I'm sitting here oh-so-early in the morning perusing Apartment Therapy and thinking how much I would love to live in an apartment (actually, a HOUSE would be preferable) that didn't have piles of paper, books and dirty clothes for decoration. Right now this place has NO style, which is kind of ironic since I studied interior design for two years. I guess I should have gone for the whole four years if I wanted to be a superstar at it.
The point is I keep having these urges to redecorate and de-clutter, but I don't do anything about them. I'm writing this in the hopes that I can get shit together and DO something. I hate living in an apartment I'd be embarrassed to invite people into. Not that I have a ton of (or, like, any) friends here in Austin that are beating down my door to come over and hang. But that's another (sad, sad) blog post. Despite my hermit-like existence I want to change my environment. I have a lot of other changes going on right now in my life, so why not throw this one in the pile. I'm hoping if I document it here, I will become accountable. We'll see how that goes.
So here's what I want to get out of this:
A livable living room - Right now my living room consists almost entirely of computers and art-making paraphernalia. I want a couch, possibly a new chair, end tables, a vintage credenza for the television, a new dvd player and a Wii. And room to use said Wii. This could be challenging since the living room is small and will still need to house our computers. But seriously, I don't know that we need four computers between the two of us. At least not in the setup they are in now.
I need to...
- Save money for buying most of the stuff listed above
- Come up with new floor plan ideas
- Get a flat monitor for Wayne's server computer and figure out how to get rid of the desk it's on
- Figure out wtf to do with the printer
- Clear away desktop clutter and come up with a way to prevent future clutter
- Move art stuff to the bedroom
A functioning bedroom/closet - Right now the bedroom has far too many clothes all over the place. My little sewing area is inaccessible. I want our bed with a nightstand on either side, the dresser (with the mirror somehow attached even though we lost part of it in one of the moves) and a sewing/crafting/arting area. Ideally I'd like to get rid of both big black metal shelves that hold our clothes, but we'll have to see about that one. After all we do have a HUGE closet and a dresser for that kinda thing.
I need to...
- Come up with new floor plan ideas for the bedroom
- Figure out how to fit both metal shelves and a bike rack into the closet
- Go through boxes in the closet and currently on shelves and give stuff to Goodwill
- Go through CLOTHES and give stuff to Goodwill
A kitchen that keeps us healthy - The kitchen itself isn't really a problem for me. It's a small apartment with a small, bland kitchen. Not much to be done about that. It's what goes on there that's a problem. I'd like to eat better, which to me includes organic, local, fresh produce and actual homemade foods. Not frozen or from a can. I want to learn to can things and actually use the unopened bread maker that has been in the closet for almost two years.
I need to...
- Find my cookbooks
- Sign back up for Greenling
- Make sure dirty dishes go into the dishwasher as soon as they are dirty
- Ask my mom to show me how to can stuff, and possibly even use a pressure cooker (though that thought kind of scares me. I'm not a fan of things potentially blowing up in my kitchen)
- Get a crockpot
- Remember to bring my own bags with me to the grocery store
Of course most of this implies having an actual steady income, which right now is not happening. And I'm sure there are lots more steps and actions that can be added to these lists, but this is good for now. It's out of my head and into the real world now, which is a good start.