It’s spring, so as usual for me, my choices are a deep clean-out of the apartment, rearrange the apartment, or move… Moving might be a bit much and we’ve recently rearranged all the rooms so deep clean it is.

I’m currently reading (about 6 years late!) Apartment Therapy: the 8 step home cure and Parisian Chic, both of which are giving me a jolt of energy and motivation to clean out, simplify, re-define, and focus for both me and the apartment. In addition, Dave and I have begun talking about the possibility of The Netherlands again. If that possibility becomes reality, being as paired down as possible will make everything go a lot smoother.

too much stuff!

What i really would love is a home that is easy to clean, comfortable, cozy, pretty but lived in, calm, with room to be creative, to cook, to read, that the useful things we own be beautiful and the beautiful things we own be useful, and that the only things we own are ones that we regularly use…

For me i want to be able to go into my closet and have anything i grab pair with most other things in my closet, be beautiful and well made, fabrics that are lovely to touch, things that are timeless and fashionable, easy and comfortable but never frumpy or dowdy, work well on my body and shape, make me feel classy but not fussy or rigid…

So this is our spring focus and goal: a thorough cleaning, a ruthless evaluation of everything we own, and for me a long hard look through my closet…

This will be our first week of the 8 week home cure. The assignment for the week is:

- vacuum/sweep and mop all floors

• vacuumed the living/dining area before the allergies forced us to quit, so good start

- remove one item from your home. what we’ve taken to goodwill just today (of course i forgot to take pictures to document this productive awesome afternoon!):

• wedding dress: almost ten years after getting married the space hog is finally gone!
• set of HEAVY vintage luggage
• folding luggage trolly
• several cute but torn and unpractical vintage umbrellas
• a huuuuuge old dictionary
• a broken vintage alarm clock
• several dust-catchers nick-knacks
• several old Toast catalogs (sigh)
• old Selvedge issue (double sigh)
• cream winter coat with black buttons that just doesn’t quite fit flatteringly (the shoulders bunched and the lining would never stay laying flat)
• several pairs of arm-warmers
• few lightweight knit hats
• vases and candles
• 2 old cell phones and 2 old ipods and cables (one iphone to replace them all!!!!)
• broken cell phone cover (ordered, arrived so cute, but was broken. then the comapny told me to just send pictures rather than the item back for refund. one less trip to the post for me)
• small garden gnome
• 4 wood under bed boxes that have sat empty, save the dust bunnies, for months
• a once lovely soft amazing cable knit over-sized wool throw (purchased on SUPER sale a few years ago), that now resembles a dirty, matted down flat sheep more than a throw (this one truly hurt, man i loooooved that thing! but in all reality i was never going to get around to trimming off all the nasty matted pilling bits, which i have been intending to do for over a year now. and even if i did the cats who adored kneading it and our propensity to actually use blankets would have never kept it looking good)

here it is on our bed when we first got it, before it started looking like a giant matted hairball of fuzz

- buy/pick flowers

• the lilacs in the courtyard have begun blooming…

- spend 10 min in a room you don’t normally spend time in

• the plan is to sit in the craft room and ponder its purpose and function and any needed editing later this week

- make a list of all needed repairs and turn in work requests to the apartment manager

• stove burners don’t heat properly
• front window shade fixed, 1 broken cord
• bathroom and kitchen hot water faucets need looked at. they have to be cranked to turn on at all
• spare room wall needs fixing (the building/floor is apparently sinking and causing a gap to appear where the wall meets the floor)
• spare room window (because of the sinking, the window cannot be opened or it will never shut again)
• and on a purely cosmetic note, find new faucets and knobs for the bathroom tub and sink. the current ones are terrible ugly and discolored

and my own added goals:

• finish filling and labeling new spice jars
• go through the cleaning supply cupboard, re organize and refill homemade cleaning concentrates
• purchase bottles for cleaning concentrates
• take returns back to the store
• check for new faucets at hippo hardware

I’m going to make an effort to post here each sunday when our new week begins. Hopefully in 8 weeks i will feel like something good was accomplished!