Renter’s Advice and Resources

Furnishing an apartment comes with its own set of special challenges. Your rent payment may eat up a huge portion of your paycheck, limiting the range of places you can shop. If you live in a dense city like New York or San Francisco, you may not have a car to haul the furniture to your building. If you live in a walk-up, just getting your new furniture up the stairs may require the help of a few strong friends who owe you some favors. On top of all this, your options are probably limited by the size and shape of your apartment, with its strangely shaped rooms, narrow staircases, tiny bedrooms and low doorways.

Cities can be tough for bird lovers. On one hand, birds are everywhere. We see them flying in the sky, on the street and in trees. On the other hand, you might feel like the only urban birds you ever see are pigeons. Let’s face it — it’s hard to get excited about pigeons. But even in the most densely populated cities, you can find more species of birds than you might think. New York City, one of the most densely populated urban centers in the country, boasts red-tailed hawks and wild turkeys. One of the best ways to acquaint yourself with the avian life of your city is to have a birdfeeder. If you’re lucky enough to have a garden, yard or balcony, having a birdfeeder is easy, inexpensive and can add character to your apartment.

After you’ve moved, arranged your furniture and carpets, and settled into your new place, the blank walls can be disconcerting. If your landlord failed to paint before you moved in, you might be tempted to cover your walls with art decorations as quickly as possible and be done with it. But if you really want your apartment to feel like home, you’ll want to put real thought and effort into finding the right wall decorations. Fortunately, creating a unique home decor can be fun and rewarding. There are a number of places you can look to find art for your apartment. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Apartments have a way of transitioning from freshly cleaned spaces to chaotic pits of dirty laundry and dishes, seemingly overnight. We can blame this on any number of factors: the small size of many apartments, the hectic nature of life, or simply the law of entropy. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t change the fact that many of our apartments are disaster zones. Keeping a clean apartment isn’t impossible, but it does require a plan of action.

When your apartment is separated from your neighbors’ by nothing more than a thin wall, it’s inevitable that you hear what’s happening on the other side. You hear their music, their fights, and their routine comings and goings. But most of the time, you can expect things to be quiet … unless your neighbor has a dog that won’t stop barking. When dog barking doesn’t stop, it can really make life in your apartment miserable. Even worse is a dog that barks throughout the night, causing you to lose sleep and be less productive at work. So what can you do to stop your neighbor’s barking dog?

Dirty dishes, late-night noise, unwanted guests: These roommate conflicts pale in comparison to disputes over paying rent. When you first move in to a new apartment, or if new roommates join you in your current place, you’ll have to work out the best way to split the rent among all the tenants. Resolving this issue amicably and openly sets the stage for good roommate relations in the future. Unfortunately, there is no blueprint for how rent should be split. The lease given to you by your landlord will usually indicate the total amount of rent due each month but will not provide guidance on how to split the rent. Here are some typical ways tenants divide rent and some other factors to consider.

A lot of legwork goes into finding a great rental. You’ll have to consider many factors, including price, location, access to mass transit, safety, and the trustworthiness of the landlord.

After you find a few possibilities, the next task list arises — getting in touch with the right people, finding the time to schedule walk-throughs of the properties, and in some cases, interviewing with the landlord. Yes, finding an apartment is a hassle, which is why so many people turn to brokers and locator services to help them land that perfect place.

On a tight budget in a tiny apartment? Here are our top ten space-saving ideas that will cost you $50 or less — perfect for those of you who are trying to save money and space at the same time. All prices on the items below were under $50 as of the post date.

Are you ready to leave your tiny, expensive apartment for a bigger, cheaper, better place? Congratulations! But before you hire the movers and turn in your keys, you have something to take care of first. You’ll need to write a lease termination letter to your landlord.