Living Frugal in Your Apartment – What it Takes?

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Living in apartments isn’t just something tailored for everyone; it can be quite expensive way of living. It has to be decided by you that you’ll be adopting a frugal lifestyle and then all your decisions and choices should be based around that.

First thing that you should do, in fact the most significant one, to live frugally in apartments in Greenville sc is to rent one which is truly affordable for you.  It is recommended by the financial experts that you should not spend anything above 25% of what’s your gross income is on rent every month.

A good way for you to deal with this is sharing your apartment with the roommate for dividing the expenses at the same time as well. However, everybody isn’t just cut out to live with some stranger or a friend and, therefore, you should better ensure that you’re really willing to take this step before you actually do it. If this isn’t the option that you’d prefer then you will have to stick yourself to less spending habits, so even if you have to go for a less luxurious and smaller apartment, go for it.

So, once you have signed the lease and have rented an apartment, you should now start thinking about your frugal living so that the utility expensive should be kept to minimum possible every month.  You should know how you can use the least of water and electricity, if they have to be paid other than the rent, along with the ways that will allow you to cut down on your cooling and heating costs.  Each dollar saved on your utility expensive would serve as the one spent for school, investing, travel, or just for saving purposes.

When it comes to furnishing apartments frugally, think about ways that can help you do that. The home of your parents can be a good idea in this regard. Borrow or beg all your required furniture items from your parents if they have them spare. If still you need any more furniture items then you buy it from cheap thrift stores. Make sure to keep eyes on any furniture bargains, everywhere you go. Do not forget to overlook estate or yard sales as well because here you can get something more than you might have even expected.

If your rental apartment in Greenville is located near your school or workplace then it can be a great thing that can help your frugal lifestyle. If you choose an apartment which is close to your workplace as well as the stores and shopping malls or any other conveniences then you can be able to save a lot on your transportation, as well as the parking expenses. If you are able to ditch the car completely taking the option of riding your bike or simply walking everywhere, you’ll be able to save significant amounts in terms of your transportation costs.

Cheap and Creative Ideas for Apartment Decoration

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Inexpensive apartment decoration does not need to be cheap and tacky. Use removable and portable options when it comes to decorating your apartment such as homemade hand-decorated rugs and wall decals. Any old cabinet knobs and handles should be replaced with pieces that are more suitable for your personal styling sense for upgrading your kitchen instantly.

Turn shelf paper or contact paper into the decorative decals to be used on your walls or for the refrigerator’s side for making your apartment a true reflection of your style, instead of previous owner’s or your landlord’s. Solid color should be used for creating big silhouette of guitar, palm tree or skyline for creating some focal point on the wall, or you can select pattern like chevrons for covering any unsightly area, like metal on ahead of some old dishwasher. The measurements or shape should be drawn on backing material of the contact paper, and then should be cut to the size. Contact paper must be kept smooth when it is applied by you on surface for preventing any ripples and bubbles.

Replace any old-fashioned hardware in your bathroom and kitchen of your apartments in Greenville sc. Measure what distance is there between posts present on handles for ensuring that perfectly fitting replacements are purchased by you. For your kitchen you should select hardware which matches some appliances present in the kitchen, like mixer or blender placed on the counter, to achieve cohesive look. Handles should be selected in unusual shapes, like toothpaste tubes having pewter finish to go in your bathroom cabinets, starfish to have ocean-inspired appearance, etc. Hand towels can be added that complement your theme, like towels having shell designs at their trim can be used for beach-styled bathroom.

Your favorite pictures, sketches or posters can be hung without putting nails in the walls, using washi tape which is a decorative item and can be a perfect replacement for your conventional frame. This kind of tape offers similar stickiness as that of masking tape and holds a paper-based décor that you want to use on your apartment walls, without having to harm the wallpaper or paint on walls of your rental apartment.

It is a creative idea to turn your plain rugs into some kind of painted enhancements to be used on floor with the help of stamping or painting designs over them. Ensure that you select rugs that have short fibers as it may be hard to paint in detail on the long fibers. For saving some extra cash, buy some carpet remnant whose edges can then be taped off using carpet-binding tape for creating a rug of your own to go in your living room of apartments in Greenville. Look for some discount shelf from any paint store to get mis-tinted paint; typically such paint is priced a little fraction of what regular paint is priced at.

The Cheap And Cutest Ideas For Decorating Your Apartment

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Sticking to your budget is often considered to be amongst the hardest things when you have to decorate your apartments in greenville sc. Making use o cheap and the cute options for decorating not just ensures that you stick to your budget, but it also allows you to come up with a fresh looking apartment. Implement the ideas for decorating your apartment that utilize items which are already there with you and the ones that can be bought cheaply.

Start at the thrift stores when you have to decorate your apartment on tight budget. These stores are considered as a heaven to buy inexpensive and cheap decorations for apartments. You won’t just be able to get the most inexpensive furniture items, but you can get picture frames, vases and other similar knickknacks to decorate your apartment in style. You can buy old wine glasses and juice glasses and group them all on your shelves making clusters containing 3-5 each. Glasses that have some unusual pattern or texture can be used, even if they are in different colors. You can use pottery in complementary colors for creating somewhat similar look. Even the small-sized brass knickknacks can be displayed.

When you have to decorate your rental apartments on tight budget, think about creating new furniture using the items that are already there with you. You can also use unused items from your friends and family members for this purpose. Old aprons can be tied around seats or backs of chairs in the dining room. Old couches and chairs can be reupholstered using cheap materials which can be available at some fabric store in your area. New or old sheets can also be draped over the chairs and couches, using sheets as slipcovers. Even if your wood desk is repainted, you can give a new life to it.

Quite a few of apartments don’t let the residents to throw some paint on the walls. They don’t have the liberty of using any permanent decorating stuff, as it’s obligatory for them to bring back everything in original form as soon as their lease ends. Using wall decals, you can be able to play with that rule as these big stickers have a dramatic impact and you can even peel them off quickly when you have to leave the unit. Backs of these decals have sticky substance which does not adhere to walls permanently. Alternately, you can easily make use of different kinds of picture frames hung on a wall. Any existing pictures can be removed and replaced with the wallpaper samples. Picture frames can be arranged creating unique kind of display at one of the walls.

Using flowers for decorating your rental apartments in Greenville can be a cheap as well as cute way of decorating the unit. Even if fresh flowers can’t be afforded by you on a regular basis, you can use fake flowers to achieve similar effect. Select flowers that look more real, like the ones with different shades or a softer texture.

Apartment Wall decoration – Some Cheap and Easy Ideas

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Decorating walls doesn’t need you to buy large, expensive framed artwork; it also doesn’t need years for finally getting your wall decorations assorted. Even those who don’t find themselves really gifted when it comes to interior design will easily and quickly be able to install different wall hangings. You can buy quite of few of these products within $50 and can transform your room’s feel altogether.

Instead of using wallpaper in the whole room, you can produce an even striking effect with the use of few strips on wallpaper. It’s equally simple as buying the wallpaper’s strips which are under half of wall’s height that you intend to decorate. You will have to attach rods on each side of wallpaper, however, and top rod will have to be hung with a ribbon piece. You can go for identical wallpaper pieces, but if you are able to find a couple of different wallpapers having similar color palette and feel, then it can turn out to be a better choice altogether.

Bulletin boards can be considered as a wonderful idea for collection of your recent photographs and it eliminates any need of buying frames to display your photos in your apartments in Greenville sc. A simple bulletin board made of cork can be turned into an elegant one by covering it in swath of the fabric which matches your room’s décor.

Instead of buying artwork from some expensive store or art show, it’s a least expensive option for you to get some art pieces from your friends that draw or paint. Some paintings on the canvas don’t even need to have frames, making these art pieces completely free. Any art from your grandchildren can also serve as the wonderful wall decoration for apartments, particularly if you use framed pieces for decorating the entire wall.

So many of your local flea markets or antique malls offer framed art pieces. If you hunt through these pieces of art occasionally, you’ll be able to find some pieces which perfectly match the needs of your room’s wall decoration. Even if some art piece isn’t too good, it is sometimes worth buying it only because of the frame which you can be able to use for some print or poster of your favorite artist.

Maps can be a quite inexpensive item for wall decoration for your rental apartments. If some room of your apartment features souvenirs from different trips which might have been made by you or others in your family then hanging map of the world on a wall can be helpful in bringing some kind of cohesion to overall décor of the room. Maps are also considered as a good source for starting conversations, because they can be helpful in spurring discussions about interesting places which might have been visited by you.