apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Alas, I'm moving April 1st, so yet another Cure passes me by. I'm sure I'll clutter the place up by the next cure though...

How do you join? Is it a formal sign-up, or can you just start posting photos and comments?

Count me in! I'm hoping that some of last year's AT:SF Fall Cure folks will join in too! I miss their company.

Pteetsa - Just "join" by joining the Flickr group that is closest to you geographically. It's pretty "unofficial", and yes, post away!

Ok, thanks, STLcolleen! I'm glad it is informal, because I already have the book and have been decluttering for the past few months!

Meaning, I might skip a week here and there, but could use some advice. :-)

I feel like i have a leg up this year because I actually started a "cure-like" decluttering and designing process in January (versus the last, what, 3 or 4 where I said I was participating and did little!).

Ooooh, exciting! I'll have to skim the book again and figure out which room to do the one-room cure in.

ditto on the how-to-join then do-what-exactly? It looks like you start your own thread and start posting pics and process stuff? Am I close? :-)

Actually, could someone explain what exactly the Spring Cure is? I've seen a few posts on the Fall Cure and I never quite figured out what it was. I'm relatively new to AT.

Yikes. I did the Fall Cure and I really do need the Spring Cure already. I've been thinking about that the last few weeks. Will be glad to participate again.

I missed the last TWO cures. I'm with Christine this time though. I started last month with some decluttering projects (and am still in the process). It's like washing the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. Now that I can think and breathe a bit more clearly, maybe I'll have a successful cure.

Ooooh! I'm so excited! I just bought the book this weekend on a whim and was going to do the cure by myself. Now I won't have to do it alone!

I picked up a copy of Apartment Therapy in January and have followed the blog ever since (it's addicting!). I've been inspired to clear out most of my clutter and have rearranged my bedroom, but as I am going in the hospital for surgery this week, I wont be up and around for a few weeks to participate in your Spring Cure. I will follow its progress so I can jump in once I'm recovered.


Thank you Maxwell for this blog forum - the only problem I have is that I spend perhaps more time reading the blog than tending to my apartment! :-)

kimg924, photos are posted on flickr with an Apartment Therapy tag. Folks comment and link from AT to let everyone know when they want opinions on something and/or an issue is at hand.

First step, open a free flickr account if you do not already have one. Welcome!

this is just the motivation i need. since moving into my new condo in september, there is not a single room that is not in some for of transition. now i just have to decide which room i'm going to really focus on.

I did the Fall Cure and it was a lot of fun (although I was really disappointed that my final photos, along with a lot of other folks', weren't shown along with the rest). I don't have the money to do this one, but I'll be watching with interest.

Yay-- I'm so ready to start decluttering. Having moved to new city at the beginning of the year, I'm ready to quit staring at these last few boxes.

Even better -- April 22nd is my birthday - there couldn't be better time :) I'll have an newly beautified home just in time to have friends over to celebrate.

Now, I'm off to Target to cram a few carb purchases in before I have to start being responsible...

Pearlandopal, one idea for people who are all Cured out (or feeling broke) is to just focus on the "improving your housekeeping" ideas that SCB came up with in a between-Cures series of ruminations. So one wouldn't run around buying furniture, but one might rearrange the kitchen counters so that they're less of a pain to keep clean.

Last year I did the Spring Cure and organized my Living Room, Kitchen and did a landing strip. I never finnished the Bedroom. This time around I will do a one room cure on my Bedroom and a mini cure on the rest of the apartment. I can't wait to start, I have already started to re-read the book again.

I can't wait to do this cure! I had JUST moved in during the fall cure but I still found it really helpful and fun to do (even if I didn't post after pictures...). I won't have too much money this time around but I'm looking forward to decluttering some things I've acquired since the fall and making things a little nicer all around.

My one question: Will the cities be divided up again? I know that was a first-time thing for the fall cure and I think by the end (as more and more people dropped out) some folks were feeling a bit lonely on the less populated sites. I would love to see everyone together, but its just a thought :)

I moved into my new apartment this past weekend and as soon as I can find my copy of the AT book, I'll be thrilled to join in this season's cure.

I had a blast doing the Fall cure and will join the Spring cure for sure! I'm sure it'll be even more fun because I'm at the point where I need to take care of fun things like decorating. I continued to make my new home mine in the last few months and cleared out more useless stuff.

I don't have a big budget, but I'm sure I'll manage. :)

I'm in.

March is always a do nothing month for me. I have two children who both have birthdays in March, and that tends to monopolize my time. This cure will be a great motivator for me.

I can't wait to get started.

yay! i did the spring cure last year and have decided i need the deep cleaning & bit more decluttering again this time around. besides, i have houseguests coming at the end of april/early may, so this will be perfect. best of luck to everyone!

I have been a regular visitor of AT for a while now but have never participated in any of the cures. I'm glad to say that today I finally purchased the book and can't wait to join you all on this decluttering/redecorating adventure. I had to order the book, so I may end up a few days behind, but I think I'll be okay.
Good luck to everyone and I hope to connect with all of you on some level during this journey.

Technically, I've already started, but I'm feeling stymied by my condo property's management resistance to my getting them to reset my floor tiles. If the "bones" of my home are ailing so, it's hard to build up on them, not to mention stressful and depressing. *sigh* Still, the condo is clean, the outbox is still taking donations, and flowers I bring in from the weekly farmers' market are doing worlds to cheer me and my condo up--nothing like some get well blossoms to inspire the healing!

I didn't think I would do the Cure this time, but I have a project that I desperately need to get done. A very unsexy, "bones" (it's in the book) project: replacing my hot water heater that's in the bedroom closet of my condo and must remain in the bedroom closet because there are no other options for placement (and if there were, it would be too costly, since this will already be in the $1K range--don't ask, it's the type of hot water heater). As long as the plumber's here, I'm also thinking of replacing the toilet with a Toto at the same time.

I've been putting the hot water heater replacement off too long and I REALLY need to do it ASAP--it could spring a leak at any time, in which case it'll be an emergency, and certainly cost more and be very disruptive. So the upcoming Cure is a blessing.

In order to replace the hot water heater in the closet, I have to empty out at least half the stuff in the closet. So, I might as well clean out the closet.

So, this is what I'm committing too. Maybe I should paint in there too, if there's time, and spruce up with lights. I'd rather do the bigger closet project that I really want to do at some point - removing the mirrored sliding doors, expanding the opening to the ceiling and walls, redoing the interior organization, and adding cool doors. But, that's another, more costly project. I guess paint would help in the meantime. But, I'll have to remove all the wire shelves, paint and put them back up. Not sure if that's worth it. Sigh.

Pixie, please let us know if you find a toilet that you would recommend in the Toto line.

Your pragmatic focus on the water heater situation sounds wise. We had a water heater explode on us in our last rental. There was a momentous gushing of water in the middle of the night. It was not fun.

Good luck with your Cure!

Wow --I almost missed this post! It got relegated to "older entries" so quickly.

I definitely want to do the Spring cure, but am away 4 weekends in March (skiing!) and am likely moving at the end of the summer anyway. At least the cure will help define tasks for the Great Cleanout that is o-so-necessary when moving. Particularly when the move potentially requires moving cross-country and definitely requires downsizing.

Sweet! I need another one!

wig3000 - that's my worst nightmare. OK, worst is if I'm out of town when it happens.

I've been saving links about Toto to my delicious page, so it's just a matter of sorting those, checking in with one or two others who have Totos, and deciding. I'll share here.

want to join and do the cure--can I post pic from i-photo? am a web troglodyte.
Judith

i can't wait for my book to arrive! i've already joined the flickr pool.

Macnellie, you can definitely post to Flickr from iPhoto. Go to www.flickr.com and sign up for a free account, and then you can download one of the free Flickr uploader plug-ins for iPhoto. You can then directly upload to Flickr from iPhoto.

Pixie - From what I've been hearing, Toto is the only brand to consider. Does anyone know if there are any pros and cons between 'one piece' and 'two piece' toilets?

Or you can just go through Flickr and upload the photos off your harddrive. Downloading to iPhoto puts the pics on your harddrive in Photo folder.

This is why I love this site so much, I learn so many things, sometimes even about myself--macnellie, I'm a web troglodyte too!

But I will say to be cautious using i-photo to DIRECTLY upload to Flickr. I had a problem, maybe it's just me, I don't know, with the images ending up extremely small when imported directly to Flickr from iphoto.

Now, I drag the image from iphoto into the flickr uploader that is open on my desktop which will then send the photos to your flickr site. That may not make sense to you know but after you setup flickr you will understand.

It's really just a matter of taking two steps rather than one to get your photos from one place to another.

re: Toto toilets. I have heard pros and cons regarding efficiency of Toto's. They do have that multi-flush option right? I think I read something recently downplaying the efficiency of this feature because one flush doesn't always do it. Of course you'd then have to flush again and end up using twice as much water.

Just my 2 cents...leaving now.

Art - were these cons from websites or people or where? Would like to know any cons, because I've only heard very good opinions of Totos.

This sounds like a great idea! Can we join up with re-nest if there aren't really any cities close by? Or do we have to pick a city?

sorry Pixie, I no I shouldn't bring something like that up without being able to back it up!! I've always heard great things about toto as well.

Re: toilets, a showroom sales rep recently told me that water conserving toilets have improved drastically in the last few years. He recommended a Toto.

An architect friend is also a Toto loyalist.

i'm in! i'll mostly be focusing on my living room, but all the rooms could use a good super-clean.

I'm in! I started some projects around the holidays (I actually got rid of some things and bought some vintage furniture.)

I'm very concerned about the bones of my apartment. There isn't a lot I can do without investing in a rental apartment to cure some of the ailments. I hope I do a cure on the cheap.

Please let us know how to get started and where to begin posting photos. I noticed someone posted to the flickr group, but haven't seen any instructions about where to begin or when.

I'm in again...although i will be in Nashville for one weekend and Vegas for another long weekend, so it will be fragmented...but I'm still in anyway...

Between too much travel and a serious injury, I didn't have much progress in the Fall cure. But I did get some things done (like some serious kitchen cleaning and emptying out my hall storage closet) which will be a good launching pad for the Spring. I'd been planning on taking a week off to work on my apartment and do some other projects, so the timing is perfect. I forsee a trip to Goodwill in my future.

Aimee (of Aimee's Petite Maison) -- not sure what you mean about joining up with "re-nest" (I am a Bear of Very Little Brain sometimes...) but in the Fall Cure we were each encouraged to join up with the group in the city closest to us. For me, in the Canadian Prairies, that meant joining with the Cure Group in Chicago. Even though you do your posting through one particular city's site, and join their Flickr group, you can still read all the different city cures, and see what everyone else is up to.

I wasn't planning to Cure this time 'round... until today. Now, with the Spring Cure about to start, I find I can't stay away, and will be doing a "Cure Lite" -- just little touch-ups here and there. I'll be in the Chicago group again.

I'm in! I'm completely addicted to the site, but I've never done an official Cure before. I've been working on decluttering for awhile as part of the process of remodeling our basement. My goals this Cure are to work on improving our landing strip, rearranging our living room furniture, setting up our office to be able to work from home, and organizing our basement.

The basement should be done next week, and we bought a Toto Aquia dual-flush toilet. I'll post a review on how it works once we've used it for awhile.

I think I'm in... although I accidentally started yesterday by cleaning out 3 enormous bags of clothes I wasn't wearing from our bedroom closet. I can't believe how much stuff they fit, and how awesome it is to look at a neat row of shirts and blouses hanging, knowing I wear those all the time!

I'm not really in - we're graduating in May, and parents will no longer be subsidizing the rent *sigh* so we'll be moving soon. Plus I'm pretty happy with the apartment right now, I've been good about keeping and emptying an outbox since last fall's cure (in fact, I made a trip to goodwill today!). But I will certainly be following along, I've really missed the AT community! And I'm hoping everyone else's cures will inspire me on the cleaning front.
Maybe I'll do a CureLite like SmallCityBeth, if I can't keep myself away.

i'll be rooting for you all.

so exciting. my b-friend bought the book tonight, and we just finished reading up to part 2 together. we critically need major apartment therapy & have decided to dive in for the first time at the spring cure. our new apartment currently looks like a flop-house (we've been here a month already, but it still looks like we just barely got the boxes through the front door).

anyway, we'll be with the L.A. Cure folks, so if you want to see some unbelievably embarrassing "before" pictures, designed expressly to make you feel much better about your own home, we're happy to be of service. yup, it's because of our commitment to this type of public service that we let it get this bad, you know?

;>) good wishes to everyone participating.

Hmmm.... I went to sign up and found that I've been a "member" since the Fall Cure.... which I did not actually participate in (blush).
However, THIS time... I need to, as I am scheduled to have a baby boy (my 2nd) on the 25th of this month.... and there is A LOT to still do.
Soooo..... let's see, I need to decide which room we (I) will focus on over the next 8 weeks. I may need 2 extra weeks, as I will be recovering from the surgery for about that long, but other than that, I am IN : )

Magickkasa, I challenge you. My before photos are most likely the scariest of them all! :)

The living room it is!

This cure will be dedicated to this room.

By the end I will complete the following projects:

purchase a new chair
paint window trim, banister
refinish desk
select, purchase and install window treatment

and if things go REALLY well...

Skim coast and paint living room walls.

Wish me luck. I'll post pictures later this week.

I tried this once before, but then got pregnant with baby #2 (not 9 months old) and started a company so dropped out... I guess I'll try again! Might try to do 2 room remedy - front hall & bedroom, plus some curtains for living & dining rooms.

Where's the NY Cure post that was supposed to go up today - did I miss it? I saw posts for the other cities.

I finally found my way onto the official site again, minus the daily 'blog-to-nowhere'.
Is it just me?
This site is crazy to get on to the main page among other links.

The 'city' allocation makes no sense at all.
Go international, or go home.
Cheers.

... the 'CURE"
I read all the hype.
Now:
How,
where,
what?
This site is bizarre.