January Cure #21 Goodbye Cure

This is actually the fourth time I join Apartment Therapy's January Cure, and finally it feels succesful! Perhaps because I decided beforehand to be a little more realistic with my time, and not scrub every single inch of the bathroom ceiling and the inside of all the kitchen cabinets. I have done that earlier, and it made me give up halfway through the Cure.

Another thing that has been helpful are the actual asssignments we got. I think the tasks were more managable this year, and time restraints on some of the days were very helpful (Hello, 3-minute surface sweep). Plus, my husband has been involved much more than last year, which has been a great help, especially with the kitchen and hallway closet.

Our main accomplishments this Cure:
- Redecorating the living room
- Cleaning the big hallway closet (at least most of it)
- Getting some work done on the loft
- Being able to lighten up and purge a little bit in every room, especially in the kitchen cabinets that are no longer overflowing
- Weather strips for the door!
- Being reminded of how much cleaning can actually be done in 3 or 30 minutes. Getting started is often the hardest part...

Not everything on our list is done, but the apartment still feels so lovely. This weekend I only had to clean a big mirror, vaccum the floor and change the sheets. And I made cookies to celebrate! I must admit though, I am glad it is over. I really need to focus on my school work again.

PS. If you want to Cure your own home, it's not too late. All the assignments are still available on Apartment Therapy's page. 

January Cure #18 Landing strip

Apartment Therapy believes very strongly in a "landing strip" for the home. This expression refers to a system of organizing your entrance and dealing with everyting you bring through the front door. Spesifically, a place for shoes, coats, keys, bags, mail and whatever else might clutter up your hallway.

We rearranged our entrance a couple of weeks ago, and it actually messed up my system a little. There are hooks for coats (and hangers in the closet for more), a space for shoes, hats and scarves go in the closet, keys in a bowl, so all that's good. A new problem is: where to place things that are on their way out the door? For me that means books going back to the library, mail that needs to be sent, things to return and more. I just don't know what to do! Maybe I can make room on the shoe rack somehow?

Another issue is incoming mail. I tend to let bills, receipts and letters pile up, together with random pieces of paper, and there is no good system. In my mind I have a picture of a tray that could hold all these things, but I dont't have a tray like that. Etsy does though!

PS. The weather strips we installed are amazing!

January Cure #15 The linen closet

What a luxury it would be to have a whole closet to store linens! It might be more of an American idea, as I haven't seen them a lot here in Norway. For our family, the bedsheets go in a suitcase under the bed, towels in the bathroom, kitchen towels in a basket in the kitchen, tablecloths in a dresser in the living room and extra comforters and pillows in the "guest room"/loft. So, all over the place, but right where they need to be used, so I guess it is practical in its own way.

Today's task was to go through
- Towels & Washcloths
- Sheets, Pillowcases & Duvet Covers
- Comforters & Blankets
- Dishcloths & Tea Towels

Then paring down to what you really need. I just realized while re-reading the list that tablecloths are not included. In my case, they should be though. I have so many doilies and tablecloths, and could probably do fine with giving away a few.

For the other categories there wasn't much to do. A few towels was all that needed to go, otherwise I think we are doing pretty good in this department. I sorted through sets of sheets a few months ago, which made today's job easier. But after looking at linen on Pinterest and Etsy for a while now, I want to try it out, both for bed sheets and kitchen towels. Has anyone else tried it?

Linen tea towels by Varvara Linen.

January Cure #10 Get your get-together together

A simple 10-minute task for today: invite people over for a get-together at the end of the Cure. This way, you have some extra motivation to finish things, as well as a way to celebrate all the hard work. It is pretty sweet to have these breathers in the Cure as well, so not every single day is filled with dusting and scrubbing.

For this task I cheated a little bit and finished on Tuesday. I am in a Bible study group that meet every other week, and I volunteered to host the next one. It will be a few days before the Cure is officially over, but thats alright. The main projects should be done by then, and maybe we can even finish everyting a little early. Is that too optimistic? Anyways, here are some bright weekend flowers for you.

January Cure #1 Floors and flowers

When January comes around I have made it a habit to join Apartment Therapy's January Cure for cleaning, organizing and fixing things at home. January is not an otherwise busy month, and therefore a great time to get stuff done that has been postponed for a while.

I am looking forward to the results of this cure, and have decided to really invest in two areas that I never got around to during the last cure: the hallway closet and the loft bedroom/craft/storage area. It's gonna be a big job, so I might not be so thorough with other tasks.

As the new year started I had a bad cold, but luckily I felt well again by Saturday and managed to clean all the floors (except the loft. The loft always gets left out...). For Christmas I received a gift card for my favorite flower store from my husband, and it was spent on some beautiful tulips and a replacing a small zebra house plant that  didn't survive Christmas.

Curing my home: February update

I wrote about the January Cure in February, and here is an update on where I am at. The list is still not completed, but I am working on it. Lately I have tried to focus on my studies as well, which means less time for home projects (and blogging).


What I did in February: 

- Hanging a Peruvian blanket.  
This project has the most visual impact of all this cure. It was quite easy actually, but it took me a while to just get it on the wall.... Here is how to do it, and here are some more pictures of the hallway.

- Deep clean the bathroom. 
This was so nice to get done! I had already cleaned and cleared out of the cabinets earlier in the cure, but it still took me 4-5 hours to clean everything else, including the ceiling and walls, and even under the washer. It was hard work, but so worth it to have a squeaky clean bathroom.

- Get a lamp for the balcony.
We kind of did this. Its a temporary fix, and not a pretty lamp either, but now that the days are getting longer and brighter it might not happen until fall.


Still to be done: 

- Finish deleting digital files.
This is a very large task, but I am happy to have gotten rid of about 60 GB of duplicate pictures, music I don´t really like, unused programs and more. It was a great help to download DiskInventoryX, which showed me what was hiding on my computer. There are still a few thousand pictures to go through, so I am not quite done, but my computer seems a lot happier, and faster! I have also cleaned up a lot of my email folders, and also been better at deleting emails as I go, so that is an improvement.

-  Make a family picture gallery wall!
I have started by framing an old picture of my parents from when they were about 20. I know what I want, but need to choose pictures, get them printed and framed, so it certainly is a work in progress.

- Purge, clean and tidy the loft bedroom/craft space. Mike has done his part, but I have barely started. It sure is a daunting task.


- Organize the hallway closet. Hmmm... I will get to this one day, maybe when I pack away the winter coats and boots?

January/February Cure

Apartment Therapy has a yearly tradition of a "Cure" for your home. This event happens in January, and the aim is to help you get a more functional and clean home. I have done it 1,5 times before, and thought it was time to try it again this year. There are two main points to the cure: cleaning and organizing.

Cleaning
There are areas that are easy and quick to clean in a small apartment, and others that are easy to forget, or simply ignore. This cure has helped get to those dreaded areas like inside the bathroom cabinet, the dusty bookshelf, and the top of the greasy ceiling fan. It feels great to know that everything is clean, not just the floor and surfaces.

Organizing
Now that I am not living alone any longer, there is even less space for what we own. It is crucial to take inventory quite often and get rid of what we don´t need any longer. The best cure is of course to not let much new into the house, but it still happens. Especially with all the wonderful wedding gifts we have received (and love), I try to let them replace something instead of add it to our collections. "One item out for every item in" is a good rule I try to follow.

Improvements
Cleaning and organizing can prove to be incredible improvement in themselves, but sometimes it takes a little extra for a space to go from blaah to great. I have not taken on projects like that this time around, though I would love to get a new color and handles on our kitchen cabinets. Hanging some new pictures might be the thing instead.


Accomplishments so far: 
- Deep cleaning the kitchen. Including getting new filters for the kitchen fan and installing them.
- Deep cleaning the living room. There was cobweb on the ceiling! With 5 meters from floor to ceiling it is not an easy feat to clean this room. Now I have vacuumed those exposed beams, and the dust on them is no longer exposed. For the first time, I also washed my curtains. Maybe I shouldnt have, because they are now almost 10 cm shorter!
- Deep cleaning the bedroom. Moved a lamp in here as well. We redid our bedroom this fall, so there was not much work that needed to be done. I go through my clothes twice a year when I switch seasonal items, so my closet is under control.
- Got rid of some things we don´t use, including kitchen items, books and more. These were given to friends or a second hand store, unless they were too worn out and thrown away.
- Digital decluttering. I have thousands and thousands of pictures and emails that I have never gone through. I started on this huge job, and have deleted hundreds of blurry and bad pictures already, but there is still a long way to go. Same with my inbox. It needs a serious detox.

I was sick for a few days in January, so I fell behind with some of the tasks, and have decided to spend February finishing up most of what is left.

To do in February: 
- Organize the hallway closet. This is the only real storage space we have, and it houses all our coats and shoes, plus tools, cleaning supplies and all kinds of odds and ends. It needs to be more functional for sure!
- Purge, clean and tidy the loft bedroom/craft space. Craft supplies, need I say more?
- Finish my project of hanging a Peruvian blanket. 
- Deep clean the bathroom. It should have been done a while ago, so no more delays now!
- Get a lamp for the balcony. So we can see the front door on dark winter nights.
- Start on a family picture gallery wall!
- Continue deleting digital files.

Anyone else doing this cure? Or interested in improving their home?
Here is the link to all the posts - it is never too late to start!

Little Progress with the January Cure

In December I signed up for Apartment Therapy´s January Cure - a way of tackling mess and clutter in your house and get a good clean. Buying fresh flowers is the easiest part of the January Cure. Other than that I have cleaned and organized all my books and yarn, and deep cleaned a large portion of the kitchen. Small steps on the way... I just seem to lack motivation. Cleaning is most fun when it is over, or what do you think? Do you have any ideas for how to get going on home projects?

House tour: the Small Cool version

The house tour continues. Here are the five photographs I chose to represent my home in Apartment Therapy´s Small Cool contest. It is hard to get good overview pictures in a small space, especially without a wide angle lens, so I will show some out-takes later of the places that didn´t make it to the top.

PS. You can still vote for me, favoriting ends May 31st.

Entrance and dining table.

Living room.

Overview from the loft bedroom.

A sneak peek of the green bathroom.

Guest bedroom and craft room. 

House tour: the Small Cool competition

My soaring ceilings are now on Apartment Therapy!

I have been an avid reader of Apartment Therapy the last years, and I love all their practical tips on living in small places, wonderful house tours and DIY projects for inspiration. It is such an honor to be featured on their website. This house tour series is happening because I entered the competition, and I will post more pictures from my entry, and a few outtakes later.

But first, see my entry here, and vote for me if you´d like!

PS. I will post the winner of the giveaway later tonight. 

House tour: the floor plan

I have planned a house tour of my little home, and the first part is the floor plan!

In some areas, I am a nerd, and my boyfriend is kindly helping me to be more nerdy than ever. The last thing he introduced me too is floorplanner.com. It was so much fun to recreate my own home in 2D, cause who doesn´t love a good floorplan?

Here is my take on the apartment as it is right now:

PS. Tonight is your last chance to enter my giveaway. I will draw a winner tomorrow :)

The January Cure

Moving chaos in 2011. 

I decided to join Apartment Therapy´s January Cure rather late, but now I am deep into it, and loving it. The cure is a month devoted to cleaning, organizing and improving your home, with a project or task for each day. What I needed some encouragement with, was mostly deep cleaning some areas (especially those kitchen cabinets) and organizing my spare room. Don´t worry, my apartment is not in the state of the picture above, or even near that, but who does not need a good cleaning once in a while?

So far I am quite inspired. I have made lists for things that needs to be done around the house (not all will happen in a month, and thats okay), organized and decluttered my books, rearranged my living room, and started cleaning in all those crafting supplies. While cleaning, I have found some clothes that I will donate, and some vintage, fun items I will try to sell online. Check it out if you´d like.

For books and media I will host a book swap/book sale next week where people can bring their own books and we can benefit from what others have previously owned.

As you can imagine, there is lots of house stuff going on! I think my plans for living simply this year is affecting more and more areas, and it is fun.