Meepster's Profile

Display Name:	Meepster
Member Since:	4/9/12

Latest Comments...

I think a no-shoes policy will go a long way to reducing any sort of noise. Shoes on hardwood floors are loud. Besides, your apartment will stay cleaner if you leave the shoes at the door.

I am a noisy neighbor of the nightmare variety - I am a pianist and I practice anywhere between 2 and 4 hours a day, and I live in a building where I have neighbors on 4 sides. I live in fear that one of those neighbors is going to complain, since it is a lot of practicing and some of it is repetitive and quite plainly awful to listen to. So, I preemptively left polite notes for the upstairs and downstairs neighbors, with chocolate cookies attached to each note, heartily apologizing for the noise and leaving my phone number in case they wanted to text me to be quiet. I also try to keep my practice hours to the times when the neighbors are likely to be at work, and never make noise before 11am or after 8pm. I've only ever had one person stop by to ask me to be quiet, and stopped immediately after the request was made.

Given some of the situations described above, I think I am going to bake piano-shaped cookies for all my neighbors this Christmas. For living with me for a year and a half, they probably qualify for sainthood by now.

What To Do When You Are the Noisy Upstairs Neighbor? Good Questions

11/11/12 11:02 PM

@Pearmelon - I love to ski, and I live in a 175 sq.ft. studio apartment. My skis live in my closet. So does my digital piano - I'm a musician, and use the digital piano for my gigs. My acoustic piano is out in the open, but it doesn't really count as clutter. My sheetmusic is in one of my wall cabinets. My space is very uncluttered, because in 175 sq.ft., even a little bit of clutter can overwhelm it. I have an ironclad, unbreakable rule that I always put away an item right after I'm done with it; I never leave stuff lying around.

I'm actually surprisingly happy in my 175 sq.ft. - I could probably afford a bigger place, but I don't want one. It meets all my needs. I've got a few items of decor around - an art print that someone gave me, a Chinese fan, a vase with some flowers in it - but nothing that would be too much. The place feels spacious, and because of the lack of clutter, it feels peaceful and serene. There's nothing in it to jangle the nerves. When I come home after a difficult day, I relax. My apartment is my refuge from the stresses of the outside world.

5 Strategies for Decluttering a Small Space

4/9/12 1:18 AM