Dreaming about my new room! and...drama?

At the beginning of July I will be trading rooms in the house I live in. Currently I'm in the smallest bedroom, but will be moving on up to the largest which used to be the garage but has been converted. I do feel pretty bad for my roommate who is moving out of it and into my room though...but she was told that I would be moving in in July by my landlady- so it's not like I'm forcing her out against her will. She's known about it all along. However, my moving into the largest room isn't completely unnoticed by the others. I think one of my roommates was pretty jealous when she heard about it. She has what is considered to be the master bedroom, but every now and then she expresses dissatisfaction with it. Such as the bathroom is too small, she has an ant problem, the room gets too hot, etc. And so anyway, I could tell she wanted the largest room because she told her sister who is moving in that they could possibly share it (Even while she KNEW that I would be moving in there). Well, she then decided that she didn't want to share with her sister and talked about having the room to herself, etc. etc.... The story goes on from there but there's not much need in talking about it. The only way I'm giving up that room is if I decide to move to Utah or some other state.

I can fit in my present room, however the closet doesn't fit all of my clothes and I REALLY want to paint, and I'm afraid to paint in a room with carpet (the big room has a fake wood laminate) and I really want to unpack my drawing desk which I haven't been able to use for a few years. I still haven't unpacked it from when I shipped it from New York City. I could probably fit everything in my little room if I had a loft bed, but it would still be very cramped and not a comfortable work environment.

Anyway, so my landlady is updating the bathroom and closet because the closet is pretty much useless and the bathroom is a tad....strange. There is a door that leads out from the room to the outside, and it needs to be replaced as well.

I'm already thinking of ways to decorate. My current plan is to split the room into two parts. One section will have my bed, dresser and nightstand and then the other will have my computer desk, drawing table, and possibly even another desk for painting on. (Or an easel? Although I really don't like using them for some reason.) My reason for splitting the room is that :

1. It's big enough, so why not?
2. I like to keep my work environment separate from my 'home' environment.
3. The room echoes and dividing it would dampen that effect.

I just don't like to be doing homework, or drawing and then look over and see my bed. Sometimes I draw on my bed, which I don't do for pleasure but for the lack of sitting space. And that's not good because it just makes you tired. With two areas, I can clearly define the function for each space: One is work, the other sleep and relaxing.

So my new task is to find a good way of dividing the room. At first I thought maybe a curtain would do, but would that be too cheesy and teenager-ish? I saw a terrific tablecloth and bought it thinking I could use that- and I could, but it still lacks some sophistication. Plus, it's only one sided. So I went to ikea's website (oh ikea, you solve everything in my life!) and they have a GREAT idea. They have room dividing panel curtains!

Here are some examples:

These are just a few. This panels can be mounted on a sliding metal bracket and attached to the ceiling so that they can move. But I could probably hang them with a few thumbtacks just as well. They are super long, too- which is good because the ceilings are about 100 inches tall. AND they are cheap, priced as little as 3.99 each. Woohoo!

Here are some ideas for floorplans (Large pics so you can see) :

As you can tell, I'm super excited to move in. I'm nervous and I'm afraid once I get in there I won't know what to do with myself. But I've been waiting for this room for a year, so I just don't know what to do with myself!

Seeing Pink!

I have realized that in the past 21 months that I have lived in my apartment, I've lived with 6 roommates who have now moved out. 21 months divided by 6 equals 3.5. So roughly every 3.5 months then I could possibly expect to have a roommate move out. This means that if I live here for another two years, then I can expect to have another 6-7 roommates move in and out. The number could be more or less.

Which brings me to yet another point, the issue of roommates taking my things accidentally during the move-out process. Many people out there are not aware of what items belong to them and so when kitchen items become jumbled together, they lose track of what is theirs and what is not. Thus when they move out, the "Mahalo Mentality" as I will put it, comes into play. The Mahalo Mentality is the idea that if you go over to somebodies house and you take off your shoes, when you decide to go home then instead of taking your own shoes, you trade up to someone elses shoes that may be cuter or nicer. Basically you trade up. So what happens is for example, a roommate will see a nice kitchen utensil that they think is theirs when in fact, theirs is the cheaper or uglier utensil. They do it subconsciously I think. After all, who would grab the soiled oven mitts or the partially melted spatula when they have the opportunity not to?

Most of my items are safe in my own designated areas, but pretty much everything in the kitchen is communal. WHICH I'm okay with people using my stuff. However, if you move out of this house with my stuff, I will come and hunt you down. I get REALLY upset when people take my things. I'm more aware than most of what items are mine and often when I try to remember, I mark things with my name. Permanent marker eventually fades away with use, but I've also thought about trying nail polish. Somebody told me that they marked their things with nail polish and it doesn't come off. So that is an option for consideration.

The other idea of mine would be more expensive, but I think very effective. That is, to buy nothing but PINK kitchen items! Sounds like it could work, right? And in this day and age, this is a perfectly feasible plan because of the whole Susan G. Komen/Breast cancer awareness color that they market so much stuff with. Let me tell you, I have seen just about everything in pink for that cause. Do you think that Sanrio has made a Hello Kitty version of everything? They pretty much have, and the same goes for Breast Cancer awareness- you can find SO much pink stuff in stores now. Just google breast cancer products and you'll find tons of strange stuff. Here are some examples:

Breast Cancer Awareness Sprinkles:



From Crumbs Bake shop



Cat food:

From Purina

KFC Chicken buckets:

A cement mixer:

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HOLD UP you might say! BUT Hello Kitty has her own airplane!! Well guess what? I present to you:
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Courtesy of Delta

Okay so I have no problems with all this stuff being branded with the cure. And in fact, it only helps me out because I can find anything I need for the kitchen in a pink color and that way, all of my roommates (provided they are not blind) will know that everything pink is mine. So I did a bit of online window shopping and here is what I've found:

Measuring spoons

cookware











Trash

Flour containers



Blender



 











Pots

Kitchen timer

Tongs

ice cream scoop

Popcorn popper!

mixer



Food processor!



Ice Cream Maker!

Knives



Utensils

Oi, sorry about the layout, but you can blame the new blogger layout for being a pain to use. BTW, you can find all of this stuff on Amazon. There's a whole lot more, but I don't have the patience to deal with Bloggers limited capabilities.

But... You get the idea, right? And I'm sure people would be wary to use anything pink, since they would automatically know it's mine. I think that once all my stuff wears out, I'm really going to buy everything in pink if I know I'm going to room with people again because it will be such a moneysaver. Good idea?