Renter’s Advice and Resources

Every apartment has walls in abundance—sometimes more wall space than floor space, it might seem. Learn how to take advantage of these vast expanses and use them for storage. You can even mount large items on your wall if you’re up for it!

Cabinets, curtains, screens, and drawers are your friends when you live in an apartment with limited closet space or none at all. Since adding on a closet or other storage space is probably not an option, you’ll have to invent alternative ways to store your items. Read on for some terrific tips on doing so!

Your kitchen is a mess of clutter: six half-empty boxes of Frosted Flakes scattered across the counter, a rarely-used mixer hiding in the inaccessible cabinet over the fridge (you’re short, okay?!), a bag of almost-rotten lettuce on each shelf of your fridge (but none of them in the crisper where they belong), a jumble of frozen meals in the freezer, stacks of cans on the counter, dirty appliances on every open surface, and empty cupboards. Or maybe your cupboards are full, but you can’t find anything–flour is resting beside cans of baked beans, tuna is hiding behind boxes of crackers, and your waffle maker is buried in a stack of half-empty bags of chips. Whatever your situation, you need to get your kitchen organized now. Here are some helpful tips to take your kitchen from “Oh no” to “Oh wow.” To do this, you’ll need to ask yourself some questions… (and answer them, too!)

The bathroom: a boring expanse of white tile that taunts you with its dull conformity to the expectations of what a “bathroom” should be. Homeowners can remodel, but renters may be more limited in their bathroom decorating decisions. But fear not—there’s a lot you can do to make your bathroom beautiful without replacing tiles or knocking down walls. Read on for some sensational suggestions for bathroom design.

Apartments, especially studios and efficiencies, can be short on space. This can result in the loss of both functional and storage space. One great way to help combat space constraints is building a loft bed or other lofted space to help use the vertical space available in your apartment to its fullest potential otherwise. There are obvious limitations to this process in an apartment environment, where you’re not able to make major modifications to your surroundings. However, it’s relatively cheap and easy to build a freestanding loft bed that won’t have a lasting effect on your apartment, and the space you save will more than compensate for the initial investment in materials. Many people use lofts to house their mattresses, as beds can take up a lot of space. This is a great option, but just building a loft for storage can greatly increase the number of places to put things in your apartment, without reducing your floor space.

Your kitchen may be one of the most-used rooms in your home, but it’s probably also one of the least organized. You may be convinced you just have too much stuff in your kitchen to ever have hope of conquering the clutter. With a little effort and innovation, and our helpful tips, you can transform your kitchen from a war zone into a food preparation zone. Read on to learn how.

New Years Resolution: Organizing Your Life

It’s almost that time of year again. All year long you’ve been saying “Oh, I’ll do that next year,” and the time is finally upon us. And no, you can’t renege on your new years resolution to organize your apartment. Bet you wish you had only promised to visit your mother more often. Organizing can be difficult in a small apartment; sometimes there just doesn’t seem to be enough room to store everything. But with a few helpful organizing tips, you can really maximize your space, and rid yourself of unnecessary clutter in the New Year – you’ll have to deal with that pesky neighbor on your own.

Almost everyone has an apartment-dwelling pal or two. And whether your apartment-renting friends are young or old, male or female, liberal or Libertarian, they’ll always appreciate a unique gift that helps make apartment living easier. Such gifts can range from cheap to expensive, colorful to demure, and big to small, but they’re all focused on one thing: making apartment living easier.

Is the bathroom in your apartment too small? Is your newspaper/magazine in the living room when you go into the bathroom to take care of business? Is your towel always on the floor? It’s time to pick it up and get a towel rack that goes above your toilet. This storage unit is easy to install, reasonably priced, and has many uses.