Decorating Your First Apartment

“If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed. If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task, and another, and another.”

The idea of decorating your first apartment can either sound extremely exciting or extremely overwhelming. But it is one of the first steps to adulthood and should be a very enjoyable process. I am here to give you tips and ideas for how to decorate your first apartment stress-free.

First of all, being college students, you definitely want to make sure you are budget-friendly.

Before you even start decorating, it is essential that you find your basic apartment needs like a couch, kitchen table, desk, tv stand, cleaning supplies, etc. These can all be found at places like:

1) Big Lots

2) Walmart

3) Target

4) Amazon

If you shop at these places you can definitely find products that won’t make you break the bank.

But onto the more fun part, the actual decorations. Decorations can be found pretty much anywhere, but some of the best places to find them would be:

1) At Home

2) Home Goods

3) TJ Maxx

4) Kohls

5) Big Lots

6) Amazon

7) Dollar Tree

8) Goodwill

But before you even start to go purchasing decorations, it is crucial that you have an idea in mind for what you want your apartment to look like. You need to decide on a color scheme that you are comfortable with and something that allows your personality to shine through. I highly recommend searching online (through places like Pinterest) for inspiration.

It is also very important that you purchase things that are only going to spark joy in your life and serve a purpose. However, I am not saying do not purchase throw pillows or blankets because they often pull a room together and are so cute, I am saying do not purchase unnecessary décor that could cause your apartment to look cluttered or unorganized.

When decorating, you need to keep in the back of your mind that your apartment is your home. It is where you will come home each and every night after a long day at work or school. Whether it be a bad, good, terrible, or fantastic day – you want your home to be the place that you feel that you can relax, unwind, and a place you can be proud of. It needs to be a place where you feel motivated to do better each and every day, not a place that makes you more stressed because of clutter, disorganization, or dirtiness.

As Admiral William H. McRaven says, “If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed. If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task, and another, and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you’ll never be able to do the big things right. If by chance, you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that’s made. That you made. And a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.”

Happy decorating! :)