Due to some incredibly boring days at work recently, I have rediscovered the amazing Apartment Therapy blogs (I am partial to NY, Chicago, and Kitchen). Luckily, I was just in time to learn of their semi-annual 8-week home "Cure", which began Sunday.
As you may know, I have been in my current apartment for well over three years and pay an amazingly low rent, especially for the amount of space I have. Yet I have never fully taken advantage of this apartment, and I have furniture that could rival any dorm room out there. I decided to finally get off my butt and do something about it.
So I joined up with ATChicago's regional group and I have begun my mission. I have almost no money to spend, but I am hoping for a little advice from my fellow cure-ees, some peer-pressure style motivation, and perhaps a little creative budgeting in both time and money to ensure that I actually see some results after these two months are up.
I'm excited. And willing to take any and all advice from my two and a half readers here. Perhaps you'd like to do your own Cure? I don't think it's too late to start. You can get the companion book at your local St. Louis Public Library branch - I did, and they had more copies available through inter-library loan.
You can see my "before" shots on the AT Chicago Flickr site linked above. I'm putting it all out there, and I am looking forward to some nights and weekends spent scrubbing, de-cluttering, and re-organizing. And goodwilling. Lots of that. Wish me luck!
6 comments:
Kathy and I have very little dorm furniture left...upstairs, anyway. I think all we have is a plastic milk crate shelf/drawer unit as a nightstand in the guestroom, and another one in the hallway closet. The basement is another issue...the chair, couch and futon have all seen service in dorm rooms. The coffee table, end table, and television stand are all real furniture, though. But it took us a while, and our apartment never really lost the dorm feel...we just had to buy more furniture when we moved into the house. So good luck. And Goodwilling can get some amazing results. So can Sunday Estate Sale shopping sprees...they're almost always willing to deal. My mother is the queen of the Estate Sale bargain.
Now if only you could convince Jerry to redecorate his apartment. Or, you know, pick up a little maybe.
Isn't it such a relief to replace dorm furniture with REAL furniture? It's obviously not cheap, but so worth it. I have been looking forward to the day that I get rid of my ugly Target Back to College futon for a looong time, and it still might be a while. But I am surely motivated. Can you say Free on Craigslist? That's about all I can ask for it, I am sure.
As for Jerry, we talked briefly on Labor Day, over some mighty fine BBQ, about him simplifying things. I think this could be a good motivation for him, too. Ehem. Mmmm. Yeah, Jerry, we're talking to you.
Oh, and Elliot, I was over at City Hall picking up a copy of a deed the other day and I half expected to see you there! Maybe we will run into each other sometime!
HEY!!!! my apartment is spit-spot, yo. well... alright, you may be right. but i'm working on it! i've been cleaning house left and right lately. i've got two big bags of dumpster filler to take out right now, two big boxes to drop off to goodwill, and several boxes going to mom's to be unloaded on ebay. i'm all over this. i'm going to be the next tyler durden. "the things you own, end up owning you." i may not go as extreme as becoming a squatter and blowing up credit card companies, but i'm certainly more aware of what i "have" and how it relates to what i "need".
if i had my own apartment still - i would totally do this! but i don't think you can do much with a basement...
i want to see it when you are finished
Yeah, Erin, you should save your energy for your HOUSE anyway! I need to see it sometime, so maybe some weekend when you are over there I can come take the tour.
And of course you'll have to see it when I am done (although I am not promising drastic changes). One of my goals is to have people over more often. I am lucky to have pretty reasonable people above and next to me in my building so I need to take advantage of it.
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