living in a studio apartment

So. This post will precede my “Purging Life” posts. I moved from a 3 bedroom house into a studio apartment. It is the smallest place I have ever lived in.

Ever.

I had an incredibly cool loft one bedroom apartment when I first moved to Atlanta in the late 80’s and even that was bigger than what I am living in now. Anyway. After the shock to the system wore off here are the positives of studio living:

tiny-living–          If you have a living room ceiling light the only lamp you need is beside the bed. Awesome. Save on light bulbs. Dusting lampshades is a pain (no longer I say).

–          Once you figure out how to program your coffeemaker you don’t need that nasty aggressive alarm clock anymore. Now I slowly wake up to the gurgling of brewing coffee and the wafting aroma of dark rich coffee.

–          You can watch your best TV in bed or on the couch or actually anywhere in the place now that I think about it. And you only need one TV.

–          Bose bookshelf surround sound speakers have never sounded better and now reach every corner of the house.

–          When you cook you go to sleep with that wonderful smell (so don’t burn popcorn).

–          One scented candle and the whole place smells like a French boutique (or whatever you want it to smell like).

–          You save lots of money on entertaining because well frankly you can’t really entertain beyond maybe 2 people. One box of triscuits and spicy cheddar cheeze whiz and you are good to go.

–          My studio has a built in under counter wine cooler. Awesome. I recommend it. No excuses for “maybe we shouldn’t have another bottle”. You can not only figuratively crawl to the next bottle you can literally do it. In addition. Trip over the couch and you pass out on the bed. How convenient is that?

–          If you want to see a lot of someone invite them over. Trust me. Whatever they do and wherever they go you can see them. It can also help unwanted visitors leave quicker.

–          Tigger (my 15 year old border collie) could find me anywhere in the house just by lifting his head before going back to snoozing.

Living in a studio has lots of positives. Not just the above. And it really does make life a lot simpler and less expensive. And I do have an awesome ocean view.

I won’t suggest making such a radical life change is easy. Because it is not. But. Luckily (once you have purged) it is more about what is in your head than anything else.  It really almost ends up all about managing perceptions in your own head.

Once you stop thinking about the past (what you had, what you maybe were used to, what was …) and start focusing on the present (what you have) it is a lot easier to relax and enjoy life.

Ah. But you probably have to do some “purging” in order to move into a studio apartment. And that, my friendly readers, is all about pain. Literally and figuratively. Money value and emotional value.

Those would be my next posts about Purging.

Written by Bruce