Living with Shared Kitchen

August 17, 2010 | By MFA Editors AuthorMy First Apartment

Colleen from Washington, DC gives her tips for sharing a kitchen with a bunch of roommates. Our favorite, make your roommates take the dirty dishes to their room if they don’t want to wash them. Living with a Shared Kitchen Sharing a kitchen will always be a challenge. Use these four tips to make shared kitchen living…

For the Love of God Pick a Roommate You Will Get Along With

August 14, 2010 | By Alissa AuthorMy First Apartment

If you have read the Wall Street Journal article on picking roommates or Maureen Dowd’s New York Times’ column, you’ll have seen the recent buzz about social media roommate matching systems that aim to pair like-minded roommates together. Messy with messy and all will be neat — that sort of thing. Primarily, it’s geared towards college…

The First Two Things to Decide Before You Start Your Apartment Hunt

May 3, 2010 | By Alissa AuthorMy First Apartment

It’s May and you know what that means — the beginning of summer rental season. If you act fast you may luck out but otherwise, get ready for rentals to go bat-shit crazy. To give you a head start on your hunt, the first two questions you need to ask yourself right now, this very…

I am thankful for . . .a pretty great living situation!

November 25, 2008 | By Alissa AuthorMy First Apartment

I realize that many of my posts are about problems. My apartment’s too small. My apartment’s too expensive. My apartment has a leak etc etc. As my Yiddish speaking grandfather would say, I’m a bit of a kvetcher (complainer). So this Thanksgiving week, I am going to look on the bright side, for there still…

Decorating and furnishing when you and your roommate have different styles

November 14, 2007 | By Shelby AuthorMy First Apartment

So you love sleek, modern design and your roommate adores the lacy, floral, Victorian look. Now what? If you don’t talk about your conflict before you furnish your apartment, you’ll end up with a goofy hodgepodge look that you’ll both hate. There are two basic solutions to a design conflict like this. One, you could…

Win their respect! or How to be the best new roommate ever.

October 30, 2007 | By Joe AuthorMy First Apartment

My roommate Matt likes to remind me that he made this apartment the way it is today. “You know I made this apartment what it is today,” he’ll tell me, waving his hand towards the epic and alphabetized vinyl record collection or the well-stocked knife drawer in the kitchen like Napoleon flaunting his Arc de…

One year later

August 27, 2007 | By MFA Editors AuthorMy First Apartment

This update came from blogger Jeff in Chicago: Getting out of my parents house was the best decision I ever made. Although the bills and the added responsibilities of making my own food (I miss my Dad’s cooking for sure) is tough, I am out and about in a great city in my mid-20s. I’ve…

Living with Strangers, er, Roommates

December 6, 2006 | By Alissa AuthorMy First Apartment

What to do when you want to move but all your friends already have places? Share an apartment with a stranger? Eeek! Actually, it can be pretty great–if you know what you’re doing. While starting by asking friends if they have other friends looking is a good idea, none of mine did. So, I went…

How Much Rent Can I Afford and Other First Decisions?

November 23, 2005 | By MFA Editors AuthorMy First Apartment

You may not know how much rent you can afford, but your government does. The US Housing Department guideline says that your rent should be no more than 25-30% of your gross salary.