Day Two

Day two in the new apartment. I put together a new bookcase from Ikea:


This is the four square Expedit from Ikea. I already have the eight square one, which is standing on end next to this one completed. A picture will follow when I have room to take on! This is literally all the space I had to assemble this shelf! Good thing it was only the four square one this time!

Getting all my books unpacked really helped make some room in the place. Plus, books are one item that once unpacked essentially stay right where they are. Unfortunately, I am a HUGE bibliophile, and have way too many books for such a small place. I have four loaded bookshelves. This means I need to get rid of some books, not an easy feat for me! But I must be brutal.

Here's all my stuff. It is not as messy as it looks. This is mostly just stacked up boxes of stuff. Yeah, I know. I have way too much. This will probably be the last shot of my place all disorganized. (Hopefully, that is!)

One other thing I did which makes a huge difference for a very low cost was to replace all the switchplates for new ones. The old ones were yellowed and gross (like pretty much everything else in the place), and the new ones are fresh and white. Plus, I really didn't want to touch the old ones. I wash my hands alot in this place.

You can tell the difference between the old, dirty plate, and the new clean one. The new one looks so nice and shiny!

Move In Ready?

So I just moved into this little tiny 290 square-foot studio apartment from the 1,001 square-foot two bedroom apartment that I had shared with my cousin. This new place is better for many reasons, one of them being the fact that it is all bills paid, and quite a bit less than I've been paying. But when I saw how small it was, and how disgustingly dirty, I started to cry. I know that God has brought me to this place for a reason, and I am praying that I will have the right attitude about it, but it is hard! Luckily they painted it, and replaced the carpet, so that is something. I am going to see what I can do to set a new standard of cleanliness and beauty in the small space of low-income housing. Just because we can't afford alot, doesn't mean we want to live in filth! Or that we should have to. Here are some pictures of the place as it looked the day before move in. To follow will be my efforts at beautification, and style.

This is the shower. It's so dirty still that I don't want to take a shower in it. I'm borrowing my grandparent's shower until I can get it cleaned.

This is the fridge. It is stained and ugly. Surprisingly, the inside was the cleanest thing in the place. Thank goodness!

Several walls have water damage. All the walls had stains from the previous resident, who, judging by the smell, was a chain smoker. One of the walls had a red wine stain on it.

Some brilliant designer put the stove right next to the wall, so the whole wall was grease-stained. They have painted all the walls, except in the bathroom, so they do look better.



This was the disgusting and stained carpet that they replaced. The new stuff is a tan color. This used to be the exact same color. It turned this dark brown color from dirt. Um, hello former resident, have you ever heard of a vacuum?

I think with alot of hard work,bleach, buckets of soapy water, and some paint I can make this place look 100 times better! Basically, anything will be an improvement over this!