CHI Spring Cure: Week Three - Weekend

steph vixen had snow in Tennessee

It doesn't feel much like spring now in Chicago, and looking at steph vixen's photos we see March snow in Tennessee, too. Right now you might feel like putting off the Cure and hibernating for a bit, but this is the time when you really need to push through. We're almost at the halfway mark! For a little bit of inspiration, we encourage you to click over and take a look at the Fall Cure's before and after slideshow. You'll get a sense of the huge strides you can make during the Cure, and why it's necessary to get over the hump and make it to the end. Take a minute to do a self-assessment, then let us know where you are and where you're headed in the comments below.

chocovanillakiwi's kitchen

Weekend Checklist (Deep Treatment):
• Vacuum, dust, and mop floors.
• Clean out entry closets and entryway.
• Declutter your entrance.
• Move old mail and catalogs into the Outbox.
• Cancel unused subscriptions.
• Look into creating a landing strip.
• Arrange to have all repairs taken care of.
• Identify warm rooms and cool rooms.
• Apply the 80/20 color rule.
• Cook two meals this week.
• Plan the invitation for your housewarming.

suziegoomb's well-designed floorplan

Weekend Checklist (One-Room Workout):
• Research your shopping list.
• Make a list of the interior changes you're considering.
• Identify warm rooms and cool rooms.
• Apply the 80/20 color rule.
• Research and call in help.

great color from chicagomom72's style tray

Next Week: We'll be doing retail therapy! For most peope, this is a fun part of the Cure, and something to look forward to once you've completed your Week Three tasks.

The Arkansas Traveler's red tulips

Good Links:
• Make sure to check out lucitebox's cool hallway "deer head".
• thefarmersdaughter isn't sure what to do with her bathroom.
• merskine wants to know if the fabric is working on her vanity.
• aisforanita scored a new living room mirror on craigslist.
• minhus has a new landing strip.
• chocovanillakiwi is back with a ton of new photos!

oltremare is making collages

Previous Posts:
• CHI Spring Cure: Mid-Way Through Week Three
• CHI Spring Cure: Week Three
• CHI Spring Cure: Week Two - Weekend
• CHI Spring Cure: Mid-Way Through Week Two
• CHI Spring Cure: Week Two
• CHI Spring Cure: Week One - Weekend
• CHI Spring Cure: Mid-Way Through Week One
• CHI Spring Cure: Week One
• CHI Spring Cure: Week Zero - Weekend
• CHI Spring Cure: Official Sign-Up
• CHI Spring Cure: Week Zero

Comments (13)

I feel like things are going pretty well, although I still need to post updated pictures. The kitchen is about halfway deep-cleaned, and I plan on making more progress on it this weekend. The landing strips are set up and if I have time later during the Cure I may paint part of it.

We're doing our housewarming parties mid-Cure as last week we had in-laws in town for 5 nights and tomorrow we're hosting our annual cocktail party for 50 people. It's been helpful to do the Cure so far as I don't have to do nearly the amount of cleaning as I normally do in preparation. I'll get back into following the Cure more closely once I recover from tomorrow!

I woke up with a horrible crick in my neck this morning. I guess I did'nt sleep so hot with a husband besides me screaming at the tv -- GO Cards :) -- March Madness is sursly hurting our cure. Said husband also just called to ask if we could entertain some coworkers tonight. This will be the first time people (other then family and super close friends) will be in our place since we've moved. Does anyone else experience anxiety at the thought of guests?

The before and after slideshow helped remind me what this is all about....its easy to lose track when I'm working so hard and some areas (my outbox has moved from the guest room closet into the room into the hall......) seem to be getting worse rather than better.

I'm ready to get our place to the point where I'm excited about entertaining, comfortable to have guests...I'm ready to be CURED.

This week has been really hard for me- my landing strip was set up last cure and it has worked for me perfectly- so I didn't have to do anything. We had a blizzard here on Tues, and it's cold outside, so I can't do any painting right now. There are 2 projects I would love to do, but my Mr. is swamped at work right now and can't help me, and I need his help- or at least the extra hands. So I kinda feel stuck.

Today I felt a bit better ( it was sunny out today) so I have started to finish the laundry room, painted some more paint swatches on the bedroom wall, cleaned out the washer and dishwasher, and started to think about that darn bathroom. Sunday I start on the re-do of my sons room. I hope to get energy soon. (next week they call for freezing rain, rain and snow eeekkkk)

Finally, finally, finally, I have posted pics of my Kitchen (After), my OutBox (During), and my Landing Strip (After). Right here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/84796198@N00/

The kitchen just needed tidying up -- the recycling is no longer spread all over the counters, and it looks so much better!

I didn't expect to have much of an Outbox, but it has grown a tad, and it turns out that our church is having a Garage Sale next Saturday, so I'm toting all the Outbox stuff to the church, and someone else can enjoy/use/deal with it!

The Landing Strip is working. Yay. I found two nesting tables on sale, and they are a beautiful addition to the room (in my opinion at least), and they're giving me a place to dump stuff other than on the armchair. Junk mail that's unaddressed never makes it up to my apartment, there's a recycling basket right by the mailboxes. Addressed junk mail does come up here, but I have a new shredder, and it will make short work of that kind of thing. I am training myself to hang up my coat, rather than tossing it on a chair. There is hope.

I had a flu/cold/whatever most of the week, so didn't accomplish as much as I might have, even on a Cure Lite. Everyone else's work is so impressive!

I'm still here! I've been a little off-track...cleaning, decluttering, and organizing but not the rooms I'm "supposed" to be doing. Then again, there's no week dedicated to toys and they make up a good percentage of our clutter so it's good that I got to them. Four hours of sorting them last night and now we at least know where things are. I didn't really get rid of anything (I'm pretty good about not allowing any toys into the house unless they're things we'll actually use) - but we keep about 80% of them in the basement and bring up a few at a time. Last night I sorted all the ones in the basement, brought up a new crop, and put away the ones we've been using lately. Those of you without kids have probably have no idea what I'm talking about, but they can really take over the house!

My other bit of progress has been striping the entry...I can't decide whether the effect is good or too subtle. Will try to post a pic soon.

I love all the pics this week.

Good call to post the slide show, sarahc! It made me smile and it's so motivating!

I'll have a progress report up tomorrow. Let the Cure continue!

The list of things I got done is at my blog- the story of my stuff. I had a hard week- hard to get motivated, but last night something happened to make it worth while.

A co worker of my Mr.'s showed up to drink some beer and watch some basketball. ( I had a 5 minute heads up to the visit) When we were talking he said he couldn't believe that we had a 3 yr old because the place was so CLEAN! YEA!!!!! Now, earlier that afternoon the living room was knee deep in lincoln logs and legos- but he didn't know that.

As a family we are getting better about cleaning, putting everything back in its place at the end of the day, and just having less useless stuff. This really does work people.

Ah yes, the evening living room "tidy." I remember it well. When they were younger, the kids and I would run around the living room singing, "clean up, clean up, everybody do their share." As much as I hated the purple dinosaur, he was good for some things.

Progress report for week 3 completed:
http://prairiehometherapy.blogspot.com/2008/03/progress-report-week-3.html

I wanted to pass on a great idea I got from a person at a store: using a wall mounted paper towel holder for holding a towel in a small space. I had less thanb the standard 18" to work with and this may be perfect. I'll post a picture when I get it installed.

In my bathroom I couldn't use a towel holder either. I ended up using a really, really nice toilet paper holder for my handtowels. I'll post a pic on flickr today!

I actually got a lot done this weekend. This is the first weekend that BOTH my roommate and I were available to cure together. We got SO much done. The Dining Room is our new FAVORITE space. We put all our books in there so it also functions as a library. I will get pictures up today. I just wish it wasn't so dreary! Good work everyone!

p.s. Is it a conflict of interests that our landing strip is also our bar? LOL It works for us.