What To Do When You Don’t Have a Clothesline

I’ll let the picture speak for itself.

I will say that

• I’m a little embarrassed to show a picture of my bathroom.
• By hanging clothes we have saved money and extended the lives of our clothing.
• I currently don’t hang up socks, children’s clothes or underwear.

We paid a lot more for drying when we had to go to  the laundromat in our last apartment. I wish I had seen this nifty indoor clothesline that Apartment Therapy built.

Hanging my clothes works for me. See what others are saying at We Are That Family’s Work for Me Wednesday.

Making The Decision to Change Apartments Part II

We recently moved apartments in the beginning of April. Our main reason for moving was to be in an apartment with its own washer and dryer, although we took other factors into consideration. We also wanted to cut down on our rent in order to increase our savings, especially with another child on the way. So around the beginning of February we started looking at apartments. Because we wanted to stay within 15 minutes of Tim’s work and also stay in our church congregation’s boundaries we knew we had to find a place close to our current location. Here are some things we learned in our quest to find a new place.

1. Learn how much notice you need to give your current location of your move
Our lease was technically up March 1st, and so I thought that if I gave them 30 days notice and informed them in February that we would be leaving, we could leave the 1st of March. Well, after talking to the office and re-reading our contract I learned we needed to give them 60 days notice of our leaving. So we ended up extending our contract one month because I never read our contract to see how much notice we needed to give them. Luckily there were no penalties or increases for the extra month of rent.

2.  Start looking at your options early
We started browsing at listings online and in the paper in January to get a feel for current prices and options. Since we were familiar with the area we quickly narrowed down our choices. At first we wanted to rent a small house but either the prices were too high or it didn’t fit our criteria. So we then started looking at other large complexes in the area.

3. Ask about current promotions or deals
This strategy mainly works for large apartment complexes, but it never hurts to haggle over price, deposit or other concessions. When we moved into our old apartment they were unable to take any money off of our rent, but they did lower our security deposit to $50. After we had toured our current apartment we asked about any concessions they were offering. At first they offered 1 1/2 months free rent if we were able to apply within a few days of an opening. Later they called with a new promotion and offered us 2 months free rent.

4. Talk to residents
We knew a few friends who lived in the complex that offered us the greatest deal and they were happy to give us their opinions of the complex. They were overall satisfied although with the complex although they had a few minor complaints. Their complaints weren’t major drawbacks for us and since we have lived in many complexes over the years as long as our family is safe and the apartment is sanitary we aren’t too picky.

5. Be willing to be flexible
After we had talked to our friends and applied for the apartment, the complex  asked us if we could move in a few days earlier. They offered to let us move in a week earlier rent free, as long as we signed the lease by a certain date. This arrangement worked out well for us because even though we signed the new lease on a Tuesday, we could wait to move in until Saturday when friends and family could help us. In addition, our old apartment’s lease wasn’t up until the next Monday so I was able to go back and clean an empty apartment. The only inconvenience about this arrangement was that we paid utilities for two places for a week.

We were also flexible about the type of apartment we wanted. Even though we would have preferred a bottom floor apartment, when none were available we agreed to take a top floor apartment.

Overall, we were happy with the new apartment we found, even though we had lost storage space. With the two months free rent, our rent was dramatically reduced, opening up more room in the budget for savings. In addition, the apartment came with its own washer and dryer, freeing up time and quarters. We feel like we found the best deal in the area and are glad we took the time to shop around for our housing options.

Making the Decision to Change Apartments Part I

Since we’re still renting we have the freedom to move around if we can find a better deal after our lease is up. We are currently in a nice 1100 sq feet apartment nestled in a quiet neighborhood. The complex has been great for us but we think we can find something that will fit our needs for less money. So Tim and I discussed what was important for us in finding a new apartment and here are some criteria we came up with:

1. Has washer/dryer hookups or comes with a washer/dryer
At this moment we don’t have washer/dryer hookups in our apartment so once a week I load up our son and our laundry and drive the short distance to our apartment complex’s laundry building. Besides the hassle of doing laundry outside our apartment (especially when our son was sick), laundry also eats into our budget as we spend $25-$35 on laundry/month, not including detergent. Since we will have another child in August, I just don’t see how I can arrange laundry around two children’s schedules, or justify paying over $40/month in laundry.

2. Is relatively close to Tim’s job
Since we share one car, a short commute to Tim’s job is worth a little more in rent. In addition, gas prices fluctuate so much that we decided living close to work can help our gas budget.

3. Is in our church congregation’s boundaries
We have made very good friends over the past year in our congregation. We belong to an organized, large church which divides congregations similar to school districts, you are asked to go to church at a specific time in a specific building depending on where you live. If we moved too far away from where we currently are, we would most likley be in another congregation’s boundaries and have to make friends all over again.

4. Is affordable
This criteria is key as we are trying to save money to build up an emergency fund and then save money for a down payment on a house. If we were to stay in our current complex and move to a unit with washer/dryer hookups we would have to upgrade to a townhouse and spend an extra $50/month. We would really like to reduce the amount we spend on rent, not increase it.

5. Is safe
Since we live on the outskirts of a large city, we are also looking at complexes that are in safer parts of town.

6. Space
Space is last on our list, because even with adding another child to our household, you can be creative and find ways to use small spaces. We also know that if needed we may be able to store a few boxes at Tim’s parents.

So here are our criteria in looking for an apartment to rent. Everyone’s criteria may be different and you have to make your choices on what is best for your family. Now that you know your criteria, I will later write about tips on finding an apartment that fits within your budget and criteria.

The Simple Life

Part of being frugal and wise with your resources is learning the value of simplicity and order. Every Friday I will do a post on achieving simplicity. Today’s focus is the first of a two-part series on the perils of “stuffitis” and how to conquer it.

In this busy world of materialism, we can often get caught up in having “stuff”. This is detrimental in many ways to an orderly, peaceful home.

We had an eye-opening experience about “stuff” during the second year of our marriage, before children. We were moving from Idaho to Arizona for four months for an internship and job. We knew we could only take what fit in our Toyota Corolla and we put everything else in storage.

We ended up living in a small studio apartment. We bought a few pieces of basic furniture from Craigslist such as a dresser and an old couch. We used an air mattress as our bed. We didn’t have a microwave or many of our normal kitchen appliances.

Since we would be there only a short time we knew it would be pointless to accumulate stuff we couldn’t take back with us or sell when we left.

Yet the incredible part of this experience was that we didn’t notice most of the things we were missing that were in storage. We only had half of our clothes but we didn’t miss the other half. We only had half of our kitchen items but we didn’t miss those either. We could truly get by with less.

Now we are in a two-bedroom 1100 sq foot apartment and sometimes feel a little cramped. When we first moved here I was wondering how we would fill all the space but eventually “stuff” creeps up on you. Looking in my closets this week has had me reflecting on “stuffitis” and wondering if I have caught a bit of the bug myself.

I’ve learned that it takes time and money to purchase, store, organize and care for your stuff. The less stuff you have, the less time you need to find things, clean your home and organize your spaces. Also, if you have too much stuff and clutter you are more apt to lose things and then you’ll have to spend the money and time to replace them.

Also space is limited. If you have too much stuff you will need to spend money on either a bigger place a storage unit. Just like any limited resource you need to be wise about how you use space. 

For instance, a few months ago I bought two very large jugs of vinegar for cleaning. But now I’ve only used about 4 cups of one and the other is unopened. I thought that I’d be saving money by buying the larger item at a smaller unit price, but by saving pennies it’s costing more in space that I could use to store something else.

In addition clutter creates chaos and makes it more difficult to achieve a peaceful home environment.

There are different reasons people struggle with “stuffitis”. Some are trying to “keep up with the Joneses”. This quest is never-ending and only leads to discontentment and ingratitude. In addition, the compulsion to accumulate more often leads to buying more than you can afford and getting into debt. Contentment and gratitude are the keys to battling this quest.

Others struggle with “stuffitis” because they find security in “things” and can’t get rid of things because “someday I just might need this”. If this is you, take an honest assessment of items and how much you use them. If you haven’t used an item in 3-6 months, perhaps it’s time to donate it or toss it.

I find myself in the second group, keeping things because “someday I’ll use them”. However, my goal this next week is to do a deep inventory of what we have and what we could possibly donate, sell or toss to simplify our lives.