{ Assignment #7: Quiet Observation }
This January Cure assignment comes after a weekend of improving the kitchen. It’s a two-part 10-minute exercise, and as such I’m going to make this a pithy post.
The objective is to sit quietly for 10-minutes in an area of your home that you are rarely in. This could be a corner of your bedroom, next to your sofa (you may be on your sofa a lot, but are you next to it often?), inside of your closest. Basically, a place that is an afterthought. For me this was next to my bed in the corner of the room. While spending time in that area I had to imagine the room empty as on the first day we moved-in. Then, I observed the troubled spot(s) and imagined removing the items from the space. Using my mind, I reorganized the space and only added items back into the room if they would be appropriate. I basically created a mental image of how the space could be at its best. While sipping on a warm cup of tea I sat on the floor to my bedroom and pondered, no distractions.
This is great experiment to “see” with how my space can be, and which items I can remove in order to achieve that vision. Apartment Therapy states,
it will allow you to begin to isolate specific changes that you want to make and steer past the anxiety of feeling a whole room needs to be changed.
The second part of the assignment was to go over the list we previously worked on and choose a project to complete in the month of January. The emphasis is to choose a project that is achievable, that can be completed within a few hours, and will make a noticeable difference.
My January project: the bedroom.
Have you spent 10-minutes in quiet observation, mentally improving a problematic area in a room?
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!