{ Assignment #6: A Realistic Kitchen Refresh }
This past weekend, starting on Friday, the January Cure had us focus on two things: flowers and kitchen.
Each Friday the Cure calls for flowers to be brought into the home. The idea is that we should brighten up and enjoy our home, and flowers are an inexpensive environment enhancer.
As for the kitchen, this year we had to pick the “inside or out track.” Meaning, we had to pick whether or not we would focus on the inside organizing or the outside cleaning. In years past the Cure had us clean the entire kitchen. I was able to complete the entire kitchen in one weekend for my first Cure, but ever since it felt like a losing bet and I would find it hard to get the motivation to continue for the rest of the month (that is where encouraging one another is very helpful!). It’s also helpful to keep in mind that, as Apartment Therapy simply states, “it’s not about perfection, but improvement.”
This year I picked the inside track. The harder track for me:
- Cleaning the Fridge: I took everything out and sorted it all, including the shelves. Some items got tossed and the shelves were all washed, dried, and sanitized. The interior of the fridge was also washed and sanitized. This will be the cleanest the fridge will be all year.
- Cleaning the dishwasher: still yet to be finished.
- Cleaning out cabinets, cupboards, and drawers: All is good except that I have one cabinet to go through later.
- I added notes to my shopping list: for coordinated plates, cups and serve ware. We currently use a hodgepodge of items from garage sales, thrift stores, gifts, and items given to us when friends and acquaintances move out of our building. Some might find this charming, and I would too if we had one type of each item. Since we have three of this-plate and four of that-plate, it seems rather mismatched because we couldn’t get it together. We host a fair share of events and people over and need, for example, more plates. Being able to get everything coordinated will help too with stacking issues. Currently items don’t stack properly due to our small cupboards.
Right from their website:
“Taking just one month and investing some effort (21 do-able assignments in total throughout January) toward a cleaner, more organized and more peaceful home. If you are ready to get your place back in shape (and reap the rewards for the whole rest of 2016) the very best way is one manageable step at a time, during our once-a-year-only January Cure. By the end of the month, you’ll be have a cleaner, fresher, more organized home, guaranteed!”
The best way is to sign up for the weekday emails from Apartment Therapy (http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/collection/january-cure-2016-895). They will send you an email each morning with the task, with a click-thru to their website for more information.
Complete the activities, gain inspiration and motivation from others in this journey, and be sure to connect with others along the way.
Apartment Therapy (www.apartmenttherapy.com) is an amazing website to find resources and ideas, especially suited for small spaces or spaces that families need to consider form and function. They share real-life situations with funky wall sizes and lack of closet space. The real deal.
Connect with others through the daily January Cure prompts, and on social media using #thejanuarycure as the hashtag. Use #districtlight so that I can more easily find you and comment too. Come back to the blog and post your insights too!
How’s your refrigerator looking?