apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Although I love those old typewriters, I can't stop thinking I'm looking at an old pawn shop in the old Third Avenue or Bowery, NYC.

where did you get that molecular model?

Finish up the frige, argue about getting rid of the extra set of dishes, and start begging for plaid rag rug from C&B for the dining room.

I'm at work today and my family is going to be in town tomorrow so my goals for the weekend are simple: do some laundry, do some minor kitchen organization to put away the results of a run to Costco, make the bed, sweep the floors, clear off the coffee table. This is a surface clean day. If I have time to venture deeper, I'll work on the fridge.

The molecular model looks like one of the ones they use to demonstrate crystal packing. I've seen them around and covet them occasionally.

And now, back to work.

Sorry I can't help with the info on the items in this pic, the photo is from "Living Large in Small Spaces" (I think).

And click212, I think my husband would agree with you, which is why he hopes I am not serious about mounting typewriters on the wall (I only have a couple, it wouldn't be so bad!). I want to keep peace in the family so I guess I'll hold off.

aka jendavid1000 on flickr

hey, now. why all the witheld love for the Bowery? at least it's one of the only remaining bastions of old new york.

when i used to live in berkshires of Western Mass., i would buy old typewriters from local tag sales. vintage treasures. i think there are still about five left at my mom's house. this photo is making me hanker to call her up and ask her to ship them to me. :-) i think i could get away with that look since i live in the Lower East Side (a neighbor of the Bowery), no?

Yay! My kitchen is all clean. It's not a huge space, so it only took me a night. I love it, as long as I can keep on top of washing dishes.

Despite the high fever all week (100F was the usual!) my kitchen is all clean except for the fridge, I couldn't stand facing that big cold thing with my temperature... BUT I did throw away all the food that we weren't going to eat... and those 3 month old yogurts. That's big for me, trust me. Right now we're assembling shelving in the storage room to see if we can have some kind of order there. That's going to be tough, but that's what it's all about!

Oh, and I'm sorry, but I've been SO SO down this week that I definitely need strength.

jendavid1000 ---

any ideas on how i can mount my typewriters like that?

great idea to free up some space for me.
any input you have on how to mount them would be appreciated.


ANYONE???

Kitchenwork: I got my fridge, finally! Tomorrow I'm building my bookcase. And no, it is not Expedit. It's a custom made one. Bon courage tout le monde.

I'm doing the deep cleaning this time - Fall Cleaning plus chipping away at some obstinate clutter that's left after many declutterings. I'm feeling quite lazy today. It's really fall here in DC and it's raining today. It's refreshing to have a rainy Saturday. I thought it'd be a good condo work day, but I just feel like reading in a chair by the window. And taking a luxurious nap.

So, I checked "get strength." I've been chipping away at the kitchen since the Cure began, but I want to work on it this weekend, since this is what we're on this week. Strength and energy please!

I'll use my chip away method and take breaks from reading and do some work on the kitchen.

Mein Goat I am tired of carrying the fridge downstairs and then upstairs. And the book shelves. My back is hurting. Can I have a day off tomorrow? :--)

callbob -- I would suggest doing what I always do, and that's head to the hardware store and find somebody to help me, LOL. I'm pretty handy and can figure stuff out myself, but the guys at the hardware store love this kind of thing, it's something a little out of the ordinary for them and they get to pull out all sorts of fancy bolts etc.

I will say that as you know these typewriters are going to outlast us all, they're very sturdy and although I haven't tried it I know there are many different areas on the bottom that I could attach fasteners to that I could hook onto the wall. I'm wondering if extra long industrial u-hooks or eye-hooks that have been screwed directly into studs would be a good way to start, because it could probably mean a trip to the hospital if one of these fell one somebody's head.

Sorry I can't be more help, but like I said, if you've got a hardware store that you like to go to, bring one of your typewriters down to them and let them have a look at it, you'll probably make their day.

I have been having a tough time getting everything "put away" since moving into my place 3 months ago. So I actually employed an old method I'd almost forgotten about... inch by inch tidying! I start in one corner of one room and just work my way foot by foot across the room. I did the bedroom closet last night. Each time I found myself getting sidetracked by another area, I'd pull myself back on track.

The closet looks great now! And I chucked out enough stuff to make extra space so that if stuff from other rooms needs to make its way into there, there will be room! I like having 20% of every cupboard and closet empty. It gives you room for 20% more potential future goodness.

Well, my kitchen is certainly much cleaner than it was at the beginning of the week. Hopefully between the rest of the day and tomorrow I can finish it off. Also hopefully I can finished decluttering up my bed room.

Tomorrow I'm going to pick up my dryer at home depot and hopefully that will fit where I want it to. I'm also planning on getting some sheet rock anchors so I can hang the mirror in the dining room. I need to clean out the fridge and finish clearing off the dining table, iron the table cloth, tidy up under the sink a bit and then I will be done with kitchen week. Yay!

Going to finish my bedroom.....I know I am going out of order but it's what the mood inspires .............we need to go with the flow and..........CURE CURE CURE

Halfway through with cleaning out the kitchen cabinets, phew! I still have to do all the surfaces and the drawer under the oven (has not been cleaned since we moved in...), but I'm confident to finish by the end of the weekend. Plus I decieded to do the pantry separately from the kitchen, which might make reorganizing it more relaxed.
Aller5 on the flickr pool

Everyone's so inspiring! This weekend I finally got a new lampshade; I had tried to repair the old one about three times, and it still broke, so I'm happy to have a new one. I also got the cleaning and laundry done, picked up a pumpkin, dealt with two different bank account issues, and pulled out papers to take to work to shred. While not exactly following the Cure (I have Cured my apartment before), I am still making progress.

My partner/roommate is pretty unenthused about this whole thing. He is espectially against the idea of painting because we're next to broke & will eventually be getting a new set of furniture from his family that doesn't really match the stuff we have now. The thing is, we have no idea when we'll be getting it & the current state of our home is driving me nuts. Besides, paint isn't that expensive!

daniny--

Do what I did when I had a roommate:

Choose a day when the roomie is gone and just do it yourself - If he/she doesn't like it, there's no excuse to complain because they chose not to participate.

My chipping-away method is going really well. Over the last couple of weeks plus with more focus this weekend, I got a lot of cleaning in the kitchen done. A little decluttering, a little reorganizing, but I think my kitchen's pretty sound, since I've put time into it on previous Cures. It's nice to go through all your stuff periodically, put things right, weed out. I think I'm maybe 65% done. If I don't get anything more done on the kitchen than this, I'll be happy. When I miss something, I remember to pick it up on the next Cure, if I don't get to it before. But, I think I'll get more done later after I do some other stuff.

Aww, my little kitchen is there and very proud to be. I think the big work is only starting for me. I like cooking, so it was an easy week for me - that's the best corner of the apartment.

Thanks for posting the link to the Flickr conversation! I've only started lurking at everyone else's pictures this week and I got a lot of great feedback and inspiration (a recipe to steal from chottomotto as well as a floorplan tool, advise on how to hide wires from jendavid1000, and more.) I am starting to have fun with this! ;)

NB: Hi Janel, there's a little typo in my name. It's Eliane (French), not Elaine (American). I know, I get that all the time. It's a bit exotic. ;)

I am loving my lovely clean kitchen! I can't wait to move on to the next room. I wanted to share that my husband has dubbed this cleaning the "clean like you're selling your house" cleaning. Happy cleaning everyone!

thank you apartment therapy. i finally resanded and oiled the tables that my dad made 30 years ago. they look amazing!

Yay! We cleaned the kitchen and put shelves in the storage room and decluttered and everything!
Look at it here:http://www.wetakeiteasy.com/

Yay! We cleaned the kitchen and put shelves in the storage room and decluttered and everything!
Look at it here: http://www.wetakeiteasy.com/

My kitchen looks so great. I feel so much better about it and it feels much more lived-in. I cleaned the fridge and stove and the floors and walls behind them (gross!) and cleaned out all my drawers and cabinets. The floor is all clean, the dishes are all done, and I bought cute food and water bowls for my new kitten, since she'd just been eating out of my bowls. I still need to mount some things to the wall, because I ran out of hardware and the hardware store isn't open on Sunday, but hopefully they won't be too difficult to install. Off to take pictures of the results now!

I had family in this weekend so I only got to do a few things. However, tonight I will be clearing out my pantry and cabinets. I will be packing up and giving away my extra dishes, cups, silverware etc. I realize I do hoard things and it's time to let it go.

I'm also going just finishing up the a few stray kitchen things, the fridge and the shelf above the sink. But I'm loving how different my kitchen looks now, I seriously almost didn't recongnize it last night!

This is my third cure, and now it has become a twice a year ritual for me. The cure gives me a chance to thoroughly deep clean my apartment and keep it organized. This weekend I tackled the kitchen cleaning it from top to bottom, I even oiled all of my wood cutting boards and utensils. I cooked twice and made a big pot of Chili and tuna casserole.

Oof, you've all reminded me that I need to oil my kitchen counter. It may have to wait until tomorrow morning.