Apartment Therapy January Cure: Assignments 8 - 12 - Party Planning (Not), Landing Strip, Media Fast (Not), Project, and Bedroom

This post starts out pretty negative, but gets better I promise!

Assignment 8: Get a Get-Together Together (Nope)

During January 31 - February 2 (or somewhere in early February), I'm supposed to be planning a party to celebrate the completion of my January cure. That just isn't going to happen. With two jobs, job interviews, full-time graduate level coursework, my new fitness regime (post coming soon...), and trying to maintain an outward semblance of sanity, I really don't have time to plan a party, let alone host one. So maybe I'll have my get together towards the end of March when I graduate, rather than right before midterms.

Assignment 9: Create a Landing Strip

Sort of like the Outbox is purgatory for things possibly going out of your home, a landing strip is a screen for things coming into your home. Rather than just dumping everything on the kitchen table and letting junk mail, un-needed receipts, your bag, your lunch tupperware, whatever accumulate, you have an organized area right when you come in where things go. Possibly most importantly, once your standard items (coat, keys, purse) get put in their spots, you are supposed to immediately filter the other stuff, like the mail you picked up on the way in. It all sounds terribly grown up and responsible...

Makes getting in the front door with grocery bags tough, but at least I'm not paying for sq. ft in the hallway...

My apartment is quite small and has a *very* narrow entrance. I sort of already have a landing strip; there are a few hooks inside the pantry, which is immediately to the right of the front door when you come in. This is where my keys, coat, and purse are supposed to go. Unfortunately, my pantry has been pretty much unusable because of the disorganization, but this has improved once I got the pantry organized!

Something I don't really have a landing strip for is other miscellaneous stuff. And my boots -- which I wear a lot, particularly during the fall, winter, and spring (anyone else from Seattle?) -- now live in a basket near the living room, which is practically the length of the whole apartment away from the front door. I'm working on getting a spot for them in my closet with the rest of my shoes, but that's even farther away. My mail still gets dumped on the kitchen table, as does anything else that isn't able to be hung up on one of those little hooks. I'm not sure what to do. Do I really need a space for this other stuff? How much other stuff do I really bring into the apartment? Something to think about in the coming weeks, I suppose.

Assignment 10: Try a Media Fast (Nope)

I would so love to do this, but this is totally unrealistic for me right now. The majority of my coursework (I'm studying to become a librarian) is online and with work and everything else, any spare moment that I have, I need to be online and listening to lectures, participating in discussions, or reviewing the reading. Maybe after I graduate, I can disconnect...

Assignment 11: Project Progress

Done! Mom came over and helped me go through the pantry this weekend. We went through all of the food and got rid of what I don't use and what was past date. The hooks that I use for my landing strip are available. The spices are alphabetized. All of my canning stuff is organized at the bottom of the pantry and my vacuum cleaner even has a spot for it now. I feel so relieved when I open the pantry now. I know what's in there and where it is. I can even step into the pantry to get to the stuff that is (organized) at the back and to the left of the closet!

TA-DA!

Who doesn't love alphabetized spices? Shelf-baskets are from the Container Store.

As a bonus, I also changed the light bulbs in the dining area. They are a different color than the rest of the light bulbs (they seem quite a bit brighter and ... whiter? more natural? I don't know) but they are what I have!

And I hung up the birdcage thing. I'm going to get some fake topiary stuff to stick in the bottom.

Birdcage from Molbak's.

Assignment 12: Flowers, Bedroom Cleaning, and Wardrobe Organizing

I washed all the pillows, swapped out the bedding for some lighter, spring blankets, and (thanks to my initial Outbox set up) have a tidy closet and wardrobe. I still want to vacuum, dust, and clean up the stuff that is hidden along the far side of the bed, but I think I'll have time to do that tomorrow. When I think of this area -- something I generally avoid doing -- I think of it as The Crevice. Actually, since I've finished my big January project, I think I will make finishing up the tasks in my bedroom the next project to tackle!

Some of this stuff has already been moved and put away... but not much.

I didn't make it to the store on Sunday (I have leftovers that should get me through the next few days) but when I do, I will be sure to post some more pictures of the flowers I get. The two bundles I got earlier this month are holding up pretty well and are still hanging around the apartment.

Apartment Therapy January Cure: Assignment 3 - 10 Mindful Minutes

You know how at the end of a yoga practice, there are those 10 glorious minutes where you get to just lie there and take a little nap? That's sort of what this reflection was like. Granted, I didn't actually get the vacuuming done (surprise, surprise), but it was still nice to just sit and relax and think very specifically about one small thing.

For today's assignment, we are supposed to just sit somewhere in our apartment where we don't usually sit and think about that space from a new perspective. I sat right in my doorway, looking into my pantry. I actually spent most of it with my eyes closed because looking at it is sort of stressful. If you recall from my Assignment 1 post, it looks like this:

 
So instead, I imagined how it looked when I moved in and how I would like it to look.

Okay, really, I want it to look like this...

Maybe in a dark wood?

 ... but given some significant spatial and financial limitations, I think that is perhaps not very realistic.

I would like to get the cleaning supplies organized and the vacuum cleaner out of the way of the shelves. I would like the food to be organized and straightened up. Most importantly, I need to know what is actually in there, get rid of the old food, and make it easier to find what I am looking for. My spices are disorganized and I frequently come home with expensive bottles of spices that I already had or without the spice that I need that I thought was in the pantry, but wasn't. Right now, this space is just barely functional and it makes cooking more challenging.

You can't see it from the picture of my pantry, but the back and left of the closet is stuffed full of sweatshirts and coats and craft supplies (sewing mostly, but I have a light table back there too). To get to them, I have to climb over the pantry area at the front and crawl under all of the coats that are hanging up. It's a mess.

On the plus side, my flowers still look nice!