Nice work, Sheltered Island!

though I don't have anything I can take a picture of, it was very nice to give some TLC to the house, get back on the cleaning and cooking schedule and finish all the small projects. It feels good to have a clean, organized house.

Yay! Good work everyone :) Count me in on "graduating" - we combined this cure with settling into and painting the entirety of our new apartment so it was timely indeed. Now that the "big stuff" is mostly out of the way, I'm looking forward to really attending to the details in the next few months. We certainly do feel like we are home now!

Thanks for including my picture! And sorry it is not up to the quality of the other pics, having been taken on my phone. :) I still have a lot of work to do, but I definitely made some progress in this Cure and I'm really excited to start the Spring one. I hope I can move my apartment further forward in the next Cure.

What I loved most about this Cure was that it really got me thinking about how to use my space in more practical ways. I rearranged my furniture in a way that practically doubled the space in my living room, did some painting, organized my hall closet, and just generally gave some attention to spaces that I had neglected. I think my home is just more comfortable now, which I love. Honestly, I wish the Cure was year round! But I am going to try to keep up the mentality and, when I can, give weekly thought to what I can do to maximize the function and beauty of my living environment. Thanks, AT!!

This was a great experience! My husband just said to me, "Baby, I'm proud of us!"

:-) <-- my big doofy grin!

I'm happy knowing a Spring Cure is coming - I know if anything slips I'll always have that great Cure coming around the corner. And like you, livc, I'm trying to think what I can do weekly to make the most of the space. It is already easier to clean up, with less stuff and a nice clean foundation to work from.

All in all, I'm happy and proud, and have already recommended the Spring Cure to half a dozen friends!

Maxwell, please give instructions for the felt headboard!

Hello.

This may be an irrelevant comment, but I was wondering if that rug in the bedroom (of last few pictures) is from Pottery Barn. We have one that looks just like that rug and it is from PB and it sheds like crazy. I was curious whether this is the case for your rug as well. Does anyone know how to eliminate/reduce the amount of shedding?

Thanks in advance!

Hi! I really did the bedroom. It was a mess, a storage room for furniture I used 3-4x a year and now it is an inviting relaxing part of my pad. We painted the room, removed all the unwanted stuff and rearranged the bed.
Of curse, there is still work to be done, but we allready use the room more often. Maxwell, where is your nice fuschia bedspread from?
I also loved the general decluttering and cleaning, so great to do it twice a year during the cure! Overall it was a great experience for me

Oh, this post got edited. It's now more appropriate to say-- Good job, EVERYONE!

Wow, Seattle Hoarders and Sheltered Island - your before and after pictures are so dramatic! What great work!

thanks AT, I enjoyed doing this Cure. Each week was a good combination of the hard work of purging, cleaning, organizing, with the fun, creative parts -- picking out paint colour, setting up the office, cooking something nice, and FLOWERS! congrats to all!

the last question - hang on, email? what email?

Hi
I finished!!! But i didn't post any photos...I will the next time. I really Cured my living/dining room, bathroom and kitchen. I cleaned out my bedroom and fixed things there but the next cure is a redecoration of both bedrooms, mine and my sons. And then I'll really be CURED! Thanks AT! this was great!

I finished, too! I did the Deep Cleaning, so I didn't have any dramatic changes, but I got rid of so much junk I'd been hanging on to. One thing that really resonated with me was in the beginning of the book, Maxwell wrote that we hold onto things because we're afraid that we won't have them if we need them, and we're afraid of asking for help. So I kept that in mind as I de-cluttered.

My big accomplishment was getting rid of 14 years' worth of journals I'd been carrying around with me--physically and emotionally--since college. I had used them to work through issues at various points, and it was so cathartic to just rip those pages out and recycle them. I made weekly trips to the Goodwill drop-off across the street. And as I prepared for my party (which, sadly, I had to cancel because of rain), I asked friends if they could lend me some things that I needed.

Now, not only do I have a pretty clutter-free apartment, but I feel like I have a new philosophy on what to keep and how to ask for what I need. Thanks!

Also, Maxwell, where did you get those great purple and orange blankets in your after photo? I'm going to tackle my bedroom in the Spring Cure. :-)

i wanted to do more but i did finish one room--so i consider myself a graduate.

wig300--where is that lightswitch keyholder thingy from?

Thanks for another great Cure to motivate me. As usual I tried to do too much. I have one comment, while I love the emails and inspiration I was a little overwhelmed with the number of weekly emails. I could never figure out whether I was coming or going, or what week we were on!?

This was an odd Cure, for me. In past Cures I've connected with a lot of people and we've happily "re-decorated" each other's places. This didn't happen this time around.

I'm not sure why, but this Cure felt directed from the top down more than it ever has. There wasn't the "back and forth" during the weekly threads--and I'm as much to blame as anyone. I just didn't take that much time to "interact" with folks.

Still, I got a lot done and I'm glad I did it. My relationship with my home is always growing and changing. I subtracted from every room--except the living room--and there I added in such a way that the room finally looks as though grown ups live here. I'm glad I was finally ready for it!

PS. Maxwell--I don't think it was a good idea to have Thanksgiving intrude near the end. Next time, I think timing it so it falls it Week 8 (or 9) would be ideal.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

I fininished my cure this time! Mostly doing annual cleaning type tasks and I worked on a new furniture arrangment for my bedroom. (Moved dresser in anticipation of a new chair, deep cleaned under the bed. and cleaned all the baseboards, and all the light fixtures in the house, that type of stuff.) I had a party with few friends over for tapas style cooking, and we went to a show after.

As far as cure feedback comments:
*I like doing the Cure with the group b/c the feedback, discussion and deadlines with tasks each week help keep me going.
*I don't like the AT message boards in their current form (just comments on a post) b/c it misses the back and forth discussion... and the current post gets lost. I liked the ability to post pictures casually ourselves, and have discussion associated with the pictures of our progress and other discussion threads as well, that was possible when AT used the Flickr groups during the Cure.
*The Cure was a little late for me this year, it might have been better to have it start and wrap up earlier.
*The Cure email is pointless b/c it just points back to the same Cure posts - I already read the AT site, don't need an email with the same content.
*Length of Cure - everyone seems to die, lose focus/concentration or something around week 5. Maybe shorten to 6 weeks? Or think of innovative ways to keep the momentum going around weeks 4-5? Cut back or trim out some of the tasks? B/c I can't even do all the given lists in 8 weeks, so reducing the Cure to 6 weeks means eliminating some items.

I did it - or at least a heckuva lot of it. My house is soooo much more cozy and livable now. I love it!

Thanks! This was great! I recently moved, and the Cure has been an excellent process for helping us make our new house feel like our home fairly quickly. I am most thankful that the Cure introduced me to cleaning. Before the Cure, I did not think that I was capable of keeping my house clean and organized. I also thought that people who cleaned were generally dull and uninteresting. I've been converted. Cleaning no longer seems like an overwhelming task. I enjoy my house more when it is clean.

Maxwell, where did you get your pillows? Love them! I've been looking for something similar, with no luck so far.

Chloe, I love your rabbit room! I just want to go in there, sit by the tree and play with the rabbits. It is so welcoming!

I did the cure by myself in my last apartment when I bought your book. Reading it again made me realize that I have been basically living by everything in it, both there and at our new place. This means, there is very little "cure" to be done, but I managed to switch my Expedit for Besta (both IKEA), which I've been meaning to do, with good results and reregister some tips in my head.

Next time around, I'll be sure to do more work on my paper work, as I didn't manage to go through old tax files this time around.

Thanks for an inspiring cure!

I just have to add that the e-mails were essential to me. Without them, I would have derailed completely.

OMG, I am impressed.

I haven't participated in one of these yet, but I have been a voyeur. (And although I signed up for SaraKate's Kitchn Cure, I didn't make it very far as I can't figure out how to get a large table out of my tiny kitchen without an axe!) One of the reasons I think I haven't participated is the message board format, which I found difficult to navigate, as a reader and is one reason I didn't go further w/ the Kitchn Cure.

P.S. Maxwell, if you read this, PLEASE post a how-to on the bi-level Frosta Stools!

My only gripe is that I wish the Cure started a little earlier maybe in September... having it end right after Thanksgiving and right before Christmas is a little rough.

I'll be back for the Spring Cure though :-)

Oh, and Congrats to everyone who DID finish!!

k8theriver, the light switch rack is from the MOMA store:
http://www.momastore.org/museum/moma/ProductDisplay_Light%20Switch%20Rack_10451_10001_61137

I first saw it on AT :-)