Everything In Its Right Place

The trade off for living in a great 'hood, in an apartment with a balcony, view of the Hollywood sign, pool, mini gym, and two parking spots is that our apartment is tiny. About 675 square feet for two people who like to collect things and who aren't exactly known for their orderly ways is a challenge to say the least. Actually, to be honest, it's cray-cray in here. So, while during summer I'm out of school and only working part-time, I've decided to start reorganizing and cleaning for real to get this little love den under control. As I go I've been purging goods, but the reality is that storage is forever an issue and our apartment will never appear in an issue of Town and Country, looking clutter-free, organized, and cohesively designed. Which is okay...I guess...so long as the cluttered, imperfect look has some personality as opposed to being straight up full of junk carelessly strewn about.

Mark and I got this shelving unit from West Elm to hold all my accessories. I don't think I own very much jewelry, but I guess when it's enough to necessitate its own furniture, it's not exactly very little either...This isn't the most visually appealing thing to have in the entryway when people are over but I've tried to make some of the more fun, standout pieces focal points, and added some art and my collection of Japanese kokeshi dolls to keep eyes off of my mascara, hand lotion (yeah, the bathroom is tiny too) and other less attractive items to have laying about.

The gal in the back with her giant dress is actually a butter dish I use to hold brooches, the little plates are from a shop in New York that sold Japanese housewares, the scholarly owl print is from Ryan Berkley, and in the front is my most prized bit of jewelry, an Alexander McQueen knuckleduster. 

Vivienne Westwood devil horns, my current favorite hair accessory of the very many collected since first watching Brick and becoming obsessed. Thanks, my beloved eBay!

Kokeshi dolls. Yeah, they're sort of goofy, but so am I. Collected from eBay, Etsy, and while in Japan.

How do normal girls keep all of this stuff organized? Next up I'm going to deal with our kitchen, which has sort of ended up being the catch-all space for things we don't know where else to put. I can't even begin to think about Mark's computer desk though-truly terrifying!