First Apartment

[sax]

<p>ESSENTIAL: smoke alarm/carbon monoxide alarm/fire extinguisher/emergency plug in light (goes on when power goes off)</p>

<p>When you know what floor he is on buy an emergency ladder that folds up for under the bed.</p>

[mildred]

<p>This is a Debbie Downer type of response, but I live in my own apartment and here is what I think is super important…</p>

<p>A digital camera is very important when you have an apartment, most especially for ones first apartment. </p>

<p>When your child moves into their apartment, it is very important that they take some photos of every room in the apartment as well as the closets and all. Please make sure your child uses the time date stamp when they do that. </p>

<p>It is very important to make sure that you take photos of everything in the apartment and then to always take before and after photos if anything breaks (due to normal wear and tear) and needs to be repaired. </p>

<p>Doing this with the photos could very well save your child a lot of money with regards to the security deposit when they wind up moving later on down the line and everything. </p>

<p>I also highly recommend your child making doubly sure that the locks have been changed and to also ask for a second dead bolt for the front door and (if it is feasible) a security system. That makes one sleep a bit better at night and it is not all to very terrible to deal with just one extra lock or what have you, really. </p>

<p>Lastly, have your child write down the serial numbers to everything of value (like computers and radios and all). The police need those in the event there is a break in and they are totally lost without them.</p>

[2cakes]

<p>^and adding a renter’s policy!!</p>

[mkm56]

<p>Lots of good suggestions. I agree that the toilet plunger is a must. Also colander and cutting board are sometimes forgotten. We bought son one of those emergency fluorescent lanterns for emergency use and it has come in handy. Surge protector for expensive plug in items. Fire extinguisher. Son uses George Foreman almost daily and to my surprise he asked for a crock pot this Christmas and uses it a couple times a week. Push pins or that special tape for posters. Blow up bed is used frequently. Shower curtain and those racks that hang on shower head for shampoo, etc. Shelf paper for kitchen cabinets—some of the cabinets in rentals you wouldn’t want your dishes on no matter how good you clean. Ditto on the insurance!!!</p>

[BunsenBurner]

<p>

thumper, I agree that Costco can be very expensive for one person. My son will be in apt. with 3 others, so I think that it might pay to stock on things like foil and zip locks for the year. He also has a Walmart that he could go to.

</p>

<p>Here is a story how a bunch of young people mastered dividing their Costco loot:</p>

<p>

Food can be cheap at Costco. Young, single people like cheap food. But what young, single person buying food only for herself needs four pounds of peanut butter and a five-gallon keg of crackers?</p>

<p>A group of wholesale-savvy food-sharers have learned to outsmart the system — even if it means they have to go through the hassle of splitting up bulk-packaged groceries and complicated receipts with friends, neighbors or housemates in order to get the deals.

</p>

<p>[Divide</a> and conquer at Costco! Buying in bulk, sharing the bounty](<a href=“http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=costcoshare01&date=20061101]Divide”>http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=costcoshare01&date=20061101)</p>

[ucsd_ucla_dad]

<p>Make sure he gets a really big apartment to hold all the stuff we’re recommending!</p>

<p>He could always go more basic - just take the basic furniture you indicated along with whatever freebies he can get out of mom and dad and once he’s in, he can figure out what he really needs and go out and buy/acquire it himself. He’ll still survive if he doesn’t have a colandar, crock pot, or wide variety of pans (but not the plunger). </p>

<p>I certainly never had a colander, shelf paper, and a lot of other things here when I was in my first several apartments on my own. A lot of these things arrived only after I obtained a wife. </p>

<p>Besides, it can be kind of fun determining what you need yourself and going out and getting it yourself.</p>

[swimcatsmom]

<p>

^and adding a renter’s policy!!

Check your homeowner policy. Ours covers our daughter when she moves into an apartment if it is because she is in college (just checked today after reading this thread as my daughter is planning to move into an apartment also). But the deductible is the same as for us ($1,000) so we may check into renters.</p>

[BunsenBurner]

<p>The most important “purchase” which my friend’s son made for his first apartment was a fluffy kitten. The fuzzy playful critter quickly attracted a nice young lady, and the collanders and shelf paper came after that followed by nice homemade dishes Fast forward a few years: my friend is now a grandma.</p>

[mafool]

<p>^^^I’ll make sure to wait a few years for that, then! ;)</p>

[mkm56]

<p>

But the deductible is the same as for us ($1,000) so we may check into renters.

This is why we purchased a rental policy for d. after she was robbed. In fact, she was robbed twice in one week and each occurrence was about 1k. Now she has separate policy with a much, much lower deductible.</p>

[paying3tuitions]

<p>If he’s in a different city and you’d like to visit on occasion, see if he’ll let you give him a futon couch/bed for the living room. It is on a frame. Usually it’s at a ninety degree angle and works as a 3-person couch, but if it drops down it becomes a double bed to sleep guest(s) in the living room.</p>

<p>This help him be hospitable to visiting overnight friends or yourself, but most of the time serves as his living room couch.</p>