Apartment Therapy

So, this week I found Apartment Therapy. Yes, I live under a rock. Although I live in a house, not an apartment, there is much to love. I also learned about their book: the eight-step home cure. I bought it instantly.

My home does not reflect my style. My mother said it best (as only mothers can), “I thought you preferred clean lined, minimalist homes? You certainly don’t have one.” Ouch. Guilty on all counts.

Almost all my furniture is “inherited” from my mother-in-law. She is very generous and I am very cheap, so I have learned to live with her style. But I am bothered by it on a subconscious level. I try to combat the uneasiness with a never-ending series of de-clutterings and trips to Goodwill. I know I won’t really feel comfortable until I buy some furniture of my own choosing and get rid of what doesn’t work.

I think I need to start with the eight-week deep treatment cure. At least it will encourage me to clear out once-and-for-all. And maybe I’ll even get rid of some furniture?

The eight-week program covers the rooms/spaces in a typical one-bedroom apartment: kitchen, front hall, living room, office, bathroom, and bedroom. Living in a house, I have more rooms than that. But, those are the rooms I use most, so I will focus on them first.

I took my before pictures yesterday morning after I finished my weekly cleaning, but without the benefit of any additional tidying. I only uploaded one shot of each room to this post, but there are more. I'll show them when I get to that room in the program.

Kitchen

Foyer

Living Room

Office

Bathroom Bedroom

I also tackled the laundry room yesterday. It has been a disaster lately.

Now it is restored to its proper order. Let’s see if I can keep it that way.

Week one tasks:

(1) Make a complete list of repairs and solutions.

* Kitchen: squeaky cabinet hinges, an easy fix

* Kitchen: broken windowpane, can fix it myself
* Kitchen: bad area of subfloor at the back door, this will wait until we remodel the kitchen (next year, I hope) as it involves tearing up the tile floor

* Bathroom: the “three year” floor. We had an emergency rip up of part of the bathroom floor a few years ago. I could not find new tile that was the same size as the existing (hexagonal) tile, so we pieced the broken tiles together and put them back on the floor, intending to replace the whole thing in three years. It’s really ugly, but I have it mostly covered with a rug. This will have to wait until I have the funds to redo the entire floor.

* Bedroom: another broken windowpane, can fix it myself

I know I will find more repairs as I go along. I am complacent about many things that are “wrong” with the house.

(2) Vacuum and mop the floors. Check.

(3) Remove one item from your home. That will be the bag of clothes for Goodwill that has been sitting in the hall for three months.

(4) Buy fresh flowers. Hmmm. Not really a flower person. And I have “bad” cats. Maybe I’ll get a nice silk orchid arrangement.

(5) Sit for ten minutes in a part of your home you never sit in. I sat in the armchair in my office. Although I spend a lot of time here, I’m usually at my desk. This room continues to elude me; I have tried several times to decorate it. The room is too big to be an office, so I try to make it do too many things at once: office, library, art gallery. It has zero flow. And the chairs don’t work. And the bookshelves are cluttered. And, it’s one of the first rooms you see as you walk in the house, so no pressure, really!

(6) Look into earth friendly cleaning products. Already use Seventh Generation, Bon Ami and Method (almost) exclusively.

I plan to post photos as I go along to remind me of my progress.