose & order plain frosted glass window film this week

Also, my windowbox plants are not dead! Yay!

My progress photos: http://flickr.com/photos/68987525@N00/sets/72157604409326964/

Maxwell,
Great to see the stuff that's going on in your house!

Worked on Office Week instead of Living Room....I went through 7 years of papers and household files...shredded the bulk of it, and organized the rest: taxes in labeled envelopes in a metal file case; long-term files in a banker's box for the attic; active files in a desktop hanging file organizer; birth certificates, savings bonds, passports, etc. organized in another metal file case.

Most importantly all this work spurred my husband and I into finally drawing up our wills. We were procrastinating because it was hard to choose among potential guardians for our children. We bit the bullet realizing that anyone of our family members that we chose would love our children, and it would be better for us to choose than leave it up to the courts. We decided to each make a list and the first match would be the guardian...it worked. To make the wills, we used a simple Quicken program found on nolo.com and it was truly painless. I can't believe we put it off for so long because we felt intimidated.

Still a lot of work to be done in our new office...we still have a king-sized mattress propped against the wall where the shelves belong. A friend is taking the bed this week, and I'll be able to continue the quest.

I had a great week this week!

We finished painting our bedroom. I had decided that we needed less color--our bedroom had been turquoise and I found it was too stimulating and not relaxing enough. So we painted it a very neutral taupe-y color that's warm and inviting.

I kept up with the decluttering--I got rid of a huge stack of Real Simple Magazines, Elle Decor magazines, old beach towels, kitchen stuff, and miscellaneous household stuff. It's so nice to be rid of it! My husband is starting to get into the swing of things too--he's a bit of a sentimental pack-rat, but he's been adding things to the outbox--I'm very proud of him. :)

Here's the link to my "AT In Progress" Flickr Set: http://www.flickr.com/gp/74041096@N00/M8XW01.

Here's the link to the "Before" pictures: http://www.flickr.com/gp/74041096@N00/9Eu4B5

This week, I emptied the outbox, had workers fix the crack in the living room ceiling and I'm about to contact someone about a quote for the living room window treatment. This cure is more fun than the Fall cure because I'm at a point where most of the useless stuff that gathered in my loft is already out the door and I'm taking care of fun things like decorating.

I did a lot this weekend, so I definitely can give strength. I organized all of my bookshelves and misc.drawers, adding a lot to my outbox. I will have to wait another week to donate the contents. I weeded my NPs and magazines too. I also did the basics, dusted, vacuumed, and cleaned the bathroom.

I bought some new plants and herbs to liven my apartment, I just hope I can keep them alive.

I find it hard to cook during the week, so I am making sure I cook on the weekends. Last night I made a mock cheese souffle, and tonight I am cooking Scallops with Asparagus, using some of the herb plants I bought.

I posted a few photos of my living room.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lffrank/sets/72157604213436452/

The kitchen wall turned into an epic based mostly on me not having enough spackle. Went on a silly goose chase looking for an open hardware store with more patches. Then came home, cut and patched and started spackling only to see 2 oz. was maybe half what was needed. So I rushed out to find more only all the hardware stores in Brooklyn close at like 3pm. I finally wound up Target buying another patch (in case) and a mini-tub of spackle. Plus lampshades and Good for Wood floor kit.

Laundry is underway and I still have to spackle the rest of the patches. Can I even cook around this stuff? 'Cause I need a hearty dinner.

I drew strength this week after not making much progress for a couple of weeks. I completely cleared out the hellish part of the closet floor. Then I put in some low shelves that I had (from where my new vintage credenza now is) and just put some things back in there.

I moved 2 plastic storage bins from this closet out into the front closet, where I had been keeping the low shelves (musical furniture). (These storage bins are pretty much the last of the stuff I used to keep in the building's storage room. Once we started having to pay to store stuff there, I removed it all and mostly got rid of stuff. What I couldn't deal with, I crammed into the closet or under the bed.) I have to deal with that stuff; such as, tough decisions about keeping products from my early worklife. Scan? And where (and whether) to store a gazillion old journals.

I had moved all my stacks of magazines into the new credenza when I got it a could weeks ago, as well as other stuff. Today, I took all the mags out and stacked them up in the LR (musical crap); I need to make decisions about which to keep, which to get rid of.

Then, I cleaned out all the crap under my bed!!! I put some into the credenza. Some into other decluttered areas in the closet. Some in the outbox. Some in the LR to go through, deal with, or fix.

I haven't see emptiness under the bed in a while. Let's see if it can stay that way. If I get another piece of storage furniture in the LR, I think this will go far in solving my storage issues.

Wow, watch out if you get started on this stuff, because it takes on a life of its own!

My camera is working again and I have some pics. I'm not in the habit of using Flickr (I'm prob. one of the few that has never found it very intuitive to use and I also don't like it very much), but I will post my pics and link here.

It feels SO GOOD to get this done! It really stirs up the chi in my space too. And the cat.

Oh, Pixie, I'm so happy for you. It is really, really tough to deal with stuff like that. I don't know if it's any comfort, but NOT dealing with it takes on a life of it's own too...and the space chocker block full under a bed becomes an entire basement!

I actually had room down there to put the trunk in order to paint it. I've always done stuff like that in the dining room 'cause there wasn't room. It's nice not to have that mess right here!

I think I'm having fun now, even though tomorrow I have to go shopping for proper storage containers! B-o-r-i-n-g.

I don't have pictures yet, but highlights include,

Kitchen

Multiple washings (inside and out) of the kitchen cabinets that hold food, including taking off the knobs and scrubbing them in the sink. This is a MUCH bigger deal than it sounds, our wooden cabinets do not clean well or easily.

Organizational products (lazy susans, stacking shelves) have been marshaled to turn the disasters of spice heim, baking heim, pasta heim and oatmeal heim into well regulated spaces.

Speaking of baking, I found three boxes of confectioner’s sugar. Oops. Maybe I can sprinkle it behind me so I can find my way home.

Last but not least, my girlfriend and I did a MASSIVE clean of the fridge yesterday. Where you take EVERYTHING out and wash it and put it back. It took two hours and the interior now looks brand new.

Landing Strip

Repaired broken drawer in the four-drawer unit that sits by the door.

Some effort has been made to start organizing the four drawer unit. Right now, it holds stationery, stamps, blank checks, local brochures, takeout menus, pet stuff, promotional stickers and plastic grocery bags.

Stuff that needs to be filed, filed. (Which at this point just means being shoved into a cabinet, but one thing at a time.)

Lots of papers and old coupons and crap have been thrown away. Plenty more to go.

Giving strength this week as made tremendous progress in the cellar over the weekend. Outbox is overflowing and BF is enthusiastic about decluttering! (This was actually the bigger challenge: getting bf to sort through his stuff.) Will post pics soon.

On a related note, it's official: we're moving to Philadelphia this summer so bf can start grad school at UPenn. (Hence the great desire to shed layers of "stuff" b/c I don't want to have to move all of it.) Does anyone have some good resources for shops (thrift, antique, boutique, organic foods, or other) in the Philadelphia area?

Alana in Canada --wish I could do your storage box shopping for you. Getting stuff with which to organize is the best!! ;)

OK, I'm sure you all are really lovely interesting entertaining people, but the record collection just puts into context a lot of the comments that you seemed to fight against during the nine-month cure. You guys basically said, yes, we have an ownership interest in a hamptons house but we don't use it. The extent of that record collection and the furnishings belies the entire theory of the 260 sf apt. Much like many commenters said, the reason you could subsist to a liveable degree in a 260 sf place is because you had a retreat - for 8 months of the year - and a storage house. Yet you protested constantly that you did live in that tiny apt.

Am I the only one who feels like I've been duped? I'm not saying that the ideas you put out are not good or worthy, but I do feel like I have given you the benefit of the doubt and now you are admitting that you never drank your own kool-aid.

Hmmmm.

Thanks for the well wishes everyone! I really really appreciate it.

Cantabrigian1--if we had a Container Store, I'be be excited, but we don't. I'm not even sure where to look, actually. "Container season" retail speaking, is January and September.

OriginalA--I had much the same feelings. But I think their sincerity is still intact: MGR recommends living with less--not nothing! And he is weeding that collection down. (Though it does put the two 14" boxes of LP's I've kept and felt guilty about into a different perspective.)

I'm not giving up on the G-R's until I see an SUV in the driveway.

Please let's not let this Cure thread be hijacked by this issue. Please, please, take it to an Open Thread.

To the open thread I shall go then.

I was NOT aiming that comment at you specifically Alana!

As Maxwell mentioned, I was off in Maine this weekend, so no progress to report. Nice work to all!

This week is crazy with work events and such, so in addition to saying goodbye to my old TV and huge cabinet, my goals are to:

- research new smaller tv
- "stage" my desk to photograph and sell on Craig's list
- file a huge stack of paperwork
- make a dent in doing a springtime clothing purge
- measure windows for potential window treatments

I already tackled the cord monster a few weeks back, but will likely have to do it again when I move my "office" out of my bedroom and into the "dressing room," but first, need to sell the old desk and buy the new Elfa unit that will be the new desk.

No, no, Pixie, you're quite right.

I just finished a project I started LAST cure (Fall 07). I had some curtains I wanted to hang that needed some amending. Now, they're washed, ironed and hanging just where they ought. Man, that feels good!

Should I be freaked that the spackle notes that it has carcinogenic ingredients? Is there a cancer-free spackle?

I am back from my trip and ready for work! I got a lot done tonight and am looking forward to busying myself this week with living room rearranging and oh so much more. I bought a Chagall print while travelling and I desperately need some help deciding how to frame it (having never had anything framed before in my life).

Anyway, I blogged all about it and would love your feedback.

All the best everyone!

Whoops! The link doesn't seem to work. Here it is again:
http://woolsocks.wordpress.com/2008/04/07/back/

I'm so behind! Kitchen week marked the beginning of my downfall... I barely got to the landing strip and didn't complete it to the point that I would have liked to. I've all but dropped out, though I don't want to. It seems only my mind is in and not my actions. My main problem area is the landing strip because it seeps into the stairs the kitchen and the living room.

Why don't any companies make shoe racks that can accomodate boots, even ankle ones? this is so fustrating to me! So glad winter is almost over and boots will soon be unnecessary.

Is it completely wrong that I need/want a hamper in my entrance? It just feels crazy to bring my wet yoga clothes to the hamper upstairs only to bring them back down to wash them.

Furthermore, about my potential dropping out, I am leaving for Costa Rica on Saturday. I will be cleaning before I leave, as a friend will be house/cat sitting... but does that count as curing? *sigh*

Luckily my sister in law promised to help if I promise not to drop out. I'm totally off schedule though...

LadyJ--you don't plan to eat it, do you?

Tidy up--put all your dishes and glasses and pots and napkins, etc, away.

Wear rubber gloves. You'll be fine. You probably breathed in more carciogenic material just walking down the streets yesterday.

My husband cut down the kitchen table this morning (lengthwise) in the kitchen! So, I've a lot of sawdust to clean up. This will officially be "kitchen" day.

cantabrigian-Second Mile in West Philly is clutch of great thrift stores encompassing clothes, furniture, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

What part of the city are you guys planning on living in?

I just moved from Philly to NY.

I wish I could say we got tons accomplished in week 4. My curtain rings finally arrived. But...they shorted me one ring...aghh. We put the final pair of curtains up and now the room looks more finished! Week five will be dedicated to painting the baseboards and hanging some photos. Once the baseboards are done we can concentrate on new closet doors.

Sadly, I am going to purge my magazines...Dwell, Living etc, Met Home.

http://flickr.com/photos/jjburke/2378884972/in/set-72157604069588155/

Well, I'm still a bit behind, but I'm progressing at my own pace, I guess. A lot of what I'm accomplishing isn't very visible, but the stuff like clearing the pantry and organizing the front closet has been super-satisfying. I haven't tackled too much of the living room yet, but much of what I want to do involves the office area (and the dreaded craft closet) so that will happen this week. I have a date next week to do an Ikea run with a friend who is going to come over after and help me hang pictures.

Video purge has already happened - and I alphabetized my DVDs. Book purge has begun....I think I can be pretty brutal here.

Recent photos:
Front closet:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurelann/2396315585/

Landing strip:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurelann/2397141006/

Charging station (so happy I though of this!):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurelann/2396310319/

I think I have decided on the paint color for the guest room! Going with "Patriotic White" from the Benjamin Moore Pottery Barn line....seems fitting this year no?

TelAviv Dweller,
the link to your blog isn't working...could you please fix it ?

Jany,
Here's the link: http://woolsocks.wordpress.com

I've stacked up all the magazines that I want to go through and cull (hopefully getting rid of most of them) and it's over 2 feet tall! I guess I shouldn't start calculating the total cost of this stack and what piece of furniture I could have bought instead.

And that's after gradually getting rid of quite a few mags over the past month or so.