Rearranged!

I spent yesterday rearranging ALL THE FURNITURE. Nothing stayed in the same place. Even the pictures moved! I even put up new curtain rods!

See, I have a ridiculously tiny and weirdly-shaped apartment. An awesomely weird 435 square feet that could be far better managed with a bit of major overhaul - but I'm not about to move load-bearing walls, especially not in a rental. So, I deal and cope with what I have: an apartment that has three tiny, narrow rooms that are not conducive to any furniture rearranging whatsoever. Which is a problem, because I have a condition in which I am compelled to CONSTANTLY REARRANGE FURNITURE.

In college, I lived in a dormitory with two roommates for nine months, and I rearranged the furniture every two weeks. They'd come back from class and everything would be in a different place. I was convinced that I'd find a "better way" to make the most of cramming 3 people and all our belongings into a space that must've been less than half as big as the space I have now. Thankfully, they found my compulsion charming, or helpful, since every time we did indeed seem to have a few square inches more space.

But this space? Really awkward, and not terribly good for rearranging, since each of my 3 rooms has only two functional walls, and two of them also function as hallways.

Last May I discovered an awesome website, Floor Planner, that lets you create a virtual tiny apartment to rearrange ad nauseum without having to spend an entire day dusting off bookshelves and piling ALL THE YARN in various odd places and making the cat angry. Let me just say, I'M IN LOVE with this website. This website is like methadone for someone like me, keeping me clean and straight and managing my addiction in a way that's a little less weird and unhealthy. So for the past seven months I've managed to stick to minor real-world adjustments: relocating tables and chairs; keeping the major overhauls to the internets. And let me just say, seven months is a LONG ASS TIME.

But yesterday, I couldn't take it any more. So I moved shit around in a BIG WAY. And I'm so pleased with the results. Here's my new layout (screenshot from Floor Planner):



But that hardly begins to really explain it, since this was more than just pushing couches and bookcases around. It was a full reorganization of ALL THE THINGS. This was MAJOR. I'm making far better use of at least five pieces of furniture, and that makes me happy.

Most notably, I relocated all the books, and put the "tv" in a new place:



That bookcase used to live just around the corner (to the right, past the broom) in the "dining room" (which is actually my crafting room), and it was filled mostly with junk. Now it sits across from the couch (this here is the view from the couch). I don't have cable, I just use Netflix and Hulu and other such internet sources for my entertainment, so the iMac provides that. I got it on clearance almost four years ago now when the new versions were released, so instead of costing the usual arm-and-leg it was only an arm! No but seriously, I think I spent $900 on the 24" iMac (which at the time was priced at about $2200).

In any case, the new setup is lovely, if still a bit cluttered (my sewing/crafting table - just past the broom - is piled high with stuff that needs to find a new home). But the part that I stare at as I internet from the couch is quite lovely and tidy and modern, and that makes me very happy.