My apartment has no storage space. It has a medicine cabinet in the bathroom, and a few cabinets in my kitchen space but no more. All the rest of my storage comes from a wardrobe for my clothing, and a small tv stand with two drawers. After moving in, the first thing I have started to do is create some more storage. I got an amazing desk from one of the korean teachers I work with that has really opened up some storage and I am looking for some good shelves for my books and for a few plants. Other then that, I have needed to start getting creative.
I have a lot of really long necklaces and if I store them in a jewelry box it leads to two problems. The first is that I don't really have any place to put the box. My bathroom is my shower so anything that can't get wet can't sit out in there and I don't have a dresser to put it on top of. The other problem, and the one I find more annoying, is that they get all tangled and I have to spend 20 minutes untangling them every time. So, I bought a bunch of small 3m hooks and hung them on the wall in my bathroom to create a jewelry wall. So far it is working pretty well and my necklaces actually make for very lovely "art".
My desk has also been great so far. one side of it is a four shelf bookcase that works great for storing my books, dvds, workout equipment and other pretty things I have collected while I've been here. I made my own hat rack and I am working on getting my desk drawers more organized. It feels like a much longer and more annoying process then it normally does, probably because I know that everything I buy is going to be left behind for the next person who lives here when I leave. I find it hard to justify buying anything nice.
However, that has not stopped me from getting into the christmas spirit as best as I can away from home and in a country where christmas really isn't celebrated. I bought some wonderful christmas lights at Seomun Market which I hung over the door into my kitchen area and I bought a ten dollar floor lamp at E Mart that is the coolest thing I have yet to add to my apartment. I also decorated stockings with a few of the other foreign teachers and I hung it up on my inner door so I see it every time I enter or leave my apartment.
Next time I will try to have more interesting stuff to talk about like christmas in korea, going to the huge Seomun Market, and the new classes I have. Merry Christmas!
