The Weekend and the Apartment

I live in a shoebox. Well, my landlady likes to call it a 400 sq ft in-law studio.

But for our purposes, we'll call it it a shoebox. And it's probably closer to 350 sq. ft, but who's counting.

Although I've lived there for 6 months, I was struggling with making the apartment liveable. According to the author of Apartment Therapy, you should be prepared to spend up to 1 month's rent in making the apartment fit your needs. Ummm well - I don't have that kind of cash sitting around. So I've been working at it a little at a time.

I had an unexpected influx of cash this week, so this weekend I tackled some of the things that would immediately make my life easier. I purchased storage for my kitchen (it's a converted space - so it had no cabinetry...just islands from Ikea and a small sideboard) and a couch.

The change has made a HUGE difference. I'll post some before and after pics soon (the apartment is in its usual state of mess) but cooking and living and eating is much easier. I've still a few other things to work out and other things that can't be changed, but I'm happy that my house is (almost) a home.

I have to highly recommend Apartment Therapy by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan and his website/blog Apartment Therapy. He's starting another online 8-week "cure" on September 5. I'm not sure if I'm going to join into this one again, but if you live in a small space - it's a great way to start making it work for you.