Moving In: Apartment Placeholders

By Lev Novak

September just started, and if you’ve just moved in, you might have found your apartment…lacking. Maybe you don’t have a couch yet. Or chairs. Or a bed.

Not to fear! While you put all those things together, there are placeholders that can substitute their way for a week or so until you get your stuff together. Ready? Here we go.

1. Bedding is a Bed

If you don’t have a mattress or a bed, you still need to sleep. And trust me- sleeping on the floor is way more annoying than it sounds.

Also annoying: getting a bed.

A compromise in the timing is to simply use your bedding as a bed. To do this properly, lay a comforter on the ground. That’s not enough- to succeed, you need something thicker, like a mattress pad. On top of that, add another comforter, then a blanket, and then your sheet. The order’s important: the coziest material should be sandwiched in the middle of two comforters, and the lightest, least comfortable layer should be the one closest to the top. That’ll give you the most “give” when you put your body on it- the pad itself will be backed up on both sides by the comforter, after all, and it’ll be cozy enough to sleep on.

For extra luck, use a sleeping bag on top of that. Success! Sweet dreams, amigo.

2. Take-Out is Cooking

You’ve been working hard, man. You’ll get your cooking supplies soon enough, but for now, just get take-out. It’s tasty, easy, and it comes with silverware. Figuring out how to cook without half your pans or spices is a huge headache. Cook when you can, and when you can’t? Google your way to a tasty meal.

It comes with plastic forks, too- that’s another thing you don’t have to deal with unpacking, too.

3. Boxes Are Tables, Chairs

All your winter clothes in a box are heavy and inconvenient. But, depending on how full they are, you can either use them as a chair, or more realistically, as a table to sit around. Whatever you have in your house unpacked can be used as a substitute for your actual furniture if you’re creative and casual.

4. Your Bag is a Dresser

There’s no need to focus on a dresser too early- if you just leave your clean clothes in the bag and your dirty clothes in a laundry bag (or a corner on the floor) then you can put other furniture as your priority. Simple as that.

5. A Laptop is a T.V.

If you really need a T.V. for something that you can’t find online, like watching Breaking Bad, feel free to use a friend’s television as your own. Or, failing that, find a bar near you that’s showing it (or the game, or whatever you need to watch.) A television is rarely a time-sensitive thing, so you can bum around without one for a while.

6. Use Your Roommates Shampoo and Toothpaste

Just until you get your own (or forever, whatever works.)

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