January Cure 2014 – Day One

It’s that time of year again for Apartment Therapy’s January Cure. If you haven’t heard of it, I strongly suggest checking it out. It’s a great way to start off the year whether your home is a room, an apartment, a condo or a house. It’s very cleansing and fulfilling and –bonus!- you don’t have to think of what to do next. It TELLS you.  But not in a bossy way and I still feel fairly autonomous doing it. So great. Check it out here.

Day One (which was yesterday, but you can start now, too):  Walk around, make a list. 

This one’s the easiest… and most disturbing. You walk around your home and take a good look at what carnage has been wreaked and changes you want to make. If you don’t know exactly how to fix something today, that’s ok. Just put down “the bathroom wall is a hot mess” and you can expand upon that point and come up with a plan of action later. This is sort of a brain-storming session. All the things on the page. Don’t like that doorknob? On the list! Wondering how that corner became the clutter center of the Universe? How and why are tomorrow’s problem, today, we just note it on the list! Today is sort of a procrastinator’s dream. Of course, later in the month will bring ACTION, Jackson, but today, we’re just some list-making fools. 

Once you've made your list (and had a glass of wine), go through and highlight 3-5 items for each room that REALLY should be seen to.

Ok. Ready for my list?

Notes on the list:

Entry: Well, sure, I COULD ask my landlord to do this. And I AM going to ask them for the paint. But they’re the ones who did such a crap job in the first place, so I feel like maybe I’ll give it a shot. Plus, I want to paint the rest of the living room anyway.

Living Room:  Nothing too groundbreaking here. I will need to figure out what color to paint it. Tar-stain off white is just not in it. And my cat insists on destroying the edge of the carpet. So.

Dining Room: It and the Bathroom are the closest to being “done”. I have been looking for the “right” curtains for over a year now. I think I should just accept that 1) curtains are changeable and 2) This is becoming an illness, this curtain-judging. Also, the shadow boxes that I made 2(!) years ago. That sit next to my husband’s desk.  Might just put those up this weekend.

Kitchen: I need a backsplash and I came up with the best plan. I’ll tell you all about it in another post. Mostly, the kitchen is just basic cleaning and tidying.

Bathroom: The white paint needs touching up again. And I still need to put art in there. And, you know, standard cleaning.

Bedroom: We have picked colors. We have been staring at the swatches taped to the wall for months. It is time to just DO IT. And then decorate. Like an adult.

Den: You know that space where you just throw everything? Yeah, this whole room has become that. But long-term, we’d like it to be a nursery someday. So the rows of bookshelves have to go… but I think if I built-in a shelving system in the far end of the closet and secured the door, I think it would be a legitimate solution.

So, what's on your list?