I’m spending this month participating in 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. Well, I’m trying to anyway but I’ve found out two important things along the way.
One is that I (for once) am living in the same house and many of the tasks we have been assigned are similar to ones assigned last year. Guess what, I don’t need to do them again! I’m not bragging, I mean some of the task like scrubbing down your kitchen cabinets needs to be done every year, let’s get real the kitchen can get real gross real quick. But things like purging and organizing the linen closet have pretty held up since last year. I may have a towel or two that have gotten ratty or some straightening of my blanket stacks to do but overall the linen closet is still looking good.
The second thing I have learned is that since we are moving soon I don’t really need to clean the linen closet, I need to purge and pack the linen closet.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that my January Cure has sometimes gone off on a huge tangent. I’ve done some of the projects as instructed and other days I am tackling things I need to accomplish for the move instead.
The to-do list we wrote out in week one is getting a huge workout!
So let’s see what I’ve been up to.
Clear a Closet – This one was for sure a to-do. My son’s closet was a wreck and I am not about to pack a pile of junk only to move it to another house. We tackled this one together with a bit of negotiation. He told me what COULD go and I told him a few more things that SHOULD go. In the end we finally got things looking good.
Here are a few before and after shots. It helps that he’s a boy and doesn’t have a ton of clothes….
Review your to-do list and choose one (not-too-big) project you’d like to cross off this month.
What? I know, it’s harder than it sounds, taking your main block of “home time” with no television, computer, or smart phone. I decided to work on an art project my husband commissioned. A project is always a good distraction from electronics for me and with this big chunk of me time, and it’s almost done!
Take time today to go through your linens
Like I said this one mostly held since last year but that didn’t mean there were not a few things to straighten and toss.
Clean your kitchen! Choose an “inside or out” track and get started.
- I painted my bold colored mantel, door, and mudroom closet back to white. Not everyone is up for my bold color choices.
- I took down four of my light fixtures and returned the original ones back to the house.
- I took down the art in the master bedroom and my sewing room and started boxing it up.
- I filled about 300 nail holes and touched up the paint.
- Packed about ten boxes of items we won’t be needing anytime soon…ten down 500 to go!
Oh yeah, and as instructed, I bought fruit instead of flowers this week. Whew, I’m tired.
Woohoo! You go girl! The January Cure sounds like something I really need to do in my life, but maybe in February? Love the sneak peek at your new painting!
Where are you moving to this time? Just curious…
We are actually purchasing a house in South Carolina in the same town we already live in. My husband is considering retiring from the military here so we figured it was time to get a home of our own….Finally!
Lovely! Congratulations (I thought you might be moving back to Europe 😉 )
That would be nice but probably not any time soon.
Oh I need to clear some closets!