4 Skills You Should Develop When You Rent Your First Apartment

The first apartment you rent should be a happy place for you to be in, but it will more than likely show you how different living on your own can be. You can’t compare living at home with your parents or living in campus housing to living in your own apartment.

When you're in a regular rental, you're responsible for more than you were in a dorm with a cafeteria or at home with family. If you're just starting out, it can be quite a learning curve, and that's OK.

A few simple skills help make your life in your new apartment a lot easier and happier. Don't worry if you've never considered these or if your friends all seem to know them already and you don't. Everyone goes through this learning period when they first move out. Read below to see some things you can learn.

Chances are you already know that leaving nail holes in the wall doesn't look nice. And if you're sensible, you will want to avoid any purposeful damage to your rental property. But you also need to know how to prevent subtle damage that can happen without you realizing it.

For example, if you need to use a wrench to remove something like a showerhead — say, you've decided to put a handheld showerhead on the pipe from the shower wall in your bathroom — you should place a tissue, paper towel, or soft cloth around whatever the wrench will touch. This prevents pits from the compression of the wrench's jaws and stops scratches in case the item is so tight that the wrench slips a bit.

You should also become acquainted with all the things removable hooks can be used for. Some brands offer devices now that use adhesives that do not damage walls, and they come in sizes that are large enough to use for hanging curtain rods. You can even find some that you can use for hanging pictures if you're staying somewhere temporarily and don't want to add even small holes to the wall.

No matter where you live, drain clogs and slow drains will be a recurring issue. Your task is to make them recur as infrequently as possible, which means knowing how to prevent clogs and not just clear them.

For open drains, such as those in kitchen sinks (these are ones that don't have stoppers sitting above the drain opening), use metal mesh nets. These come in different sizes and will stop small things like seeds and rice grains that could jam up a garbage disposal. If your bathroom sink has an open drain, get a small net for that to catch hairs.

Learn what you can and can't put into a garbage disposal, too. You need to know that your disposal has certain things it can handle and certain things that it can’t.

Your budget will dictate a lot of what you eat, but even if you're stuck in the realm of instant-ramen, you need to know how to balance that starch and fat out by adding vegetables and protein. Meal planning helps tremendously, and you should look up different resources online to help you plan out your meals in a health-conscious, budget-friendly way.

Finally, when you're on your own away from parents or the study-heavy environment of a dorm, procrastination can set in. If you already procrastinate, this habit can get worse when you move into your own place.

Try to set routines and think about the consequences and benefits of getting stuff done now. You need to keep your apartment clean because a mess can have negative psychological effects.

Whether you're getting your very first apartment or living without roommates for the first time, you'll have an adjustment period. Living at Meadowdale Apartments can make that transition easier.