DIY

January Cure 2017 – Week One

January 10, 2017

It’s a new year and that means time for Apartment Therapy’s January project called the January Cure, a whole month full of assignments designed to help you get yourself and your home organized for the new year. Think of it as a New Year’s resolution for your home. This is my third year participating in the January Cure and I have to say it really does help put your home in good order for the new year. Even if you don’t complete every task you’ll be glad you played/worked along. This year with a move on the way I’m hoping to clear out the clutter so I don’t have to move it with me.

Let’s have a look at how week one went.

Assignment # 1: Let’s Go! The Cure Begins with a Quick Confidence-Boosting Declutter– Choose a drawer, any drawer but only one drawer and get to work. Well, I know everyone has a junk drawer and the longer you have it the more junk it accumulates. We haven’t been in our house much over a year and ours is pretty junky. The worst part is that last summer I spilled a pack of chia seeds in this drawer and they look surprisingly like mouse droppings. Not something you want people to see in any drawer much less one in the kitchen.

Thanks to assignment one, my junk drawer is now chia seed free.

Assignment #2: Bring the Big Picture into Focus: Create a To-Do List for the Year – Holy cow this list is going to be long. So much to do, I may be working on this list all month.

Assignment #3: The Storage Black Hole in Every Home – Purge the Pantry! Okay, I don’t have a pantry and every year Apartment Therapy seems to like to rub it in my face. Instead, we have a bank of cabinets we use to store dry good and one next to the range that I use for spices and baking items. I guess the bonus of not having much room means we don’t have room to hoard unneeded items so this was more of a cleaning than a purging.

I took the time to wipe down the shelves, consolidate and reorganize. The result wasn’t a full pantry but a least it looked better.

Assignment #4: Create an Outbox – The Outbox is not garbage, nor does it need to be an actual box; it is a halfway house where things sit while their fate is being decided.
OUTBOX RULES
1. Anything can go in the Outbox
2. The Outbox is allowed to get messy
3. Everything must stay in the Outbox for at least one week
4. After that time you have several choices

Take anything back out
Leave anything you are undecided about for one more week
Dispose of the rest by moving to the recycling bin or giveaway pile

I already had an outbox started in a laundry basket in the garage so I took the time to empty it out and make a trip to the donation bin for a fresh start.

Assignment # 5: Flowers, Floors and Sticking Together No Matter What! Did someone say flowers? Okay, so buying flowers was easy part. Actually, the floors were even easier because I didn’t do them myself. Cheating, I know but since I went back to work full-time I hired a housekeeper, so she took care of the floors and I took care of the sofa. You know what happens under, on, and around the sofa? Lots of crumbs, dust, and dog hair. So I took this week to vacuum and mop under the sofa, vacuum under the cushion and wash all the cushion covers.