My first apartment

“I hope I don’t regret signing this lease”

It’s a crazy step toward adulthood when you sign the lease of your first apartment.

I searched for the right apartment for about 2 or 3 weeks until finally I chose the one that best fit my needs. First, I researched what city I would want to live in. Then I Googled apartment complexes in that area and read online reviews of them. If I lived in New York City, I would have used an online resource like Compass because then I could see picture of what the apartment looked like and read in-depth about the neighborhood where it was located. Everything I could to know is on one webpage, which would make it very easy. I scheduled tours for the ones I was most interested in.
I kept detailed notes and took pictures when I toured each apartment. Taking pictures and taking home a floor plan brochure really helped. I could have kept track of my favorite apartments and neighborhoods on Compass’s mobile app. Sometimes I felt like it was me vs. them on my search for the perfect apartment and I think it would’ve been great to have had a website on my side and aiding me in my search every step of the way. I look forward to Compass expanding out to Ohio.

The last step in my apartment search was showing my parents the top 3 apartments I liked. I really value their opinions and I wanted them to notice things I may not have thought of before.

I moved into my apartment August 9 and that was such a crazy day. It was a lot of assembling furniture from IKEA, figuring out which drawer will be the silverware drawer and learning the key code to use the front gate.

Before

After

So far, I’ve really loved my apartment and am very happy with my choice. I was scared that I’d have loud neighbors like I did in college, but my neighbors are very quiet and friendly. In fact, everyone I’ve met is friendly. I love that I live so close to the leasing office because they have free Starbucks coffee in there, a fitness center, magazines, movies, newspapers, and sometimes free cookies.

The challenges I’ve had so far mostly relate to just being on my own. I found a stink bug in my bathroom and I screamed like I was in a horror movie. I wanted to call my dad and make him come over to kill it. Instead, I closed my eyes, wrapped some tissues around a pair of tongs and drowned the stink bug in my sink. Probably not he best way to kill it but oh well. It was that terrifying experience that caused me to both buy bug killing spray at 1am and Google “how to kill a stink bug” only to realize that bug killing spray doesn’t really work on them.

I’ve also struggled with minor things like getting my ice maker in the freezer to work or having heat come on. All I had to do was schedule maintenance and some guys would come in while I was at work and leave me a note saying they fixed it.

One of my favorite things about my apartment is that I live alone. I’m not lonely because of Facebook and hanging out with friends from the church I joined. It’s great that I get to do whatever I want when I get home. If I feel like tying a towel around my neck to pretend I’m a laundry superhero, then I can just go for it. No one will tell me not to.

I love my apartment and I wish I could spend more time there but I guess I need to go to work so that way I can afford it.

Laundry-Girl Superhero!