(This is another new experiment in which we get to chart someone's progress as they give their home The Cure. Jennifer and Drew live in Brooklyn and began the process of curing their home two weeks ago.)
This is a nice detail of one of the new clean areasAt the end of week 2, its safe to say we are warm people, perhaps to the point of sweltering. I started panicking a bit, because it seemed like there wasnt enough progress or newfound decor fabulousness to show you yet. However, we made one small change that has already worked wonders on our everyday lives.
As you can see from the photos we have a pretty large livingroom, about 12 by 20 square feet. Other than the tv area with the couch and armoire, there are a lot of dead zones.
After the big change
The deadest of them all was the corner closest to the dining room, housing my childhood piano and an heirloom secretary. The secretary was piled high with papers and junk. The piano bench had one broken leg, the piano was dusty, and no one was playing it.
We had the two pieces switch places, so the secretary is diagonal in the corner and the piano has its own space. I filed all the papers, put all the writing equipment in the little cubbies, glued the bench leg, dusted and cleaned everything.
This seemingly tiny change has been enormous. Friends who have come to visit have commented on how much better the whole apartment flows. We know where our stamps are. Ive been playing the piano while my son plinks on the top keys. I feel less drained and depressed when Im in the room, and were one step closer to Drews stated goal of this project to spend our lives living and not looking for stuff.
See you next week.
JenniferJA
"Warm to the point of sweltering" is my new favorite phrase.
Are you going to paint the room where the walnut furniture is? Walnut tends to look lonely against white walls but settle down and play nicely once there's some color (even beige!) behind it.
Agreeed, warm to the point of sweltering is a great phrase.
Jenifer, your cure is inspiring me. Keep up the good work. :)
I've got the exact same secretary -- also a family heirloom. Aren't all the little cubbies inside nice? Sometimes it's hard to remember how good the desk is for organizing because it all tucks away so seamlessly. If you haven't done so already, I'd recommend putting your checkbooks in one of the letter slots. We used to have 5 or 6 different checkbooks floating around our apartment until we finally designated a slot in the secretaray and started consistently putting them back in there (where they fit perfectly). Good luck with the rest of your home cure -- it looks like you've made a great start :)
Hmm, when you say you are having your place cured, do you mean that Maxwell is working with you? Or are you doing it on your own and just using his book as a guide?
The reason I ask is because about two months ago, my hubby & I started working with an organizer and she's been wonderful. We have lots of paper clutter, too much furniture, not enough closet space, and six huge plastic bins of my mother's stuff that we had in storage while she was in the hospital. They've been piled up in one corner of our living/dining room ever since she passed away in November 2004. I also have some found furniture that I brought in from the street but we haven't utiized yet, so the old stuff it was supposed to replace is still there. We're still not sure if we will use the found stuff, or get something new altogether. We're definitely getting rid of the old stuff (Sauder).
Our organizer has been over three times so far and we've had two phone sessions. We're both in school and working full-time, so it's been very slow-going. However, we're just about done with the paper clutter annd have weeded out lots of things from closets and cabinets. Sold off some exercise equipment, made some money on eBay. She has given us a new way of looking at things. The other day I tackled a shelf full of books that I had gone through and tried to cull many times before. I didn't really think we could get rid of any more, but we wound up paring it down to half as much. What a wonderful feeling of accomplishment! Plus we're starting to see what kind of furniture and systems would work for us, since we do intend to replace most of what we already have.
I took "before" pictures and would love to document our process, too. But it wouldn't be progressing as quickly as your place is. It is tough work that can be quite emotional at times. The woman we're working with has been like a therapist for more than just our home.
You do realize, don't you, that precisely those books you just pared away are the ones you will desperately need to find a quotation or to check some obscure fact a few months from now?
Au, still bitter, years after culling half her library. . . .
Wende -- That's a great suggestion. The walls are currently white with one dark red accent wall. We have a lot of other painting to do, but we're considering the beige now. Thanks!
Rachel -- I'm so glad this is inspiring to you! I also hauled out about six bags of stuff over the last few days and I think there's more to come, oy. . .
Lucy -- That's exactly what we did with the cubbies, and use one for our address book. I can't believe how nice it is to know where these things are now.
dIANE -- We're following Maxwell's book and doing this on our own. You might want to suggest doing an article here with before and afters to him; I bet it would be helpful to the AT community. Our progress comes in fits and bursts and it can be tough; it sounds like you're doing a great deal of work. Good luck.
Aulaire,
I don't even recall what books I got rid of. And you can google almost anything or get access to many types of facts through online subscription services. Or support your local library - what a nice change! Perhaps your bitterness about letting go of your former library comes from the idea that those books were sort of "safety nets" for you - those things you think you'll need "just in case." Regrets only keep us from moving forward in life. I say that as someone who has an extremely difficult time tossing things. And I'm a genealogist so I have great attachment to family stuff. Recently, I wanted to kick myself for having thrown away an heirloom diamond engagement ring that belonged to my great-grandmother because I mistakenly thought it was junk (my mother had to have it cut off her finger once and it sat in her jewelry box broken & dirty for over 40 years). After my mother asked where it was and told me what it was, I felt horrible because it was long gone, thrown in a dumpster. But I've got to move on!
I do have a tendency to hold onto very emotional connections to things, and I do keep stuff for practical reasons, too. But what has worked is remembering that I don't want stuff in my space that I don't absolutely love. I also don't want stuff that makes me think of negative events or people I'd be better off forgetting. Our organizer has us put things into four separate piles: Lovers, Friends, Acquaintances, and Strangers. We're not supposed to think too much, just go by our first instinct when we look at the thing. When you are using those terms to sort, you realize how much you really want or love the item. After you do that, the strangers and acquaintances go bye-bye, and you do a final sort through the rest again and ask your self how much you really love these things, or how much of a "friend" these items are. It is a wonderful tool.