Monthly Archives: March 2012

Prepare Your Apartment to Accommodate Guests

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white towel and flower

Towels, clean sheets, and a place to sleep are essentials for guests. Pretty flowers are optional.

You’ve finished moving into your TriBridge apartment; the walls are decorated and the furniture is arranged to your satisfaction.  Everything feels homey and comfortable, and now you want to invite friends to your place for the weekend.  Before you do so, however, you might want to make sure your apartment is fully prepared to give your guests a comfortable experience, especially if this is your first apartment.

Make Sure Guests Have a Place to Sleep

Futons are a great piece of furniture for an apartment because they pull double-duty as couch and bed, and are generally a lot lighter weight than hide-away bed couches.  If you don’t have a futon or a bed couch, an air bed is a great space-saving solution.  Just make sure you plan to give it time to fill with air before your guest wants to sleep!

Have Extra Towels, Extra Sheets, and Extra Toiletries

You’ll need an extra sheet set that fits your guest bed; you wouldn’t want to make your guest sleep directly on the mattress!  Having extra towels is also a must; towels take up a lot of space in a suitcase, so don’t make your guests pack them.  Extra toiletries are not something you necessarily need to provide, but it is a nice thing to do in case your guest forgets to pack something.

Prepare the Bathroom

Aside from the standard cleaning routine, there are a couple of things you should make sure your bathroom has available in order to prevent any awkwardness for your guests.  One thing a lot of people forget to do is provide a plunger; clogs happen from time to time, and it can be very embarrassing if the guest has to ask for your help with a backed-up toilet.  You should also make sure your bathroom has a trash can, pump soap, and hand towels.  Please, don’t make guests use your shower towel to dry their hands.

With a little preparation, you and your guests can have a great time in your new apartment!  For more tips, check out these articles on preparing for houseguests.

How do you prepare your apartment for guests?  Share with us in the comments below!

Photo via Sura Nualpradid/freedigitalphotos.net. 

How to Measure Your Apartment and Furniture for a Good Fit

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tape measure

Grab your tape measure and get the dimensions of your furniture and prospective apartment to avoid issues during move in.

Have you ever seen the “homeless sofa”? Every once in a while in an apartment community, you’ll find a frantic posting on the message boards about a sofa that needs to be sold because it won’t fit through the doorway. Sometimes, you even see the abandoned furniture in a stairwell with a note of “please take me”. It’s a terrible feeling to start moving into a brand new apartment that you love only to find out the furniture that you also love can’t fit. To avoid this pitfall, it’s important to get your measurements and dimensions down. Here are a few tips to help you through:

  • Measure your large furniture pieces. Do not guess as to their size; get actual concrete measurements. Take these measurements with you as you tour apartments.
  • Don’t be afraid of seeming strange when you measure an apartment. While apartment floor plans often showcase the actual measurements for rooms, they don’t show you the measurements for your door frame. Measure the frames to ensure that your furniture will fit through.
  • To ensure that your furniture will fit within the floor plan, map it out on paper. Use graph paper or a ruler to sketch out the apartment, then sketch in your apartment.
Taking measurements will help you avoid heartache that sometimes comes with moving into a new space. Find an apartment in one of our TriBridge communities that fits your needs and your furniture.
Photo via Flickr. 

Celebrate Dr. Seuss’s Birthday By Going Green In Your TriBridge Apartment!

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reading the lorax in your apartment

Dr. Seuss books have been children's classics for decades. Read one today on his birthday!

Today, March 2nd, is Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Though the great author is no longer with us, his books leave a legacy for many. One of his most notable works, The Lorax, has been made into a feature film that is being released today. If you’re familar with the story, then you know that the Lorax is a small, environmentally conscious creature that encourages others to use green practices. Today, celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday by using green practices in your apartment!

The Lorax Project, a project designed to help others become more eco-friendly, has a few suggestions to help you be more Earth conscious while at home:

  • Turn out the lights when you leave a room to cut down on your power bill and electricity usage.
  • Reuse paper when possible by using both sides.
  • Use cloth towels instead of paper towels to dry your hands after washing them.
  • Recycle! Look for the recycle symbol on all of the products you use and dispose of them accordingly.
  • If you see water running or a leaky faucet, let the Apartment Community office know so that they can fix it and save water.
Do you have more tips for going green? Share them in a comment. On our Facebook page, tell us which Dr. Seuss tale is your favorite!
Photo via Flickr.