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Do you have a bespoke ‘dirty zone’? | Emma Beddington

Apparently a dedicated mud room will make you less stressed. But I have a very different approachI was excited to learn that the latest interiors essential, according to the Washington Post, is a “dirty zone”. I’m ahead of the curve – I’ve already got a dirty zone by each main door (and also one directly outside the back door, where, rudely, a mystery animal has defecated). The fridge drawers are dirty zones thanks to the windfall apples I thought I would cook, but predictably left to liquefy. There’s a dirty zone next to the washing machine and a mildewy one inside it. There’s the festering compost bin I’m too chicken to tackle post-heatwave, plus the cupboard under the stairs, which we don’t talk about. Good luck finding a clean zone, basically.Does this make me kinda chic? Unfortunately not: the Post is actually preaching the benefits of confining the sordid ephemera of life to carefully delineated and hidden areas: storage benches, monogrammed totes or even a “mud room” (for coats, shoes, skis, lacrosse sticks and dog-washing sinks – I think posh Britons call it a boot room). A 2021 study in the Netherlands found that participants who did chores in chaotic environments had higher levels of the stress marker salivary alpha-amylase. I always wonder what’s brewing in my mouth as I fall over piles of filthy shoes yet again while running to answer the door. Continue reading...

A Quiet Morning in the City

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Moving to a New Apartment

Jack helped his friend Marco move to a new apartment, and Emma has moved three times in five years. They share funny stories and simple, practical tips for packing, saving money and settling into a new neighborhood.

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A Typical Weekend Day

Jack and Emma talk about a normal weekend. They share what they do on Saturday and Sunday, from walking the dog and going to the market to cooking and relaxing at home.

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The Stories We Tell Ourselves: Memory and Narrative Identity

A self, some psychologists argue, is not a thing you have but a story you keep telling, and the telling changes the thing. Prompted by an old diary that contradicts fifteen years of anecdotes, Jack and Emma explore reconstructive memory, redemption narratives, Kahneman's remembering self, Strawson's case against narrativity and what it might mean to hold your own story lightly.