When I moved to NYC my idea spot, where I wanted to live, was Gramercy Park. I’d stayed at the hotel there on a student group trip and loved the area. I didn’t end up living there- couldn’t afford it. I did get a forever memory out of it, though.
The way you looked for places back then was to visit the local coffee shops and such. There, on the wall, almost always tended to be a ‘community board’ with listings of folks looking for roommates or rooms to rent. I found one in Gramercy Park!
What I found was a partitioned living room with what looked to be a comfy couch. This is what the tenant was renting. A partitioned portion of her living room! Seemed ok – in Gramercy! And then the list of rules came out. Most were fine, no biggies for me- clean this, lights out, door looked.
And then in big bold- NO PURPLE TOWELS. That was going to be a problem. I had purple towels. The reason was complex. You see, she had a white couch and she’d had previous roomies that liked to get out of the shower and sit with wet purple towel/s on white couch which had once stained her couch. I think said roomie hadn’t washed that purple towel.
Purple towels always make me smile now. It wasn’t the deal-breaker it was more like the illuminator. With more searching and outside of Manhattan, I could get a lot more for my money [like my own room, for one!] and I could keep my purple towels.