When I found out I would be moving into an apartment, I assumed I was ready. After all, my hometown friends have lived in apartments for years, and I have lived in a house and with roommates. How hard can maintaining an apartment really be?
It turns out to be pretty hard. There are the obvious challenges, like cleaning a bathroom or sharing common spaces, but there are also things you never would have anticipated, like navigating your buildings’ “valet trash service.” After two months of clearing hurdles, both expected and unexpected, I feel officially qualified to inform you of the ins and outs of having your very own apartment.
The first step, obviously, is to find an apartment in the first place. When considering which complex to choose, I offer this advice: just do what your friends are doing. Location doesn’t really matter: the walk from anywhere off-campus will feel like an eternity when it gets cold. Apartment condition doesn’t really matter either — the college lifestyle is not exactly conducive to keeping a brand new apartment sparkling clean and completely undamaged, but if the apartment is older, you will suffer through stained showers, old heating/cooling and probably a very dingy couch. The reality is that the most important feature of your apartment (or other off-campus housing) will be the people you live with — don’t worry so much about the rest.
If you’re planning to move off-campus, and debating whether to invest in a car, you should know that you will absolutely use it. People will tell you that you don’t need it — it’s not worth finding parking to drive it to class, and you’ll have to pay for a parking spot in your building. What they don’t tell you is that there are places that a young adult sans meal plan needs to go to get by. If you’re expecting to live off-campus without a car (like me), I hope you either have some very generous car-owning friends or a big DoorDash budget.
A big part of the apartment lifestyle is cleaning. My cleaning advice consists of one main philosophy: it takes a lot more time and a lot fewer products than you think. I didn’t need three different kinds of glass cleaner to wipe down my vanity mirror, but I do need to be home for a couple hours a week to regularly wash my bathmats. What you specifically use is up to personal preference (most of my cleaning stuff will be gifted to my parents unopened at the end of the semester), but know that the process of cleaning anything is going to take about three times as long as you’re expecting. My shower alone is a two-hour project — I am on hard-water-removal TikTok, and if you move into an apartment (and care about cleanliness), you will be too.
Of all the aspects of apartment living, decorating, was the one I was most excited for. Apartments are a lot bigger than dorms (newsflash), so the small art prints and two-pack of string lights I ordered on Amazon for my dorm was not going to cut it. The cute, cluttered look and small decor items don’t really work in a spacious yet sparsely pre-furnished apartment, so expect to order some big wall decor (everyone loves an ND flag) and possibly forms of seating (bean bags, small chairs, etc.). I quickly got sick of looking at empty gray walls and brown matching furniture, and you will too; order the decor early (but don’t buy anything too nice, unless your postgrad home aesthetic will be college-student-chic).
The final crucial aspect of the off-campus life is cooking: you probably won’t ever do it. I can’t speak for every student, but I can confidently say that I have spent far too long being meal plan dependent to suddenly start cooking for myself. The transition from dorm to apartment comes with a lot of time-consuming new tasks, like extra walking and cleaning, and it leaves little time for cooking. I planned to meal prep, walk to the grocery store weekly and save a lot of money cooking all my meals for myself. If you’re anything like me, you’ll get sick of microwaved food and the mediocrity of your own cooking, and you will turn to DoorDash. My best advice for this is to save money over the summer and eat on campus when you can. Godspeed.
Apartment living has its ups and downs, but as a sophomore, I am already excited to do it again my senior year. I love the independence and freedom of my apartment, and if you listen to all of my advice (and prepare accordingly), you will too.
Sophia Anderson is a sophomore at Notre Dame studying political science. She is a transfer student and plans to go to law school. You can contact her at sander38@nd.edu.
