We moved. Again.
The NYC skyline is sooooo blah.
I forgot to tell you we moved. Well twice actually.
About a month ago we moved from the UWS back to Hell’s Kitchen. Because we actually missed it here. Surprised, aren’t you? We were too.
There’s something about the dirty scrappiness of Hell’s that I love. Nothing’s perfect here. Some parts are new and wonderful. Others are old and wonderful. Most of it’s dirty and gross but alive. It’s a lot like life. Deep, eh?
That was a month ago. And then a week ago, we moved AGAIN.
Crazy, right?
We just weren’t feeling the tiny studio vibe. Not because it was a tiny studio—that part was actually kinda nice. But more because of the light situation. Because of the structure of the unit, we didn’t have wall to wall windows. There were soffits or whatever they’re called on either side of the room, which blocked a lot of light. So our place was a little dark all the time. Not the end of the world, but we just weren’t feeling it.
Our new place is palatial by comparison. It’s a 1.5 bed and 1.5 bath and is the biggest place we’ve ever lived in in Manhattan. There are four doors inside the unit. Which is insane! The way it’s structured makes it feel way larger than it really is, too. Which is nice.
Oh! And the best part, it’s kind of a corner unit. There’s one room—what we refer to as The Parlor—the juts out a little bit from the north side of the building, and it creates an interior corner. So from The Parlor, we look north AND west. Pretty sweet, right?
I never thought the corner thing would appeal to meal. I never thought I’d enjoy it as much as I do. The north view is all buildings, but they’re in the distance, so it’s kinda like having mountains in the distance. And there are low buildings to keep things interesting in the middle ground. And then, because it’s a freaking corner unit, I can see all he way down 42nd St. to the Hudson. THAT’s pretty sweet.
The biggest challenge in a larger apartment is not filling it up with shit. That’s the problem we had in previous places. We’d downsize in a small place, then move to a bigger place, buy a whole bunch of shit, then downsize again when we moved to a smaller place.
If we can keep the same amount of crap we had in the smaller place in the bigger place, it means we’ll have more room for stuff to spread out. More open space. More empty space. Which is pretty sweet.
Because in that empty space is where ideas can germinate. I think that’s important in a home. Leave enough empty space for ideas to form. If your home is filled with clutter, then there’s no room to find new ideas. When I was a kid my grandma used to say “a messy bed makes a messy mind.” Or something like that. My bed was always messy so I may have garbled the message.
But the point is that you can think more clearly when your bed is made. You’re not wasting mental energy thinking bout what needs to be done. You’re not wasting background mental power focused on a tangle of sheets and blankets. I’m not really sure why my bed was so messy that “a tangle of sheets and blankets” was an appropriate descriptor.
I think that message extends to the rest of the home too. When your bed is a wreck, you can’t think straight. When your home is in shambles, you can’t live straight.
So, I guess if we’re to take anything from this post about getting a larger place, it’s this: