Written by Sastha Palaniappan

CONVERT YOUR NEW APARTMENT INTO YOUR HOME AWAY FROM HOME!

Furnishing an apartment is a nice experience. From minimalists to self-indulgent students, furnishing your place to your own needs (free choice) is wonderful! I personally prefer to furnish my place that resembles/reminds me of my home or hometown. In case you plan to hang family photos on the wall, it is better to clear with your leasing office or landlord. It doesn’t hurt to recreate a glimpse of your home 🙂

One tough decision to take in the beginning is to differentiate your needs and wishes strictly. Money may be a bit tight but necessity exists. A well functional workplace at home is ideal. As I minimalist, I stuck to bare-minimum assets and spent hours at the Library. I ended up buying stuff one-by-one as needed. If you are a night owl like me (or) a person who likes to work on weekends, you may need to have a proper workspace at home as libraries and other public study areas are closed. While sharing an apartment, it is better to buy your own stuff than sharing. It helps in packing while moving out (after graduation). 

Workplace

If you prefer larger tables, go for them! Don’t regret later with a small surface table. Other essential add-ons would be an extra monitor (Note: buying a desktop is not advisable), wireless mouse and keyboard. It makes sense to use cloud services for resource heavy processes than using a desktop. Any decent computer swivel chair would do. Photo below is my roommate’s workstation. (really large table!)

You may either go for floor lamp or desk lamp (I prefer the first). Additional add-ons may be a pen stand and a cable organizer box (In case you use a lot of cables). I prefer smaller and brighter table surface as shown below. 

Bedding 

Moving on to bedding, choose the memory foam mattress against the spring mattress. Spend extra bucks to get the comfort of memory foam (unless you prefer a hard surface – spring) to avoid unnecessary back pains. If you are used to cot at home, better get one, good for your backbone. In case you don’t want to spend money on bed frames (wood or aluminum), you can also try out bed risers for a little elevation. I got a really tall bed frame (17″ while 14″ is the norm). 

I strongly recommend waterproof “bed cover” add-on if you are a person who likes to eat food on the bed. It is easier to just wash bed sheet rather worry about stain over the bed. It is good to have a decent comforter for the winter. 

Living Room

Choose furniture that are multi-functional. Sleeper/Futons, foldable or stackable chairs are excellent choices.  Dining table depends on your usage and budget. Most of the outdoor stuff can be used for internal use while outdoor furniture tend to be less expensive. 

Other Essentials

You may need to buy hangers for clothes, drawers, laundry bags, extension cords (and adapters in case you need them to use different pin chargers from your home country). Vacuum cleaner, electric rice cookers are additional add-on that may be bought as required. Storage bins, baskets and trash cans can be purchased at target during sales.

Where to Buy Stuff ?

A wide variety of options are available. The most practical way is to get stuff from immediate seniors who are moving out after graduation. Since most of them move far distances, they tend to sell off their stuff (usually in good condition, sometimes like-new). There are several other mobile apps like “offerUp”, “letgo” and websites like craigslist to buy used furniture. Loyal yard sales and dumpster diving may help a bit as some stuff left behind are perfectly usable. Be careful while buying used stuff, some (heavily damaged) are worth only for recycling. Make sure the new furniture you bring inside doesn’t come with termites as extra package. Termites may cause a big problem as apartments are made up of wood. 

Ikea is one of the best affordable options in new furniture category. Good thing about Ikea is that you can build your own type of table by selecting each part/module individually. For example, a table with 4 legs (or) table with 2 legs and one cup-board as base. In case you are looking for sophisticated furniture, try showrooms like office depot (unlikely case for students).

Have Fun!

It is a good experience to decide on things you really need and furnish your place according to your whims 🙂 Hope your transition to your new apartment goes smooth and memorable!

Reference: https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-finish-off-campus-apartment-1391210