Apartment Therapy

The January Cure - an update

January 11, 2013

In my last post I detailed the list of things I hoped to accomplish this year in my home. The making of the list was prompted by the Apartment Therapy January Cure. and I though I’d give you a wee update.

Last weeks tasks started off pretty well. After I made my list, and started my outbox I made good use of the rush of energy that comes with the start of any project, but by the end of the weekend my enthusiasm for this month-long project had dramatically decreased.

First up – my front hall closet. Honestly my closet wasn’t too horrific, so it only took about 30 minutes to get this task complete.
My unorganized front hall closet
My front Hall closet - before
I’m a BIG believer in using all the same hangers (preferably wood ones – Ikea sells packages for a good price, and so does Homesense) - this by default will make your closets look neater, so I was a bit dismayed to find some other types of hangers when I opened the door and really took a look.
closet before and after
Use hangers that are all the same - it makes a big difference
The wire hangers were the first items to get added to my outbox, and were quickly followed by a couple of jackets I no longer wear, an old purse, and a pair of winter boots (I had bought a new pair just before Christmas). While cleaning out the old purse I discovered this which I’d forgotten I had:

Woohoo! Cleaning is making me money!
My front closet - organized
My front hall closet - organized
Next I moved a few steps over to get started on my linen closet. I opened the door, and then was completely and utterly overwhelmed. Take a look - see overwhelming (I can't believe I'm sharing my disaster with the world).
messy linen closet
I decided to take the easy route and started on my actual linens. I pulled everything out and discovered I had an awful lot of sheets for a home with only 1 bed. I also discovered I had a whole selection of never opened new sheets and pillowcases at the bottom of the big pile. I ended up adding about half my old sheets to my outbox, so that section of my linen closet is looking a lot better. When I looked at the rest of my closet I lost my organizing mojo, so it will have to wait for another day.
slightly more organized
Slightly more organized
The tasks for the weekend were three fold – I was to mop my floors, buy green cleaning products, and buy myself flowers. If you’ve read this blog for a while you know I don’t have any difficulty buying myself flowers so that task was easily completed. I was less successful with the other two. I only managed to mop three rooms – my living room, the kitchen and the bathroom – my bedroom and dining room currently have random piles of stuff everywhere that I need to find homes for, and I was too lazy to move them to mop.
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The last task for the weekend was to buy new ‘green’ cleaning products. I already have cleaning products, and while they may not be ‘green’ I can’t see the point in buying new stuff until I need some – wouldn’t throwing out what I already have be just as bad for the environment as using it? Other than buying some toilet cleaner (because I needed it) I’m putting this task in the ‘not completed’ column. I will commit to buying green products from now on, so this task will eventually migrate over to the completed column.

I case I’ve given you the impression I didn’t accomplish much, by the end of the weekend my outbox had become 4 boxes, one table, a computer monitor and a bag of clothes, and instead of leaving it all to languish in boxes in my living room (which is a classic Michelle thing to do) I actually hauled it all out of my house and donated it – Yay me!
I also drove out to Oshawa and picked up this Kijiji bookcase which will help me with the ‘get more storage’ item on the list of tasks for my living room, and I’ve decided it will be the project I commit to completing this month (Picking the project was the task for day 5). I really want to paint it (it’s currently black and rather institutional looking), but spray-paint is out since it’s winter, so I’ll have to come up with something else. Hopefully something amazing will come to me soon since it’s already the 11th of January.
New kijiji find - a bookcase
The sellers photo
Are you guys doing the January cure? Are you having any success?

Apartment Therapy

These aren't resolutions. Really.

January 04, 2013

After my not so stellar attempt at resolutions in 2012 I vowed I wasn’t going to make that same mistake again. Nope – I wasn’t going to make any sort of resolution or list or mental note or anything related to things I wanted to get done in 2013. And then I got an email on January 2nd.

Apparently sometime in December Apartment Therapy posted that they would be running what they’re calling the January Cure, and I signed up. With statements like: ‘If you are ready to whip your home into shape, get it clean, organized and under control, we're here to help - let's do it together! … we'll send you emails from January 2 through February 1, giving you all the info you need to know to follow along, stay motivated and complete your assignments. By the end of January, you'll be sitting pretty in a clean, fresh, organized home’ can you really blame me? I mean who doesn’t want to live in a clean and organised home? I certainly do.

Anyways, I signed up and then kinda forgot about it, that is until I got my first email about it on January 2nd. The task? Make a list of the things in each of the rooms in your home that you want to change. Drat. My not-making-any-resolutions-or-lists-in-2013 vow lasted about 30hrs into the New Year. Oh well. I’m a glutton for punishment so I made my list of things I wanted to change in each of the rooms in my home, and unsurprisingly discovered that quite a number of them are the same as what was on my list from last year. What’s a little different this time is I was supposed to keep the number of to-do items per room to 3-5 which forces you to prioritise what’s most important – the changes that will make the most impact. Here’s my list:

Foyer
  • Organise front hall closet
  • Organise linen closet
  • Change overhead light
  • Add a rug
Bedroom
  • Organise closet
  • Add window coverings
  • Get two matching bedside tables
  • Paint the walls
Bathroom
  • Organise medicine cabinet and under the sink
  • Replace the shower curtain rings
Living room
  • Organise the bookshelf and media cabinet
  • Add more lighting
  • Get some more storage
  • Add window coverings
  • Paint the walls
Kitchen
  • Organise my cabinets – make better use of limited space
  • Paint the ceiling
  • Update the lighting
  • Remove the weird (ugly) wall organiser
Dining Room
  • Repair walls and paint
  • Get more storage
  • Add window coverings
  • Change the overhead light
Its funny that when you only list 3-5 things per room the list seems rather manageable even though some of the things will be big jobs (I’m looking at you dining room walls). You probably noticed that the first thing for almost all the rooms is to organise. I’ve got so much stuff that isn't organised in any particular way (Er, I guess that  means it’s disorganised) that I can’t find anything (my tape measure for example).

If you’d like to join Apartment Therapy’s January Cure you can click here, and in case you want to know what you’re getting yourself in for, here’s a schedule of everything you’ll be asked to do.

PS – Yesterday’s task was to create an ‘outbox’. Mine’s done, and I’m hoping it will soon be overflowing.
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Antique

My Dresser - A Follow-Up Post and a Feature

February 23, 2012

Since I posted about my refinished dresser I've received a couple of comments/questions about the hardware, so I thought I'd do a quick follow-up post. More about that in a minute.

First, I'd like to draw your attention to a new entry into the 'I've been Featured' section in the right margin of my blog. No, your eyes do not deceive you - my refinished dresser was featured on Apartment Therapy!! WooHoo! I will admit to being a little chuffed when I discovered it this past Sunday. If you'd like to read the article you can click on the icon and it will take you there.

Anyways, a few people commented about the fact that I was able to find replacement hardware for the pull that was very obviously missing in this 'Before' picture.
Damaged vintage dresser
My Craigslist Dresser
I have to admit I cheated a bit. I was only missing one of the medallions or rosettes, so I took one of the original rosettes to Lee Valley Tools and tried to find as close a match as possible using size and colour as the two main criteria. The pull I used was the 3" Antique Brass Petal Handle. Here is a closer picture of the miss-matched pull.
Replacement dresser hardware
The replacement rosette is on the left - the original is on the right

I also strategically placed the pull in the bottom drawer on the left side where it's close to the wall - this means it isn't immediately noticeable when you look at the chest of drawers. Can you see the difference in the picture below (This is admittedly not the best picture, but it would be the angle you'd see the dresser from)?
Refinished vintage dresser


In future I may make more of an effort to find an exact match for the rosette, but for now I'm happy to leave it as is.

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