I’m currently undergoing Apartment Therapy to make my home a more enjoyable place to live. This week is Week #3, if you’d like to read about what happened during the first week, please see this post on Week #1 and Week #2.
So here is what I have to do for Week 3:
- Vacuum, dust and mop (wet or dry) throughout your home
- Clean your entrance and any related closets
- Arrange to have all repairs taken care of in the next three weeks
- Declutter your entrance
- Move all old mail, catalogs and magazines to the outbox
- Look into what you would need to create a landing strip
- Cancel any unused subscriptions
- Identify cool rooms and warm rooms
- Apply the 80/20 color rule
- Cook two meals at home this week
Vacuum, dust and mop (wet or dry) throughout your home
Ugh… I feel like I just vacuumed everything. However, looking around the apartment I realize that I do in fact need to vacuum again. I’ve been borrowing Mr. Cousin‘s vacuum for the last few weeks, so I’ve decided that one of the tasks I’ll give myself this week is to spend some time trying to fix my broken vacuum.
Clean your entrance and any related closets
My apartment opens straight up into my living room, and my living room closet it used for my litter box. So I just had my half wall between my living room and dining room to clean up. It now looks fantastic. I also put a box near the front door with Jack’s toys. He has already realized that is where they go and when he wants to play he goes over there and pulls out a toy of choice. I then put them up at the end of the day before going to bed. It has worked out well thus far.
Arrange to have all repairs taken care of in the next three weeks
Because of how my apartment complex does repairs, I’ll have to submit each report individually. But I only have 4 that I need from them: trim the trees in the backyard, fix one light in bathroom, fix fan in bathroom, get touch-up paint (if possible). I’ll have to have Jack in boarding on the days they come, so I may need to put him in boarding for a few extra days to get these things done. However, it is totally worth it to get all of my things done on my repair list.
Declutter your entrance
Done as part of the cleaning.
Move all old mail, catalogs and magazines to the outbox
Okay, I haven’t done this yet. I did go through the mail that I have in the living room and move it to my bedroom, however, I didn’t move anything to the outbox. I tend to throw things away every few weeks, like magazines and junk mail. However, I don’t really have a “place” for my mail. It will pile up on my half wall and then I’ll move it to my coffee table and then I’ll move it to my bedroom and eventually move it to a pile in my closet and finally, maybe twice a year, I’ll file it into my filing cabinets. So I realized this weekend that I need to modify my mail system. Part of the problem is that I don’t have a “place” for paperwork at home. I don’t have a desk or office space at home – and quite frankly, I don’t want one.
So I’m contemplating moving all my bills and paperwork to work. I have a locked drawer at work that only I have access to and can keep my financial paperwork there. I’ll have to go through the extra step of taking all of my paperwork with me to work once a week or so, but considering I pay all my bills at work anyway and I don’t like having the clutter at home – this may be a useful alternative.
Alternatively, I’ve also considered putting my immediate mail that needs attention in a new rack (like the one pictured below) and weekly move mail to a filing system I’ll need to put in place in my bedroom. This is something that I’ll have to consider for the next few weeks, as I will be addressing my closet and filing system in a few weeks when I address the dreaded closet. =)
Look into what you would need to create a landing strip
The term “landing strip” here is meant as a place where I’ll put my stuff when I come in the door. Mail, keys, cellphone, dog leash, ect. I hung up a hook on the wall for Jack’s leash, it is really cute – it looks like a dog’s tail. It holds his two leashes and his collar.
As for the rest of the landing strip, I’ve been looking at a lot of pictures online of different landing strips and it seems like most people have a nice little foyer area or place like that, I don’t have a room for a coat rack in my apartment. And currently I use my half-wall to put my keys, cell phone, and sunglasses on.
Like I mentioned previously, I’m not sure what I’m going to do about the mail issue. I either might put up a rack on the wall or move it directly to work, I’ve yet to figure out what I’m going to do about this.
Cancel any unused subscriptions
Thankfully, I don’t have any unused subscriptions. I’ve Green Dimed my mail, which has saved me tons of stress in my mailbox. =)
Identify cool rooms and warm rooms
I went through and the only rooms where I really have color schemes are my living room, bathroom and bedroom. My living room is definitely warm colors. My bedroom is cool (yet somehow I FEEL warm in it and comforted? How does that work?). My bathroom is also warmer colors.
Apply the 80/20 color rule
I think I’ve done this by default in decorating my rooms. The main burst of color in my living room is my green couch, the rest of the room is very neutral. I also have one small orange painting on the wall that punctuates everything, but for the most part it is all very neutral and centered around the green in my couch.
My kitchen has no real color scheme because it is a typical apartment kitchen. However, I’ve put blue/white/red cushions on my chairs in the dining room and blue and white potholders hanging above the stove.
As for the bedroom, I’ve actually put quite a lot of effort into making the bedroom a place where I want to be. I centered it around this beautiful painting I got at Ikea. I have a gorgeous bedframe on my bed, two dark wood bookcases, and bed sheets that bring out some of the accent colors in the painting.
Cook two meals at home this week
I made some Butter Curry Chicken for dinner this weekend and also am planning on making some Garlic Chicken for dinner tomorrow. Making two meals at home this week – Check! – no problem here. =)
The reason for multiple sales is that I can imagine that A) some stuff won’t get sold the first time around and B) that I’ll probably find more stuff I don’t want after a second or third pass through.
Small Steps for Big Change 