Home Sweet Home: Five Steps to Making your tiny studio Feel Like HOME

As a recent graduate student, living quarters can get cramped—especially if you rent a studio. The luxury of living alone comes with a price—and not just monetarily speaking. Below are 5 ways you can be sure to make your studio feel spacious:

1) Stay Organzied. At all costs. As a graduate student, living in a studio, you may find it difficult to know where to put things without going out and buying more furniture and more clutter. Living in a studio, limits your options. Try getting a space saver or utilize the home and appliance sections of target or walmart for cheap and simple organization aids.

2) Use a Twin size bed. We all want to be well-rested and grad school living does not offer us much time for sleep or relaxation. Make sure you sleep eficiently, soundly. For the bargain hunter, try craigslist in your city. Or find a local mattress store that offers delivery at a low cost. Consider renting a Uhaul to cut the cost of delivery.

3) Rise that twin bed. Putting your twin bed on risers not only creates more space for space savers, bins, etc—but it also helps create the illusion of space. Be sure to use safety precautions when using your bed risers.

4) Bright Colors. Using bright colors enlarges a room—try it and you’ll see the benefits! Need help choosing colors? Of course, choosing the colors might just be the hardest part. Visit your local hardware stores for great color ideas and samples.

5) Cleanliness. We all know how hard it is to stay clean and organized—especially if you’re in a tight space! But once we have an organized way of living, cleanliness is just a hop, skip and a jump away. Remember what our parents used to make us do—put our dirty laundry in the laundry basket, wash our dishes after eating and emptying out the trash (among many other chores!) Let’s remember what they taught us next time we come into our small space—grad student living in its truest form!

Relocating. Warning: Hazards Ahead

One of the most stressful aspects of relocating for graduate school is finding an apartment you are willing to call home for at least a year. The easiest way to find an apartment that meets both your criteria and budget is to use a realtor.

Unfortunately, realtors make money when you rent an apartment through them, so they may stretch some truths about the apartment, the neighborhood, or even your landlord, in order to get you to go through with the transaction.

For example, I asked my realtor the ages of the people who lived in the building I was looking at. Her response: graduate students and young professionals. That statement was false. I ended up sharing a building with loud, rowdy undergraduates. And loud, squeaky mice. You’re a graduate student, you’ve dealt with undergrad housing for at least four years – you now deserve to live in a decent place. This also means a place with relative quiet since you’ll be doing epic amounts of school work.

One way to avoid the particular predicament of mice is to ask the current residents about the insect/rodent situation when you visit the apartment. They aren’t getting paid to rent out the apartment, so they’ll tell you the truth. Unless they’re undergraduates – then I make no promises.

Another issue to keep in mind when looking for an apartment: floor level. As in, you do not want a ground-level apartment. Ground level means more bugs, more rodents, and more noise. It also increases your chance for a break-in. I don’t mean to scare you with all the negative aspects of relocating, I just want you to be prepared for what you are about to encounter. If only I had read a blog like this a year ago. Sigh.

At some point you’ll have to trust your realtor, but go with your gut. If the realtor is rushing you through the various apartments you are visiting, ask to slow down. You want to get a feel for each place and taking some time in each one is the only way to do it. This should be about finding your perfect apartment, not about your realtor making a commission.

Bobbleheads and Bunnies: How to survive a marathon day of apartment hunting

My initial apartment-hunting trip for an out-of-state grad school was… an interesting experience.

The first apartment broker we visited resembled a bobblehead doll and quickly earned the nickname “Babbling Bobby.” He talked nonstop about everything except the apartments: his love of Snapple and the great deals you can get when you buy it in bulk, the conspiracy with the French advertising company that just landed a contract with the city, and how no comedian will ever be as funny as Bob Hope.

We left him with his pleather couch and case of Snapple and moved on to a potential landlady who gave us the wrong directions, reeked of beer, and showed us an apartment that had a live rabbit in the bathtub—the bunny was not included in the rent.

Our third and final stop also had evidence of rodents, but not the cute and fuzzy kind. The landlord tried to maneuver an empty pizza box to cover the…leavings, but we were already on our way out the door.

Eventually, I managed to find a studio apartment that I’m happy with, but like many things in grad school all you can do with such a stupefying situation is to take your lumps, learn what you can, and pass along any warnings or advice to others.

My six hard-learned tips on surviving apartment hunting:

1. Plan ahead, but be flexible. Organize several appointments for the day, but allow time to get lost, sidetracked, or simply to take a break. Make sure you have all the necessary phone numbers and addresses easily at hand, so you can let your appointments know if your plans have changed or if you need more specific directions.

2. Endurance is key. Take some water and snacks with you and wear comfortable shoes. If your stomach is growling and your feet are aching, you’re less likely to give an apartment a thorough examination.

3. Take pictures. If you have to decide between two or more different places, having photos of the apartment, building, and neighborhood can definitely come in handy. You may even notice things in the pictures that you overlooked in person.

4. Use public transportation. Even if you have a car for your apartment-hunting trip, park it and use the same public transportation you would if you lived in the city. This will give you a better idea of how long your commute will take, and what kinds of sacrifices you’re willing to make in terms of location. (Alternatively, if you plan on using a car in the city, use it for apartment hunting as well; this will let you know what kind of traffic and parking issues you may encounter in the future.)

5. Bring a buddy. Having a trusted companion for this trying day is very helpful. It can give you another perspective on each apartment, make you more comfortable when dealing with landlords and brokers, or provide you with a little more safety when traveling to new places. Just make sure your buddy can keep up and has a positive, supportive attitude.

6. Keep your sense of humor! You’re guaranteed to run into some interesting people and situations, but that’s part of experiencing a large city. If you can’t handle one day of craziness without being able to laugh about it, you may have bigger problems relocating than finding the perfect apartment.

For more information on finding the right neighborhood for you, check out Mimi’s Reloca-Phobia: A 6-Step Cure-All Guide for Finding Your New Neighborhood.