Before and After

THIS IS THE E-MAIL VERSION OF debP 's swap - I am using it with her permission. If you want to join the postage one Click here

"I've been thinking about this swap for awhile and then I saw one of the magazines at the store with this heading talking all about decorating and organizing and decluttering, etc. I know I have a long list of projects that I need to tackle, but to be honest I function better with an assignment or a deadline, so this is it! And even though I have lots of projects to do, I always need more creative ideas to work with.

Just to be clear, this is not about dieting, or new hair or makeup, etc. This is not about your self, but about your space. Your bedroom, your closets, your home or apt, your office, your garage, your yard, etc. I'm sure everyone has something they can do. Here are a couple ideas I had that I would probably be doing, and I know you can think of more of your own.

1. Do you have some old furniture from a garage sale or maybe from your grandmothers attic? Strip and refinish it, maybe add new drawer pulls and shelf liner, or reupholster a chair and add pillows, etc.

2. Does your closet have piles of shoes, stacks of laundry and ironing, boxes of clothes to take to goodwill, dust bunnies the size of a cat? Clean it out, sort everything, put some pretty storage boxes on the shelves for seasonal items, paint the walls, etc.

3. Are you tired of looking at the same old shower curtain and towels that have been in your bathroom for 6 years? Maybe spruce it up with new paint, new rugs, etc.

4. Do you want to redecorate your guest bedroom? I know you have some ideas for it.

5. How about your linen closet? Is everything stuffed in there from bandaids to sheets to school supplies for the kids? Can you even find anything in there? You know what to do.

6. Do you need to totally organize and redo your studio/artistic space? Maybe new storage cabinets, new task lighting, more table space, etc?

You get the idea, there are a million of them. And since I hope to do this several times over the year, you can start planning ahead for some bigger projects that will need more time.

For this swap, you will need to send your partner a minimum of 3 photos, one before, one during, one after, as well as some notes and ideas about what you did. If you have a small project (say a linen closet) then you probably only need 3 photos. If you are doing your bedroom, you will need more photos showing different angles, etc. The notes can be anything you want about the project. Maybe why you chose this particular project, what problems you found along the way and how you solved them, what was easier than you thought, or harder. Or maybe some paint chips or fabric swatches you found. Or maybe you found some great web site that has fun organizers for a great price. Or maybe you have a new product that makes stripping furniture easy. Whatever it is, just include it.

What I am hoping to have is a number of creative ideas about decorating and organizing and having fun doing it."