Your First Apartment

Hey friends! First, can I get one thing out of my system? IWANTADOGIWANTADOGIWANTADOGIWANTADOG.

IWANTADOGOHMYGAWDIWANTADOG.

I am dog-sitting a friend’s black lab and other than my poochie pie that lives with my mom (she’ll be featured, don’t you worry your pretty little heads), this girl is the sweetest canine I have ever met. She is a big fan of licking my elbows and playing with her toys and I may just have to steal her. I am SO not used to having a large dog around, it’s almost like having a person in the house! (I have taken to waving at her and giving her hugs. This is a sad state of affairs, my friends.)

Anyway. Now that I got that off my chest… let’s chat apartment.

OMGOMGOMGOMG SHE’S STARING AT ME FROM A LEATHER ARM CHAIR IN THE CORNER. I CANNOT HANDLE THIS.

Ehem. I’m really done now. I promise. Aren’t you guys excited for when I procure my DSLR camera and can bombard you with (super high quality!) shots to accompany my emotional outbursts??

Okay. Back to bid’nass.

Choosing your first apartment can be tricky. Even if it’s just you! If you’re factoring in a roommate (which could be an entirely separate post of its own merits!), factoring in a sig-oth (I “promise” I’ll “never” use that term again), or trying to bring pets with you, things only get more complicated.

Throughout college, I had several different living arrangements. I struggled through the rite-of-passage freshman year roommate  (my first roommate’s first “boyfriend” stole my phone charger and a pink highlighter. I will never understand the second part of that). Next, I had a small suite at the edge of campus with two girls that I wasn’t particularly close with at the time (in a way, I think that arrangement can be good, but in this case, I also didn’t entirely trust them either!). I muddled through having the tiny closet room (seriously, it was meant to be a closet for off-campus housing at one point. The roommates insisted that they “left it up to the housing office,” but I’m no dummy. I was just happy to have my own space). My final year on campus was probably the best one; at that time, I lived with five other people- four girls and one boy. Two of the girls are still my best friends to this day, the boy has dropped off the face of the earth (he insisted that the suite always “smelled like girl”), and the other two I still keep in-touch with, albeit intermittently at best.

Regardless of your situation— roommate, boyfriend, girlfriend, dogfriend, I have some tips that combine the best bits of my “if I knew then…” and my things that I knew for myself from the get-go.

Ready…set…let’s talk apartments!

Roommates: So let’s chat just briefly about this one first. Briefly. Because I won’t bother lamenting that pink highlighter that just didn’t stand a chance. Think about this one carefully, yes, living with your best friend can be AMAZING. I said it myself in my “moving in” post, even in the case of moving in with my then boyfriend, I knew that we were entering into a a “trial-by-fire” situation. We were both used to living alone and while you might think that playing Jenga with your dirty plates is a hoot, there’s a VERY good chance that your potential roommate will not. If you are the type who needs a lot of alone time, who has their own specific routines, who has a bizarre work/sleep/ life schedule, who is especially neat/messy/disorganized/noisy/sleepy/hungry/private (the list could go on and on and on), these are important things to consider! In some cases, buddying up could bring out the best in you (playing Jenga with your dishes isn’t a good idea. It’s gross. Just trust me on this one). Maybe forcing yourself to be accountable to someone else might help you to hone your grown-up living skills that you’re trying to put into action. Basically the gist of the roommate debacle comes down to one thing…know yourself before you join a buddy.

Complex or Unit?: An important, directly related question that might make this choice even easier is: landlord or property manager? My first apartment was a one-bedroom within a historic row house. For all intents and purposes, it was amazing. That apartment had a TON of character: cathedral ceilings, funky architecture, a bathroom that was fourteen times bigger than the kitchen. …wait a minute?! There were definitely perks, but this apartment was also: old, kept up by a landlord (he owned the house, lived upstairs and wasn’t particularly attentive. At one point, my back door was nearly broken into and it took a solid two weeks of haranguing for him to secure it. I kept the couch pulled up in front of it and booby-trapped the heck out of that place until he finally took me seriously. Building managers don’t have the “luxury” of or flexibility to ignore tenants. When something breaks, or goes wrong, they are (generally) on the mission QUICKLY. Their butts are on the line with their managers, with the insurance companies, with future tenants, with current tenants… the list goes on and on. My apartment with Bryan is operated by a decently attentive, organized, responsive, and reasonably flexible property manager. Although half of the time, they DO the breaking, they’re also quick to fix it. In my experience, when it comes to complexes, property-maintenance is of top priority which makes things nicer for everyone. Except for when the maintenance crew starts sawing bricks at 7:45 am on your first day off in 16 days, but that only happens every once in a while. Usually.

Unit Pros & Cons: (we’re talking a small unit within a house, typically in smaller towns, not cities and generally advertised through classifieds and/or websites such as Craigslist.

• Often have more character and “charm”
• With character and charm comes age. With age comes upkeep.
• Rules and regulations can be foggy. (Example: checking for “general cleanliness” upon move-out turned into a battle over whether or not the baseboards had been dusted and bleached. True life.)
• Can be more flexible (like with pets)
• Utilities are rarely included (at one point, I was paying over $200/mo. for the gas & electric in a ONE. BEDROOM. apartment that was 75% hallway/bathroom.
• Parking.
• Parking. Parking. PARKING. I paid SO many dollars to the town comptroller. You RARELY have access to a garage, individual parking spot, or even off-street parking.

Complex Pros/ Cons:  

• Usually run by property managers who tend to be MUCH more attentive.
• Can feel a little less home-like
• Parking can be MUCH better
• Prices are generally more standardized (my utilities dropped from over $200 to right around $40 per month)
• Grounds are usually kept in tip-top shape
• Quick response to broken/ rundown/ sub-par features
• Can be a little….boring. (But only if you’re me and would rather live in a poorly ventilated, historic building that was IMPOSSIBLE to regulate temperature-wise)

Pets?: If you’re out on your own for the fist time, having a furry (or scaly, or hairless) friend to come home to can feel like a really great idea, but I can’t encourage you ENOUGH to wait this one out. See what it’s like to keep up with a place and how an animal friend would fit into your new independent lifestyle.

Furnishing: This one hit me HARD. When I first set a move-in date, I wanted everything to be perfect. I wanted the perfect toaster, the perfect decor, the perfect everything. That got expensive FAST. I can’t encourage you enough to utilize friends and family (that’s how I got my couch, bed, TV AND plenty of my decor) and to be creative in decorating. I had a friend who instituted “Project Free Art” prior to moving into her first apartment. She found all sorts of awesome things at garage sales, made her own decorations (thank you, Pinterest! We love you!) and even made some craft projects with yours truly! You can still make your new pad homey even if you’re pinching pennies!

So, when it all boils down to it, getting your first apartment can be one of the most exciting, liberating, terrifying experiences of your 20s. (Or teens/30s/whatever!) With a little bit of planning and reflection, you can make the transition as seamless, exciting and energizing as possible!

Peace out, homies! ‘Til tomorrow!

xoxo

Bee