What To Do With Your New Apartment

By Eric Silver

So you think you did it You found the apartment, agreed with the roommates, settled with the broker, sent in first and last month’s rent, and your stuff is lying in bags and bubble wrap and boxes in a dejected pile in the middle of the room. You breathe a sigh of relief and slump against a suitcase filled with your sweatshirts and coffee mugs. It’s over, you think. I have moved.

Now what? How do you turn a space you rent and play MarioKart with your roommates into your home (where you play MarioKart with your roommates, but it’s more of a bonding experience that you’ll wistfully look back on years from now when the black lung has settled into your chest). Don’t worry. You were the one who got up at 5am to carry a dresser AND a bag full of extension cords up three flights of stairs. Just take it one step at a time.

1) Get The Bags Off The Floor and Go to Sleep – You are a paying renter. This is your room, not the drop-off point for the Megabus. You are not going to fall asleep with all your stuff piled around you and pray that it doesn’t collapse on you during the night. Unpack your bags enough that you can clear space off of the floor. Move everything that does not belong in your room to your room – dishware to the kitchen, cleaning supplies to the closet, chairs in the living space. Try putting the clothes away if there’s already drawers or shelves there. This isn’t permanent, just getting everything out of the way. Finally, make your bed. THIS IS NOT VIETNAM, YOU ARE NOT SLEEPING ON A BARE MATRESS.

2) Explore The Area – Get out of the room and look around. If you’re in a new neighborhood, poke around and familiarize yourself with places you might go to all the time. Bookstores, bars, coffee shops, Laundromats, grocery stories, artesian cheese shoppes – make this your home. If you’re in the same neighborhood, still go out and explore. You could find somewhere that you haven’t seen before, or maybe realize how close you now live to Previously Inconvenient But Awesome Establishment.

3) Put The Room Together – It’s been a few days now, and you’re getting the feel of the apartment. You can vaguely point in the directions of the outlets, and have hopefully put up curtains so that your neighbors don’t look at your junk when you change. It’s time to make it yours. Rearrange the furniture, organize the books, put up posters and tapestries, create a coordinated system of clothing arrangement. Do whatever you have to do to make the room yours again.

4) What Am I Missing? Everything does not have to be the way it was. Switch it up, and get what will complete your living space. Go to the local thrift shop and see what you can find. For larger items that you cannot leave up to chance, suck it up and go to IKEA, Bed Bath & Beyond, or Target. Most importantly though, DO IT NOW. Let’s be honest, you start living in the same place for even a little while, you get used to the lingering disappointment of an imperfect room

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