The T-Shirt Folding Trick You’ll Wish You’d Met Sooner

The newest viral video we can’t stop watching revolves around a rather unlikely subject: a man folding shirts. It sounds, I know, boring (and it otherwise would be), but there’s something about the way Australian comedian Christian Hull approaches the …

The newest viral video we can’t stop watching revolves around a rather unlikely subject: a man folding shirts. It sounds, I know, boring (and it otherwise would be), but there’s something about the way Australian comedian Christian Hull approaches the rather mundane chore that has us watching on repeat.

If Marie Kondo brought joy to the art of tidying up, then Hull is bringing pure, unadulterated exhilaration to the equation. Check out the TikTok video he posted to Twitter here:

Read More >>

This Is the Smartest IKEA Purchase I’ve Ever Made

You know the feeling of standing in the middle of a brand new apartment surrounded by a Tetris-like pile of boxes and bags, and experiencing complete and utter paralysis? You know you should really start unpacking, finding places for things, getting or…

You know the feeling of standing in the middle of a brand new apartment surrounded by a Tetris-like pile of boxes and bags, and experiencing complete and utter paralysis? You know you should really start unpacking, finding places for things, getting organized...instead, you’re staring vacantly into air.

I precisely recall one such moment a couple of years ago. My husband and I had just moved into our Brooklyn one-bedroom. I had also recently moved 7,786 miles from Bombay to Brooklyn, and the furniture we'd eventually have was on a ship dawdling somewhere along the Suez Canal. What we did have, however, were exploding boxes of personal belongings and random odds and ends—and nowhere to put them.

Read More >>

A Simple Way to Make Your Towels Feel New Again (& 3 Other Tricks)

One of the best things about flying home to the Northeast is the promise of soft, fluffy towels when I arrive. Compared to the rough, frequently damp variety I have in my Los Angeles apartment, my mom’s towels feel like I’m being wrapped in clouds. Whe…

One of the best things about flying home to the Northeast is the promise of soft, fluffy towels when I arrive. Compared to the rough, frequently damp variety I have in my Los Angeles apartment, my mom’s towels feel like I'm being wrapped in clouds. When I ask her how she keeps her towels so fluffy, she replies, only half-joking, “I buy expensive towels.”

Since the cost of the clouds isn’t in my budget just yet, I set out, instead, to find the best tricks to revive my thoroughly used, average quality towels to the level of plushness they had the day that I purchased them.

Read More >>

The French Grandma’s Trick to Keeping Fruit Flies Away

When I worked in Paris as an au pair, I marveled at how the French seemed to have it all figured out. The family’s grandmother always set the table with the good silver—even on a Tuesday. I was instructed to pick up fresh, fluffy chouquettes from the b…

When I worked in Paris as an au pair, I marveled at how the French seemed to have it all figured out. The family’s grandmother always set the table with the good silver—even on a Tuesday. I was instructed to pick up fresh, fluffy chouquettes from the boulangerie for the kids’ after-school snack instead of, I don’t know, granola bars (which is what I would’ve gotten). It was almost irritating how everyone around me seemed to have effortlessly mastered the art of languid lunches, work-life balance, cheese savoir-faire, and the immaculate matte lip.

Back in New York and many years later, I’m still confronted with the myriad ways the French do it better. For example, when I stumbled upon this bowl, and learned that they have mastered yet another art lost on the rest of us: keeping fruit flies out of the kitchen. While I continue to swat at them, wrap my fruit in tea towels as tightly as possible, and set out homemade traps of dish soap and vinegar (which would work if I didn’t knock them over), the French are over there quietly slaying the whole fruit fly thing.

Read More >>

‘Help! The Bedbugs Arrived at the Same Time As My New Neighbors’

What’s your apartment living pet peeve? Your next-door nuisance? What do you do about the nosy neighbor who rifles through your mail? Or the guy who practices the trombone at 7 a.m. on weekends? In our latest series, Ask a Friendly Landlord, a peaceabl…

What's your apartment living pet peeve? Your next-door nuisance? What do you do about the nosy neighbor who rifles through your mail? Or the guy who practices the trombone at 7 a.m. on weekends? In our latest series, Ask a Friendly Landlord, a peaceable expert suggests resolutions to the issues that arise when humans share space.


Bed bugs are, for many city dwellers, the ultimate apartment-based fear. They are tiny, they are almost invisible, and they are horribly invasive: the least-welcome houseguests of all time. And for those who get them, they can feel like a truly biblical plague. Getting rid of them often requires packing up and processing all your clothes and such, and can truly take over your life for a non-insignificant period of time.

Read More >>

Is This the Most Clever Decorating Tool Ever?

Buying art is thrilling. But that’s where the fun ends for me.

The next step—choosing a frame for the art—is an exercise wrought with agonizing indecision (comparable to when I have to pick, say, between two ridiculously good taquerias). Read More &gt…

Buying art is thrilling. But that’s where the fun ends for me.

The next step—choosing a frame for the art—is an exercise wrought with agonizing indecision (comparable to when I have to pick, say, between two ridiculously good taquerias).

Read More >>

‘Help! I Pay Too Much Rent to Be *This* Cold’

What’s your apartment living pet peeve? Your next-door nuisance? What do you do about the nosy neighbor who rifles through your mail? Or the guy who practices the trombone at 7 a.m. on weekends? In our latest series, Ask a Friendly Landlord, a peaceabl…

What's your apartment living pet peeve? Your next-door nuisance? What do you do about the nosy neighbor who rifles through your mail? Or the guy who practices the trombone at 7 a.m. on weekends? In our latest series, Ask a Friendly Landlord, a peaceable expert suggests resolutions to the issues that arise when humans share space.


Developing a level of trust with your landlord is one of the surest ways to feel comfortable, safe, and happy in an apartment. A positive, mutually respectful, and communicative relationship means that you feel less worried that they’re gonna screw you over, and they’re less worried you might accidentally drill an enormous, unfillable hole into your wall while trying to mount your new 50-inch flat screen. (Seriously, find professional help for that.)

Read More >>

This Is How Often You Should Be Cleaning Your Phone

Even though using my phone is more or less an all-day activity that involves direct contact with my hands or my face—or, let’s be honest, the sidewalk—my phone’s cleaning schedule has traditionally depended less on its actual need to be cleaned, and mo…

Even though using my phone is more or less an all-day activity that involves direct contact with my hands or my face—or, let's be honest, the sidewalk—my phone’s cleaning schedule has traditionally depended less on its actual need to be cleaned, and more on whether or not I’ve happened to acquire a free alcohol wipe recently. Plus, until recently, I genuinely had no idea how often I’m actually supposed to clean my phone.

However, if the last few months have taught me anything, it is that keeping your phone sanitized is a smart way to keep germs off your fingertips. I've learned that the average user touches their phone nearly 3,000 times a day—and that the heaviest users are up to 5,427 touches a day, according to a study by web research platform dscout. During a pandemic—but also otherwise—that's far from good news.

Read More >>

15 Things You Should Never, Ever Put in the Dishwasher

My motto when shopping for home goods is, “If it doesn’t go in the dishwasher (or washing machine), it doesn’t go in my house!” Washing dishes is one of my least favorite chores, so I do my absolute best to keep hand wash-only items out of my cabinets….

My motto when shopping for home goods is, “If it doesn’t go in the dishwasher (or washing machine), it doesn’t go in my house!” Washing dishes is one of my least favorite chores, so I do my absolute best to keep hand wash-only items out of my cabinets.

But despite my efforts, there are still a number of kitchen essentials I end up hand-washing, typically because I didn’t read the fine print when I bought them. (Seriously, who knew box graters shouldn’t go in the dishwasher?)

Read More >>

Why You Should Stock Up on Used Coffee Grounds Right Now

The end of summer is here, and in all seriousness, I have officially begun planning my winter moisturizing regimen. Which is to say that, in conjunction with the single, beautifully variegated green-to-red leaf I saw on the ground today, I have to acce…

The end of summer is here, and in all seriousness, I have officially begun planning my winter moisturizing regimen. Which is to say that, in conjunction with the single, beautifully variegated green-to-red leaf I saw on the ground today, I have to accept that winter is, at the very least, lurking in the distance.

I’m decidedly not a cold weather person and prefer to spend December through February in another climate, or else, inside with my windows plastic-wrapped. But in my quest to figure out how to have the mildest winter possible, I stumbled on a piece of advice that’s clever enough to make me look forward to putting on my winter coat and boots—that is, for as long as it takes me to try out this new winterizing technique.

Read More >>