More Smart Buys for Apartment Living

As an apartment renter, there are a few amenities or luxuries you may not have direct access to. You might have to walk 5+ blocks to your local grocery store or take the train to your nearest Laundromat (if you’re not lucky enough to have laundry in your building.) Transportation in general may be limited for you. Either way, there are some products and services that can help you make apartment living a bit easier. Here are a few of my favorites…

Shopping/Laundry Cart

There are a lot of different shopping carts out there specifically made for groceries and laundry. So if you’re able to find one that can be used for both, JUMP ON IT! It will make your life 10 times easier and you’ll save a ton of money in the process. The one you see below even has hooks on the handle so you can hang extra bags that won’t fit in the cart. How awesome is that?

All-Purpose Rolling Shopping Cart – $37.31(Overstock)

Basic Toolkit

We at My First Apartment have talked endlessly about this, but it’s absolutely important enough to keep mentioning. No matter who you are or how handy you are, having a tool kit at your disposal is a priceless reassurance. Supers won’t always be around to help you with things. They actually have lives too (shocker!). So you should always be prepared to tighten a bolt here or hang something up there. If you dont feel comfortable using the tools yourself, you can always call a friend over and have them help you out. Either way, it won’t be a waste to have that tool kit on hand.

General Do-It-Yourself Tool Kit – $14.99 (Target)

A Seamless/GrubHub Account

This isn’t necessarily a product nor is it something you have to initially pay for. Seamless and GrubHub are online restaurant delivery websites that give you a list of local places to eat around your neighborhood, then allows you to order from them and get the food delivered to your apartment. It’s free to set up your account then, of course, you have to pay for the food you order. Every once in a while these companies offer coupons or deals for your favorite restaurants; so you get to save some money on your take-out. Seamless is exclusive to New York but you can use GrubHub’s services pretty much anywhere in the country.

Coupon source

As renters, we have a lot of expenses to take care of. Some of them are necessary evils we can’t really alter. But when it comes to the expense of food and toiletries /household supplies, there’s more than one way around paying top dollar for them. One of the most helpful tools to bring down that expense are coupons. You can get some really good deals from your local weekend newspaper. If you don’t think you can spring for that subscription, you can also go to a website dedicated to coupons such as Coupons.com. The selection isn’t as extensive, but it gets the job done. You just need a computer to download the software and a printer to print the coupons.

Basket for a bike

If you are in an area where you can use a bike as a form of transportation, a bike basket can save you from a lot of headaches. Instead of having to carry all the weight of whatever you’re trying to transport on your back or in a bag, just put all of your belongings in the basket and enjoy the ride. Even if you don’t regularly carry things in the basket, it’s always good for those impromptu pickups and lucky finds.

What are your go-to products or services for day-to-day apartment living? Sound off in the comments below!