If all goes well I'll be moving out on my own for the first time this fall, so I've been trying to figure out worthwhile appliances and such to set my sights on. So far I've got:
- Rice cooker for easy cheap meals
- Cold brew maker (I do be drinking it almost daily)
- Sparkling water maker (any non-sodastream recommendations?)
Doesn't have to be kitchen stuff or even an appliance like the stuff above—anything helpful (and general advice) is good!
Buy a plunger before you need a plunger. Don't ask me how I know... :doomjak:
Also a toilet snake before you need a toilet snake. It will save you an expensive plumber visit. Just don't forget where you put it, because it's long and unwieldy.
A small toolkit that features things such as a claw hammer, philips and flathead screwdriver, an adjustable wrench, needle-nose pliers, regular pliers. A flashlight or two. Toilet brush, plunger.
If you're living on your own you may become used to strange smells so keep some kind of air freshener going and make sure to clean regularly. Get a general purpose floor cleaner, an all-purpose cleaner that's safe for the kitchen, toilet bowl cleaner, and something for your shower. scubbing bubbles shower foam works great you can just spray a coat, let it sit, then do another and wipe it down. also get a glass cleaner. that should cover cleaning 90% of your home without having to buy 500 things.
oven mitts/pot holders, a good dutch oven, a good deep pot, a good pan, a spatula, large spoon, whisk, chef's knife, a cutting board. that should carry you through most of cooking. don't forget a measuring cup and a cookie sheet.
go cheap on plates, forks, spoons, bowls, and cups. only get enough for yourself and a few people (guests). but don't dirty them all yourself. stick to using only what you need and wash them daily. it's a good habit to build.
blackout curtain for the bedroom. look into white noise or something to cover up noisy neighbors.
Cleaning supplies is great intel—I am not beating the nose-blindness allegations
Plants, fake or real, to add a bit of color/life to the place.
Also hang stuff on your walls, whether that's art, shelves, shelves for your plants. My wife and I have been in our apartment for 4 years and last year we went on an etsy art print spree and it's crazy how much hanging framed art makes the place feel more lived in.
Stuff on the walls and rugs can also help reduce echo I'm pretty sure, which also contributes to feeling like a real living space.
Real plants help air quality, help create productive habits, and boost a feeling of ownership in your space.
That communist party poster that probably a lot of people on this website had in their room as a teen/young adult
Plunger at every toilet, stored right next to the toilet
A fire extinguisher
Plenty of lamps, Phillips hue bulbs are fun to play with if you have the money for those things
Plenty of lamps, Phillips hue bulbs are fun to play with if you have the money for those things
Ikea's Tradfri line is a cheap-ish way to get into this. As a bonus, because both Hue and Tradfri devices use the Zigbee standard, you can use them both together (plus a lot of other brands) with Home Assistant and a USB Zigbee transceiver.
The best thing about this setup is that it doesn't require the internet for anything, just a LAN. The internet could vanish today, and if I had to set up my various Zigbee lights and controls tomorrow from scratch without internet access, I could do it easily. Home Assistant is a great way to de-cloud one's home tech.
This page seems like it has (very?) good stuff - Apartment Essentials: First Apartment Checklist
One reason I like that list because of this...
Cleaning supplies
Baking soda and white vinegar
Cheap and effective things should never be missing from a page that's supposedly useful. And at many sites - they will be missing.
This is a fantastic list, when I left for school I especially forgot to get basic medical stuff and household tools
Check for a fire extinguisher, if there isn't one buy one or ask your landlord for one.
A roll of good (i.e. not from the dollar store) duct tape.
There are very few problems it can permanently solve, but there are hundreds of problems it can temporarily solve.
Any good brand recs? I got "Duck Tape" recently and it has not been impressing me
Gorilla if you feel like treating yourself, otherwise 3M.
don't go too crazy with single-use appliances (like almost anything that ends in "maker") that you aren't going to use daily
you've gotta store all that stuff and someday you're gonna have to move it
Instead of rice cooker id recommend a combo instant pot air fryer.
I got one last year and have made a ton of meals in it. The rice it makes is solid.
Seconding this, the slow cooker function is great for starting a meal in the morning and having it ready when you get back from work.
How so? I got one a few months ago and it works great. Like, not fast enough?
Electric kettles in the US are fine. If it was speed that Americans cared about then they'd all be using induction burners by now to cook. Longer boiling times are not the only thing preventing high uptake. I'm a kettle user BTW.
I like having it next to my desk so I always have hot tea. Seemed easier than adding a stove to the bedroom lol.
If fast access to hot water is so important that American voltage becomes an issue, then maybe just splurge on a hot water dispenser.
Useless in the US because we just don't drink tea that much.
That's it. That's the whole reason. If you need hot water for instant coffee or something just use the microwave. It avoids taking up valuable counter space and won't become part of the waste stream when it breaks after a year.
Lots of good recommendations here. One thing that I can think of is once you have your apartment, think about what might make you more likely to do the things you know you should do. Like, in one of my first apartments, it still had the old tile that doesn't look shiny when you mop it unless you waxed it too. So I was less likely to wash it because it didn't really look like I did anything--it wasn't satisfying. So I bought some wax and started shining up my floor every time I washed it so it looked like I'd accomplished something and I ended up washing it more frequently. I had a tendency to lose my keys, so I got a little hook I put my my door that I could hang my keys on as soon as I walked in the door--no more lost keys. I am a forgetful person and would forget to buy things when they were getting low and then oh no, I'm out of soap/deodorant/shampoo/etc. So you don't want to go overboard and become a hoarder but 1 drawer of extras took a layer of stress off my life. When I run out of shampoo, I take the spare out of my extras drawer, then put the shampoo on my list to replenish. If I forget a couple times, it's OK, I've got a whole bottle to get through before I need another one. This also lets you buy with coupons because you're not forced to buy something right away because you're out of it. Automate as many bills as you can if you're a forgetful person. Also, it's a lot easier to live the "a place for everything and everything in its place" lifestyle if there really is a place for everything. Don't let things live on the floor; they will gain companions and before you know it, you've got a real mess on your hands. Everything needs a home. Just buying one more set of drawers changed my life, no joke. Clutter disappeared immediately and I found it much easier to maintain a level of neatness that is acceptable to me so I don't go through a cycle of clean->messy->oh no so messy->oh no totally overwhelmed->I can't take this anymore->oh no so stressed out->oh no where do I even start->giant undertaking of cleaning process->clean (for now). As I think about the things I've written, most of it is related to how I cope with my undiagnosed ADD :yea: So if you are normal-brained, none of that may be helpful to you. It's been a pretty major part of me learning how to be an adult though.
Oh, but here's a good one: start a rag bag. Paper products can get expensive, and you probably already have a couple old cotton tshirts that are ready for their next useful stage in life anyway. Tear them into a usable size and you're good to go. Old washcloths and towels are excellent rags too, of course.
Ok mostly obvious but i never thought of wax, I gotta vaseline the shit out of my house. I want people to think they ar ein a dream sequence
I am a forgetful person and would forget to buy things when they were getting low and then oh no, I’m out of soap/deodorant/shampoo/etc. So you don’t want to go overboard and become a hoarder but 1 drawer of extras took a layer of stress off my life.
This is also a really decent strategy to save some money - lots of places have buy one get 50% off deals so buying multiple at the same time makes sense. Ditto for toilet paper and hand soap refill bottles - that stuff don't go bad and you'll end up saving money just from not buying a bunch of individual soap bottles.
As a secondary concern, get a cheap sound system - you can find receivers/speakers pretty easily at thrift shops and getting the cables to hook everything up is pretty short money (like $40 all told ) Great if you have friends over so you can hand them an aux cord and also just nice when puttering around.
Rice cooker for easy cheap meals
Get you a used Zojirushi rice cooker. Those bastards make the best damn rice it's not even close. I had three rice cookers before my current Zojirushi. It's been trucking for years. You can literally feel every single grain of rice as you eat it but it's somehow still fluffy as all hell.
