4 Things I Learned After My First Month of Small-Space Living

-
4 Things I Learned After My First Month of Small-Space Living
By Rebekah Hall

We're back with the final installment of A Renter's Diary! We've followed Rebekah Hall in her first month moving from a single family home into a 800-square-foot apartment in Little Rock, Arkansas. She's had to figure out how to downsize and work around the quirks of the space. Last week, Hall shared how she shopped around her apartment (and her parents' home) for no-cost kitchen storage solutions. For her last diary entry, she reflects on all she's learned this month.

We've officially been living in our new apartment for a month. Every box we've unpacked since moving in has felt like a gift to our current selves from the people who packed up that house in Missouri.

My boyfriend said that moving feels disorienting because it's intensely un-personal: You move to an unfamiliar space and for awhile you aren't able to see or touch your favorite things. There is nothing to tether your space to you. I think he's onto something.

When we first moved in, I had moments where I looked around our new apartment and felt a sudden combination of sadness and a deep nostalgia for the house we left in Columbia, Missouri—both the house itself and the environment we created within it. But as soon as I realized I had ample time to ease into my new home and learn the space, it got easier to be more gentle with myself. Instead of hurrying to hang all my art, I'm waiting. I am using a patience I did not know I possessed. I'm giving myself the time to get to know our new walls and corners, spots where the afternoon sun hits just right. I'm lingering on all the pieces we've lovingly collected, and waiting to figure out the exact right spot for each of them.

Now that our boxes are open and emptied, I feel see myself in my space again. With my things hung, shelved, and carefully arranged, it's finally starting to feel like home.

That being said, everything isn't the way I'd like it to be, yet. But I've found that I recognize my apartment's particular quirks better than I would have if I had rushed to settle in—and now I can more thoughtfully work around them. Here, the four most surprising things I found about my apartment—and how I made these off-putting things feel more like home.

READ MORE »



September 28, 2018 at 10:30PM
via Apartment Therapy | Saving the world, one room at a time https://ift.tt/2IpD0q2

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ASMR videos could be a new digital therapy for mental health

-
Image
ASMR videos could be a new digital therapy for mental health By The Conversation You may know “ASMR” as the niche genre of YouTube video which people watch on tablets and laptops to help them relax, perhaps before bed or in the lull of a Sunday afternoon. These videos typically involve someone role-playing a mundane professional service, such as giving you a haircut, a massage, or booking you in for a doctors’ appointment. The role-plays are usually performed in whispered voices, with the “ASMRtist” (the term for the creators of these videos) focused on building a feeling of intimacy and emphasizing any crisp sounds or slow hand movements. But what exactly is ASMR, and… This story continues at The Next Web October 4, 2018 at 01:08PM via The Next Web https://ift.tt/2DTwEkg
Read more

Fairies and deepfakes: a brief history of visual trickery

-
Image
Fairies and deepfakes: a brief history of visual trickery By The Conversation “Deepfake” is the name being given to videos created through artificially intelligent deep learning techniques. Also referred to as “face-swapping”, the process involves inputting a source video of a person into a computer, and then inputting multiple images and videos of another person. The neural network then learns the movements and expressions of the person in the source video in order to map the other’s image onto it to look as if they are carrying out the speech or act. This practice was first used extensively in the production of fake pornography in late 2017 – where the faces of… This story continues at The Next Web September 25, 2018 at 07:13PM via The Next Web https://ift.tt/2Oc2SLs
Read more

This Hacker News thread is a masterclass in how to put down your damn smartphone

-
Image
This Hacker News thread is a masterclass in how to put down your damn smartphone By Bryan Clark While it’s not worth rehashing the details, I believe most of us would agree that smartphones are both good and bad. On the one hand, we have a device that holds the vast majority of human knowledge. It’s an invention responsible for a shift in power that democratizes information and empowers those most capable of dispensing it — in theory, at least. On the other, we have a doomsday device responsible for wrecking societal norms (for better or worse) and leading to a population that’s sleep deprived, anxious, and generally unhappy — among other things. Ignorance, as they say, is… This story continues at The Next Web April 25, 2018 at 04:31AM via The Next Web https://ift.tt/2HWveUq
Read more