Sites I Like #8: Des meubles de cuisine à petits prix

Something I've noticed since spending lots of time in my new dream dorm is that, no matter how pretty and clean a place is when it's brand new, it takes a certain amount of effort to keep it looking nice and comfortable. Our kitchen is one place where our filthiness likes to manifest itself. Neither my roommate nor I do the dishes on a regular basis. Unless you could call "whenever we run out of dishes and decide to do them all in one fell swoop" regular. I'm kind of a hypocrite, because of my history with de-cluttering and my manic need for things to be organized in my California home but not in New York. But I feel like I'm allowed to be messy since I'm in college.

Whatever my excuse, our kitchen gets dirty. It's still pretty, but if you actually look at the floors and run a hand along the granite counter top, you might just recoil in disgust. And, instead of cleaning or doing the reading I need to do for Francophone Literature (in which I have an impossible-sounding midterm on Wednesday), I thought I would present you with this wonderful link to pictures of Low-Cost Kitchen Furniture. Enjoy! It's in French, but I mean... all you really need are the pictures. Maybe someday I will translate the blurbs as an exercise for myself, since I'm taking Translation now, but for now... I don't wanna learn. I do what I want! A lot like Mindy Kaling and Cartman.

NYU: Gramercy Green

4/15/2009 NOTICE
Pictures fixed. ALSO - If you clicked here from Google, please be aware that this blog has now moved to 13yrsofclutter.blogspot.com and that before the housing lottery begins, I will be posting a semi-complete floorplan there with details about room types from my own knowledge. Keep your eyes peeled!!

Here they are, the long-awaited photos of my apartment-style dorm at Gramercy Green. I am in room 1101, which is a 2-person studio on the inner, south-facing side of Gramercy, which is shaped like a U. Click the photos for bigger versions.

	Here is our door. Entrez, si vous l'osez! My mom made that tulip welcome sign for A when she was bored.
	Our entryway is kind of bare still. I want to get some affordable framed paintings or photos from the street fair next time it rolls around to our street.
	Our kitchen is positively glorious for living in student housing. (The building was previously going to be luxury condos, so we lucked out. :P) At least in my opinion. The only problem is that all the smoke detectors in the building are extremely sensitive and they are located right past the archway near the stove haha. We've had about 9 fire drills now, because people have burnt eggs and such (and then "resolve" it by opening their front doors, successfully spreading the smoke to the main sensors).
	Our small dining area and the view from our large windows. I confess, I've spied many a neighbor from here. NYU students have no shame haha. Jk. Maybe.
	Backtracking a bit, toward the kitchen again and turning left, we have the bathroom. I love so many things about it; for example, the separate light in the shower area is pretty sweet.
	More of the bathroom. Weird tiling, eh? Our ceiling in here is weirdly tall. But the resulting enormous cabinets are a nice plus.
	This is my side of the room (left of the windows). It's pretty messy and currently rather sparsely decorated, because I'm stingy. But I decided this is not clutter since I know the exact location of all my belongings at school. :P
	Uhhh that's not my super messy desk area... :O
	A's side! I did ask her for permission to post this and the part of the door earlier. I'm not a horrible roommate, I swear.
	The lights I fashioned to be a pretty heart over the archway. My mom suggested this when she was here, so our neighbors could see the masterpiece haha.
	Closet. Kinda ugly.
	Our view. We face kind of southwest and it's much better than last year! So much ♥ ♥ ♥

P.S. I changed the layout of the blog, because I was getting tired of the dots. I think this looks more professional. It's still not my own design, it's Blogger's, but what do you think? Like/no like?

Yard Sale

I am so glad that my grandmother suggested a yard sale at her home this summer! We would never have been able to do it at our apartments, and her yard/garage is a very nice, peaceful space. In fact, our customers kept commenting about it! We had our first sale last Saturday, but we only had 42 customers in 6 hours, and while my grandma and her husband (not my grandfather - long story sorta) made about $40, my mom and I only made $17!

So we tried again today, with cleverer advertising. My step-grandfather put out several signs on the street yesterday morning (last time my grandma insisted the signs not go out till the morning of). 83 customers and 6 hours later, my mom and I had $86 more for our collection, and my grandmother made $177! I did not take pictures today, because I was in a bad mood this morning (I woke up late). But here are some from last weekend! Click photos for larger versions (the ones with our faces don't get bigger cause I'm paranoid).

My mom setting up at 7:30 a.m.!


My childhood dresses. These didn't sell so well either day, I think because they're so out of date (they're from the 90s). After our sale today, we took all the leftover items to Goodwill.


Oddly enough, neither of these items sold! The doll house went from $40 to $20 and finally $15, but nobody wanted it. Just as well, since the roof was missing. I was in love with that table as a child, though! It is kinda crappy looking though, perhaps.


Some old dolls and Thomas the Tank Engine stuff in my rickety old bassinet. Hmm, funny that the pictures I have from last week represent a lot of stuff we did NOT sell! Trust me, though, we sold some good stuff. Today I sacrificed my PlayStation1 and all my games. We got $25 for it all from a young couple with a 3-month-old baby. They got a lot of stuff and there was some confusion with their transaction, but I do know for sure that they paid for the PS1!


High chair and baby dresses. These all sold, actually! Haha finally a good photo.


Some glassware and books. My grandmother had so much glassware; it didn't all sell, unfortunately.


That trapezoid just right of center is "The Music Maker," a harpsichord-like instrument that I tuned after it being out of use for 10 years! Everyone had fun giving it a try with the pick (included) that we set out next to it.


Me and some baby fashion.

This was such a satisfying endeavor, despite the frustration with my grandmother throughout and the occasional boredom. However, as my step-grandfather put it, yard sale customers sure are funny. They buy the craziest stuff, they're friendly, and they love to talk. They really made everything worthwhile! :) What a great relief to get some cash for our clutter!

Garbage Disposal

My mother's wrist puncture wounds got infected, so that means she now has a huge splint on her left forearm and has to wear a sling. This also means that I have to do most of the housework. I just spent about 75 minutes doing dishes and I noticed, the same as I did a couple days ago when doing dishes, that the black rubber of our garbage disposal opening is a nasty yellow color. I Dawn'd it up and wiped off the crap with a wet paper towel. Much to my disgust, it was filthy!! Not just old (what kind of black fades to yellow anyway?). Feeling very un-green but determined to get the nastiness away from where we clean our dishes, I used many paper towels in the same way to get under the rubber surface, too.

You guys, it looked like FECES. :(

I looked online for ways to thoroughly clean garbage disposals and came upon AskTheBuilder.com. Tim Carter's article primarily offers solutions for smelly garbage disposals, but the ideas are great for everyday switch-flippin'-water-runnin'-food-crushin' fun. He says, in a nutshell:

Grind up the garbage with the water running into the disposal. Then, when it's finished, turn off disposal and stop it up. Fill the sink 2/3 of the way up with water, then add soap generously; finally, let the soapy water run into the disposal and turn the disposal on. The blades will swirl it around, effectively cleaning up that nasty poo-maker. (Ok those two are my words, not his.) There are many more great suggestions at Thrifty Fun.

Thanks to AboutAppliance for today's image.