Tips for Having a Green Apartment

Green apartment dwellers make better neighbors. Why such a bold statement? Frankly, it’s because it’s true. When you live in a green apartment, you are helping to make the world a better place for you and all of your neighbors. So in order to assist you in becoming a better neighbor, the following are some tips on how to have a green apartment.

Green Apartment Tip Number One

One of the easiest ways to move your apartment in the green direction is to simply turn down your thermostat. By lowering your thermostat one degree in the winter and raising it one degree in the winter, you can reduce your energy costs by almost five percent.

Green Apartment Tip Number Two

Switching out your apartment supplied showerhead with a low-flow showerhead is one of the most effective ways to conserve water in your apartment. They are inexpensive and take seconds to install and are likely to reduce your water consumption by 50%. Also, make sure you are using “green appliances” that have an energy star rating.

Green Apartment Tip Number Three

Replacing your light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs is a great way to turn your apartment into a green apartment. Changing out just five of your bulbs could reduce your yearly electric bill by $100 and they will help remove greenhouse gases from the air. Whoever thought that changing light bulbs could be so rewarding?

Green Apartment Tip Number Four

Recycle, recycle, recycle. This is always the quickest way to become a little greener. If you are unsure about whether or not your apartment complex has recycling, just ask your apartment manager. If they don’t, try working with the management office to start an apartment-wide recycling program.

Green Apartment Tip Number Five

Finally, make sure that your air conditioning filter is getting changed, and checked, as often as it needs to be. Energy Star, a joint program established by the Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Department of Energy, recommends checking the filter monthly and having them changed at least every three months. If you haven’t seen your maintenance man in a while, you might want to give your leasing agent a friendly reminder.

Busy, on the go entrepreneur and venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki knows what busy, on the go people need. That’s why he and the folks over at Nononina have created Alltop.com, which is the perfect site for busy, on the go apartment dwellers. Alltop is an information aggregator. That is, Alltop is a website that collects top stories from all over the web and groups them based on topic.

News You Can Use

Alltop can make your life easier. For instance, if you want a quick fix of environmental news, you simply visit green.alltop.com. There you have all the top environmental news stories collected for you in one place. It’s sort of like an online magazine rack where you can quickly scan all the top headlines and decide what you want to read.

All the Top Information for Your Life

Naturally, at ApartmentSearch.com we are interested in news that make apartment life easier. Therefore, our favorite section of Alltop is lifehacks.alltop.com. Lifehacks features great news, articles and tips to make your life easier. A quick scan shows stories about everything from time management and improving your relationships to guitar hero tips. If you want to figure out how to save money, repair a sink and find an apartment fast, there is no better place to start than Alltop!

Spring Cleaning Your Apartment: It’s That Time of Year Again

Spring is the time of year when everything is turning green, the flowers are blooming and the space under your couch is full of dust bunnies – time to spring clean your apartment.

To Toss or Not To Toss

The first step in spring cleaning your apartment is to go through all of your belongings, almost as if you are planning on moving. Decide what to keep, what to sell at a yard sale or what to donate to charity. Clothes are the easiest to go through. The general rule of thumb is that if you haven’t worn it for at least two seasons, than it is time to get rid of it. As far as everything else, if it isn’t replaceable (at least in your mind) and you haven’t used it for at least a couple of years, you might want to put it in the “get rid of box”.

To Clean or Not to Clean

Not that you have gone through your apartment and have relocated all the extra clutter to its new home, it is time to actually start cleaning. The easiest way to keep you organized and on task is to make a list of all the rooms in your home and then list all the chores that need to be done in each room. You might find that you don’t actually have as much to do as you thought.

It’s Not Just About Cleaning

Spring cleaning also means checking on the condition of various items found around your apartment. For instance, when was the last time you checked the batteries in your smoke detectors? How about the caulk around your tub? Wandering why bugs keep getting in? Maybe your screens are in poor condition. Go around and take a look at all of these different elements in your apartment and if you find anything that needs repairing or replacing, give your apartment manager a call.

Spring Clean Your Apartment and Enjoy the Spring

Now that all the cleaning is done and your life feels much more in order, reap the rewards of a clean apartment by stepping outside and enjoying the nice weather. Who knows, you might even meet a new neighbor or two!

Good Neighbors in Apartment Complexes Wanted

Whether you’re in an apartment complex in Gig Harbor, Washington or Moon, Pennsylvania, you may have noticed that a lot of us don’t even know who our apartment neighbors are. With the busy schedules most people have these days, developing good relations with your apartment neighbors requires some effort.

As an apartment dweller, you’d be smart to befriend your neighbors. Not only is it just good karma to build your community and social networks, but there are plenty of advantages to becoming and cultivating good neighbors in apartment complexes.

Think about giving some of the following “Becoming a Good Apartment Neighbor” tips a try.

Introduce Yourself to Your Apartment Complex Neighbors

Whether you’ve just moved in or you’ve been living in the same apartment for years, it’s never too late to let your apartment complex neighbors know a little about yourself. Put on your best smile and a clean shirt and knock on a few doors nearest you. If you can’t find an apartment neighbor at home, consider leaving a note introducing yourself. If you notice a new neighbor moving in, go out of your way to welcome him, her, or them to the apartment complex community.

Try a little apartment complex neighborhood get-together or “community party.” Create some simple invitations by hand or on your computer for the apartment complex neighbors on your floor or in your building. Make some snacks or finger foods and mix in a few beverages. You’ll probably want to stick with light music and non-alcoholic beverages so that it’s family friendly and comfortable for all of your potential good neighbors. Don’t worry if your culinary skills don’t go beyond dialing for pizza delivery - just order a little party plate at your local supermarket’s deli counter. If you’re worried about things getting boring, try an icebreaker activity. You might also consider organizing a National Night Out event for your community.

Be Considerate to Your Apartment Neighbors

Noise is where relations between apartment complex neighbors often go awry. Even though you might be really into your tunes and want to share them with everybody, their musical preferences may be slightly or very different than your own. Your apartment complex neighbors could be working at home or studying, requiring a quiet atmosphere. Try to keep this in mind. If you’re not really sure how appropriate the volume is when you’re listening to music or watching cable television in your apartment, you can always ask your apartment complex neighbors. What’s appropriate for a college apartment complex may not be appropriate in the suburbs. If you have bare floors, try putting down area rugs to help absorb the noise for the apartment neighbors below you.

Be a Good Neighbor by Being Clean

Lastly, avoid decorating your apartment hallway with the cups, plates, food scraps, and other trash, where your good neighbors have to smell it, see it, and possibly trip over it. Take it out to the dumpster pronto. In general, keep all of your outside areas clean, including hallways, doorways, stairways, and balconies.

So don’t be shy. Go on out and be a good neighbor.

Noisy apartment neighbors aren’t easy to handle, but it won’t be a nightmare if you follow some simple Noisy Apartment Neighbor Tips.
There are some advantages to renting an apartment. When the kitchen sink is busted, you just call maintenance. When you need to take out the garbage, you just place it in the dumpster rather than hauling a heavy container streetside. But let’s face it, noisy apartment neighbors can make apartment living unbearable.

Noisy Neighbors: Start With the Gentle Approach

You’ve been in that situation before; the neighbors’ party upstairs is loud and thumping, with the vibrations radiating through your head at 3 a.m while you’ve got to be up at 6 for your daily commute. You’d like to take the not-so-gentle approach, but try to keep your cool and your calm about you.

Consider the fact that your noisy apartment neighbors might not realize just how loud their TV or music is, and how easily it carries through the wall, floor, or ceiling to your apartment. Or maybe your apartment hasn’t been rented in the last 3 months, and they didn’t realize there was a new occupant.

Noisy Neighbors: Communicate with Your Noisy Apartment Neighbors

You’re in apartment 3B, and your noisy neighbors in 3A are playing Merle Haggard at 100 decibels again. Try simply knocking on their door and saying with a smile, “Hi. I’m your neighbor over in 3B, and your music is REALLY noisy. I need to get up early in the morning for work. Do you think you could be a good neighbor and turn it down? I’d really appreciate it.”

Drop Your Noisy Apartment Neighbors a Line

If you’re nervous about approaching your noisy apartment neighbors directly, we can’t blame you. Try a nice little card or note later explaining the problem and asking them to not pump up the volume quite so loudly. Sometimes a pre-emptive kind deed or small gift with your note can do wonders.

Noisy Neighbors: Survive with Accessories

As a temporary or more long-term measure, earplugs can do wonders. Or plug yourself into your iPod and crank up those ocean waves. You might also try experimenting with decorating the wall facing the noisy apartment neighbors with sound-absorbing material. Egg-shaped Styrofoam works best. Get creative.

If Your Noisy Apartment Neighbors Aren’t Responding

Sometimes a struggle with noisy apartment neighbors requires more than just clear communication. Take your noisy apartment problem to your apartment management, discuss the problem and ask them what they can do. Most likely, they’ll approach your neighbor themselves at first in a reasonable manner, but they may have more influence.

Good luck resolving your noisy apartment neighbor dilemma!

What is Wind Power?

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form, such as electricity, using wind turbines. Wind energy is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, which is a much better option for the environment. Wind energy has quadrupled in the last seven years globally and is only growing.

What are the Benefits?

The main benefit to switching to wind power is the improvement to the environment. Wind power can displace power from fossil-fueled power plants and help to improve on greenhouse gas emissions that are hurting our environment. On average, the electricity generated in the U.S. results in the emission of 1,341 pounds of carbon dioxide. The electricity generated by U.S. wind farms represents about 6.7 million tons of avoided CO2 emissions. Even by switching only your electricity to wind powered, you are helping the environment.

How Can I Help?

Living in an apartment actually gives you a pretty good opportunity to do something good for the environment. Electricity doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg when you live in an apartment; therefore making the switch to wind powered electricity is totally affordable.

Where is Wind Energy Offered?

Many states offer wind energy. All you have to do is visit your local electric company’s website and see if they offer wind energy. You can also explore other companies in your area if your current electric company doesn’t offer it. Texas is the leading state in wind power, with 3.3% of all the state’s energy coming from wind power. Austin, TX leads the entire country in wind power. If you live in an area that offers wind powered energy, you should definitely look into it.

What is the Cost?

The average retail cost of electricity in Texas is 6.25 cents per kwh. Electricity from wind typically costs between 4 cents per kwh and 6 cents per kwh. According to a case study conducted by the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology (CREST), consumers in Texas will only see about a 75 cent increase on their monthly bill from using wind energy. The cost will depend on your area and electric company, but for the most part, an increase will not be significant considering the size of an apartment. This allows you to switch to wind power without hurting your wallet and sit back and enjoy your contribution to the environment!

Check with your local electric company to see if they offer wind energy in your city!

Organize Your Apartment: Get Rid of Stuff

If you’ve got a cluttered or messy apartment, your first problem may be that you’ve just got too much stuff. After your long search for an apartment, you don’t want to be buried in it by miscellaneous piles of papers and clothes that you know you’re never going to wear. Organize your apartment by clearing out the clutter!

Take a Trip to Charity or the Library

If you’re not using it, maybe someone else can. Load up those extra clothes and the furniture that doesn’t quite fit your new digs and drop it off at the local thrift store. Do the same with some of those books that you’ve already read and don’t want to give up, or those you’ve “been meaning to read.” You can always donate books to the local library, and if you ever really need to read them, you can simply borrow them. If you have less stuff, you are on the way to having an organized apartment.

Organize Your Apartment: Rent Storage

You’ve got to keep certain items where you can find them, but you don’t need to trip over them every time you get in the door. Documents proving what you claimed on your taxes, for example, should probably be kept around for 5 to 7 years. Why not rent a storage space to keep some of this out of your apartment complex and out of your way? If the tax man comes round, you can always go and retrieve it. Ask at your management office. Some complexes even offer additional storage right on site, so you don’t have far to go to organize your apartment.

Buy a Few Key Organizational Aids

You don’t need to clean out this whole section of the store. Take a look around your apartment and see what would benefit you most. For example, whether you take your shoes off at the door or pile them up in your closet, either way you’re likely to have a pile cluttering up your floor somewhere. Why not invest a small amount of cash into a shoe rack or shelves so you can stack them neatly and organize your apartment using vertical space?

If paper clutter is your enemy, try scanning documents into a computer and keeping electronic copies only, or investing in a file cabinet. Clearing out the paper piles will help you organize your apartment - and help your state of mind too!

Create Your Own System to Organize Your Apartment

Decide how you’re going to deal with things like mail every day, and find tools and systems that work for you to organize your apartment. Try immediately dealing with junk mail, and having a mini-filing system right at the door to separate bills and materials that you want to read later.

Good luck, and happy organizing!

Decorating Your Apartment: Add Some Color

Decorating your apartment with color? What? Color? Yep. Color adds mental stimulation, a mood, and variety. Just because most apartments have leases with restrictions on painting doesn’t mean you need to stare at 4 boring white walls every time you come home. Oh, and if you didn’t read part one of “Decorating Your Apartment“, you might want to go back and read that first.

Painting May Be Possible

First, ask your apartment manager about your options. Some will let you paint one accent wall if you promise to turn it back to white before you go. Then, get your mind out of the box, and think about how you might go about decorating your apartment with color while keeping management happy.

Alternatives to Painting Your Apartment

If you can’t paint in your apartment, try decorating your apartment by using supersize canvas from your local art supply or craft store. Or hit the lumber yard and get thin sheets of plywood. Instead of painting the wall, you paint the wood, then attach it or lean it against the wall. There’s also fabric. You might choose a flat piece of fabric in a color that goes along with your theme for that space. Or experiment with decorating your apartment using strips of fabric to create texture.

Remember to Not Damage Your Apartment

It’s important to remember to not damage your apartment or you could get hit with fees. You’ll want to use the smallest thing available to attach it to the wall. You might try thumb tacks. Visit your local hardware store and explain what you want to attach, and tell them you need to make the least noticeable mark on the wall possible. There are some great wall hooks made specifically for this purpose. Also, if you spot one of the maintenance crew at your apartment, ask them for suggestions. They’re usually the ones who have to do the clean up and patching, so they may be able to give you suggestions on decorating your apartment without causing.

Better yet, select a wall you want to accent, get a cheap tensioning curtain rod, and mount it against the opposing walls. From there you can hang drapes or curtains, giving the illusion that there is something behind there, and that you’ve actually got more space then you really do. If you take care, decorating your apartment with this technique shouldn’t even leave a smudge on the wall when you’re ready to move out.

Choose Your Lighting Well When Decorating Your Apartment

While you can’t install your own lighting fixtures in the walls or ceilings of an apartment, there’s a lot you can do if you go out shopping for lamps to fit your functional or theme space needs. For example, a few small lamps in the corners of your bedroom installed with colored light bulbs can give it a romantic feel without the danger of candles. Or a lamp with multi settings and multiple bulbs in your dining area might be able to provide bright light for studying or doing your taxes on the table, or a calmer, background light while watching TV in the evening. Don’t forget the importance of lighting in decorating your apartment.

Shop for Furniture, Organizational Supplies, and Knick Knacks

Now that you’ve got your canvas ready with theme ideas, colors, and lighting, pick the big items to go along with the rest of your apartment personality. Start with just a few major items you need, like a bed and table, then slowly work your way up until you’re happy. Less is definitely more when it comes to decorating your apartment.

Now go get those creative juices flowing, and decorate your apartment!

Decorating Your Apartment Is Like Furnishing Your Life

Decorating your apartment should be something you look forward to. But that’s not true for everybody.

For some apartment dwellers, finding an apartment is the big challenge and decorating an apartment is an afterthought. Apartments become places where they just store stuff. They think of it as a temporary space, and figure that with the restrictions in their lease about painting the walls that they’re stuck with a generic white apartment treatment that looks like every other apartment on the floor.

With a little decorating creativity, though, you can make your apartment feel more like a real home that says something about your personality. Whether it’s candlelight and pastel-colored, fluffy pillows, or a display of your favorite team’ sports memorabilia, here’re some ideas to get your creative juices flowing and your apartment decorated in style.

Decorate Your Apartment in Themed Spaces

The important thing here is to brainstorm, and not worry too much about how you’re going to decorate. Just get your creative cap on, or invite your more creative friends over to brainstorm ideas and help you with decorating your apartment.

Mentally Divide Your Apartment

Even if it’s only a one bedroom apartment you’re living in, take a look around and mentally partition your apartment into some divisions around which you can create a few different decorating themes. Use the # of bedrooms + 3 rule. That is, you can usually choose a theme for each bedroom in the apartment, and create three other themed spaces. More themed spaces may create a busy, crowded feel; fewer themed spaces may give the impression that you stopped decorating your apartment halfway through.

For example, the best corner in the apartment could become a mini antique display, a spot to highlight family photos, or a morning meditation spot. By creating themed spaces, you’re taking a small, homogenous space and giving it variety. You’ll also make your small apartment feel bigger. That’s what decorating your apartment is all about.

Functional and Random Spaces in Your Apartment

Your themed spaces can be functional and random. For example one corner could be your dog’s, with his doggie bed and a few pictures of him on the wall above it, while the general living room area can evoke a relaxing, laid back feel, with a recliner as the main focus.

A Central Decorating Theme

Try making your apartment’s themed spaces revolve around a central theme. Your living room area could be decorated in a South American fiesta theme, with a large map of the continent on the wall, while your apartment’s bedroom can have an Asian theme, with bamboo pictures and thrift-store lacquer furniture. Use your own style and interests to define how you approach decorating your apartment.

Physically Decorate and Divvy Up Your Apartment’s Space

A divider can be a great way to decorate your themed space and give you even more of a feel that you’ve got more space than you do. These are a great cure for the layout of a studio apartment, which feels like (and is) one big room.

Here’s a creative alternative to the usual wooden dividers: head to your local crafts or sewing store, and ask them about large, folding table pads, used to protect tables from needles and to provide a work surface. You can throw a large sheet, blanket, or other cloth over them to create a different look, and nobody knows what’s under there. Not only might this save you money, but the foam type of material inside makes a great sound absorber, which is important in a small apartment. You never know when you’ll have trouble quieting noisy apartment neighbors, too.

Stay tuned! In our next blog, Decorating Your Apartment Part 2, we’ll give you some tips on how to add color to your apartment while keeping the apartment management happy.

Buying renters insurance is more urgent than you might assume. Think your landlord is responsible if the stuff in your apartment gets stolen or damaged? Think again. Their responsibility is only for the building itself, which you won’t matter much to you if your new laptop or flat screen TV gets stolen or trashed.
While most of us have drifted by in an apartment for awhile without buying renters insurance, it’s taking a big risk, and it simply doesn’t make any sense considering that a lot of renters insurance policies cost less per day than the price of a soda. Here’s a few tips on buying renters insurance.

1. Find a Reputable Insurance Company

You might ask for suggestions at your leasing office. Some management companies have made deals with companies to pre-approve all of their renters. If they haven’t done so, you might suggest they look into it. You can try one of the big insurance names, but you might also consider a company that helps you compare insurance quotes, or choose an insurance plan that has been developed specifically for apartment dwellers, like eRenterPlan.

2. Tally Up What You Need to Insure

Take a stroll around your apartment and make a spreadsheet of what you want or need to insure. Even better, get out your camera and take either still or video shots of some of your belongings. If anything should happen, this will come in very handy. On your spreadsheet, make the columns:

• item(s)
• date bought
• price paid
• current worth
• new cost today

Take your best guess and total the value of everything. This should give you a general idea of how much coverage you need when buying renters insurance.

Depending on the policy that you choose when buying renters insurance, the insurance company will either pay the original value of the item minus the cost of depreciation, or pay you what it will cost for you to buy it again new (called “replacement cost”). Naturally, an insurance policy that pays the depreciated value will probably cost less. However, replacement cost policies make it much easier to recover from a claim or catastrophe; you can simply stroll into a store and get new items to replace what you lost.

3. Compare Costs

Get a few quotes and compare the straight yearly cost of that insurance coverage. For example, a renters insurance policy covering up to $10,000 might be between $160-$250 per year. If one company’s quote is significantly higher or lower than the rest, try to figure out why before deciding whether it is a good bargain or a bad deal. There might be a good reason for either. If you can’t figure out the legalese, you may want to contact the company and ask them directly why their insurance policy is so much cheaper or more expensive before buying renters insurance.

4. Compare Insurance Coverage

Here’s where you make sure you’re looking at apples and apples. Make sure you understand what each renters insurance policy is covering, and if you don’t, ask. It’s a good way to test how easy to use their Websites are or how knowledgeable and friendly the customer service. Pay particular attention to answering these questions:

• How much does it cover? (10k, 20k, 30k?)
• Does it include liability insurance?

This is where the party guest who trips or the pizza delivery guy getting bit by your dog is covered. This might include damages as well as medical coverage.

• Is the depreciated value or the cost of buying the item new covered?

• Are “additional living expenses” included?

This will help you with the extra costs of relocating, finding temporary housing, etc.

• What type of damage does it cover?

Most renters insurance policies won’t cover flooding, but will cover water damage caused by leaks, a neighbor leaving their water running, and so on. Depending on what natural disasters are common to your area, you might want to check and see if certain specific mishaps are covered. For example, if you’re in the North, the weight of snow does sometimes cause roofs to collapse. If that happens to your house or apartment, you want that to be covered, and you should consider that when buying renters insurance.

Once you take into account the quality of the coverage with the price, you should be able to make a good decision when buying renters insurance. We hope you won’t ever need to use it, but if you do, we’re sure you’ll be very glad you bought renters insurance.