apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Dan Ho is a hero. Let's hope he finds an audience.

I liked the article about Dan Ho. Spending less time and money fixated on home improvement sounds somewhat impowering but, come on... If we followed suit this blog would not exist.

Finding innovative ways of organizing and decoratinng my home actually makes me really happy!

I've never seen Dan Ho's show, but how am I supposed to take this self promoting guy seriously? He changed his name because it sounds funnier.

Vanessa, finding innovative ways of organizing your home makes you happy, and that's great. I think what this guy is suggesting, and railing against, is that home design mags, shows, and icons can have the effect of creating anxiety in people about their homes, how it looks, and what it says about them. Just like fashion mags fetishize the unattainable perfect body, the home design industry fetishizes the unattainable perfect home. We all seek comfort in our homes, but what is troubling is that people often equate things with comfort. The perfect chair, the perfect lamp, the perfect faucet.

The same is true, I think, of cooking magazines, especially this time of the year. Multipage spreads of the idealized Thanksgiving meal--it must be perfect! but the reality is that the Thanksgiving meal is rarely perfect. It's frequently comfortable, though, and that comfort is the result of being with people you enjoy, partaking in a ritual, enjoying the familial, even if it's not with your family.

I think it's important to maintain perspective on what "home" means, and not get swept up in trends that are only invented to get us all to buy stuff, when our homes can probably be comfortable with what we already have, if we would only let them.

(I think changing his name because he thought it sounded funnier is pretty ridiculous.)

I've never seen Dan Ho before. He seems like an intense and extreme person, and maybe an obnoxious zealot, but I think there's some value to his mission. I'm all for the "so what's the big deal, anyway?" approach to setting up house, and am inclined to listen to anyone who is about finding ways to work with what one has.

I don't see how he's necessarily at odds with this blog.

After buying no new books since my last AT cure, I spontaniously ordered Dan Ho's Rescue From House Gorgeous from one of Amazon's merchants. Now that the blush of my online purchase has faded, the buyer's remorse is beginning to creep in. A longer glance at the Amazon reviews reveals what might be gushing friends rather than discerning readers: the "my brother's a genius" book review phenomenon. Still time to cancel, is there anyone out there who has read it? Good? Bad? Wise? Overhyped?

Shelby, I haven't read it, and I'm sorry if my comment about him being a hero connoted familiarity with him. I like what he's trying to accomplish, as stated in this article.

As someone who hasn't bought books in a good long time, I would suggest getting it from your library...

ocgrl -- no need at all to apologize. I'd purchased it after reading the TImes artice and the Amazon reviews. I interpreted your comments above exactly as you intended, an appreciation of the overall message. If there is indeed a shift in the purchasing base away from... well, purchasing, it seems that the publishing industry will deal with it by publishing a wave of glossy hardcover books about not buying things. I'm just wondering if I just got effectively marketed to. Your distillation of a mindful approach to acquisition and "improvement" takes me back to the days of the simplicity threads. Good times.

I, too, am intrigued by the de-crapification aspect of self-proclaimed Dan Ho mission. I like the idea of requiring everything in my home to be functional, preferably multi-functional (why buy a garlic press when a fork will do the same job?) I'm sort of curious to see an anti-Martha home show. That said, I saw what he did to that poor reporter's wall, hanging up random stuff any old way, and I think it looks cluttered and awful! I don't think I want any design advice from this fellow.

dan ho has only 55 possessions, which include a toothbrush but no toothpaste, shampoo or soap or a razor? i find that hard to believe. not pots or scissors or a pen? he "grew afflicted" with the desire to own! the rich really aren't like you and me, or at least me, because when i want a peony garden, i look at my bank balance and weep.

i really think this cult of abstemiousness is, like the cult of thinness, a way for the rich to further distinguish themselves now that us lesser folk have more access to stuff (and food). the petty snobbery and casual racism (not dan ho) of its apostles encourage me in thinking so.

maybe extreme, but a welcome POV that can help keep one in check, if one cares.

from the article it seemed he changed his name to better suit his career as a comedian(showbiz name), so maybe not so ridiculous.

Rasil,
I'm trying hard to understand your post. Can you explain a little what you mean by "petty snobbery and casual racism"?

I think what you say about the "cult of abstemiousness" is interesting, but in my case (believe me, I'm not rich), I'm trying my best to resist the consumerist message--that stuff will make me happy. So do you think it's "reverse snobbery" for me to think that an Eames chair is superfluous in my life? (I feel like I'm channeling the Oppoponax here, with her dislike of Eames chairs...)

I'm curious about what you have to say.

will some someone PLEASE tell the Oppoponax to stop responding to all the posts? get a life and clean (declutter) your apartment!

jesus christ.

i've barely posted at all this week, and i've been abstaining from color contest posts for longer.

do you all really hate me that much, that even the mere fact that i occasionally post here means i need to fuck off and 'get a life"?

and rasil, it's funny you should mention that, because it's exactly what i was thinking. either he's flat out lying or he spends twice as much money avoiding possessions as he would if he were king of the conspicuous consumers... what, does he buy single serve toothpaste?

i also wonder at how easy it is to avoid owning things when one has roommates. he's probably that annoying guy who borrows everything all the time...

Opopo,

I think that person thought ocgrl was you. I usually enjoy your comments, and anyone who is so concerned about another poster that they post anticipating a first post...well, maybe he/she needs to get a life, because that's just paranoid.

As for Don Ho, I thought this was interesting. 55 possessions does seem like very little, but who knows? At least his point was interesting. I know I have stuff I never use, and I believe that I've pruned more of that stuff out (if only because I'm a New Yorker with hardly any extra space) than most of America. I have started asking myself if I need to buy something, although obviously need is relative.

opo-I don't think you're posting too much. Not sure what anon is referring to. And anyone who's been on this blog for any length of time certainly remembers people who DO post too much.

I loved the story about the work coops. but, sounds like a lot of...work.

yeah, i have to say the idea of really and truly editing down to only what one absolutely needs is very intriguing.

for instance i have at least 10 pens at home. however, i'm one of those people who will carry around one pen and use it all the time until it runs out of ink (or i lose it). the other 9 are mostly just in case i can't find the one i'm currently favoring, and then a replacement when it dies.

what if i really only had one pen? or maybe 2 just in case? the problem, of course, is all the things i use sometimes, but not very often, and need to have around anyway. which is where i think Ho's radical divestment probably ends up costing him more money in the long run. because he either has to constantly re-buy things he edits, or he has to come up with a single-use or "outsourced" way around it. for instance sending laundry out rather than having detergent, faric softener, etc. around the house. having regular facials and nail appointments rather than keeping the relevant toiletries around.

though, on the other hand, he could be one of those people who uses only dr. bronners for all household soap needs, brushes his teeth with the baking soda that keeps the fridge smelling ok, and does laundry in the sink. which comes off as pretentiously austere, to me.

They mention in the article that Dan Ho started a magazine. What they failed to mention was that he took a bunch of people's money and didn't deliver. I got one magazine and then his webpage was gone and there was no information about the magazine. I allow myself one magazine subscription a year and that was a big disappointment.

In 1996 I attended the convocation at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay. Among the many attributes of the distinguished chief guest they read that his only physical possessions were his suitcase and a violin. Till today he still owns only these, I have checked on him from time to time.

He became my role model and I am trying to keep up with him in all what he did and is doing.

"For the past eight years he has committed himself to a project of aggressive divestment, letting go of houses, sofas, refectory tables, electric mixers, Georg Jensen silverware and a collection of ceramics."

They fogot to include in that sentence he also got rid of his wife.

Or did she get rid of him?