Pimp my fridge!

So I think I've mentioned before the tips our agent gave us on staging. "Put out some expensive olive oil....You want them to think, 'If I buy this place, I'll be able to afford that.'" She also told us that people always check the refrigerator, so make sure it gleams. And mine really will once cleaned, since after I throw out everything that's expired, expendable, or just too icky to touch, they'll be nothing between the shine and viewer's eyes but a four-pack of beer and a jar of mustard. As I told monshu, "That does not say 'fabulous lifestyle'. That says 'sad bachelor'."

So what do I need to fill out the space? I could put in a couple bottles of wine, soymilk, and frou-frou juice. e. and I also hit upon yoghurt, which looks healthy and "never goes bad". Other suggestions? monshu suggested fresh fruit, be we have no idea how long the showings will go on and I'd rather not get something that I have to replace often. Do you know any place that sells realistic plastic meat?

The life laundry: IKEA

monshu showed up at my place Sunday to help de-junk the kitchen. We went through my pots and pans and dishware with an eye to merging our collections and several trusty but worn pieces hit the dust. I'm glad, though, that my coffee paraphernalia and pricey rice-cooker will find new homes among deserving seniors. Unfortunately, the service elevator was out of order, so he had to come back the next day to help me schlep away my large refuse.

The first to go was an Ikea couch-bed that bunj and e. remember far to well because not only did they help me pick it out and get it home, but it spent a damn month in their basement while I sanded and waxed it. Soon to follow was a cabinet with a drop-leaf table extension and a pair of filing cabinets with a large board that functioned as a desktop. Together, they represent almost the entire complement of furnishings at my old apartment; all that's left is a coffee table and the Ivar shelving which I plan on keeping only until I can get 57th Street Bookcases to build some real ones for our new space.

Boy, it felt good to see some of that stuff go. The couch-bed was a nightmare; it was painful to put together and terribly uncomfortable both as a couch and as a bed. The filing cabinets I'd inherited from my older brother, making them about two decades old and much the worse for wear. In the same age range was my tabletop fan, which served me well through dozens of steamy summers from my days in the dorm at high school until relatively recently when it got tetchy. (To run it at lower speeds, you had to put it on high first and wait for it to build momentum before you turned it down.)

Afterwards, we went to Big Chicks for burgers and thence for a stroll around the 'hood to view the two local contenders at night. It's funny: Last week, I was all saddened at the prospect of leaving the neighbourhood I feel I've come to know well. But Saturday's viewings got me so excited at the prospect of a fabulous new area to explore that it's come to seem a little tired and dowdy by contrast.