They say it's location, location, location. Well, Lauren's girlfriend's apartment has it first and foremost. The address is a secret but if you were standing at the Washington Square Park arch and I was screaming bloody murder from their building's courtyard in the middle of the night, you would probably call 911.
"Making do" is a term I just love. It is a simple phrase that captures the philosophy of using what you have. Often, making do is required when resources are scarce.
Lila is a recently divorced mom of two charming little girls. She has a beautiful, spacious apartment in NYC and when I first met her she was making vegetable stew and gushing about the art she saw at a recent exhibition at the Affordable Art Fair. It would be a great Christmas present for herself.
For a year I was the book buyer for the interior design section of an evil super-sized bookstore on the upper east side of Manhattan. The buyers at the home office figured this store should have this special section for students of the New York Interior Design School situated near by.
After all, how can a professional giver of advice on all things streamlined and utilitarian have these dusty things hanging about in her own closets and under bed storage?
I loved this article on so many levels. First and most superficially, they used the word "tame" to describe the actions taken to make a gorgeous space and which is personally and professionally relevant.
As a (somewhat) reformed pack rat I know I should only be telling people to live with what they need and what they absolutely love. Everything else should go. That's a major rule, a principle, something to live by, no exceptions!
The secret to being that amazing put together person who leaves the house composed and ready for the day is: Doing everything the night before. Ta da!
What motivates you to make change? Seeing an achievable goal is what does it for me. I spend ten minutes looking at Design Sponge or a House Tour on Apartment Therapy and suddenly I am looking around wondering how I can make something in my home look like a corner of a featured home.
If I am considered tidy during the weekdays it is only because it is a basic requirement for functioning. In other words, a lack of order causes problems for us and slows us down as a family so we spend extra energy keeping things neat so we can find it the next day.
Sometimes there are messes that reside in the long procrastinated to-do list in our minds. We seem to never find a way to get to these things but we think of them at least once every day.
Since I moved out on my own, 20 years ago, I established and maintained certain principles about how I would live my life. One rule of order was order itself wherever I lived.
Jonathan Ames wrote an essay about his living conditions that left me twitchy and excited. Excited to get to work on a project like his apartment. Now here is a mess.
It might not seem likely that a person who claims to be highly organized and naturally fastidious would lose something they treasure, like a favorite yellow hat.
I mean it, this is the shortest guide in existence. As far as I know. These are the tenets boiled down from all of the books I've read, my own experiences and observations of others.
