00:00Hi, I'm Channing. Welcome to my sweet digs. First take your shoes off, then you
00:03can come on in. I'll even make you a drink. Come on in.
00:10So as you can see we are in a very tiny New York studio. I live in Harlem, New
00:14York. I pay $16.75 in rent. I kind of feel like I'm paying a lot. I'm on the
00:20fence. I think it's fine for what I get. I live alone. My utilities are tethered
00:25to my rent so that is a clean $16.75 that I pay. I don't have to worry about an
00:29additional electric bill. This is my bedroom. I love for my bed to be like
00:35very cozy and warm. I'm really big on textures. So this duvet cover is waffled.
00:41Everything's very shaggy and touchy. Oh, I want you to meet someone. This is Mickey.
00:46This is my very, very first stuffed animal. My grandfather bought it for me when my
00:50mom found out that she was pregnant. I just knew Mickey Mouse. I didn't
00:53understand Minnie Mouse, so she has always been Mickey. And we've gone
00:56everywhere together. We've gone to college. She's been in all three of my New
00:59York apartments. So the bed skirt falls to the floor. There are six shoe bins
01:03under my bed. A big bin of linens. Like, it's literally all storage underneath
01:07there. My mom, she searched for a very long time to find the bed skirt. It hides my
01:13mess but also, like, brings it together and feels very grown up and somewhat
01:16chic. I'm a fashion news writer. I guide the fashion, like, in a roundabout way,
01:21actually. I went to college for broadcast journalism. We had to have a website to
01:24post our videos that we shot and edited on. At the end of the year, I turned that
01:28into a fashion blog and then I used the clips from that website to start writing
01:33in fashion. This you would consider my closet. It literally only holds my
01:37dresses and my skirts in two pairs of shoes. Nothing else. I took the closet
01:40door off because it would have, like, cut the room up in a very awkward way.
01:44Every single time I bring something into this apartment, something else has to go
01:48out. If I bring a coat in, a coat has to go out. If I bring home a pair of
01:50shoes, a pair of shoes has to go out.
01:52There's a Goodwill two blocks up. They see me literally all the time and that way I'm
01:56like constantly editing my closet into things that I really love and wear. The
02:00most expensive thing in my apartment, I had saved up for it. I wanted to buy it and
02:04this bag was over $2,000 and I clearly needed to be a little champagne drunk to
02:10like have handed my card over. But I want you to meet her. Her name is Cece. She's a
02:14little dirty. This is why I haven't been carrying her. This is Cece. Now we're in my
02:19living room. My love seat is from One Kings Lane. I also am very proud of the
02:25fact that I don't have anything from Ikea in here. My mom is the key though
02:29because she is like the truest home goods shopper. The blue chairs came from
02:33home goods. A few of the ottomans came from home goods. The pillows came from
02:37home goods. My mom's my favorite apartment sign actually. Those are old
02:41flowers. My initial. One of my favorite pairs of shoes. This was the box that it came in.
02:46And that's Diana Ross because she makes everything fabulous. So this is my
02:49bookcase which serves the purpose of holding more than just books. It came
02:53with me from my very first apartment. My mom found it at Costco. These are all
02:57lipsticks. I probably don't even wear half of them. I just clean this out. Like
03:01these are the things I felt very strongly about. These are my very first plants.
03:05So this is Boy spelled with an I. This is Roro and that's Figgy there in the corner.
03:10And they are succulents. This is an aloe plant but I was told that these are the
03:14easiest to manage because you only have to water them like once a month which is
03:19true. This is the first time that I've ever had living things in this
03:22apartment that weren't fresh flowers. I usually have fresh flowers. I entertain a
03:25lot. I think there is no better sound than like people you love laughing in your
03:29apartment. Believe it or not I can fit ten people in this apartment. I think
03:33because it's so open with the way that I've laid it out by keeping the bed in the
03:36corner. We could do more if you wanted to try but ten people can have seats. We are now
03:40entering my desk slash serving table. I eat here. I work here. I do arts and
03:48crafts here. Not really but if I did I would. Why did I do arts and crafts? I made
03:52these myself. The Lucite stools are not comfortable to sit on. I wrapped the seating
03:56pad in tulle to like kind of hide it make it cuter. It looks like Carrie Bradshaw's
04:00skirt and the opening credits underneath which was intentional but we don't have to
04:04talk about it. Come on in. This is my kitchen. I am very proud of my bar
04:10tray. I can't fit a cart obviously but this is my bar tray. In my apartment we
04:15drink tequila or champagne. Tiny stove, tiny fridge which always has a bottle of
04:21champagne and a bag of potatoes which is a food group in my life because you can
04:26have mashed potatoes, french fries, breakfast. That's all I want to eat are
04:30potatoes. In my next apartment I really want full-size appliances. In my New York
04:35life I have never had a full-size fridge which is fine because I'm a single
04:39person. I don't have a lot of food typically but like that just feels like
04:42grown-up. But I think the best thing about my kitchen is that it serves a
04:46little bit of my closet. My pants folded in here. Along the top I have shoes which
04:54I'm gonna spider monkey my way up here. There's nine pairs of shoes up here.
04:58Well these are heels. These are like special occasion shoes. I don't typically wear
05:02them like during the week. I do wear them around my apartment. This is a no-shoes
05:07apartment and I stand by that. But occasionally when I miss certain pairs
05:11of shoes I do sit in them and like read or drink tea and let's see the bathroom.
05:17But first I want to point out my good things in New York map. My goal for it
05:21once a week is to put a good thing that happened at the intersection that happened
05:25in New York City. I've had this up for three weeks and I've only done one thing
05:28so I have to play catch up a little bit. This one happened at 77 Broadway and I
05:33hosted a panel at Facebook. My best friend was off of this stop. She should
05:37get a heart. My office building where I work is downtown and I think that also
05:41should get a heart. Okay let's go to the bathroom. So this is the bathroom. It's
05:45really tiny. I don't have a tub. This is not a functional shower curtain. I just
05:49thought it was pretty. The most annoying thing about my bathroom is because I am so
05:52short I can't look directly into the mirror without getting on my tippy toes but I
05:57tell myself it's good exercise. I would describe my home style similar to the
06:02way that I get dressed in the morning. It's very moody. It's very rich in
06:07textures and colors. Things that when I look at they make me smile. I don't think
06:13that you should have to wait until company comes over to like put out the
06:17nice hand cream or the nice lotion. I like to treat myself as a guest. The
06:22worst part about my apartment? Probably the man that lives downstairs. You will walk
06:26all the way up and instead of knocking on the door and be like hey you know your
06:29music's a little loud. Could you just maybe tone it down? He will tape the
06:33note to my door which I don't see obviously until the next day when I'm
06:35leaving but I save all of them because like who knows. The worst part about
06:40living in New York? How tough everything is. It's like everything is like a fight
06:44on the plus side of things. It encourages your hustle and it's also like just like
06:48validating that you can come here and be who you want to be. That was kind of corny but I'm
06:52into it.
06:52I hope so.
06:56I'm out of it.
06:57I'm out of it.
06:58I'm out of it.
07:00Thanks for the life.
