Apartment Therapy’s Best, Most Popular, and Most Talked About Stories of 2019

As we say goodbye to 2019 and welcome a new year (and decade), we’ve thought a lot about how to celebrate the stories we published over the past 12 months. We’ve run some amazing pieces on important topics, shared and uplifted a range of voices, and generally gave a lot of useful (and fun!) advice.

For this recap, however, we turned to our readers, and collected the stories that were the most talked about across our social media platforms. They’re an eclectic mix, and we hope you enjoy revisiting them as much as we did.

In January, “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” debuted on Netflix, and our national obsession with decluttering showed no signs of stopping. One episode featured a woman who was so overwhelmed by her clutter, she had anxiety about where to start and how to do it, and we found studies that show that she’s not alone. Some of our Facebook followers agreed (“YES! I call it visual chaos. It’s real, and when it’s in my house, I feel STRESS.”), while others were over it (“I’ll take my clutter over cluttering up my mind with thoughts of how to declutter.”).

Keith Busher knows how to turn someone’s 1980s trash into someone else’s (terrifying) treasure. The saccharine sweet statuettes with a gruesome makeover got rave reviews from some (“This is the first time I have ever liked Precious Moments!”), and gave others a few ideas (“What if every time I went back home I changed one of Mom’s precious moments to one of these?”).

On average, single women own around 22 percent of homes, while single men own less than 13 percent, we wrote back in January. “Considering how expensive it is to buy a house, that’s quite the statistic, particularly since the average woman in the U.S. only makes 80 percent of what the average man does.”

“This goes back to the idea that women must work harder, achieve more, and do more just to be equal,” one Facebook commenter wrote. “Homeownership has always been seen as a safe path to financial stability and it doesn’t surprise me that single women are homeowners.”

Newsflash: everyone hates meetings, especially ones that could’ve been emails. This candle, which smells like “bourbon in my coffee,” spurred some hilarious comments on Facebook: “Do they have smaller candles for the ‘pre meetings’ and then the ‘breakout’ or ‘follow up meetings’?”; “Feel like the label should say it will last an hour but actually over runs for two and a half.”

We first published the DTLA loft of Gabrielle and Zack Aker in 2018, but it really got some love on our Instagram feed in January 2019. With comments like,”I think this is my dream living room;” “this gives me goosebumps;” and “I want that swing,” we couldn’t agree more.

Speaking of books, this image from Reddit sparked some debate amongst staff and readers alike. As Terri wrote in September: “It’s by all accounts a dream: it takes up the larger part of a wall (dream!), it’s positively bedecked with books (double dream!), it’s a freakin’ book headboard (dream team!) …but then I fully processed the fact that this lovely bookshelf is situated right at the head of the bed. As in, the head and face are directly in the strike zone if (god forbid) a book gets dislodged.”

Because even if you don’t live in an earthquake zone, there are *ahem* other considerations.

We capped off July with a colorful look at the zodiac. Some relished in their power hue, while others were vocal about how their color was not up to snuff. As a Scorpio who leans more toward rainbow than black, I can’t say I blame them. Some comments on Instagram: “I’m a Libra and literally everything I own has a splash of that peachy salmon baby pink!”; “No no no no!! Brown, just no!!!!”; “Grey is my worst color 😆🤷‍♀️ Guess I’m just a Cancer who is best in Sagittarius colors.”

Yes, this actually happened in 2019. While most retailers have an e-commerce option, Marshalls was one of the holdouts. We got the scoop in September, and Twitter had thoughts… and jokes.

In February, we got a peek into Parker’s LA place, and Twitter was entranced. One user even asked, “is your space available for event rentals or no?” Another said, “Best parts: closeup of the books in the bookcase and a doggie.” We’ll add that vintage sectional to the list, but otherwise we agree.

Even if you’re not a “Star Wars” fan, chances are you’ve seen Baby Yoda, otherwise known as The Child from Disney+’s original series, “The Mandalorian.” He’s sipped soup directly into our meme-loving hearts and everyone is trying to cash in on the hype. We loved this crochet pattern spotted on Etsy. One Facebook commenter has the right idea: “Starting on this RIGHT NOW. I’m going to keep him in my purse.”

Sadly, Disney has since cracked down on unlicensed merch and the pattern is no longer available.

Did you have a favorite story from 2019? Tell us in the comments!