city living
i have to say i’m really getting excited about our upcoming move to downtown durham! i’m already envisioning lovely summer walks out to the movies or dinner at revolution; weekend strolls to the nearby farmers’ market (yay!); runs around duke‘s east campus.
just check out the area’s walk score:
[no, that won’t be my exact address of course — i’m open, but not THAT open!]
this is a huge change from our current location which scores a 35, or “car-dependent”.
however, the shift will come with a price. one aspect is financial: the new apt is about 30% more expensive than our current one. however, as this is durham and not NYC, the cost is still relatively reasonable. speaking of NYC, i found this fascinating:
video of a manhattan woman living in a 90 square foot apt for $700/month
despite being approximately 9.1 times larger than the apartment featured above, the second cost of our new apartment is space. while the square footages are similar [~900 here vs. 820 there], we will definitely be losing some dedicated storage space.
it’s not like our current 1-bedroom is THAT packed with stuff, since we did a huge purge when we moved fled from our old house in durham to our current space [why we moved: this happened].
however, there has certainly been a bit of a build-up. possessions acquired, pieces of furniture that are not serving an essential purpose, and the like. my wedding dress hangs out in a giant box in our closet [keep it for future potential daughter!? is that ridiculous?? i can’t decide . . .]. a huge mirror/shelf thing sits in our outside storage closet along with god-knows-what-else — clearly, though, nothing in that closet is essential because we haven’t had to dig through it in months.
and since i prefer our surroundings to look more like this:
light. calm. spare. modern. sun-drenched. hello, apartment therapy!
. . . i want it all GONE. so i want to spend time over the next two months really going through our possessions and doing away with anything we do not:
a) absolutely love
or
b) use regularly
i don’t think i could ever go to extreme minimalism, but there are a lot of inspiring [and interesting] examples online of people who have truly pared down. i guess the lesson is that stuff is just . . . . stuff. a knick-knack may remind you of great aunt helga, but it ISN’T her. [and today, you could easily just take a picture and store it digitally!].
so, my wedding dress ISN’T my marriage! right?
fun times!!
[right?]
[clearly, i am struggling internally with that one!]
minimalist inspirations
■ miss minimalist and 400 square feet
■ her ebook, which i am tempted to check out
■ zen habits guide to creating a minimalist home
■ moving minimally from zen habits sister site mnmlist.com
■ top posts from everyday minimalist
what do you think of the minimalist movement? do you have anything around that you don’t love/need that you are thinking of parting with? and what should i do with my wedding dress?
i’d love your thoughts!
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4.4.11
workout: total 45 minutes: 1/2 on elliptical, 1/2 weights
+ hip-opening 20-minute yoga session at the end of the day. my hips were feeling tight and hurting a bit, and this helped SO much!
pasta bolognese, CE style
while i thought this lentil-based pasta sauce was pretty good [and it was certainly healthy!], it really wasn’t all that reminiscent of bolognese. however, once i got past that, i enjoyed this simple meal.
ww spaghetti with tomato-based sauce featuring lentils, carrots, and celery
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