apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

test

I didn't get a chance to join the current cure, but I'm planning to at least do this final assignment of inviting friends over for a party.

I had been in a previous cure and one of my best accomplishments from that experience was to have carved out a mini-office area in my living room (from where I'm typing now). Making that Have/Want list on page 86 was what finally made me realize I needed to create a dedicated home office area, and just as in the example, the available space I had turned out to be in the living room.

Back to the assignment to entertain and have friends over for a casual get-together. For me, it's the same concept as making a home-cooked meal so that you USE your kitchen and make it a part of your home and your life. By inviting friends over for a party, or even just for tea, we USE the rest of our apartment too and make it a home.

Maxwell may I go and maffick
tear around and hinder traffic

-- with apologies to Saki

Today was not an especially good day for me- I spilled my morning coffee on my sofa, I spilled my sons chocolate milk all over my butcher block counter and in the crack between the counter and the stove, my son wore more of his luncheon speghetti than what he ate, and he painted the walls of my dining room while I was in the bathroom with his paints. To top it off, my dog is sick.

I looked around and saw toys and messes, and crap strewn around my newly clean and organized house, and I have people coming over Friday. 8 weeks ago, I would have gone crazy.

But I realized something. I am always going to have to clean (hopefully not always to this extent) and stuff is always going to happen- I have a kid and pets (and a case of the dropsies) and this kind of craziness just isn't a big deal anymore. I threw the sofa cover in the wash, pulled out the stove and cleaned, washed some clothes before the stains set, put away the toys, and grabbed that magic sponge and washed away the paint. Clean again! Having things organized and orderly, with proper cleaning supplies made a crazy day less so. The cure was worth it to me just for how I feel today.

A quick suggestion for future Cure organizers. It would be really good to time the Cure so that it doesn't overlap with the Small Cool Contest. At least for me, when the focus of this site shifted so dramatically away from the Cure and to the Contest -- well, maybe it's just coincidence, but that's when my energy for finishing the Cure started flagging (and hasn't really returned full force).
And it seems the posts from others have gotten less and less, too, (and has moved to flickr) as the attention has shifted to the contestants.

Not to mention that some people doing the Cure seemed frustrated that they weren't ready to enter the contest because they were in the middle of full-scale Cures. Why not make it so these two big events don't overlap?

lorijo,
Thank you so much. That's a truly great story about your day. Just like life is. Perfect and messy and clean again until it gets messy again.

Sea, I have noticed with every Cure that the posts get fewer and fewer as the Cure goes on, regardless of what else is happening at AT.

I kind of petered out on the cure, but I'm still happy I started it. I put a lot of stuff in my outbox that I wouldn't have thought about otherwise (though I still need to get rid of it), I repaired some things and let our landlord know about others), cleaned the tops and fronts of all the kitchen cabinets, bought myself some flowers when the weather was getting me down, and I came up with a much more functional and pleasing arrangement for the living room. And now that my weather is nice, I'll probably get to painting some of the furniture as I planned. The journey is the point and every little movement counts.

I haven't been able to keep up with the cure, because I started my new part-time job, which is fine with me (and I love my PT job!). But I started curing parts of my apartment recently as a way of taking care of myself. I neglect my home when I'm too busy, so it only gets worse with time, and doesn't provide me with a retreat from the stress of life nor enable me to do my best work.

I remember when I did the last cure, in fall, someone commented that cleaning out actually didn't feel good because of everything getting stirred up as the cleaning was happening, and she didn't mean just the dust. Lots of memories and issues not faced, more easily shoved somewhere, out of sight, out of mind.

I'm really feeling that because I'm going through old paperwork and coming across things I need to keep to make sure things didn't come back to bite me because I didn't have the proof. Only a few pieces of paper, but a lot of bad memories--on top of my unbelief that I let this closet get so bad and so out of control. There will definitely be no skeletons in my closet any more!

The great thing is seeing the progress, and keeping inspired by looking at the lighting I'm going to buy for it (I guess you could call it my dressing area, will hold all my clothes and other things related to me, like hobby supplies), and the paper I'm going to line the back of my shelves with (in the gray on white).

So thank you for letting me vent about my frustration with dealing with this even though I haven't given you the opportunity for me to do the same for you...know that I'm proud to know you conquered what you did during the time you were able to spend on The Cure!

lorijo, your perspective is amazing, and awesome. Thanks for sharing.

Good luck to you all, and have great parties to celebrate everything you've faced!

Joan A.,

You're right, and it makes sense that the Cure posts would peter out over time. I myself feel somewhat petered-out. But I still don't like the overlap with the contest at all. I guess I want at least AT to stay focused on it, even if/because I'm having trouble doing so!

kate,
I just rigged up some IKEA 'non' lighting in my closet - there's no outlet nearby, so i finally got a long extension cord and used the long wires of these under-counter lights, and stuck them on the wall of the closet. Anyway, doing this has made such a difference. I no longer have dark closets! And even though I've thrown a lot of new junk in there (from all this Curing, believe it or not), it's now not dark junk, but cheerfully lit happy stuff, perky and ready to be dealt with in the brightness of the light. I'm Curing through symbolism, I guess....

I've fallen off the wagon, a little. I don't want to do anything extensive since I'm moving (again!) in 3 months. Even though I have some projects going on here, and I've been very diligent about upkeep since the fall Cure and through this one, it's hard to focus on this apartment when I'm already looking at new places in my future hometown.

I think this Cure's main purpose for me is to keep me grounded, keep me focused on the here and now, and not get too wrapped up in my impending move. I need to keep doing laundry, wash windows, and tend my flower garden. And the fact that I STILL can't find a new apartment without wall to wall carpet and a gas stove isn't going to change any of that.

Aww, I think the Cure is partly a mental state to be in, to be willing to make changes in your environment and work to make it a better, healthier place to live. I'm leaving town tomorrow and supposedly coming back to a Cured (or at least fully tiled and showerable) bathroom, but I will continue Curing my house in little ways. I doubt I will ever do another deep treatment after I did one in the fall, but I am sure I will do another one-room Cure as the living room is still questionable. I don't know why things petered out as this Cure ended, I hope people post their post-cure slideshows like people did last fall, those were a really fun way to see everyone's progress! I will post a very late one when I get back and finish up on the bathroom...

Anne (in Reno), I'm definitely with you on the idea of the Cure being a state of mind. Although I didn't do a lot of actual Curing this time round (except for a LOT of Outboxing at the beginning, before I moved), I found that the ideas of the Cure were with me all the way as I made decisions about furniture placement, etc. in my new apartment.

As for comments sort of petering out, I can't speak for anyone else, but I know I've hardly commented at all, either on the Cure threads, or on anything else on AT, since I had to start remembering a password, and signing on before commenting. I know people didn't like having to type in those characters in the little test box, but I found it way simpler than remembering yet another password. Just me and my password-overload.

Why don't you save it as the "Remember Me/Password" option on your computer. I haven't had to remember my password at work or at home since the feature was added. You just stay logged in.