January Cure #5- Pick a Project

I'm a bit behind on my January Cure, but I'm still chugging away at the assignments. For assignment #5, Pick a Project, I thought long and hard about which project I can reasonably tackle this month and actually get done. The space I most want to deal with is my craft room, but I know realistically that it's the biggest project on my list and that I'll never get everything organized as I'd like.

See this great big window and awesome view we have out to the park? It's great and I love looking out the window onto the park, but this window is just calling out for some curtains to get hung up! I have the curtains and the rod, but it hasn't translated into the curtains actually getting put up.

The reason I picked this project is that not having these silly curtains up has actually been stopping us from having an event we want to have at our place, a Sunday morning brunch and cartoon-watching party. Although it isn't as bright out in the winter, not having curtains can sort of hinder a marathon of TV-watching!

So, my project for this month will be to get out the the power drill and get these curtains up on the window! It's a little thing, but it will make a big difference to our living room space. Wish me luck!

January Cure Assignment #4: Cleaning up the Pantry

I didn't think I would get this assignment for the January Cure done yesterday, but I ended up deciding to take 30 minutes and see what I could get tidied in our big pantry closet. And much to my surprise, I made tons of progress and can find things in the pantry much easier than before. I didn't take a before picture but I'm sure you can use your imagination to picture lots of messiness!

I added a few more plastic baskets to the space to hold onions and potatoes and to better organize tea towels and cloth napkins. I also added in the tiny white shelf to hold small things like garlic.

Overall, I'm pleased that this assignment got me to tackle this messy spot on our kitchen. 

What do you think? Any suggestions to make my pantry more functional?

January Cure: Create a Project List

I am ashamed to admit how many of the items on my January Cure project list were on the list last year when I attempted to do the Cure. I'm hoping for more success this year, and more things crossed off the list. Overall, I'm hoping to get a more organized apartment out of this process, as well as a place that's more inviting and comfortable to live in. It's not too late to join, so if you want to start the new year out on the right foot, click on over and join in the fun. Without further ado, here's my list!

Bedroom
Purge and organize closet
Put up curtains
Try to find something to use as nightstands
Put up pictures

Bathroom
Declutter and organize cabinet under sink
Organize linen cupboard
Replace temporary labels for containers with permanent ones
Get rid of all the newspapers stacked everywhere

Hallway
Declutter coat rack
Put away everything on the stairs
Need a landing area for keys, mittens etc.
Organize and purge clothes in the dresser

My Office
Put together shelf
Organize bookshelf
Organize the closet
Arrange and organize my desk

Balcony
Put away chairs
Get rid of extra stuff on the balcony

Kitchen
Organize cupboards and drawers
Declutter surfaces
Organize shelves and items in the pantry cupboard

Storage Room 
Purge Purge Purge. This room is where all the random bits go
Organize Organize Organize
Maybe buy a shelf?

Living/Dining Room
Purge all the newspapers stacked everywhere
Organize Bookshelf
Put up curtains
Declutter all surfaces

January Cure: Plants, Floors, Mindfulness and Getting Rid of the Excess

I've been working my way through the January Cure still, but I got behind on my posts. Here's a quick update that will hopefully help keep me motivated!

Assignment 2:  Flowers and Floors 

Flowers:
I'm not much of a flower person for allergy related reasons, I decided along with another friend participating in the Cure that we'd visit a local flower store, Living Fresh, with the aim in mind of picking up a new air plant or two for hanging glass globe I already own (yes, I killed a previous air plant, I am skilled like that) Unfortunately, we had such a good time chatting that we got there after the store closed. So let's just pretend I got a new air plant for my glass globe already and I'll make it there soon. The photo above is my original air plant before it's untimely demise.

Floors: I had trouble with this being right at the beginning of the Cure. I think my house just wasn't tidy enough for this chore--too many things on the ground! I got through one floor worth of carpets and floors, so better than nothing though. Now that we're living in an a place with more than one floor, it's a constant struggle to keep the floors clean and tidy!

Assignment 3: 10 mindful minutes

I spent my 10 mindful minutes sitting in the desk chair in my office. I haven't sat there much since we've lived here, since my office is the last space that needs to get organized and unpacked to be a usable space. I had a lot of thoughts about how I can cross some of the problem areas of this room off my list, but they will all take time to accomplish, as my fabric and craft items are overflowing the space. I also have to put up a huge Ikea Expedit shelf that at friend gave me, which might require moving all the things out of the room to have enough space to put it together.

Assignment 4: Set up an Outbox

I usually always have an outbox on the go in some form to get rid of extra things, but I fell out of the habit since we've moved. Having any kind of reason to set up a box and get rid of things is totally motivating. The outbox is getting good use already - I definitely still have lots of excess items to purge!

More from my January (probably leading into February) Cure coming soon, including photos of my secret house messes to shame me publicly and motivate me to clean ' em up!

♥ Craftzilla 

January Cure: Creating a Project List

Source

As a participant in the January Cure last year, I think that the most daunting part of the challenge has to be this first assignment. The act of going through all the rooms in your house and listing out the bigger projects and trouble spots can be a bit scary to do, especially if all the projects have piled up in the last year. I don't feel AS badly as I might have in years past though, since we did move apartments since the last time I did this challenge, and with new apartments often comes new stuff and new organizing issues and trouble spots.

However, here's hoping that this challenge can help kick start a more organized space in my apartment, especially now that I'm done school and have a  bit more time to spare for tidying and just being in my space. I am getting tired of the visual clutter and the lack of work space that we currently have, which is silly since this apartment must be twice the size of our old place.

Without further ado, here's my list!

Assignment: Create a Project List

Bedroom
-Purge and organize closet
- Move bed and dresser/side table. (The current set up involves me having to leap out the bottom of the bed each morning and is not working)
-Conquer excess of laundry mountain
-Put up curtains

Bathroom
Declutter and organize under sink
Continue to organize linen cupboard
Replace temporary labels for containers with permanent ones

Hallway
Need some shoe storage
Declutter coat rack
Put away everything on the stairs
Need a landing area for keys, mittens etc.

My Office
Put together shelf
Organize bookshelf
Put all the things stacked everywhere on the floor onto new shelf or in closet
Put up pictures/crafty projects

Kitchen
Organize cupboards and drawers
Declutter surfaces
Organize shelves and items in pantry cupboard
Remove one shelf from metal rack in the pantry

Storage Room 
Build second metal shelf for storage (once 1 shelf is removed from pantry shelf)
Purge Purge Purge. This room is where all the random bits go

Living/Dining Room
Purge all the newspapers stacked everywhere
Organize Bookshelf
Put up curtains
Declutter all surfaces

Zen's office
Buy a few bins for storage
Declutter newspapers (they're everywhere!)
Hang curtains or a blind
Move ottoman in living room

Phew! That's quite a list! Wish me luck!

What are the problem spots in your space that you're planning on getting organized this year?

♥ Craftzilla

The January Cure: Week 4 Progress

source

Day 14 - Get Papers and Files in Order 
This is a slow, slow journey of conquering paper mountain.

Day 15 - Exercise a little Cord Control
The cords have won.

Day 16 - Give Your Bathroom and Medicine Cabinets a Clean Out

Our bathroom actually has a lot of random storage, with two sets of cupboards and two medicine cabinets, but it's very easy for it to get disorganized and cluttered. I gave the medicine cabinets a good clear out, and got rid of lots of random stuff we'll never use. I also gave the big cupboards a good tidy, including reorganizing the stacks of towels and linens in there. Much easier to find things now!

Day 17 - Looking at Living Room Lighting 
Always need more lights. Looking at what can be done so we aren't squinting in the dark as much.

Day 18 - Flowers, Living Room, Empty your Outbox

I'm making progress on the living room, but it's still the place most likely to have stacks of stuff in it.

Outbox-wise, I got one bag of random belongings brought to the thrift store today, which feels good. I only ended up removing one picture frame and a beaded mat that I decided I liked after all  and was able to let the rest go.

♥ Craftzilla 

January Cure: Week 3 Progress

I'm still working on the daily challenges for the Apartment Therapy January Cure! Check out my other posts with progress here! 

Before I get into my specific progress for this week, I thought I'd share a few photos from the challenge so far, particularly how tidy and adorable my kitchen is at the moment. I decluttered the counters, cleaned the fridge, arranged some knick-knacks and hung some pictures and mirrors, and it's like a whole different space that I'm loving spending time in lately.



You can also see the awesome Christmas gift from my parents peeking out -  a cherry red KitchenAid stand mixer :) I want to make all the things in it, though have only made a few batches of cookies so far.  These little owls are also guarding my stove (and the salt and pepper!)




Day 9 : Create a Landing Strip

I'm still thinking about the best way to deal with all the clutter near my front door. Coats, shoes, keys always missing --it's a real problem. I'm hoping I can find something useful to keep some of that clutter organized, that maybe even uses some of the inspiration from my Entryway inspirations post last week.

Day 10: Work on your Goal Project

I spent a night going through many random tote bags of yarn and clearing out the space under my desk. I had a lot of yarn in that tiny space, and a lot of projects on the go! I think I may have even found enough of the needles I'd misplaced to actually finish some of my erstwhile knitting projects. However I've got miles (of yarn) to go before I sleep  finish my organizing process. I won't share a picture yet, because the progress isn't super visible yet, but I'm getting there!

Day 11: Try a Media Fast

To be honest, I've had bits and pieces of this lately, but with doing an online class this semester and work/ placement, I have little time to not be online. Travelling to visit my family and just sitting on a bus for awhile was pretty great, but it was nothing compared to having media-free time in my comfy apartment. One of these days it will happen!

Day 12:  Declutter Books and Media

I could declutter forever and still never make a big enough dent to fit all my books on my bookshelf. I did cast a critical eye on the bookshelf for books that I've never read or that I can easily get for free on my e-reader, and a few ended up in my outbox.

Day 13:  Flowers and Bedroom

Although I was away on this weekend, I actually did a huge clean-out of my bedroom on the first weekend of the challenge which is still holding up. I moved boxes, I reorganized the whole closet, I hung some more pictures, I put the dog's bed out in a comfier spot and we can actually walk through the room. It's definitely starting to feel like a more inviting space! I'll definitely share a few photos of how things are shaping up in here soon.

♥ Craftzilla

January Cure: Week 2 Progress

I've been following along with the January Cure on the Apartment Therapy  blog this month, in order to help me get my space in shape for the new year. Check out my progress so far here: 

Day 4: Getting a New Perspective 

Day 4's post, is about getting a fresh perspective on your space. I picked my living room and sat on the floor to try to change up my perspective a bit. 

Thoughts:  My perspective was mostly that when we first moved in, there was a feeling of more openness in the living room that hasn't been there in awhile due to all the stuff in the room. Sitting on the floor also showed me how bare the walls are. It's definitely time to get some more pictures up on the walls! 

Day 5: Tackle a Project 

The challenge for Day 5  is to pick a project from my giant list of projects that I'll actually get done this month. The project I've picked is to de-clutter and organize my crafting/ desk area, which includes my desk and the bookcase of supplies next to it. Here's my shameful before picture: 

My basic goals for this project are to sort through my supplies, organize the stuff that's in the mountain of bags underneath the desk and make the space more fun, inspirational and functional.

Day 6: Choose a Piece of Art to Frame

I'm ahead of the game on the challenge to frame some art,  as I recently framed a few prints I won in a giveaway from the After Nine Five shop and am thinking of the perfect spot to hang them up in my apartment. 

Day 7: Plan a Party 

The next challenge is to plan a party for the week of Feb 1st to 3rd. I've had very few people over to this apartment due to the lack of space and disorganization.  As I clean more and more though, I'm excited to have some people over! For my challenge, I'm hoping to have our neighbours over for a visit, since they were kind enough to invite us over to their place last week for some pizza and drinks. I'm making up some little invites to drop in their mailboxes once we figure out exactly which date will work best.

Day 8: Kitchen Cleaning and Cooking a Good Meal 

This weekend's challenge was to clean and de-clutter the whole kitchen as well as cook a tasty meal. I got most of this done, including conquering my towering dishes mountain, organizing all the cabinets and shelves in the kitchen and hanging a few pictures. I still have a few more things to do (clean the fridge, wash the floor and find a home for a box of random china I found while cleaning) but overall I LOVE how tidy and clean everything is at the moment, and I hope to keep it that way!   I'll share some pictures in the next few days. 

In terms of tasty food,  on Saturday night we made some tasty sweet potato and sausage chili (this is basically the recipe, but we use more sausages) and had Zen's sister over for a tasty meal. She  brought us some banana bread she'd baked, which we ate heated up with some ice cream on top for dessert. It was the tastiest meal I've had in a while.

Overall, a very successful week! I'm starting to feel proud of all the organizing I've accomplished and a bit more at home in my apartment, instead of just stressed out from all the disorder. The pictures I've put up on the walls so far are really cheering me up and keeping the January blahs at bay!

♥ Craftzilla 

The January Cure: Week 1

source

I've been finding it a useful process to work through the posts on the January Cure on the Apartment Therapy blog to work on my goal of making my apartment a more comfortable and organized. The first post,  Day 1, Make a list of Projects, focused on doing a walk-through of your space room by room  and identifying which areas in your space needed the most work or would make the most impact if the defects with them were fixed. Here's my room by room list, with the top 3 to 5 things I'd really like to address with each of the rooms.

Room by Room Walkthrough

Entryway
More organized place for hats, shoes
place to hang keys or put small stuff
Hang some pictures
Needs curtains
Outside-- cluttered entry
Uninviting front door- maybe hang a wreath

Hallway
Pile of stuff needs to be moved somewhere
Could use a rug
Hang some pictures

Kitchen
Could use some pictures
Deal with clutter on open shelf  and other surfaces
Reorganize the cupboards

Bathroom
Get rid of the piles of newspapers
Reorganize built in cupboards so they close
Reorganize medicine cabinets
Get a hamper or figure out a cover for laundry basket

Bedroom
Find a home for the boxes that are in the way
Organize books on the bookcases
Hang more pictures
Reorganize the closet

Living Room
Declutter desk and crafting area
Find a home for the stack of boxes
Add some pictures/shelves to the bare walls
Need more lighting
Put the cover back on the couch

Outbox 

The Day 2 post is about Setting up your Outbox,  in order to have a place to put items you're thinking of getting rid of, and allowing you some time to decide whether or not to get rid of things. Since I don't have a car, I pretty much always have a donate bag on the go that sits around for awhile before I'm able to donate it, so this idea is pretty much just a continuation of what I already do. The first items in my outbox this year were some purses that I don't really love, and that are perpetually hanging somewhere in my apartment filled with change, random receipts and important documents I lost.

Flowers, Floors, Cleaners and Outbox

The Day 3 post, Weekend Chores, focused on doing some chores related to setting out flowers, cleaning floors, using green cleaners and keeping on using the Outbox.

The Flowers- I ended up skipping the flowers step, not because I don't appreciate flowers, but I am pretty allergic to them.  I ended up putting up some pictures on the walls though, which is my version of brightening up the place.

Floors- I did at least sweep most of the floors in the house and the rug was vaccumed, so I think that's some good progress. We've had some boxes blocking parts of our bedroom for 6 months and I got all of those moved and put away in the closet, so I am feeling really pleased about that.

Cleaners- This part was about using green cleaners to clean. Luckily, I  have a big stock of green cleaners on hand that helped me out with some tidying this weekend, courtesy of a giveaway I won from Greenworks last year. Trust me, they were all put to good use!

Outbox- I definitely added a few more things into the outbox this weekend, although not as many things as I would have liked, but I did add in a skirt I didn't like much, some random empty picture frames and a few pairs of pants that just don't fit right anymore.

Other Cleaning and Organizing I Got Done

- Did dishes
- I got a good start on reorganizing the closet in the bedroom, which allowed me to put away all the boxes that were in the way --I can walk through there now and it feel much more relaxing for sleeping!
- Hung up some pictures and mirrors throughout the apartment --it's starting to feel homier already, especially since I put up some pictures I love and a mirror that belonged to my grandma

♥ Craftzilla