Plan Your Cure: Make a List of Projects

It’s tempting, during this particular Cure exercise, to charge ahead and do too much, too soon, but try and trust the process and just take it one step at a time. You don’t want to burn out – this is a month-long journey. Today is about observation, contemplation and vision, the action will come later. Ready to make a plan? Let’s go!

It’s Not Too Late to Join The January Cure:

To get started, set aside an hour or so to do a walkthrough of your home and make notes on any trouble spots as you move through each room. It’s easiest to organize your list by room – you’ll want sections for all the important areas of your own home, i.e. the entryway, living room, bathroom, bedroom and kitchen. Start at the front door and do a thorough “inspection”, noting each area or item that needs a good cleaning, a de-cluttering or a re-organization.

IMPORTANT: Resist the temptation to jump in and start cleaning or moving things around – stay on task to just observe and make note of any problems you see that you would like to improve.

A few examples of things you may note:
Wiggly knob on the bathroom door.
Stack of loose watched dvds and played games by the tv.
Mismatched, worn out sheets on the bed.
Overcrowded and dusty bookshelves in the living room.
Blown out bulb in entryway.

When your tour is complete, grab a highlighter and select a few (3 – 5 is ideal) key areas from each room that you plan to focus on – the spots that will make the biggest impact on the look and use of the room as a whole when they are improved.

Now, write up your projects list, room by room, featuring the highlighted sections (remember, just 3 -5 per room, maximum) from your observation notes as the main bullet points.

Examples of solutions:
Get out the tools and tighten up door knob.
Put all media back in cases and organize in storage cabinet, shelf or drawer.
Search the January white sales for a good deal on fresh new sheets.
Sort through books, donate or share the ones you won’t read again. Dust shelves well and replace the rest.
Replace lightbulb in overhead fixture.

Also important: Stay calm, just observe and make your list. We’ll have plenty of time to focus on the “doing” later and – don’t worry – the intention is not for everything on your list to be completed this month. You are really just assessing your home in full right now, creating a master plan of goals, both short and long term, to work on over the coming year, throughout 2015.

The big picture behind this assignment is that locating trouble spots and setting goals is half the battle and you’ll have this major step completed and under your belt before you go to bed tonight!

It’s Not Too Late to Join The January Cure: