Maxwell Ryan Talks About How Apartment Therapy Got Its Name In New Interview

If you’ve been around a little while, you know we take the “therapy” part of Apartment Therapy seriously. In an interview with Editor at Large this week, our CEO and founder Maxwell Ryan explains how a 19th century philosopher inspired the very site you’re reading today.

Before starting a design and lifestyle blog, Maxwell was a teacher in the Waldorf Method (which was created by Austrian philosopher and architect, Rudolf Steiner in 1919), where he realized something fundamental about how we react to our environment.

It had nothing to do with the size of the apartment or the finances of its owners. The children who were the happiest and performed the best came from a clean, organized and healthy environment with minimal outside stimulus like televisions, an abundance of electronics, and most importantly, clutter.

“I was surprised to see how closely the home environments of my students lined up with their academic and social success in school,” explained Ryan. “If the home was calm, clean and cared for, this seemed to directly lead to focus and attention to work in school, which led to success and higher confidence.”

Read the full interview over on Editor at Large.