Essentials For Your First Apartment

The first time that you get a place of your own is exciting and scary at the same time. Whoever you were living with before are obviously not going to be there to help you anymore. If you hear a bump in the night, either you check it out yourself, or you sit in the dark all night worrying about what it may have been. When you step out in the big wide world for the first time, you also have to support yourself financially. No one will help you cover the rent or pay any of your bills and no one is going to have cooked something for you when you get home from work. So it’s important to rent an apartment that feels like home such as apartments for rent in Providence, RI.

It can be lonely sometimes, but it is also liberating. The whole place is yours, and while you may now have lots of responsibilities, you also get to enjoy the absolute freedom of being able to make all your own choices. You can decorate the place in the exact way that you like it, and no one can tell you any different. You can stay up as long as you want and play the music as loud as you can until the neighbors call the police. You can have your friends over any time as well so you may want to brush up on your dinner party skills in preparation.

One of the difficult things about getting your own place though is setting everything up. If you are renting, your room or apartment may be furnished, in which case you do not need to worry quite as much. However, if you have bought a place of your own, its emptiness can be intimidating in its own way. Just as when you were at school or college, and you were faced with a blank page (or more likely a blank computer screen with its cursor blinking, almost mocking you for not being able to produce any words), a blank apartment presents itself as in much the same way. It is challenging you to fill it with the right things. One tempting but ultimately foolish thing to do is overreact and decide that your only recourse is to fill it as quickly as possible. This is a rookie mistake. There are lots of things in your home that you will be using for a long time to come and picking the perfect ones for you is crucial.

In the case of your bed, the one you choose is literally the one that you’ll make and that you’ll have to sleep in; choosing the right bed itself is the first step. Something simple will never go out of fashion but the problem then becomes, with you seeing it all the time (and spending a third of your life in it), you may get bored. Also, if you like to redecorate often, it is quite easy to refresh your room with a new lick of paint but it is rather too expensive to buy a new bed every time too. Getting the balance right between style and timelessness is tricky but thinking carefully about it will help you make the right decision. Now, to perhaps the most important aspect your home: your mattress. Choosing the wrong one can lead to or can worsen back pain. Knowing which to choose depends to a great degree on how much you know about yourself. How do you sleep, for instance? On your side, your front, or your back? Many people who suffer with back pain tend to sleep on their front because their mattress is ill-suited to them and it is exacerbating their discomfort. Something else to think about is how hard or soft you’d like your mattress to be. The old adage that a hard mattress is best for you is actually not always the case. It may be good if you are ascetic and you’re hoping to be recognised as a saint one day, but otherwise, it is just unnecessarily punishing. On the other hand though, a soft mattress can sometimes not offer enough support. To find out what is right for you, speak to your doctor about the best options.

Once you’ve found out, you may want to look into which particular models would suit your needs. Saatva mattresses, for instance, are available in a range of options. If you have a small place and are worried about getting it into your apartment, you need not worry since the larger mattresses come in two parts that piece together. You can not feel the split when you lie down though, which is fortunate. You may have heard complaints about Saatva but you can try them out for seventy five nights and then decide. If you aren’t satisfied, just send it back. However, if you want to go for something a bit different, there are also options like airbeds and waterbeds. You may think that they are something that were only really around in the 1970s, but you’d be wrong. You can still get them today and they are surprisingly comfortable, once you get used to the sound of the water moving beneath you anyway.

Another important aspect of your house that you’ll now need to take care of yourself is the kitchen. If you are buying a newly built house or apartment, the chances are good that it will come with a pre-fitted kitchen that has all the mod cons. There are still lots of things that you have to include yourself though, such as a coffee machine if you have one, or appliances like a blender or a toaster. If you are buying an older place, the kitchen might be a nightmare. Since kitchens are quite difficult to refurbish, it is not done all that often. The outdated fashion of a kitchen is obvious as soon as you see it. While you may think that the kitchen is all about utility and how it looks is not that important as long as the food tastes good, you are correct of course. However, part of having your own place is creating a style and an atmosphere that reflects your personality. Each room should complement the others and if your bedroom or your living room is beautiful, an old, faded kitchen will ruin that. Getting your kitchen to reflect who you are is easy in a way because it will happen as you live in it over time. If you are a bit messy when you cook and you leave everything all over the place, then perhaps a cosy, cluttered space is best for you. Other people may find comfort in the austere, sharp lines of an ultra modern design. Both are good in their own ways but leaving your kitchen as you found it is not an option. Even if you can’t afford to completely tear it out and replace it, you can at least make it your own by freshening it with flowers and bringing in all your cookbooks.

As children, everyone’s bedrooms are rather hectic spaces that include everything that that person was interested from their earliest years to just before they moved out. They are full of old stuff that is rather neglected now and posters on the wall that may seem rather embarrassing. However, you will soon find that as you move into your new place and begin to live in it, that your tastes and interests will begin to assert themselves. This is good but you do not want it to be overwhelming. Whatever your passion is, whether it’s books or movies, or something completely different, you should make sure that you set aside a space for them so that they can be organised. Talking of books, Marcus Tullius Cicero said that ‘a room without books is like a body without a soul’. Sharing these sorts of things, that you love, with your guests is a great thing about entertaining. This usually mean building storage spaces, or bookcases. Before you start just bringing everything in and finding it just lying around, you should spend some time planning everything out so that it is, at the same time, welcoming but also a haven where you can relax when you get back from work.

Finally, since this is the 21st century, you should look into getting a good sound system. This can be tricky since each system needs to be specific to the rooms that it is in. You may have the most expensive state of the art equipment but if you do not spend time planning exactly where it would be most effective, it could easily be a waste of money. While thinking about your sound system, you should think about where you want your television. Its place in your apartment should obviously reflect its place in your life. If you do not watch it that much, then perhaps get a small one for your bedroom. If you cannot take your eyes from it, you should organise your entire living room around it.

While creating your own space can be daunting at first, it is worth taking it slow and thinking carefully about all of your decisions. Changing them may be tougher than you think in the future.

Samantha

Samantha hails from Virginia and is a proud wife to a retired Deputy Sheriff and mother to two amazing little boys named Jack & William. A veteran product reviewer; Samantha has been reviewing products for 8 years and offers high quality product reviews with original photography.