life in a tiny apartment

September 12, 2012
fan

Tip # 30: Two tips for one:

1. ask and ye shall receive.

2. never look a gift horse in the mouth. or try not to.

neither tip is particularly easy to do. but once done, i feel better.

first, let’s revisit the initial disaster. lo these many months ago, our well-intentioned super replaced our nonfunctional, but otherwise innocuous, white ceiling fan with a real monster yanked directly from the 1980s and plunked into our tiny space. i stewed for a night and then sent a quick note to the landlord asking if, perchance, we might be able to make a trade for something less terribly ugly. well. last week, my prayers were answered when a brand new, sparkly clean white fan wended its way to our apartment and was generously installed by our super who managed to get only the finest sprinkling of plaster dust on every single surface in our apartment. we’re so totally stoked that we’re not even questioning the rationale behind installing a filthy ceiling fan onto a 12-foot ceiling before so much as giving it a quick wipe down. heh. needless to say we have some cleaning to do.
 
also: THIRTY tips. can you believe it? to honor the occasion, i’m going to start another little weekly column where i answer your questions about surviving life in your tiny apartment. not sure where to stash your growing laundry pile? totally flustered by a pint-sized shower? send in your question and we’ll see if we can tackle it together. you don’t even have to live in a tiny apartment to submit. ready?

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13 Comments

  • Reply J+H @ Beyond The Stoop September 12, 2012 at 12:17 pm

    omg i totally feel ya on this one. we have a unique situation in our building, where we pay cheap rent so that we can fix things on our own so our landlords don't have to deal with issues from ohio. usually it's a win-win. occasionally it's not, and it gets sticky.

    our upstairs neighbor had a leak, which led to our already-ugly ceiling tiles slightly caving in. because it clearly wasn't our fault, we didn't think we should pay for it. after about 5 months of ugly-falling-ceiling-tile ceilings, a contractor came to fix it… except they got disgusting 100+-year-old-building-grossness all over our kitchen, which has open shelves. we had to clean every… single… dish…

    i guess it's better than paying for the repair ourselves though!

    cheers 🙂

    1
    • Reply Erin September 13, 2012 at 12:52 pm

      yikes! glad the cost wasn't on you guys!

      1
  • Reply leahannah September 12, 2012 at 12:35 pm

    I recently left a 600 square feet apartment for a 980 square feet one, and I'm STILL having trouble finding places to put things. Most of my problems revolve around shoes and clothes (but not purses! I only have three!) and kitchen tools. One of my hobbies is canning and preserving, and finding space to put the 50+ jars and 5 gallon canning pot has been a huge trial. Any suggestions on dealing with a hobby that by its very nature requires a lot of space? (Also winter coats -what on earth do you do with them?)

    1
    • Reply Erin September 13, 2012 at 12:51 pm

      ah! good quetsions. will store these up for the new column!

      1
  • Reply haylie September 12, 2012 at 12:45 pm

    Shoes! Just this weekend my husband and I moved into 380 square feet (your blog has been hugely inspirational and comforting!). We've barely started unpacking, but we're already stumped about what to do with our shoes. We don't even have that many…

    1
    • Reply Erin September 13, 2012 at 12:51 pm

      they're the worst. so unruly. so…dirty. i did talk about my own shoes once before, but i might give it another whirl in the new column!

      1
  • Reply Stephanie Roberts September 12, 2012 at 2:15 pm

    ok, granted i live in southern california, so my idea of tiny and yours are probably different. i mean, you totally win in that department. i still have an issue though: where do you put a vacuum?????????? my precious closet is full of precious clothes….

    http://www.everywhimandnotion.com

    1
    • Reply Erin September 13, 2012 at 12:52 pm

      welp. it's stuffed in a closet with clothes. but i'm also inordinately enamored with out vacuum, so i might have to do a special post just about that!

      1
    • Reply Stephanie Roberts September 13, 2012 at 3:28 pm

      oh no i may have no other choice…you lucky duck with your wood floors! 🙂

      1
  • Reply Erin September 12, 2012 at 7:33 pm

    Fans are just one of those aesthetically challenging appliances that make you question how terribly necessary they are to survival. Even in our Atlanta apartment, even when we're conserving on AC, I'm never fully convinced they deserve the space they take up.

    1
    • Reply Erin September 13, 2012 at 12:50 pm

      ugh, i know it. and yet, i'm afraid we'd suffocate without it!

      1
  • Reply caroline September 12, 2012 at 11:10 pm

    we've got a horror story about a ceiling fan in our apartment too, but mine involves the landlord fixing a broken fan and telling me how it broke initially… which was a very sad story, so i will not repeat it here.

    1
    • Reply Erin September 13, 2012 at 12:50 pm

      oh, dear. sounds terrible.

      0

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