Weekend Projects

One Small Way to Commit to a Better Home and a Better You: Sign Up for Weekend Projects

Written by

Taryn Williford
Taryn Williford
Taryn is a writer, editor, content strategist, and homebody from Atlanta. I might have helped you declutter your apartment through the magic of a well-paced email newsletter. Or maybe you know me from The Pickle Factory Loft on Instagram.
published Feb 8, 2019
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(Image credit: Ellie Arciaga Lillstrom)

Apartment Therapy Weekend Projects is a guided program designed to help you get the happy, healthy home you’ve always wanted, one weekend at a time. Sign up now for email updates so you never miss a lesson.

While January is usually defined by New Year’s resolutions and the menagerie of self-improvement efforts you have earmarked for yourself, I find that February is where we really start to get into a new groove. The second month of the year is where we leave the fads behind, and truly begin to cement the smart habits and new routines that are going to get you where you need to be.

For those reasons (and because January is all about the Cure around here) we wait until February to kick off our (almost) year-long series, Apartment Therapy Weekend Projects. The idea is that everything you want—a cleaner home, a happier you—isn’t something that can be accomplished in a month or with a one-page checklist. It involves one very simple thing: Consistent dedication.

Consistent dedication. That’s what Weekend Projects is about.

How it Works

If you’re signed up for email updates, you’ll get a new message from us each Friday morning with a new thing to accomplish, and every post will include all the info you need to get the project done by the end of the weekend. It might be a quick-yet-forgotten cleaning effort, a necessary reminder for a bit of home maintenance, or even just something personally satisfying that we think you should make time for that weekend.

What you do or don’t do is up to you. You pick and choose what works best for you and your home, and what you have the energy or time to tackle. It’s really just a little bit of structure to help you make your home better, one small effort at a time.

What’s New With Weekend Projects

This program has evolved over the years. At times it was heavy on the “projects” in a hardware store kind of way, then evolved to include more housekeeping and tidying up. Last year, we were inspired to add a few projects that skirted the edge of the series, and they were some of my (and your!) favorites.

For instance, I really loved the project where we suggested you take a moment in your weekend to write a positive review for a local business you love. It’s a low-touch effort, but it pays off in so many ways, both for your own self-confidence and motivation, but also for your community.

We’re going to try and include more of those sorts of projects this year. Small, satisfying things you can do to improve not only your home, but your self.

Which segues nicely into today’s project…

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)
(Image credit: Ana Kamin)

This Weekend: Tell us one thing you’d like to see in this year’s Weekend Projects series

Yeah, we’re starting with somewhat of a softball, but I think it’s a valuable exercise for all of us.

I’m asking you to suggest ideas that you might like to see as weekend projects. Anything goes! Tell me an area you need a nudge to clean. Tell me what area of your home you need a walkthrough and some moral support to finally get organized. Tell me about small things you’ve done lately that left you with a smile on your face and an unbeatable sense of accomplishment. (If you don’t want to leave a comment here, you can always message me on Instagram.) I’ll take your ideas — I promise to read every comment — and use them to shape the rest of the year’s assignments.

Of course, this exercise isn’t just for me. I hope that in the course of thinking about those questions, you’re also mindfully musing on the areas of your life and your home that you need to work on. If you’d like, use this weekend and this exercise to start a list of things you want to get through this year. Keep it handy as a reminder of the goals you have for yourself, and motivation to achieve the home you want, one weekend at a time.

You can catch up with weekend projects right here. Share your progress with us and others by posting updates and photos on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #atweekendproject.

Remember: This is about improvement, not perfection. Each week you can either choose to work on the assignment we’ve sent you, or tackle another project you’ve been meaning to get to. It’s also completely okay to skip a weekend if you’re busy or not feeling the assignment.