Hi, I’m JZ, and welcome to Minimalist in the Bay Area (MBA)! To answer the most obvious question, yes, I do have an MBA. From MIT (to which the most common question is: MIT has a business school?) I have lived in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area since leaving for college (and meeting my husband!) at age 17, with a stint on the East Coast thrown in. I am an interior design enthusiast and accidental minimalist, having adopted the principles (if not the title) after moving every other year for 20 years to enable my husband and me to pursue our educations and careers from coast to coast. At some point, I grew tired of packing and unpacking our belongings repeatedly, so I scrutinized them to see how I could make them pull double, triple, or quadruple duty so that we can live with fewer but smarter things. When I started this blog, we were residing in a 1-bedroom, 800-square foot apartment with our two young kiddos, totally by choice. Then we purchased a 2-bedroom condo and then a 3-bedroom duplex in quick succession, not totally by choice, but by the random whims of the university housing lottery (explained in my post here) at Stanford, where my husband is a professor. Despite the changes, I remain committed to my minimalist mindset and methods and love designing for smart and stylish small space living. Over time, my definition of minimalism has expanded beyond the physical — to me, it means living simply and intentionally across all aspects of my life, which I also explore in this blog.

In my former life, I was a McKinsey management consultant and ex-corporate banker, so I like to start my posts with an executive summary and whip out the occasional Excel or PowerPoint for fun. Welcome to this place where I publicly ponder and pontificate (including on topics beyond strictly minimalism and interior design), while alliterating every chance I get. I am here to supply smart and simple solutions for stylish small spaces, while simultaneously seeking to reduce the stigma surrounding a less conventional living situation. So stoked that you stopped by!

**********

If you are wondering where to start, below are a few posts to introduce you to my design aesthetic and some minimalist philosophies:

• See my home tour under Peek at our Pad

• My Principles of Interior Decorating

• Functional Decor FTW

• Capsule Pantry for the Minimalist Cook

• Our Approach to (Holiday) Gifting — We’re Not Total Gift Grinches!

• Holler if You Hate Hosting at Home

• I Like to KISS … My Finances, That Is