Kelly Kreth

In my previous column, I gave some tips for surviving in a tenement-sized apartment. This time, I thought I’d focus on something else I know quite a bit about: Surviving in a walk-up.

When I first moved to Manhattan I lived on the sixth floor of a walk-up tenement. I was young and so excited to finally be living in NYC in an apartment I could afford alone, the stairs didn’t seem daunting at all…at first.

Now that the micro-apartments are nearly here, I thought I'd try my hand at giving some service-y advice on making life work in a small space.

As a long-time renter of relatively small walk-up apartments, and someone who has a lot of belongings, there are a few guiding principles that have helped me stay organized and uncluttered. 

A recent article in The Village Voice confirmed what I already knew firsthand from living in Hell’s Kitchen: I am going to be single forever.

According to the Voice's Michael Musto, the neighborhood of Clinton, a.k.a. "Hellsea," has the highest number of gay bars in NYC—13 to Chelsea's 7.    As a single straight woman--the unwanted meat in many a gay sandwich--this is not exactly a promising statistic for my social life.

I recently celebrated the joys of living in a crappy tenement (most notably, less tipping and more interesting neighbors). But now that the feel-good holiday season is over, I'll go back to my complaining.

A compulsive contest enterer and oftentimes winner, last month I won a $300 black Perlina leather purse via Lucky Magazine (Yay!). I considered it my holiday gift from the Universe. 

While I often lament the fact that I have no laundry room in my building, no elevator and no doorman, after my latest post about how unaffected my building was by the hurricane, I got to thinking about the other benefits of low-rent living.