If you’re going to get a fresh start on a blog about your home and life, you should probably start with a clean home and some semblance of an organized life.

The new year and the traditional new years’ resolutions, cliché as that may be, seem like a good time to organize one’s self around some SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time bound) goals. I’ve got a list of about 6 this year, not so much for any kind of personal improvement as is usually the case with resolutions, but more so as a way to keep track of the things I want to do with my time but could easily find excuses to put aside if I wasn’t paying attention. Too often we have so many things we want to do, but, without any specific plans, we let life get in the way and all of a sudden six months, a year, or even three years has gone by with no fruits for all our labors.

Goal One: keep a clean and organized home.

The way I figure it, this is the foundation for everything else. If my kitchen isn’t clean, there’s no way I’m going to feel motivated to cook and blog about it. If I can’t get out from under the wreck that is my craft corner, I’m certainly not going to be making anything either. If I’m not comfortable and proud of my home, how am I going to invite people into it? And if all my gear is buried in boxes, under bed, and in closets, how am I going to get out and go explore – which I usually do while running, but am also hoping to do more out of suitcases and backpacks this year as well.

Enter “The Cure”

The AMAZING blog Apartment Therapy (seriously, you should be reading this site) holds a group clean every January to help jumpstart its readers so they can take on their apartments and houses and reform them into beautiful, functional, homes, and not just the place where they sleep at night. (Or if you’re me, the place that makes you mildly anxious and gives you periodic insomnia because you can’t commit to furniture or figure out how to be buried under slightly less dog hair)

This year’s cure started January 2nd, so there hasn’t been much in the way of assignments yet. I’ll do a summary of the week for my weekend post for the duration of January, so you can follow along with my progress and maybe be inspired to do a little home improvement of you own.summary of the week for my weekend post for the duration of January, so you can follow along with my progress and maybe be inspired to do a little home improvement of you own.

Assignment 1: Make a list of projects (01/02)

To get started, set aside an hour or so to do a walkthrough of your home and make notes on any trouble spots as you move through each room. It’s easiest to organize your list by room – you’ll want sections for all the important areas of your own home, i.e. the entryway, living room, bathroom, bedroom and kitchen. Start at the front door and do a thorough “inspection”, noting each area or item that needs a good cleaning, a de-cluttering or a re-organization.

This is a really long list. I feel like I’ve let my apartment go. You’d think in 4 1/2 years I would have put up hooks for hanging my aprons…

Assignment 2: Weekend Chores – Flowers, Floors, and Green Cleaners (01.03-05)

I got my weekend chores mostly done. On saturday morning, I took a long walk with Joley the wonder dog on to pick up bagels, buy my fresh flowers, and run by the bank (brought her with me into the farmer’s market flower stand and the bank – sometimes I love Norther California’s laissez faire attitude…). My beautiful calendulas are all the brighter for coming from a local, organic, flower farm. And because they only cost $5. The bright orange really brings the sun into the living room.

As simple as it sounds, the act of buying flowers for your apartment holds great significance and will heal your home on many levels.They are beautiful, they add life to the space, they help to humidify and cleanse the air.

I already keep a full supply of green cleaners in the house, so that was a freebie, but the floors could use a good once over. Of course me being me, I just HAD to finish a few other things first. So in with the new, out with the sad Christmas tree. I hope I get to enjoy it a little longer next year. Of course taking down the tree left sap, dust, and pine needles all over the floor (the floor already covered with the ever present layer of dog hair). All this made the floors more than a one weekend project, so I only finished the kitchen, living room, and hall. The bedroom and bathroom will have to wait to another day.

But I did manage a few other accomplishments over the weekend. I said goodbye to the scary pile of dishes that somehow popped up since I got back from the holidays, had a full Christmas take down (not just the tree but the stockings and trinkets, too), had a full New Years clean up (making a multi-course dinner with roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, and homemade pie makes quite the mess), got a jumpstart on the “outbox,” and finished ALL the shredding I’ve been hoarding over the last 10 years or so.

Seriously, that last one was a doozy. I finally bought a shredder just before New Years and I got to get rid of all the documents that needed to be destroyed securely and had piled up over time. I ended up with 4+ giant bags of shredding, 2+ bags of garbage, 1 bag of recycling, and a box of broken down cardboard. You have NO idea how satisfying it was when I took it all out.