Apartment Eco-Shui – Redoing and Decorating Our Home

Posted on 15th September 2010 in Apartment Living, Eco-Shui, Sustainable

What is Eco-Shui?

      First let me explain that I was looking for a phrase that would fit the image I have in my mind. The image is minimalizing, using feng shui as I can(no expert here, just constant student), organizing, using recycled/re-purposed/local items to better organize our home. It’s reflecting our step away from the rat race, living more frugally, creatively, sustainably, and responsibly eco-friendly, to make the most of the space we have, while enjoying our home of choice – a rather small apartment.

      Eco-Shui might become a new series as we take steps to further cut out things we don’t need in our lives. It’s a long process. We’ve been working on it for about a year. The goals are as follows:

  • To declutter and creatively organize
  • Surround ourselves with life via plants and vintage or used items that serve the purpose of art and functionality
  • To not give up art for boring functionality
  • To continue on our way to buy only used items – exceptions are Rick’s computer stuff, because that’s how he makes his living and he occasionally needs newer, higher quality stuff as certain technologies become obsolete.
  • To learn how to re-purpose and recycle things we already have for something we need
  • To sell, give away, donate, etc. the things that we don’t need
  • To narrow our definition of “need” to something more stringent – meaning things that aren’t seasonally useful or useful now
  • To use the space we have to be more self sufficient, i.e. growing herbs in the apartment in the colder months
  • Try to only let in useful reference books and books that I’ll reread many times over(I have a book addiction, what can I say?)
  • To make our apartment a place of peace, not frustration


    •       Taking steps toward minimalism has been a goal of ours since before we moved to Bellingham. We’ve gone through a lot of stuff already. There is still a lot left.
          It’s been awhile since either of us thought about going through the many totes we have. Life happens and we have to do other things sometimes. But today, after a long conversation about paying off debt, saving money and spending more intelligently(buying the things that are useful and used only), the drive to get rid of stuff came back just a little. I took a couple of boxes down to my car so I can stop by Good Will tomorrow. We posted two things in Craig’s list. I’ve made a million mental lists and goals.

    My Work Station

    My Work Station

          One step I had to do to further the minimalizing and decorating of our home was to move my home work station. I had the idea awhile ago. When I was sick last week, doped up on essential oils and pain pills, I thought the best idea was to just get it over with. I moved a bunch of stuff out of a corner – the get-rid-of-corner. Some we gave away, some we lent out, some is going to Good Will, and so on. I dusted and moved everything over. Now the get-rid-of-corner is my work station corner. My sacred-creative-productive space. Please excuse the hyphens, I’m feeling the hyphen love today.

          For my work station I wanted to have it colorful, organized, alive, and fun. It’s important to me is for it to feel cheerful all year long so in the darkest of winter I feel less depressed about all the grey, wind, and rain.

          Let me walk you through my station. The desk was Rick’s from before we were together. I’d like a desk that isn’t plastic but for now it works. Most of my computer stuff was given to me, it’s eco-reusable-awesomeness! The large window was a Christmas gift from last year. Rick’s mom made it. It’s pretty awesome. I don’t trust it hanging on the wall so propping it up on the file cabinet seemed like the best idea. Oh yeah, the file cabinet was used. We got it off Bellingham Craig’s List. The picture on the little wall is something we found at a estate or garage sale a couple years ago. The wine cork frame thingy is actually a hot pad thingy for the kitchen. I thought it belonged on the wall. I believe that Rick’s mom found it at a garage sale sometime ago. My chair, though it’s not the most beautiful, was free. And in the far left corner, that burst of color is an art project I’m working on for our wall. That was made from leftover lumber from when Rick made me a book shelf and paints that were give to me by a friend. The green ball thing is a yoga ball that we use for core work when we aren’t feeling lazy.
    All in all as far as eco-shui goes it’s pretty fantastic.

          My further plans are to add a little more art, maybe a small cork board for just above my monitor, and a shelf with a grow light so I can grow herbs all year long. The indoor herb garden will go further up the wall so my sweet, plant loving kitties can’t reach it. I’m going to try to get most of this second hand – free if I’m lucky.

    Further plans for our living/working area are:

  • To get a vintage used couch, preferably a dark olive green (Picky I know, I’m putting it out in the universe. Hopefully it will come to me.)
  • Hang the print tray that is at our home now and clean the one that is is storage at my parents
  • Get a different entertainment thingy that is better for storage
  • Move the current table our TV sits on out to the porch for my gardening station
  • Get an awesome vintage trunk for Rick’s computer repair stuffs that are sitting in ugly totes at the moment
  • Seal Rick’s compute desk
  • Decorate Rick’s work station to reflect him and make it a peaceful productive workspace
  • Have other shelves for plants because having living plants around calms my mind, and Rick likes them too



    • There’s more but this post is long enough already. Check back later for Eco-shui updates!

    The Modern Hippy

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    More Apartment Gardening

    Posted on 28th June 2010 in Apartment Living, Gardening
    Eave-side porch garden

    Eave-side porch garden

          It’s been awhile since I’ve done a post just on apartment gardening. I’ve done a lot of it in the last couple of years. Lots of things grew nicely. Lots more things died because I didn’t have the right conditions.

          I was reading over the last and first only post of my apartment gardening posts. Oh the mistakes in it! It’s appalling. Letters missing, grammar sadly lacking, it’s embarrassing. In my defense, I have a horrible time seeing my own mistakes. My super-fast-awesome-reading-skills skim right over them. That’s right , my super-power ability is actually a weakness.

          Anyway, I’m doing a ton of apartment gardening, inside and out. At the moment I have an aloe plant in my kitchen window. There is a garlic experiment right outside the front door. And my porch garden is growing wonderfully, both in quantity of plants and well, the plants actually growing.

          This time around I feel like I have a better hold on apartment gardening. I’m remembering to think long term a little more, considering the elements I have to deal with, and how large said plants will get.

          I’m lucky enough to have a porch that gets close to full sun after about 11 am. It has a divider and a wall of trees that keeps the wind down on stormy days. There is plenty of space out in the open for plants that love or don’t mind rain. It also has a decent amount of room under the eaves for those plants that don’t like their leaves to get wet, such as tomatoes. At my front door I have some room for those plants that don’t need mostly full sun, but just a little morning direct sun and indirect sun the rest of the time. My windows provide much of the same, though, since Milo loves his window sills, I’m trying to figure out what to do to keep those plants that need to be inside in the winter, close enough to light, but safe enough from being knocked over because of kitty frustration. I still have yet to get a grow light. I think that it has become a need, for the plants and for me, because it provide UV light, unless I’m mistaken. And we all need that during the grey winter, sometimes fall,spring and summer months.

    My goals for my apartment gardening/porch gardening

          Of course I have to have goals for this fun adventure. Without some planning everything will die and I’ll be left feeling wasteful and selfish.

    • Use of organic soils so that which I grow to eat is safest and best to eat
    • Grow edible things more than plants just for show, i.e. herbs and tomatoes
    • Grow things that will last a few months, even years and produce things I’ll actually use
    • Have lots of fun and learn a lot
    • Share my extras, I can always use work on sharing
    • Practice gardening so I can be better prepared when I have an actual backyard and garden
    • Create something of which to take pictures
    • Dry or preserve things grown to be used in winter time so I don’t have to spend so much money on herbs for cooking(also a reason I have an herb garden at my parents house)
    • Give in to the urge to pretend to be Laura Ingals of Little House on the Prairie more often, I can never be too old for that
    • With luck(sunny weather) and practice, take pictures of my apartment porch garden that won’t look washed out.

          We’ll see how many of them I’ll actually achieve. So far I’m doing fairly well on keeping things edible and practical. And yes, I will consider my recent eucalyptus purchases practical. They discourage insects. They just happen to be pretty. Yup, that’s what I’ll keep telling myself. It is partially true.

    The Modern Hippy

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    Composting Diaries – The Introduction

    Posted on 27th June 2010 in Apartment Living, Composting
    Homemade Apartment Compost Bin

    Homemade Apartment Compost Bin

          I’ve been thinking about composting for a long time. Often the only positive I could think of about owning a house (the idea of home owning makes me feel claustrophobic/tied down) was that I could build a huge, brilliant, gorgeous compost pile – all scientifically done and everything.

          Well, due to many things, we have yet to be even just renting a house, thus no composting. But moving here to our little Bellingham apartment, there seem to be none of the negatives that kept me from apartment composting before. We have a huge porch-deck-thingy. Our neighbors are awesome and a few of them are apartment gardeners themselves. This is not an oppressive, everything must look uniform, apartment complex. I have time and a little more energy now. Oh yeah, and I’m no longer worrying about Rick dying, so that helps.

          I’ve done it! I’ve started a compost “bin”! I’m only about three weeks into the process, but it’s going fantastically – as far as I can tell. I am madly in love with a pile of decomposing fruits, veggies, dirt, worms, and a plastic garbage can! It’s such an amazing things to watch! Gosh that sounds so weird.

          Stay tune to your computer screen over the next few months for updates, suggestions, failures, and much, much more!

    The Modern Hippy

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    Apartment Gardening

    Posted on 6th October 2008 in Apartment Living, Nature

    It’s fall now so of course now I want a garden. Must be contrary. Well, I told Rick about wanting to go to pick up a couple of plants. He pointed out that I’ve been having trouble keeping my plants alive recently. The cactus that I’ve had since I was a teen has died. It had been knocked out of its pot by my cat too many times to count. My coleus has died back and once again I’m not sure why. It’s almost died on me before, it does each time we move, but we haven’t moved in almost a year so what give? Milo my kitty has knocked of its branches. My peace lily is still alive though, though Milo likes to chew on it. And now my jade plant is acting weird, it’s not standing tall like normal; it’s spreading out and then growing up.
    Basically my apartment garden is acting strange. This summer I had a hell of a time keeping everything watered and happy. My memory has been horrible, plus I think I was really burned out, had trouble caring about regular things. Things around me sadly suffered.
    Well, I’m back, the old Missy, the one that organizes everything to the last degree of ridiculousness. I was however swayed by Rick; I’m not buying a plant any time soon. I want to keep the ones I have alive and well for a while. So I’m researching what I should focus on for an apartment. I think when I get more plants either already in plant form or seeds I’ll have a better idea as to what to get. I’ll say that I’m having trouble with something. This apartment does never have direct sun, but what about when we move? My coleus was so healthy in the old apartment; it had plenty of sun there.
    I have a section of wall that I may reorganize and get grow lights to place on the lowered ceiling. It’s just a mass of clutter now. If we can afford it I want to get a shelving unit or a table of some sort. Fine plan, sounds good to me. I figure that if I plan everything to death it will help with my missing plants. Logics get in my way. I want instant gratification and cute little green plant. Patience sucks.

    I have some gardening supplies, fresh soil, lots of pots and I mean lots of pots all nicely stacked. The little ones are so cute. I have a broom; every porch or apartment gardener needs one. And a trowel that is too big for some of the pots but perfect for my huge pots.

    Photobucket

    List of Gardening Needs & Wants

    1. A table of shelf
    2. Smaller trowel
    3. Little planter tray tiny, so I can plant seeds and transplant them out into something bigger.
    4. Seeds possibly organic
    5. Grow lamp

    So far that’s all I can think of, if anyone has anymore ideas let me know. If I come up with something else I’ll add it.

    The last of my porch garden

    I’ve salvaged the rest of my garden. My apple mint went to seed nearly a month ago. Rick’s peppermint has also gone to seed, but as it was a little shoot came up and grew. It is going to seed again. My lavender dried out and started to die back. It’s growing back now though. It’s over two years old. I started it just before a winter at our old apartment. It made it through two cold winters and snows. By its self mind you, I didn’t help it.

    Photobucket

    Photobucket

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