I love how you describe the Cure as the Hero's Journey! Share the Boon.

"whenever you do a lot of work on yourself (or your home) and spend a lot of intense time in pursuit of a self-enriching goal, the best way to finish it is to redirect this remarkable energy outwards to the world for the world's benefit. In this way we complete a circle, take our efforts one step further and leave this experience on a more elevated plane."

i finished my one room, of which i already posted pics. however i started polishing up some of my other rooms. they've improved greatly. i've started new filing systems & still have a tiny stack to file. i even put away my winter thnigs into storage & organized my clothes by color. speaking of color, i did my books that way too! i found a landing strip (it's hidden) in a weird closet next to my front door. it had a built in desk that i never use & a pretty window. i usually just put keep the litter box & some storage in there. but i made it prettier, added some lighting, & *ahem* a nicer scent. lol

my HOME (something i can finally say) is always going to be a work in progress. i like change. HOWEVER, i'm determined not to let it go to crap or have boxes of misc. things ever again. more importantly, i'm going to try to never say no to having someone pop over b/c of my mess. *unless i've been sick. then, it's totally ok to be a mess!*

thank you so much for this amazing program! i'm having company saturday!!!!

My place still has a lot of unfinished parts - there's a lot on that 'to do' list that's still to be done. And yet I answered that I'd be finishing up this weekend.

That's because: I've done a lot and my place looks and feels significantly better. Like Maxwell said, it's worth acknowledging all the change that's happened even if a lot more still needs to happen. The improvement is noticed by others, and makes me feel very, very happy; so why not stop for a moment to toast it. Also - and this is the biggest reason for trying to declare things finished: I'm in real danger of doing something that Maxwell warned about early on in his book -- avoiding real big stuff I should be doing by focusing interminably on fixing this and that about the house. Not only am I becoming (as my boyfriend said, not unkindly) a bit "fussy-wussy", but I am at risk of letting very real life opportunities that I deeply value drift by and disappear. Time to focus on the rest of my life, and stop using the satisfaction of solving home and design problems as a means of procrastination and avoidance.

That's not to say that it wasn't a matter of necessity to do the Cure to begin with - it was. It's worth having done it, however 'imperfectly'. But it's worked well enough that I'm at the stage where my home now does support my values and main activities. And at top of that list is not Curing forever! (Though I sometimes wish it could be.) So it's time to immerse myself forward in those activities most valuable.

I had my one room treatment of kitchen/family room almost done, but water damage during tha latest Oklahoma wild storm has put us a little behind. We had to remove the ceiling wallboard, replace the wet insulation, replace the wallboard. We just finished trying to match the textured ceiling with joint compund. As soon as it is dry ( and we are satisfied that it blends with the rest), we'll have to prime and repaint. I answered finishing up this week and perhaps ( actually, for sure) a few days. For a celebration, we are hosting a family reunion the second weekend in June.

I lost 2 weeks of the Cure to business trips, plus some preparation and decompression time on either side of those. Regardless, I got so much accomplished and feel so much more "moved in". I still have a couple really big projects I'd like to get done, but for the most part - my apartment has done a complete 180!

My living room is so unbelievably cozy now, my studio/office has tons more work space (just need to organize now), my bedroom is luxurious, and my kitchen is way more cute, plus gained more work space too!

I spent a lot of money though.... I'm still trying to decide if all the money I spent was really worth it - but there isn't much undoing that any longer, so I may as well enjoy my new space and just save more in the coming months!

The best part of all of this was definitely building a relationship with all the other Curees! I feel like we're all a team, helping one another brainstorm and offering support and congratulations and anything else that was needed. It totally rocked.

Go us!

yay! my knobs made the AT page. ;)

i'm not quite done. i have an out of town guest coming to stay next weekend and then i'm having a housewarming party on the 12th. i'm very excited to show off my new place to my friends. though there is still some work to be done, i feel like i've accomplished quite a bit. today, i took six bags of clothes and three boxes of "stuff" to the salvation army. it felt so great to be free of it! and in general, i'm trying to be more conscious of what i bring in to my space and not letting clutter build up. the idea of the landing strip? brilliant.

i think on the next round, my bedroom needs a one-room remedy, but overall, i'm please with the progress i've made during this cure. looking forward to finishing up this week and next and posting all of my "after" pics!!

good luck to everyone as they finish! can't wait to see all of the afters.

Lili's living room is gorgeous. Love the engine red throws on the white couch, all set against the deep mahgony of the table.

Does Curing make apartments reject me?

We were trying to arm-twist the husband's mother into spending part of the winter with us, and I was vaguely thinking that while our current apartment is okay for this, it's possible to have a better layout to give a third adult more privacy and personal space. Turns out rents have dropped 20% citywide in under a year, so we definitely need to change something at the end of this lease.

Meg, i don't think you have to try "to decide if all the money I spent was really worth it", because at the moment you've spent it , your decision has already been taken, And you are so happy with the result, and that is what counts, what justifies your decision.

On my side, i checked "other", as, if everything stays on track, i'll be finished with my kitchen in about 10 days.
Yesterday and today the painting has been done, and i had some help for that! Via a person i work with i found somebody who helped me with the painting and who will come next weekend to built in the furniture. He's a nice guy, works very well and nice to work with.

I'm quite a lucky person as i have wonderful neigbours in my building, who supported all the noise over these days. Friday evening a neighbour came over to bring me a bunch of Lily-in-the-Valley-flowers, which made me very happy. Another neighbour has already invited me for dinner several times ( i have nothing left to prepare a warm dinner here ), and he has left me his keys for this weekend so that i can use his kitchen while he is out of town. I'm very grateful for this, too.

So, tomorrow i'll clean out the kitchen, on friday appliances and furniture will be delivered. The end is in sight! And it will turn out a wonderful kitchen!

Have a nice sunday evening everybody!

Does Curing make apartments reject me?

Wende, that is sort of how I feel. A lot of what I've done essentially amounted to staging the unit for sale - only I don't own it and I didn't know at the beginning that it was going to be sold out from under me.

At least I didn't spend any significant amount of money. If you choose to move, let's hope that most of what you've done supports the way you want to live regardless of the apartment you're in.

Wende: does that mean you plan to have a new space for every cure?

As for myself, what with a business trip and taking care of my mother, I didn’t get as much done as I wanted. Mostly I got a lot of little things done, but I must say, they’ve added up nicely. Thanks to everyone and their wonderful suggestions.

We have pulled up the last bit of carpet in the hallway and tomorrow will lay the rest of the floor. Then I will have done what I wanted to have done for this cure. I have moved furniture, painted, re floored, put in new lights and touched each and every one of my rooms (except the basement)

I think it was actually easier to do this than I had originally thought. I have lived here for 3 years but for the first 2 couldn't do anything to this house due to my illness and my new baby. So, I had 3 years of thought and ideas on what I really wanted.

Having this community to bounce ideas off of was amazing-who would have known a bunch of strangers could be so much help?

We had my sons 3rd birthday on Friday- I didn't have to do the "flight of the butterfly" to get ready and I have NEVER been so calm to have family and friends over.
Thanks so much!!!

Wende: does that mean you plan to have a new space for every cure?

JonathanB, there are days when I wonder. We just got home from upstate NY, and within 30 seconds in our apartment, I do not want to move at all, so I guess Curing worked on some level.

At least the place feels homier than it did when we got back from the Easter trip. I feel like I have a better handle on the "heart" priorities of wherever we live, which is huge for me. The original move out here was all head, and that's pretty much my comfort zone anyway.

A lot of what I've done essentially amounted to staging the unit for sale - only I don't own it and I didn't know at the beginning that it was going to be sold out from under me.

Isn't it a strange feeling -- the mixture of pride in accomplishment and annoyance at the situation?

(Oops -- that's annoyance at average rents for dropping so we don't have a great deal any more. My MIL, I like, and she'll be fun to have around for a while.)

Wende: I thought that might be annoyance at the fact that you'll be moving into a new apartment soon....?

lorijo: Woohoo!
Happy Birthday to your son, and congratulations on carrying out such an excellent Cure! Not having to do the "flight of the butterfly" to get ready for visitors is a very good measure of success. I keep thinking I will still be doing that, but then I realize that it takes me NO time now to get things back to looking great. Ah yes, the wonders of a little (very!) deep cleaning, massive anti-cluttering organization, and completely moving the furniture around.....

I totally feel like I fell off the cure bandwagon, but this post makes me not feel so bad about that. :) I think I'll make more progresss in the next month or so, but right not I'm focused on curing my yard and starting my first garden. And I'm so excited.

But this group cure thing, there's really something to it. It's nice having company on this kind of journey.

Thanks to everyone for sharing their spaces and advice.

Wende: I thought that might be annoyance at the fact that you'll be moving into a new apartment soon....?

Well, Sea, if we're going to be precise, it's annoyance at a choice between moving the week the fall school term starts or paying rather more than this apartment is worth for a couple years. (It's unlikely that the landlord would agree to take even larger monthly losses to keep us as tenants.)

I could almost be excited at getting an even better location and hardwood floors (both of which are possible), if it weren't for the atrocious timing. I need to work out what our real options are -- and I'm with ya on getting trapped in the urge to fuss with the house as an escape from larger projects.

But at least I currently have a good view of my patio plants. Life could be a great deal worse.

Well, I did the Deep Treatment, and feel like I did a fantastic job on the decluttering part of it. I didn't rate Breath as too much of a problem when I did the questions at the beginning, but considering the vast improvement I feel when I come home from work (and the way our friends look around to figure out what's new even though very little has changed), I think more work was needed in that area than I realised at first.

I've really enjoyed seeing everyone's photos and progress. I hope to do a One-Room remedy during the next Cure, to address some of the Heart issues I think still need work.

I feel like I fell off the wagon somewhere around Week 5, largely because of work and partially because that's rather when I derailed from the real schedule of the cure. I'm still working on the office--there have been a lot of files to purge and paper to shred. But have managed to get the bathroom and bedroom as far as it's going for the moment, likewise with the living room and kitchen. I'm going to try and take pictures tonight and tomorrow, I do need to do a general surface clean before that happens.

I've been working for the last couple of years overall on decluttering, and I think this has been the largest dent I've made. Even moving up and down the west coast twice didn't make the same kind of dent. Having an external structure helped more than anything else. And I do think I was in the right mental place to be really brutal with regard to getting rid of things.

There are still a few things that I want to do in the next few months that didn't happen during the cure for various reasons: there are some pieces of furniture that need to be painted or stained to match existing pieces, I'm saving up to buy a new dresser that won't fall apart when you look at it, buy the table I've been eyeing for my landing strip (along with a sorter and bin for immediate recycling of unnecessary paper that appears in the mail), continuing to purge things I don't use as the seasons change and I see how I'm using seasonal clothing and item, experiment with refinishing treatments for floors (in my closets) to repair areas that have become scratched, and continue to tweak lighting solutions in all rooms.

With the foundation of decluttering and similar that I've accomplished in the last two months, that list doesn't look as scary as it might have earlier in the year.

our house is much cleaner i've learned a lot, but i get an "incomplete" hope to make up my grade in the next cure.
i found out about myself that i am extremely uncomfortable posting pictures, even though i love to see critique others

Regarding the inadvertent staging for sale: one aspect of the Cure that was sort of counter-staging was that I repaired the broken bookcases in the dining room and finally got all my books on shelves:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7765379@N03/458008766/ .

I know that Maxwell advises eliminating books (another organizer on the TV show where he used to appear said that "no one needs more than 10 or 12 books"), but they're the tools of my work. I also uploaded another book photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7765379@N03/456917971/ .

Now, while there is no advantage to me in impeding the sale, I know from watching various TV real-estate shows that nothing kills a showing like having any significant number of books. Apparently most people have no books, and seeing shelf after shelf of them is frightening. The typical TV comment is "Those people must read a lot," and the potential buyers conclude that they are not the sort of people who would live in that house.

i'll definitely keep going after the cure as some of the projects (painting) that are dependent on other people have been pushed because of their commitments.

even so, even not having "finished," the simple act of moving my tv from the bedroom to the living room (also getting a new bed & mattress) has really changed the way things work in my apt. i'm using the living room more, sleeping better, not falling asleep to the tv (& not having nightmares that result when my subconcious integrates the all night news into my dreams), the bedroom feels calmer and more centered, even in the midst of pre-paint chaos. all this and i'm not even finished yet. will post pix when i do...hoping for end of may.

OK in MA, I love your wall of books! Alas, if I were in your landlord's potential buying pool, I'd be whipping out the checkbook, as you've just proven your apartment has a vital feature in our household, ROOM FOR BOOKS.

I know that Maxwell advises eliminating books (another organizer on the TV show where he used to appear said that "no one needs more than 10 or 12 books")...

Y'know, that philosophy is all well and dandy if a person's reading consists entirely of current best sellers or classics, both of which are usually available at the library. It might even work in Manhattan, where the public library has amazing stuff.

But it's completely unrealistic for people in research-related jobs, especially if your research requires books that libraries never buy and/or you don't have access to a really good academic library. I recently bought an embarrassing number of books on behavioral finance because no library near me -- not even ASU, home of the professor who recommended them -- carried these books, and I needed to read them as part of my work. And if your books are related to your research, you don't sell them when you're done -- you need them underfoot to cite them again later, or to check some fact. It's fairly rare that you move into such different projects that you never, ever need a book again.

Why the husband has a huge collection of books on the Napoleonic Wars, I do not know, as he's not a scholar and has no intention of declaring war on anyone. But if that's where he gets his identity... I don't see why excessive literacy is inferior to expressing your identity through your plasma TV, which is a highly acceptable accoutrement of the AT lifestyle.

The typical TV comment is "Those people must read a lot," and the potential buyers conclude that they are not the sort of people who would live in that house.

And that reminds me of a story. When we staged our house in Troy to sell it, one of the first things we did was strip the front parlor shelves of all books related to religion, as we figured rampant liberal Catholicism would distract and terrify potential buyers.

We sold the house to an Episcopal minister, who probably promptly moved in his own copies many of the same books that we'd carefully hidden.

one of the first things we did was strip the front parlor shelves of all books related to religion

Wende, what makes this seem hilarious is that religion is my field. If I were the owner I would probably remove most of the religious artifacts that are in plain view nearly everywhere; as the tenant, I won't bother. On the other hand, I did put away a box of wine, but that's more of a privacy issue - I see no reason for strangers to discuss my taste in drink.

the simple act of moving my tv from the bedroom to the living room (also getting a new bed & mattress) has really changed the way things work in my apt. i'm using the living room more, sleeping better, not falling asleep to the tv (& not having nightmares

Abby, I used to have a TV in the bedroom, and it was one of the things that contributed to my developing a sleep disorder. (Living above a hard-of-hearing alcoholic who came home at 2 a.m., turned the radio on full blast, and passed out was the other.)

It amuses me that so many people who have large houses are adamant about having no TV in the living room, even though it often means that the living room is hardly used - all the activity is in the family room or the media room. BTW, arranging your house or apartment so that every space receives some use is good feng shui.

I fell off the cure wagon right before bathroom week. I can't explain it other than my crazy control issues got way out of control (partly due to cure and partly due to some upcoming personal stuff) and I spent about 3 weeks pretty much coming undone. I had to take a giant break from a lot of things, including AT.

I'm better now. I'm even going to vacuum tonight. I still haven't cleaned my bathroom though. And you know what, that's totally ok.

Missed you guys.

I kind of ran out of steam (had some work travel and other issues pop-up) but I still feel the effort was well worth it and my Cure will continue. I dropped off 200 books at my local library on Monday night and am looking foward to culling shelves again after I finish the rest of my projects- thanks Maxwell for the inspiration! I'm hosting book club tonight and will post some pics to the Flickr pool (though I fear the food will be store-bought unless I escape from work super early...)

Congratulations all and thanks for sharing your pictures, insights, and advice- I can't wait for the next Cure!