The Cure: Week 2

Week 1 done, and I am already behind...oh well. I still need to get the Baby's room swept and mopped today and that will catch me up. Week 2 is supposed to be about the kitchen mostly, but I cook every night, and while my kitchen could use some reorganization, I could use a little money to do that, and since there is none to spare this week, I am putting it off. So instead I am combining the exercises of week 2 with week 3's landing strip.

Before pics of my entryway (aka landing strip):





Week 2 To Do:
Fix one thing in my apartment--I am going to pull up the cracking, stinky entryway floor. I'm not sure that I can keep the vinyl (1 layer down, cracked, and painted on) or the linoleum beneath that (unsure of composition, also painted on, don't know about overall shape) but I don't think I am going to try going all the way down to wood (don't want to deal with pulling up linoleum, this is a rental!!!!) Eventually I think I will put in something from FLOR.

Clear Space For an Outbox--Straightforward
Clear one Surface and use the Outbox--I think I will pick my closet, not a surface, but it is in the entryway so the two go together.

Buy fresh flowers--I think I might buy a plant instead....I have a black thumb, but periodically I try.

Determine your style--I need no help there...that sounds arrogant, but it is just a fact, there is a reason I was an Interior Designer after all.

Find a new recipe and cook one meal at home: I cook almost every meal, but I am trying to revise the way I eat. My sister, who was macrobiotic for 2 years, just gave me 2 books on macrobiotics, and I think I am going to try out macrobiotic cooking and practices for at least the duration of this Cure. This week at least one recipe from my new books, I think something with barley....and a lot of chewing!

Choose the date for your housewarming--Feb. 28th (my birthday is March 1st, I will be 35!!!) so I can celebrate my home, my family, and growing old!

Create Landing Strip--List--Pin board, calender, set up mail station with shredder, clean up shoe area and hang art. I am not going to buy any of this, I will make from what I have.
Quick repair list for this room: Front door handle and lock: need to call locksmith, should I try to order fancy door handle? Get landlord to cover replacing with cheap option, and I will cover difference?
Strip front door (paint rubs off every time it opens and closes, worried about lead dust) Need to clear entry to other door, and order peel-away, another thing that needs money......

8-Step Home Cure

I am an Interior Designer (well right now I am a Mom, but before that I was a Designer). It is always very easy to put together other people's spaces, but my own never quite seems done. Every space I have ever lived in I have been working on, constantly. Even when I was a child I used to rearrange my room, sometimes daily. I've always enjoyed this process, but it also leads to a certain amount of chaos in my life. I never have a "work" space, things end up in heaps and I don't go through them until they start falling on me, I lose things (like my winter coat for instance!). I'm very good at hiding my mess, and making it look organized, but it never really is, that is always the next project on my list. Lately, I find that I have lost the taste for the constant turbulence of redesign, and I long for peace and tranquility, my wee son provides enough chaos in my life.
In order to break out of my habits, I am turning to Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan's Apartment Therapy, eight step home cure. Week one is about getting to know your home and figuring out what to do. While some of the things he suggests I have done (like run your hands around all the walls, and sit in a spot you have never sat in before and consider your home....I do that all the time!) Others are very practical....up first cleaning (particularly all floors) and list repairs. Also a big deal for the cure is an outbox, a place to begin to remove the unnecessary clutter, sort of a half-way house for items you cling to, but struggle with throwing out. This week I am supposed to remove one item from the house, I put out a broken lamp and a piece of wood, god knows what I have been holding on to it for.