We all know that feeling of elation when the girl you’ve had your eye on for months finally agrees to go out with you. Maybe you start out slowly with a trip to the local Cineplex, and then you kick things up a notch by taking her out for cocktails and a romantic dinner. Before you know it, things are going so well that she’s asking when she can come over to check out your place.

Judgment Day
“Women are very snoopy,” says Tineke Triggs, owner of Artistic Designs for Living, a San Francisco–based interior design company. “We take note of the books on your shelf, the movies you watch and anything else that will tell us something about you.”

As a woman, Triggs admits to being a bit of a clean freak. “If a guy’s place isn’t clean, I just wouldn’t date him,” she confesses. “His place doesn’t have to be perfect, but above all, it has to be clean.” As a designer, the first thing Triggs looks for in someone’s home is how the space feels emotionally. “If the place looks staged and doesn’t have any personal attachment, it’s tough to get a sense of the owner,” she says. “And that usually means they don’t have much to talk about.” According to Triggs, your apartment should be a showcase for your identity. A woman will not only look for clues about your tastes in color and furniture, but also for items that tell her about your life. Adds Triggs: “If I walk into a space and see lots of eclectic things -- souvenirs from Africa or Europe, for instance -- I can usually get a clear idea of the stories a man can tell.”

Major Turn-offs
Your apartment is ground zero in the relationship game. So if you’re going to get your space working for you, you’ll need to start by fixing anything that’s going to turn your date’s smile into a frown or cause her to shriek with displeasure and bolt for the door. “Really big turn-offs for women include things like cheesy black Italian leather couches and having a pool table instead of a dining table,” says Triggs. She also suggests staying away from big arcade games, putting up posters or painting your walls in pastel colors.

Try putting yourself in the shoes of someone coming into your home for the first time. Triggs feels that if your apartment is filled with your parent’s old furniture, a woman might assume you’re a mama’s boy. Or if the place is dominated by a gigantic TV set, she might conclude you’re obsessed with sports and not really focused on anything else. “When you invite a woman into your house, more than anything, she’s going to sense if you care about where you live,” says Triggs.

Passing Inspection
So how do you send the right message to the girl you want to impress? Highlight what’s important to you and showcase your personality. “If I were working with a rugged outdoorsy guy, for example, I’d start by picking colors and materials in natural tones,” she says. “I’d select furniture and accessories that compliment his lifestyle and the way he presents himself.”

But if you don’t have the budget for full apartment makeover, Triggs has some tips that will still go a long way toward earning a female stamp of approval:

• Get rid of all your clutter.
• Arrange your furniture so that it’s inviting and shows that you’ve thought the design process through.
• Step up and buy some art. It doesn’t have to be original or expensive; prints and photographs are fine as long as they are framed nicely.
• Invest in some nice dishes and glassware. “If you’re going to be entertaining a woman, you’ll score a lot more points if you serve her wine in a beautiful wine glass rather than a clunky beer mug,” says Triggs.
• Get a second opinion. Whether it’s a close friend or a professional, it’s important to have someone working with you when you’re designing your space, advises Triggs. They’ll help give you some perspective.

Photo by Med Badr Chemmaoui on Unsplash

Even if your biggest foray into this mysterious world of the rich and famous has been lining your studio apartment with “Dogs Playing Poker,” fear not: Once you grasp the basics, you can upgrade your artistic sensibilities -- without breaking the bank.

“Novice collectors should start by visiting museums, reputable auction houses and art galleries and simply getting a feel for what you like,” says Elaine Erickson, a veteran art dealer and the owner of the Elaine Erickson Gallery in Milwaukee, Wis. “You may have heard of names like Andy Warhol, for instance. Do some research on his background, become familiar with his style, and find out what his work was all about and what it’s selling for today.” To further develop your art appreciation, check out sites such as Cow Art and More (seriously).

Afford Originals
You don’t need to be Bill Gates to buy original artwork. According to Erickson, one of the more reasonably priced items to collect are original prints -- lithographs, etchings, etc. -- created by an artist’s own hand in limited editions. “I think that if people are going to buy artwork, it’s imperative that they buy original. But there are an awful lot of fakes out there, and you want to avoid things like giclees (i.e., expensive reproductions of artwork made on professional ink-jet printers). It’s important to do your homework about what it is that you’re buying, what it’s really worth and who it is you’re doing business with.”

Determine Value
The true value of any piece of art isn’t necessarily reflected in its price. Erickson warns that if you go into a gallery and find an expensive painting or a sculpture that you just can’t live without, make certain you research it before you write any checks.

“Investigate both the artist and the gallery selling the work,” she says. “If the gallery carries the artist’s work exclusively, ask the owner what their work has sold for in the past. There is also plenty of information available in books and on the Internet that list artists, their work and what it has sold for at auction.” Appraisal sites, like FindArtInfo.com, can be your best buddy when you want to make sure you’re not ponying up too much payola for your purchase.

Collect the Art You like
Unless you plan on stacking your new piece in a storage locker, you’d better be able to stare at it for years to come. So even though you might be collecting pieces of artwork in the hope they’ll increase in value, you never know when that time will come. So invest in something you can enjoy. “People should always buy art that they like”, says Erickson. “They should never let someone else tell them what to buy. They have to live with it, they have to pay for it and they have to hang it in their homes.”

Cashing In
If you are buying artwork as an investment, stay abreast of the market by closely following the careers and progress of the artists you’re interested in and whose work you’ve purchased. “You should have your artwork appraised periodically for insurance purposes,” concludes Erickson. “The appraiser will give you an accurate idea of the market value; if and when you’re ready to sell, a good auction house will probably get you the best price.” Sites like ArtCollecting.com are a good resource for identifying and contacting accredited appraisers to give you a professional assessment.

A party (impromptu gathering of friends, cousin’s shotgun wedding, dinner party gone awry, whatever) isn’t a party without good tunes. That means someone has to step up behind the ones and twos and deejay the hell out of the thing. And today, that’s easier than ever before.

Back in the day, deejays had to lug around crates of bulky, heavy equipment and hundreds of records. For those born after 1980, records are those bulky vinyl discs played on turntables. They might sound better than CDs or MP3s, but they are not very portable. Now music is all digitized. (ITunes killed the audiophile, baby -- for better or worse.) And while analog still has its place for sure, it’s rarely in the deejay booth.

To get a handle on what a modern turntablist needs to get started, we rang up hip-hop legend Kay Gee, deejay of Naughty By Nature. In the two decades since NBN debuted -- and won the first Grammy ever for Best Rap Album in 1992 -- the deejay’s lot has been completely revolutionized. And poignantly, KG confirmed the point, having just come off a month-long globetrotting tour to promote the upcoming release of Naughty’s 20th anniversary album, Anthem, Inc.

“Nothing against analog, because that’s where it started, but digital is it,” says KG. “You gotta embrace technology. I used to have to carry my crates of vinyl, turntables, mixer and all on the road. Now I just carry my laptop.”

So what do you need to become an aspiring deejay? KG walks us through his setup and provides advice on what newbies should look for:

Get a Pair of Cans
The most important tool a deejay has -- besides musical taste -- is his or her ears, and so quality headphones (aka “cans”), are a must. KG recommends Sony’s classic MDR7506 studio monitors ($130): “There are other headphones out there, but I love these. They fold up and are durable and strong.” Which is a good point: Headphones get beat up easily. So whatever you opt for, make sure they are well-built. Comfort is also a major consideration. If you are going to wear headphones for hours on end, make sure they sit over and outside your ears; the larger the cup size, the better. Similarly, a soft fabric will minimize the pressure on your ears and head.

Lay out for a Laptop
No surprise, but the laptop is the key ingredient in any music setup today. You’ll use it to rip and store your tunes and create sounds, beats, songs and playlists. When you’re performing, it’s the brain behind all the equipment in a deejay booth. KG uses a 15-inch MacBook Pro (starting at $1,800). They’re extremely durable, they’re relatively lightweight (at 5.6 pounds) and thin (less than 1 inch), they pack a 500 GB drive for a good amount of storage, and they have a solid seven-hour battery life.

As we all know, when laptops aren’t being dropped, they’re being swiped, so you’ll also want to carry a backup of your hard drive. But only rely on the laptop’s internal storage for performances. “I like to have all my music inside my computer because the fewer hookups you have, the fewer problems you can run,” explains the deejay.

Connect It All Together
Let us dispel any thoughts you have of just slapping together a playlist and plugging your laptop into speakers. That’s not deejaying; that’s babysitting. We’re talking deejaying here.

Software: While you might have the benefit of instant access to your entire music collection through your laptop, the simplicity of the old analog days -- using a mixer to switch between two turntables -- is gone. In order to mix between songs, beat match and scratch, or perform any other deejay tricks, you’ll need DVS (Digital Vinyl System) software -- click here for more info.

There are a bunch of programs you could try, but the standard among pros is Serato Scratch Live.  “It’s become the digital crate,” says KG. “And hey, it’s free!”

Turntables: KG recommends the Numark TTX ($400 each), a midrange direct-drive unit with pitch control, replaceable S or straight tone-arm, a BPM meter and a host of other deejay-centric features. (The TTXUSB has a built-in USB port so you can go completely digital directly to your laptop.)

Control Vinyl: Control Vinyl is a record with a time code engraved in it (instead of a song) to use with a pair of turntables. The idea is that when you play the record, it sends a signal to your laptop that syncs the turntable with whatever song you’ve selected. Manipulate the record faster or slower, or scratch, and your laptop does that to whatever song is selected.

Interface Box: In order to make all this work together, a DVS-compatible interface, mixer or USB controller is a must. While KG opts for the pro-level Rane TTM 57SL, it costs about $2,000 and frankly is more than a newbie can handle. So opt for a stripped-down interface box instead, like the Rane SL2 ($499). Plug your turntables or CD players in to the box and the computer, and you’re up and running, controlling music on your laptop using your turntables.

Mixer/Fader: Finally, you’ll also want a mixer/fader to switch between tunes and adjust the EQs. We like the Numark M1USB Scratch Mixer ($99), which is simple enough for a beginner, but solid enough for a pro.

Now all that’s left is a few hundred hours of practice -- and an audience willing to listen.