Dept. of Packrats. If you are contemplating how full your apartment is and if you could ever bear to clear your place completely out, check out this story from the LA Times, Designed to clean up his act.
Sent in by Holly out in LA, "It's about a packrat who had an architect design a new space for him that wouldn't allow him to be a packrat. Architect as therapist." (Thanks, Holly!) MGR
I'm a packrat myself, and I just moved to a new, smaller Brooklyn apartment that I intend to stay in for at least 5 years. So I'm finally purging all the junk (7 garbage bags of clothes so far, including clothes full of holes I bought at the Salvation Army in high school, a few boxes of back issues of old political magazines... old napkins that friends happened to scribble things on, it's amazing what I've managed to accumulate, considering I'm only 24), and I can't believe how difficult (but how rewarding) it is. And I'm trying to avoid the temptation to rent out a mini-storage closet (except maybe for winter stuff and camping stuff).
But it seems to me this guy is totally cheating--he's not letting go of a single thing, he's just got the money to build a big space to get away from it. Kinda like having a really big rug to sweep a lot of dirt under...
-Mikhaela
Sorry, one more thought--maybe cheating is a strong word, and I don't mean to imply it's bad to use storage or hold onto things you really love or need.
But I notice that in many books or articles about small-space living, spaces might look totally clean and edited... and then there is a casual mention that the small space is actually just a weekday hotel for someone with a weekend home in the Hamptons... or that the small-space dweller has a huge storage facility. That's why it's so great that Hilary's low-budget small space got into your top 5.
I just moved from a place in brooklyn to a place in manhattan. They are roughly the same size (small 2 bedrooms, no dining room) but the brooklyn place had A TON of storage (or an acre!). I am now mostly moved in (save a few boxes of "trinkets") but have the dilemma of creating/building storage space to keep my heaps of "junk" (picture frames i no longer display, papers from college, fliers from raves!) or purging. I tried to purge during the move, but that was mostly furniture and clothes. . .it's so hard when you have space for the stuff but don't need the stuff. . .i guess that's the pack rat talking!
It's a constant process, this editing and winnowing of stuff. I agree with Mikhaela -- it does kind of seem like cheating to just build an extra house, instead of doing the hard work of figuring out why you need so much stuff around you. In his line of work (set design) I can understand never wanting to throw anything away -- you might need it for a set!! -- and at the same time this seems like more than a professional need. I know someone who always needs more than one of everything, and I always wonder if she grew up poor and needs abundance to feel happy.
That said, it looks like a pretty cool house. Wish there were more pictures!
Yes, exactly! My old apartment had a gigantic hall closet that I just stuck everything in, the new apartment doesn't. Since moving in two weeks ago I've discovered I have every notebook I ever wrote ANYTHING in in high school and college, syllabi, textbooks I'll never read again, fliers, magazines, pens and markers that don't write anymore, fabric scraps too small to make anything but a really ugly quilt out of (and when do I really have time to quilt), sewing patterns that are way out of style, yarn that I probably won't knit anything out of, sketchbooks with only one or two drawings in them, a cat carrier too small for my fat cat who used to be a tiny kitten... I think for a while I had this excuse that I'm an artist, so I might make beautiful art out of some of this junk, but probably best to toss it and then carefully get some new stuff to make art out of when I really actually need it. It's all sitting in a growing pile in the apartment waiting for me to actually dispose of it now.
Some stuff I do need to make storage for, though--I have a home business, and need to have a desk, drafting table, filing cabinets for art, etc, storage for art supplies, sewing supplies ... I'm planning to build a complete bookcase wall in the living room area, since I have many beautiful art books and wonderful novels I really do read over and over.
But as far as being a packrat, I'm 24 and it'll only get worse if I don't stop NOW. After moving I sat in the room piled high with boxes (I estimate about 1/3rd of it is stuff I need to toss) and thought "if I have this much crap now, imagine how much more crap I'll have in 10 years if I don't develop better organizing habits soon." We'll see, it's going to be tough going.
Sigh...
Mikhaela,
You're supposed to toss that crap before you move, then you don't have to move it! Easier said than done. ;)
I know, easier said that done... I did get rid of most of the clothes before I moved, but it might have been smarter, lifting-wise if I had gotten rid of the extra books first (I didn't hire movers, it was a "buy friends sushi for helping me move" type of thing). But having to carry all those boxes definitely made me more aware of how much there actually was!
While I do feel that the glass house is beautiful, it does seem to make his original house an expensive storage facility, and does not really deal with the issue. Hording is an obsessive compulsive disorder that requires time in therapy, if nothing else. If it is just a "pack rat" issue for props which may be used in sets, then they should be stored in a storage facility (and catalogued so he can easily get what he needs for various shows).
I'm in my twenties, and have been trying to avoid getting into the habit of hoarding, as I know someone in her late 50s who has been hoarding for ages, and it just gets worse and worse. Since I've moved at least once every year and a half since I graduated college (and before that I had to move more often with dorms and summer breaks and all), and I hate packing, I don't keep much I don't use.