Taking stock

There seems little point in recapping all of the January Cure assignments one by one since I haven't really done any of them for over a week! But for those keeping track, here's the list of where we should be at: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/apartment-therapys-january-cure-2014-197811. 

In my defense, I had sort-of done some of these since the beginning of 2014 anyway, although most likely not in the "completed" sense they should be accomplished. As I said previously, I've never been all that good in taking strict direction in my activities. I'm good when things are "suggested," but not so good when they are set out as hard-and-fast chores. But no matter, I'm still feeling quite positive about my space. I've reduced a lot of the clutter and have begun to create an environment that I can call "home." And I'm sure to accomplish a few more tasks tomorrow anyway as the sensational S. is coming over for dinner and an evening of film viewing. (I told her that I preferred to crash at my abode on Sat. night since I want to get up early on Sunday to watch the final of the Australian Open, which I'm PVRing since the match starts at 3:30 am. I've committed myself to grilling some striploin on the BBQ, so I'll be braving the winter elements to cook the meat on my charcoal BBQ.) She hasn't stayed at my place for a number of weeks so I want to ensure it's nice and clean! Hey, maybe I'll even wear a sports jacket! (I write that for her benefit, in case she's reading this...)

I'm not much closer on buying a new couch, however. I've been somewhat slothful on the weekends - and busy with other non-home improvement activities as well, which is always good. It will happen, and soon. My current couch really does feel like its on its last legs (last fabric?). 

So not much new to report! I'm writing this on a Friday post-work, while nursing a beer and awaiting the start of Innis College's free film: they've promised a 35 mm print of the wonderful Sunset Blvd., so naturally I'm all over that! 

Oh, in other news, I'm off to Paris with the above S. (still sensational) for a week in May. My parents gave me some play money as a Christmas - it seemed silly to plow it into mutual funds, so two flights to Paris seems far more appropriate. I vowed I wouldn't travel again to Paris on my own, as I did a couple of years ago post-elbow break. I'm sticking to my word.

An update?

Believe it or not, I am still here and sentient. Work "stuff" has caught up with me, not to mention I've been spending most of my free time after work watching things like tennis and Downton Abbey. (I've been watching the current fourth season on PBS, but also trying to catch up as I never did see the first two seasons. As of last night, I'm through the first season's seven episodes.) But don't worry, reader (and I'm probably not far off the mark making it singular): I am committed to blogging, and to the January Cure. Although, admitedly, I've fallen a mite behind on that too... This exercise has been a good reminder that I've never been all that good in taking direction.

The long-neglected walls

We're on to assignments #5 and 6 - and yes, I'll reiterate, it was much easier keeping up with these before going back to work! In terms of the fifth assignment, picking a project from my list, I've already done a few things on the list, such as go through my dresser drawer (I gave some sweaters to S's mother that she can use to cut up and make "warmers" with), I've cleared some of the clutter on my coat rack, I've rearranged things in the office to make it more of a reading and thinking space, so thankfully I feel like I'm already ahead of the curve on this one. But in terms of a project I haven't yet done, I think I'll pick purging the bookshelf as the one to complete for January. And that includes the entire bookshelf, so the DVDs and crap that are in the bottom shelf and hidden from view. I'll tackle that project this weekend.

Number 6 was also on my project list anyway, and I've already chosen a few pieces I'm going to get framed: two are the main posters from my big work projects from last year, along with a couple of broadsides I bought in the fall. I also did a preliminary look-see of my accumulated photos since I want to get some of those framed and put on the walls. So all in all, I feel like I'm reasonably good shape with my January Cure. And I'm going couch shopping this weekend since that's a major part of my apartment reorganization.

Revert back to real life

Perhaps not surprising, given that I'm back to work this week after three full weeks off (not to mention almost a week of sick days taken over a two-week period prior to that to rid myself of that nasty flu), I've fallen a bit behind on the January Cure. Assignment #3 and #4 were released the past two days, and I've mostly ignored them. I'm not sure the third assignment would have been productive: I've already spent a lot of time contemplating my space, and I'm not convinced looking at my apartment from a "new" angle would reveal anything I don't already know. But assignment #4 is an important one, and again one that I've sort-of been enacting for the past week or so. I've always been frustrated with clutter, although I can be prone to it. (It's so easy to dump stuff - mail, magazines, newspapers, etc. - on my kitchen table.) Usually what happens is that I allow clutter to accumulate, and then when I can't handle looking at it anymore, I sweep in and do a big purge. But I like the idea of creating a space for my crap - I've actually already set aside a bag and have put a couple of things inside. Who knows, maybe I will indeed manage to pare my belongings so that I can everything in to about eight boxes if/when I move. Probably an impossible goal, but who knows.

The other big activity this past weekend was doing an initial browse for a new couch. I went to a (somewhat) local shop on Sunday and poked around the showroom. It was a fun activity, and during it I made a decision: that I want to replace all my furniture this year, not just the tattered, worn couch. Basically I want to dump all my Ikea furniture for "real" furniture. I'm not going to do it all in one fell swoop - rather I'll try to replace one piece every month, allowing me to really ponder a new look and feel to my space. I'm not in a rush, after all, but I am looking forward to the eventual transformation.

That said, work really does get in the way of an apartment reorganization.

Assignment #2: Flowers and Floors

Assignment #2 of the January Cure arrived yesterday morning - and of course the first thing I did was pretty much ignore it and work on another home project. I bought a few new clothes on Thursday evening, and wanted to implement another new rule I came up with for 2014: new clothing should replace old clothing, so every new purchase should come with the purging of an old. To that end, I went through my dresser drawer and assessed, sometimes harshly, my existing clothes to determine what should be kept, what needed to be donated, and what should be tossed entirely (and/or made into handy-dandy cleaning rags - I felt I was channeling Martha Stewart). It's something I had been meaning to do for a while, particularly since I found myself putting on a lot of odd socks and ones with holes in the toes. It was a useful exercise, and made me realize I probably need to buy a couple of more sweaters to get me through the winter.

I will do the second assignment this weekend though, especially since I've been itching to do a good vacuuming and mopping since I returned from my trip. What I probably won't do, however, is buy flowers for the apartment - not because I don't like fresh-cut flowers (perish the thought!) but largely because I don't have a spare vase right now. So I've added that to my "to purchase" list (which seems to be growing as I contemplate the continued reorganization of my living space). Obviously my big purchasing decision will be a sofa, which I desperately need. Just browsing about online this morning at the various furniture stores in the city, I realize this is going to be a time-consuming chore. I hope I'm up for the challenge.

The other meaningful activity I did yesterday was go through my external hard drive to look at photographs I've taken over the years. Some of the photos are really quite wonderful (!), so it's going to be a fun exercise to go through them more thoroughly to decide what to print, what to get enlarged, etc. And then it'll be off to a photo frame store.

I just hope that my energy level for this home reno project continues once I get back to work on Monday.

Assignment #1: Create a Project List

The starter's gun has been fired! I'm off and running on my first-ever January Cure. I received my first e-mail this morning on my first assignment: creating a project list. After brewing a pot of coffee, I dutifully went through every room in the apartment, beginning at the door at bottom of the steps. (I live on the third floor of a building.) My place isn't overly large, so the exercise didn't take too long - or at least it shouldn't have taken too long since I already broke a rule, which was not to begin any of the projects that I jotted on my list. (More on that in a minute.) Basically this is the project list I came up with:

Entrance way:
- Do a thorough clean of the steps leading up to apartment
- Decrease cat litter smell (better still, figure out why the cat seems to enjoy peeing outside the box every few days...)
- Wipe off excessive grime and dust from walls

Landing:
- Better organize coat rack (ie., figure out why the hell it seems overloaded with so many coats)
- Clear excessive clutter around shoe rack (do I really have that many pairs of shoes?)
- Buy a small bench to store stuff and to use for putting on shoes? (There's a small space where a bench could fit, although I fear it's too small, hence the question mark.)

Kitchen:
- Figure out a solution to not having clutter accumulate on kitchen table (a basket, maybe?)
- Have a better solution to storing my recycleables
- Reorganize the two shelves (one that holds spices and other assorted stuff, the other above my kitchen table that holds my radio/docking station and candles)
- Do an extensive rethink of the cupboards both below and above the counter.

Bedroom:
- More artwork/photos on the walls (since I don't have any up there now, even a few pieces will make a difference)
- Go through dresser and discard unused clothes
- Work on not cluttering up the top of my dresser with excessive clothes
- Move the bed to make an additional space on the other side for two bedside tables (I did this already!); buy another lamp

Hallway:
- Hang additional artwork
- Buy an area rug? (I actually have a rug for that space, but the cat tends to lounge on it so it gets dirty awfully fast, so I stopped using it.)

Office:
- Make it more of an "intellectual sanctuary" for my writing, reading and thinking (I did a lot of this yesterday when I rearranged the room and added a reading chair by the window)
- Clear excess clutter on the desk
- Clean out filing cabinet and drawer
- Add additional art pieces on walls (I want to frame posters from my exhibition and accompanying small press fair)

Living Room:
- Rearrange CDs and DVDs to give them a sense of order
- More artwork
- Reorganize book shelf, largely by purging book collection
- Clear the closet of unnecessary crap

That's really about it! Not overly daunting, I don't think. And as I said, I've already broken a rule by initiating one of the projects, which was doing a minor overhaul of the bedroom. I had been meaning to go through the bedside tables for a while to clean out the accumulated contents. It's amazing the things I found! A People Style from 2009 (this belonged to A. when we travelled to Argentina; not sure how or why it ended up in a drawer at my place), an iron, some t-shirts, two bottles of lube and about a dozen safes (I had to throw out most of them since they were past their sell-by dates). I also found two pairs of functioning headphones, and I finally threw out my very first iPod (which dates back to around 2005 and hasn't worked for years). Basically I'm happy to report that 2014 is off to a productive start!

Wish me luck as I continue my January Cure assignments.

A new year, a new beginning?

I've long been a fan of the new year. Not the "eve" part - although last night was good fun, first at the operetta where my date and I pretty much halved the median age of attendees, and then back to her place for expensive champagne to toast the start of 2014 - but the idea of cracking open a new calendar has always appealed to me. I'm willingly self reflective by nature, so what's not to like about this time of year when one is pretty much expected to consider the year that was, and ponder on the year that will be. (The short answer to how my 2013 played out: it was mostly a good year full of fulfilling work and interesting travel, including a couple of weeks last month in Chile.) I'm also not above setting goals for myself for the next 12 months - and I do prefer the idea of goals rather than resolutions (although I admit this may simply be semantics). The funny (sad?) thing is that they tend to be the same every year! They revolve around the typical goals that most people set this time of year: to be a better person, to be more generous with my friends and to strangers, to exercise more, to read more, etc. (My friend H. had my favourite resolution, which he would roll out every new year's: "Less fretting, more fucking." There's a lot of wisdom there...)

The one word that always makes an appearance this time of year is "discipline."Basically what that means for me is discipling myself to work a little harder at my job, to not procrastinate as much and not waste time inside and outside of work. This past year was better than 2012 - I was especially good at taking advantage of this city's amazing cultural offerings, more so than in previous years - but I think I can do better. For one I want to discipline myself to write and reflect more, hence my decision to start blogging again.

My plan is to try something different with this blog by instituting a monthly theme. This month's will centre around the January Cure, which was suggested to me the other day by a friend. I'm going to track my progress - even if I don't have any readers, it will serve as a personal diary of my progress. It plays into another goal I've set myself for the coming year: to make my space feel more like a home. I've been a renter for my entire adult life - more out of necessity than choice since I can't afford to buy a home/condo/townhouse in an area of the city I want to live - and always felt that I'm sort-of transient: that the place I'm living is simply a waystation to my next destination. But I've been in this apartment for about four years now, and there's so much I love about it, including the neighbourhood. So I figure the time is right to make it reflect more of my personality, to add some personal and unique touches. To that end, I spent a big chunk of today doing a big reorganization of the office space, largely by shifting things around, purging a lot of crap, and adding a reading chair. I want this particular room to be something of an "intellectual" sanctuary for me (or what passes for intellectual in my world!). So far it feels good. It suggests good things to come in 2014.