The January Cure: Week 1

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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