AT Cure - Week 3

Unintended blogging vacation due to beautiful spring weather, gardening, and bike riding.

I have been working on week 3 of the Cure this past week. In some aspects, this was a bit more challenging.

The tasks:

1. Vacuum, dust, and mop throughout your home. Check.

2. Clean your entrance and any related closets. Check.

3. Arrange to have all repairs taken care of. Check.

4. Declutter your entrance. Check. The outbox was very liberating for getting rid of my "extra" handbags. I think now I can finally give them away.

5. Move all old mail, catalogs, and magazines to the Outbox. Surprisingly, these items do not accumulate in my entryway. They are all in a basket in the living room. So, I'll get to them this week (Week 4).

6. Look into what you would need to create a Landing Strip. I already had a pretty good one in place. We come in through the kitchen. Just inside the door to the dining room, I have a chest. I keep my shoes in the bottom two drawers, my keys and phone in a pretty wooden bowl on the top, my purse on the floor to the left, items to go out (library books, etc.) in the second drawer, and items that come in (bills, letters) in the top drawer. I check the out drawer on Monday, when I do errands. I check the in drawer on Friday, when I pay bills. The only thing missing, is a place to hang our coats. We have to walk them through the dining room to the foyer coat closet. Often they wind up on the backs of the dining room chairs. But, I am reluctant to put a coat hook in the dining room!

7. Cancel any unused subscriptions. I still need to do this. I have a real weakness for magazines and try to limit myself already. I currently subscribe to Real Simple, Lucky, Money, Health, and Organic Gardening. I need to cancel Lucky (who am I kidding, I'm not buying any new clothes!). The others stay, but are on probation for actual usefulness.

8. Identify cool and warm rooms. Cool: bedroom, bathroom, office. Warm: foyer, kitchen, living room. I disagreed with the book suggestion that the foyer is cool. For us, it is a guest entrance not a family entrance. So, I want it to be warm and inviting.

9. Apply the 80/20 color rule. Color. Not my best subject. I have spent all week agonizing about color. The way color is approached in this book is not clear to me. So, I spent a lot of time studying color in other books and magazines. I think I have an emerging idea of how I want to use color in my home, but I'm still working out the details. Expect another post on this subject.

10. Cook two meals at home this week. Again, no problem.

11. Design an invitation for your housewarming. Not interested.

I hope to start on Week 4 today and work on it throughout the week. So far, I am really enjoying the process and have been able to maintain the results. My kitchen table is still clear!