#127: The Real Housewives of Airbnb: a house log

This week we are sharing a plain kitchen change that made it WAY more efficient for us (we are kinda kicking ourselves for not doing it sooner). There is also an update on some duplex delivery drama and we are sharing three specific pointers for book lovers who in fact want books on their shelves (as opposed to filling them with a ton of decorative objects). Plus, the new show on Netflix that is debatably as life-changing to us as Marie Kondo’s (we Enjoyed it – and we also chat about Marie’s show too).

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Note: If you are reading in a feed reader, you may have to click through to the post to see the player.

What is New

• In retrospect, Sherry and I realized we took ZERO good pictures of the appliance delivery (we blame it on stress – ha!) so the best visual evidence of the dented fridge is this video screen grab below:

• But again, the good news is that the fridges fit perfectly and look strong in the kitchen. We did not peel the plastic off everything yet so the other appliances (the range, washer, and dryer on each side) look a little funny in place, but once everything’s settled we will be sure to take more photos.

Updates

• Again, the books Sherry was digging last week are the COURT of Thorns And Roses series (not a QUART of anything – ha!). She’s now diving into the fourth book, A Court Of Frost & Starlight and plans to start her other series next (A Throne Of Glass).
• Last week’s episode also has that conversation with Stephanie Sikora about making your home not simply more organized, but more efficient, which is what sparked us to revisit some of our kitchen drawers.

• That photo above is from our original post about our kitchen drawer organization. You can see how the placement of those dishes felt quite convenient to the dishwasher behind it.
• But now that we moved all of our dishes and utensils to the drawers on the other side of our microwave in the island, they are all on the SAME SIDE of the dishwasher as the cups and mugs that we store in the upper cabinets next to the stove… which makes unloading SO MUCH EASIER. No more going back and forth around the dishwasher.

Can We Simply Talk About

• Above is a trailer we found for Instant Hotel, the new-to-Netflix show we cannot stop telling people about. It is in short a reality competition for who has the best Airbnb and it is full of design inspiration, advice for vacation rentals, and TV dramatics. We Enjoyed it.
• The trailer above only shows contestants and homes from the first half of the season, so you will not see Shay (who many of you think is Sherry’s doppelganger) but here is a screen shot of her with her partner Mikey below. You gotta enjoy that subtitle.

Listener Question

• Those are our living room built-in bookcases, which admittedly do not look especially book heavy (especially after we simplified them as part of our cozy minimalism experiment), but you can see below that they were much more book heavy when we first filled them up:

• And below is a shot of one of our office bookcases (there is a matching one on the other side of the desk too). They each have a mix of books, magazines, and a few decorative objects.

• And here is a peek at that section of our second book, Lovable Livable Home, where we featured that top right bookcase packed full of books (it looks strong!). And the book lover we mentioned who likes to store her books by category is the bottom right photo (the lowest shelf is what she rereads the most frequently, the second shelf is non-fiction, the third shelf is fiction, etc).

• Like a couple of the examples above, we also painted the backs of the bookcases in our last house – it was an $11 project! And before you judge us for not having ANY books on those shelves, they were only deep sufficient to fit small paperback-sized books, which stunk. But that is what inspired us to make sure the floor to ceiling bookcases that we built for our current house’s living room were deep sufficient for books – even large hard cover ones.
• Also, Episode #85 is when we discussed the backward book trend, if you want to dive more into the “hot topic” of decorating with books.

We are Digging

• Above is the trailer for Marie Kondo’s Netflix series, Tidying Up, and you can also check out the book that began it all.
• Below is the new wireless phone charger & mount we got for our car (it is $25). It is still wired itself, but now we can simply place our new phones into it & they automatically charge without having to wrestle a cord. We have it clipped to our vent, but it comes with an option for sticking it to your dashboard too.

If you are looking for something we have dug in a past episode, but do not remember which show notes to click into, here is a master list of everything we have been digging from all of our past episodes. You can also see all the books we have recommended on our Book Club page.

And lastly, a big thank you to Annie Selke for sponsoring this episode. Be sure to check out her new rug collection with Bunny Williams at annieselke.com/YHL. And take 15% off any order with code YHL15.

Thanks for listening, folks!

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