January Cure: Day 23

Today's task was a bathroom clean out. By looking at our medicine cabinet, you'd think we had a houseful of people (mainly women) living here. But it's just two. Not only do we have a lot of products, but a surplus of them... I decided to get rid of the stuff we never use (or what's expired) and  was able to purge a lot of items. I organized medical stuff, hair stuff, nail polishes and so-on into bins, zipper pouches and our travel bags.

I'm not sure you can see any difference from "before" and "after" but it actually feels better. And, I was able to make the medicine cabinet mainly mine, and the shelf mainly Mike's (along with underneath the sink :).

January Cure: Week 2

This week was a particularily productive week around the house, although most of the doing happened on the weekend. Midweek, we were tasked with picking some art to frame in our house. Our walls are pretty much covered, so another piece of art really isn't an option. I have wanted to print family pictures to have around the house for a long time, so I took that as my framing art chore. We had all the frames in storage, so I got them out and dusted them off. I spent $6 in printing the photos and an hour washing, positioning and staging.

A big thanks to him - he gave up most of his Sunday to
help me clean and purge the closet. Why?
"Whatever makes the Babes happy," he says :)

For the weekend, we were given the kitchen to clean. Since our kitchen is brand spanking new, we haven't had time to gather too much crud. However, the microwave needed a good scrub and I threw out some old food containers in the fridge and cleaned the oven. I went to buy flowers from my beloved Norfolk Wholesale Floral, but was too late to grab any fancy bouquets. Instead, I grabbed a few sunflowers (only $1 each) and added them to my existing flowers.

The biggest task of the week for us was to pick a room (or a big task off the list). We went with the office. I had brainstormed about moving the clothes rack and adding an extra shelving unit, but because of certain measurements we weren't sure if everything was going to fit. Sure enough, it did! We only spent $50 in the process and it feels like we have an entirely new room. My apologies - I know, I still have a huge mess on my desk, but I'm in the middle of a big order!! I still want to look for a new rug and organize my craft stuff a little better, but we're already so impressed with what $50 and a little idea can do.

January Cure: Day 4

Take 10 minutes to critique a room. The room I picked? The office/closet.

This whole room is really problematic. It's because this is our only storage in the entire house, so everything just gets tossed in here - usually in a pile, on the floor. Before I got my 9 to 5 job, I spent about 97% of my time in this little room, so it was a constant source of anxiety. Even though I'm not spending as much time, it's still bothersome. Why can't it look neat, clean and cute (my desk excluded) all of the time?

I think by possibly rearranging the shelves and clothes rack we might be able to offer a lot more space for another shelving rack. I might be able to get my clothes off the ground. And maybe our things will have a designated space, instead of wherever they're thrown.

I definitely need to get rid of that ugly rug and replace it with something less busy and more neutral. Possibly look for a better storage solution next to my desk and fill up that outbox with 40% of this room!

Monday Musebles

In attempt to keep my weekends productive and work on my photography skills, I'm starting a new weekly feature called Monday Musebles. It'll give me a chance to recap what I did all weekend and break out my camera for some always-needed practice. We completed our weekend chores for the January Cure, which included cleaning the floors, buying flowers and adding to the "outbox."

The landing has been a mess since the kitchen reno, so we tackled that first thing on Saturday. We sorted through the piles of boxes, moved stuff to the dungeon, donated magazines to the library and a bunch of goods to the CHKD. We treated ourselves to brunch at The Green Onion and I enjoyed a very tasty poached egg sandwich (I also noticed they have $10 sangria pitchers, which I will be back for).

 The rest of the day I spent working on my new felt food project: Donuts! Saturday night we met up with some friends for drinks at The Big Easy, and I always forget how much I love the place and am never impressed with the waitstaff. Oh well...

Sunday we slept in until 10 a.m. and I'm not ashamed to admit it! It was glorious! I video chatted and brainstormed with a friend for some upcoming blog posts (our first guest blogger) and finished up my donuts - I love when I can multitask. At about 3 p.m. I started cooking for Mike's Redskins Playoff Game Get-Together and didn't stop until after 6 p.m. I made wings and potato wedges, cinnamon pull-apart bread (recipe coming later this week), cut up veggies for the week and cleaned the kitchen. I'll note that I didn't mind any of it, because I LOVE my new kitchen.

January Cure: Day 2

Today's task for The Cure was to create an "outbox." The idea is that you put an item in your outbox and leave it there for a couple days/weeks. If you don't miss it or think about it, then it's as good as gone.

As you can see we need to empty our 'outbox' to make room for new outs. We started purging a lot of stuff last week as we made room for our Christmas gifts.

You can follow along in the LiveBlog process here or signup to be apart of The Cure here.

January Cure

After completing our kitchen project I felt I needed to keep going through the apartment and fixing everything up. Since we rent, and I'm pretty sure we aren't going to get a budget every month for new projects, the rest is up to me. You may also be asking why do so much to a property you're just renting? Well, my boyfriend and I have been living in this 800 square-foot apartment for about a year-and-a-half and while I hope 2013 may take us to our very own abode, it may not. I want to be as content and comfortable in our cozy little space as possible, which is why I signed up for Apartment Therapy's January Cure.

It's a month-long home/apartment cleanse and declutter with daily tasks and inspiration from fellow bloggers. Today's task was to make a Projects List. Identify spots in your space that need some TLC (or just a good scrub), then highlight 3-5 items from each room to concentrate on. Here's what I've narrowed my list to:

Living Room:

Donate Magazines to Library
Sort through crate of pottery and find a home for it
Add family/friends photos to room
Reorganize buffet table

Bedroom:

Clean ceiling fan
Refinish bookshelf
Get rid of stereo (that's ultimately up to Mike)
Clean closet floor

Bathroom:

Dingy shower curtain
Cluttered drawers
Dusty shelves

Kitchen:

Fix washer/dryer noise
Paint crown molding (ask Landlord to do)
Gas/carbon monoxide dector

Landing:

Better organize and utilize space
Get rid of leftover kitchen remodeling stuff

Office: 

Make better use of the space
Reorganize bookshelf
Get a new rug
Drop stuff off to Goodwill

You can follow along in the LiveBlog process here or signup to be apart of The Cure here.