The January Cure: Better luck next year

The January Cure by Apartment Therapy wrapped up a couple of days ago, and…surprise, surprise, not a lot changed on my end. Even though I didn’t do as many of the assignments as I was hoping to do, I did enjoy reading the prompts each day and perusing the comments left by others. It’s nice to know so many others are in the same boat. I also liked to be reminded that the Cure was about progress, not perfection. Sometimes my need to do something perfectly is debilitating and prevents me from actually doing anything.

Here’s how the assignments went since my second update:

Day 15 / Get your sofa into shape

We NEED to do this. It’s on my list of major projects. I want to vacuum the whole coach (even the back of it), clean under/behind the couch, put some pads on the feet to keep it from sliding around on the wood floor, and rotate the rug because we mashed down the corner that gets walked on the most. It’s going to likely be at least an afternoon-long project that will require Korri’s help.

Day 16 / Do a 3-minute surface sweep

This is something I try to do every day! It’s crazy how much I can clear/tidy in such a short amount of time. Our kitchen gets the bulk of the junk since it’s the first place we can drop things after coming through the door so it’s pretty much always a mess. I’m trying to think of some sort of organization system to sort mail, magazines, receipts, etc. I can’t decide between a stackable flat organizer or something that would hold everything upright like this letter holder.

Day 17 / Take a catch-up day

I can’t remember what I did, but I don’t think I worked on any of the assignments. I probably just filled and ran the dishwasher. We have a bad habit of leaving dishes in or by the sink and I’m trying to end that by keeping the dishwasher turning over constantly.

Day 18 / Clean the floor + treat yourself to flowers

I had every intention of doing this assignment last weekend…and then we spent the whole weekend on the couch watching shows on Netflix! The downtime was much needed and appreciated. We do vacuum and sweep relatively regularly but should probably mop the wood floors soon, especially in the high traffic areas.

Day 19 / Do a pantry cleanout

I actually did this back in October! Our pantry is I think the biggest pantry I’ve ever lived with, but it used to be so wildly disorganized and it would drive me crazy, so I took one weekend afternoon and evening and reorganized the shelves. It looks and functions so much better now. We just need to be good about going through and using the products we have now! I took the above photos the morning after organizing, so the shelves are slightly more disorganized/full now. I love that I can actually see what canned and jarred food we have with the shelf organizer, and I use the wire basket to corral dirty rags before laundry day.

Day 20 / Set up a “landing strip” by the door

I honestly don’t know where I would put a landing strip or what I would use as a landing strip, so I didn’t do this assignment. I do wish we had coat hooks and a bench to sit on to put on or remove shoes, but Korri has vetoed a bench. I did buy a shoe rack to put in the closet by the door to corral the shoes we wear most often (and the shoes I wear if I need to run outside), but now I’m thinking about leaving it out and seeing how it works if it’s by the door directly versus in the closet.

Day 21 / Empty the outbox + reset the living room

I didn’t do the living room assignment, so there was no resetting to be done (unless removing the Christmas decorations counts? Ha!). We still have various outboxes situated around the house, and I’m going to move them down into the workout room that is currently being used as more of a storage room until the outboxes are cleared out. I need to either borrow my dad’s truck to take everything that needs to be donated or figure out a charity that is wiling to come pick up a piece of large furniture…

Day 22 / Enjoy (and take care of) your space

I definitely need to go back and reread the assignments and keep plugging away at them. I also plan to finish reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (plus the Netflix series, which Korri and I started last weekend) and I hope that will help. I also signed up for Apartment Therapy’s Weekend Projects newsletter, which starts next Friday. Even though the Cure didn’t go as well as I had envisioned, I’m making it my goal to get the house in order this year! :) (And I’m looking forward to rereading these posts next year when I try to tackle the Cure again.)