What I Learned In My First Two Years Of Renting An Apartment

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Well, I had hoped this day would come and it could not have come sooner, Belles & Beaux.

I have moved out of my crappy tiny 715 square feet apartment into a much larger space where we are all going to be very excited because Miss Katherine will be joining me in October. This means more kitty content on her Instagram as well as more pet parent content! Goals, y’all, goals!

But the point is, that I have a lot of advice to unload on you and I highly recommend that you read every word and take it to heart. I really wish I had had someone that lived on their own that knew all these things to teach me. Because I will tell you this much, I would have held out for a bigger place so I wasn’t having to move after two years.

So my complaints about my current place from largest to smallest are as follows:

Tiny space – I was in 715 square feet
No Storage Space – this goes along with number one but is its own issue. The storage closet that came with my apartment wasn’t big enough to fit any of my holiday stuff.
Crappy Tub – And this is not just the fact that it’s not big enough to really soak in. It’s because despite my keeping my hairballs out of my drain and using drain cleaner regularly water pools nearly up to my ankles in the shower when I’m washing my hair. And in deep contrast, the tub won’t hold water well.
Crappy Appliances – When I first moved in there was an issue with the garbage disposal. I listed this as an issue when I first moved in and it took them over a year to fix. The oven heating elements on my stove are not level. Oh the oven is level – I’ve checked! – but the heating elements themselves are not level. And don’t get me started on the water heater making weird noises when the water runs some times. Don’t even get me started on the fridge. My water freezes inside of my Brita Pitcher in the fridge part and I don’t understand why. Also, it’s not one of those two door fridges where you have a knob that controls the freezer and one that controls the fridge portion. One knob controls the whole temperature of the fridge.
Power Outlets – I found out after I had started moving in that a handful of my outlets either didn’t work or the spot where the plug goes in is really loose. It’s not because of the plug, trust me.
AC – Oh let’s not go here. I was at my first apartment for two summers and I didn’t have a problem with my AC until the summer of 2020. It finally gave me issues this past summer. According to the gentleman from the maintenance team, the compressor had gotten frozen up. I also learned that the units themselves haven’t basically had any update to them and they’re old. So, where’s the logic here?

So of course, I’ve mentioned the things multiple times when I’ve gone into the office and asked them to fix these. Now granted, they did finally fix the garbage disposal and the AC was a recent development in the heat of summer that they did come immediately fix on a Sunday. That’s the only things that ever got fixed in my apartment as far the whole time I’ve been here. I even went into the office and told them pre-Covid that all this mess with the tub needed to be fixed and nothing has been done. I don’t even know if they ever came and looked at it of course because I was always in the office at the time.

Of course there are also many other things that I don’t like about the location of my apartment in the complex. I am right near the highway so I hear traffic driving by all day and all night. It’s not the worse, but it sucks when you’re trying to work from home right now with Covid going on and not being able to hear people when they call you to ask questions about things for your job.

Bright Side

The new place is 1,000 square feet with a second bedroom which will become my office/guest room with a twin bed in it. I also finally get to have a porch area that I can actually use. I will also finally have space that I can properly cook in my kitchen.

Downside

Moving has been the largest pain of this whole ordeal. Between my slow packing because I was trying to not have to eat out and cost me more money in the long run, and then everything getting packed anyways? Yeah, it’s been rough. I also had what I’m pretty sure was a gallbladder attack due to all the junk I’ve been eating. So it really wore me out and I couldn’t do much past that until I got to the weekend.

And although I had some awesome help, I think I would have been happier with a moving company and doing it all in one day instead because the slow move has not been all that fun. The next time is definitely a little ways off because I absolutely love my new apartment. Even my plants are happy in the office with me when I’m doing my 9-5 hustle. The one on the left is actually meant to be a black color and is an Aeonium.

Overall

If you’re moving into an apartment complex, make sure you are doing you due diligence on where you’re moving. I probably should have read some more reviews on the place. In all I did enjoy my first two years of renting there, but I really needed more space but at the time I couldn’t afford more space. So now that I’m in a bigger space I’m trying to figure out how I fit all this stuff in such a small place.

I’m sorry I’ve been MIA, y’all, but things are going well with the rebranding and I’ll be back soon!

Light & Love,