Guest Post by Katey from Having Fun at Home
Our family is living in an apartment
right now, and we often find there can be a temptation to pine away for the
home we hope to own someday instead of making the most of where we are right
now. There are, however, a lot of benefits to living in an apartment, and I want to try to enjoy them to the hilt. With that in mind, here are 13 tips I’ve learned for living frugally and pleasantly in an apartment:
1. See if you can share a wireless
internet plan with one of your neighbors. Half of an internet bill is a
whole lot more better than paying the full thing, and apartment dwellers usually live
close enough to one another to make it work! [Note from Crystal: I’d recommend you check with your internet service to make sure this is alright with them before going ahead with it. Thanks to those of you who wrote to mention that!]
2. If you have a porch or patio, hang
bird feeders and grow vegetables like tomatoes and peppers in containers.
Many birds, especially hummingbirds, will visit even an urban feeder. The garden
will give you a little free produce and will help you feel closer to
the outdoors.
3. Invest in wall shelves for extra
storage. Stock up when there are good sales (or check your local Craiglist or Freecycle to snag some great deals). This investment has been very helpful and worth the
money for our family.
4. Scatter bay leaves strategically
around your apartment. That’s right–bay leaves! Apartment complexes are
much more likely to host an infestation of cockroaches. Keep them out of your
apartment with bay leaves; roaches hate the smell! (I was very happy to discover
this solution because, with a small child, I really didn’t want to have to use
chemicals.)
5. Talk with your neighbors about
holding a community-wide garage sale. It’s difficult to have a garage sale
when living in an apartment complex, but because space is tight, apartment
dwellers, more than most people, need a way to recycle their stuff and pare
down to what is really needed. If you can’t seem to organize a community wide
garage sale, see if there’s a friend nearby who is planning an upcoming sale with whom you might partner for a two-family garage sale.
6. Invest in a cordless vacuum
cleaner. I received this Shark brand
rechargeable battery sweeper
as a wedding gift and use it all the time. It’s pretty powerful, a lot less
hassle than taking out a big vacuum, and takes up a lot less space in my
closet.
7. If you have to use a coin operated
laundry facility, consider getting a foldable indoor drying rack. Wash
your underclothes in the sink and hang them to dry in the bathroom on your
rack. It saves you money and you don’t have to leave your apartment as often to
go to the facility.
8. Take out the trash every day, and
place a box of baking soda at the bottom of your trash can to absorb odors.
In a small place, it is much more vital to keep the bad smells to a minimum.
9. Since there usually isn’t the option
of painting or wallpapering make your own decorations, use homemade photos
and enlarge them. Get cheap frames at garage sales and hang them around the
apartment. I used pretty satin ribbons to hang these in my baby’s room.
10. Pare down your collection of
pots and pans to the bare minimum. Not only will this give you more
cupboard space in your kitchen, but it will make it less likely that you will
end up with a mountain of dishes in the sink.
11. Take advantage of the time you
save not taking care of a yard by taking your family on outings to local parks,
zoos, nature centers, festivals, and fairs.
12. Save counter space by using a magnetic tool strip to hang your knives instead of using a knife holder. This saves space and allows you to be able to see the blades without
picking up the knives to find the right one.
13. Make friends with the
maintenance men and the apartment manager. Not only is it advantageous to
you for getting repairs done more efficiently, but those are two jobs that are
often unappreciated. Most of what they hear is complaining. Even if you don’t
develop a personal relationship, show appreciation by baking them Christmas
cookies or other holiday treats.
Katey is a
stay-at-home-mom in Austin, Texas. Her
blog havingfunathomeblog.blogspot.
inexpensive, creative, and wholesome fun at home.
From Crystal: I know many of the rest of you have lived or are living in an apartment or a very small home. I’d love to hear your ideas for making the most of this situation. Please share your input in the comments section.
photos by Katey
I always wanted a house back when I was married but I must admit, I LOVE living in this 750sq feet 1 bedroom apartment….LOTS of space, but only takes me 30 minutes to clean and was inexpensive to furnish.
All of this information is also valuable for those of us who own garden apartment-type condos (the ones like where your grandmother used to live). Space and services are always at a premium – And make the most of what you have!
I spent the first 19 yrs of my marriage in tiny apartments in Tokyo and then San Francisco…because who can afford a house in either location?! We have two good jobs plus enough common sense not to have gotten caught in a million-yr mortgage for 10 times what we make. Anyway, not what I had ever thought would happen to me. But it’s been a great 20 yrs (this November), full of rich experiences, home cooked meals, yes: house guests, plenty of books and travel and a select group of very beloved cats. It’s not like we weren’t actually living just because we couldn’t get a house. (We’re renting one now.) It’s time this mythology got the airing it deserves. Need I say, other marriages around us, ones with houses and kids and all the trimmings, have come and gone while ours is still here. There are things that life is truly made of, and there are things that are being marketed to you. Life in a small space can be very broad in the most real sense.
With your last tip – people such as apartment managers and maintenance folk (along with postal workers, newspaper delivers, &c.) get lots of treats during holiday time. I recommend that to make friends with them, bake a batch of cookies for them “just because.” If you are doing something during the holidays, try making them dinner instead of baking treats! Everyone gives sugary treats, and people in service positions such as those get more and more busy during holiday seasons – they could always use a good meal that they don’t have to prepare.
Doing something like this is more likely to be special to them, and will give you a better opportunity to get to know them.
With your last tip – people such as apartment managers and maintenance folk (along with postal workers, newspaper delivers, &c.) get lots of treats during holiday time. I recommend that to make friends with them, bake a batch of cookies for them “just because.” If you are doing something during the holidays, try making them dinner instead of baking treats! Everyone gives sugary treats, and people in service positions such as those get more and more busy during holiday seasons – they could always use a good meal that they don’t have to prepare.
Doing something like this is more likely to be special to them, and will give you a better opportunity to get to know them.
Our family has just recently been forced to downsize homes considerably. I’m learning to be thankful to the Lord though. We went from a 1900s.f. 4 bedroom house down to a 900s.f. 2 bedroom apartment. We have 5 children. Not idea of “ideal” but God has been faithful. We aren’t tripping on each other as I originally imagined we would and we’ve learned what constitutes a NEED as opposed to a WANT. Be thankful with what you have and make the most of it!
Jen
We live in a very small one-room cabin (building as we go)and I store a lot of things (toy sets, homeschooling supplies, etc.) in tubs under the beds. If you put risers under your bedposts you can get the bigger tubs under there. We also have lots of shelves and several small dressers that do double duty as storage and side tables.
Regarding the bird feeder —
You can attract more wildlife than you think to a small outdoor area. It’s easy to provide the basics of food, water, and shelter.
Provide food with bird feeders of various types and butterfly-favored plants in containers.
Provide water in a simple saucer (weigh it down with a rock to keep it from blowing away), a nice pedestal birdbath, or a water garden with waterfall feature (with the deeper water covered so birds don’t fall in).
Shelter can be a simple birdhouse, a winter roost, a bat house (ignore the legends — they’re largely beneficial), a (non-hive) friendly bee house, an evergreen container plant during winter, or even a small winter leaf pile.
This is probably really obvious, but my husband and I didn’t do this until almost living in our apartment for two years (we’re in year three right now): Put your bed up against a wall. It’s just my husband and I (plus our two cats), and we had a queen-sized bed smack dab in the middle of our bedroom with just the head of the bed touching the wall. We wanted to rearrange the furniture and decided to move the bed so one entire side was up against the wall and the head was at another wall. (Pardon me, I’m horrible at giving descriptions.) For us, this opened up our bedroom and gave us so much more walking room!
We look forward to having our own home one day, but we enjoy are little one bedroom/one bathroom. It’s quaint, but it seems to do the trick right now. 🙂
Shoe bags!
Hang a shoe organizer inside every door. Use one for stationary, stamps, bills going in and out; another for shoes, belts, jewelry, anything small that needs sorting, even tools!
My husband and I have been living in our apartment since our wedding 3 years ago. One way that we saved money was to register for a Premier Raised Queen size Aero bed. It cost half the cost (or even less) than a regular bed. Plus because we got it as a wedding gift it was FREE! We RARELY have to add any air to the mattress. We really do love it. Plus when we move to a house, we just have to deflate it, put it in the bag that it comes in, and carry it right out of the house. It will make a great guest bed when that time comes.
I loved the article, and second all the comments. My hubby and I have 3 kids and have been married for 12 years, and live in a large 2 bd/2bath apartment in a large urban area. It’s not how I imagined raising my family and for many years I had a hard time being content, but now I know that if we moved into a house I’d miss our current living situation so much! Some of the perks:
1. If my fridge goes out, toilet gets clogged, oven stops working? I call the maintenance guy and they fix it or bring a new appliance. No cost to me. (Plus, no lawn to mow, etc.)
2. My utilities are included in the rent. No question of how much the bills will be… even better, no bills for all that stuff!
3. Rent control means that the longer we live here, the better deal we’re getting.
4. We have close neighbors whom we’ve built relationships with, and close friends for my kids (our building has 400 units, with several families)
5. Although I have to cart my 4 loads of laundry down to the laundry room every week, I also get it all washed, dried, folded and put away in a day and don’t worry about it again until next week.
6. If we have to move, there’s no worry about trying to sell the place.
We have lived in apartments for over 6 years now, and for most of that time we have served as a CARES Team: http://caresteam.org It is a Christian ministry that places a team (a husband and wife or 2 singles) in an apartment to serve the residents and staff by organizing events and being there in times of need, supported by your local church. You can find out more at the website, but for volunteering 70 hours/month, you will usually be given a 2BR/2BA apartment rent free! This has greatly helped us pay off debts and save up for my husband’s graduate school expenses and hopefully, a house. Right now, though, we love living here with our family and love serving our neighbors together. We have one small child and one on the way, and hope that this will help model the command to “love your neighbor” to our sons. Many of the things you mentioned (a community garage sale, having dinner with neighbors) are things that you can do as part of CARES. Right now the program is limited to 9 major cities, but check the list on the website because they are always trying to add more.
Oh, and I second the ideas about investing in bookshelves and dressers! It helps SO much with storage, especially with kids! (Just make sure they are anchored to the wall!)
Vacuum seal bags are VERY handy as well! Walgreens was very nice to help me organize some items for free with these last month.
Please be careful using bay leaves around the house. They are very sturdy leaves and have sharp edges. If an animal or child accidentally swallowed one, it could do some serious damage to their esophagus. (Always remove it from your soups and stews after cooking and before serving for this same reason 🙂
I also live in a 2nd floor apartment. We rarely turn the heat on in the winter. It’s all electric, and our power bill is always 20 to 30 dollars more in the summer because of the AC. However, in the winter, we often have to open our patio door because our neighbors are trying to bake us out.
I look forward to the day we can finally buy our first home. So we can properly stockpile!!! DH has noticed that I am bringing home more and more every week, but our grocery bill is getting less. We are quickly running out of room.
Today at Lowes, I bought a Rubbermaid over the door pantry unit, that was on clearance for $8.74! Regular price was $32.99. I also bought a wrap/bag organizer for $8.99 (also on clearance, but it was only half off). Much better made then the one’s Target and Walmart sell.
have kids share rooms, it can be done and they make so many more memories that way!
I definitely know the frustrations of living in a small apartment. There are 3 of us and it feels as though we can’t fit here much longer. This has led us to be VERY creative when it comes to finding space. I would suggest being very organized. When things are organized it looks like less of a mess! Everything needs to have a place and be put back into that place continually. It helps if you and your husband can be on the same page about it too!
I’m with you, Amy! I have yet to understand the need for a gigantic, bigger-than-my house master bedroom. 🙂
We lived in 3 different apts.the first 4 years we were married. The thing I liked best was that I could have the entire thing completely spotless in one afternoon. Now that I have a small home and 3 kids, that’s something I can only dream of…as soon as I’ve cleaned up one mess, they’ve made another. I’ve long since given up! lol
Make it a sanctuary!!
My husband and I spent only our first year of marriage in a one-bedroom apartment, but I really liked it. I decorated with curtains (tension rods) and wall hangings and we only had two closets to store things in. When we moved to our first house, I was dismayed to see how much more quickly we accumulated STUFF just because we had the room.
So with our current house we purposely bought small – and old (so now we only have two closets again!). I really like having to keep our stuff to a minimum in a smaller space. Who really needs a 15×20 master bedroom anyway?
Living in a small apartment, we would have dinner once a week at different neighbor’s apartments. We would each bring a quick dish. It was lots of fun and saved money!
We invested in some bed lifters. They are small, usually black, little block looking things that you put on each leg of the bed to add a couple of inches under your bed. You can also just find some cinder bricks and those work just as good, although I don’t know where to get them. This helps us alot to have more storage space. We put alot of our kids clothes that aren’t the right season or that they have grown out of under their beds in sliding tupperware containers and we have been putting some of our food storage that is in #10 cans under our bed. You would be very surprised at how much more space you will have from just lifting your bed a couple of inches.
I absolutely love living in an apartment and this was a great post! I’m happy that I’m already doing most of the tips, but will look into the other ones. Living in an apartment does have a few disadvantages (hearing the people above you walk around), but it does help one live simply as there’s physically less space to fill. Thanks for the great post!
I really enjoy living in an apartment. It helps us decide what we really want and what is a want. It keeps us from accumulating “junk” and things “just in case.” I don’t buy in bulk but I think that is better than our family, plus, we do not have space for it.
My craft stuff, for instance… this is something where I can easily have a ton of gadgets, but since my “craft room” is also our laundry room (which is only about 7 feet by 3 feet), it keeps my stuff to a minimum.
Heating and cooling will be less simply because you don’t have as much space to heat… and there is rarely “wasted” space that isn’t being used (basement, etc.) Unfortunately, unlike Tosha, it doesn’t seem like we get a lot of heat from our neighbors. I think we’ve always been on the end or have had well insulated apartments (think cinderblock!)
The only downside I can think of for us is no backyard. It would be nice to have a closed in place to play, plus not having to lug two small kiddos down to the stroller which is stored in the car. 🙂
The last apartment we lived in had a second bath (just a half bath – no shower). Since it’s just myself and my husband, having a second bathroom was of little importance or necessity. So, we turned it into a giant closet. It was a great place to tuck the cats’ litter box – out of sight, and out of smell. Since no one would be using the toilet in there, we hung shelves on the walls above and around the toilet. These shelves, combined with the vanity and the medicine cabinet in the bathroom already, were a great added source of storage.
A tip for small spaces with kids: Rotate those toys in and out! I hardly ever buy toys for the kids but of course the grandparents keep ’em coming. So my only option is to have just a fraction of their collection out and the rest of it stored away at any given time.
I have lived in an apartment for 8 years. Although part of me REALLY wants a house, I know that God is allowing us to save a ton of money for a down payment by staying where we are. We use every possible inch of space. It has helped us to have a lot of bookshelves and dressers. We have a dresser in each closet and one in the spare bedroom for all my photos and scrapbooking supplies. We also don’t have children right now and are able to use the spare bedroom as an office, scrapbook room, and bedroom all at once. Our cabinet space is very limited so we bought a huge wardrobe and have used it as our food pantry. The wardrobe was on clearance because one of the doors didn’t close properly. A quick fix for dear hubby and we had an amazing food storage closet.
I just wanted to add that if you live on the second or third floor of the apartment you will most likely save on your heating bill too, since heat rises! We lived on the middle floor for 3 years and in that time only turned the heat on a dozen times. We stayed toastier than we have living in a house with the heat on. I preferred to leave the heat off anyway because it was baseboard heat and those get hot! I didn’t want the baby to touch them and burn herself.