First Apartment Checklist: Buy Now, Buy Later, Skip

Sort every item into three piles: what you need the first night, what can wait a month, and what you can skip for now. Buy the first pile before move-in, live in the place for a few weeks, then shop for the rest with real measurements and real habits. Almost everything on The Financial Diet’s list of first-apartment regrets belongs in that third pile.

Quick version

• Before move-in: set up renters insurance and utilities, and schedule internet.
• Move-in day: photograph every room, test smoke alarms, find the water and breaker shutoffs.
• First trip: bed, bath, one pot, one pan, one knife, cleaning kit, basic tools.
• Wait a month on furniture beyond a bed, plus decor and storage bins.
• Skip gadget sets, giant tool kits and anything you haven’t measured for.

Before you get the keys

1. Read the lease for move-in rules. Note when rent is due, how to submit repair requests, and what the move-out cleaning standard is.
2. Buy renters insurance. The Insurance Information Institute points out that your landlord’s policy covers the building but won’t replace your belongings or pay for a hotel if a fire forces you out. Renters insurance covers your stuff, your liability if a guest is hurt, and extra living costs after a covered disaster.
3. Set up utilities in your name for the move-in date: electric, gas if you have it, and internet. Internet installs can take days to schedule, so book early.
4. Update your address with your bank, employer and phone carrier.

Move-in day: the walk-through

1. Photograph and video every room before you unpack. Get close on stains, scratches, holes and anything broken. Email the photos to yourself and your landlord so they’re time-stamped. That record protects your security deposit when you move out.
2. Test the smoke alarms. The U.S. Fire Administration says to test them monthly and replace the whole unit every 10 years. If a unit is missing or dead, ask the landlord in writing.
3. Find the shutoffs: the main water valve, the valve behind the toilet, and the breaker panel. Label the panel if it isn’t labeled.
4. Run every faucet and flush every toilet. Look under sinks for drips.
5. Submit any repair requests in writing that same week.

The first apartment checklist, room by room

Print this first apartment checklist or screenshot it. “Buy now” means you need it in the first few days. “Buy later” means wait until you’ve lived there a few weeks. “Skip for now” means it shows up often on first-apartment regret lists, so hold off.

Two rules make the skip column work. First, measure the space before you buy anything that has to fit somewhere: a cabinet, a window, a corner. Second, live without something for two weeks before you buy it.

Pack a first-night box

Label one box “open first” and keep it in your car or carry it in yourself, so you aren’t digging through 30 boxes at midnight. Put in: sheets and a pillow, a towel, toilet paper, a phone charger, basic toiletries, any medication, a roll of paper towels, trash bags, a box cutter, a few snacks and water, and the screwdriver. If the movers are late or the bed frame needs assembling, you can still shower, eat and sleep.

Where to buy the Buy Later column

Give yourself a month, then buy secondhand where it makes sense. Couches, dressers, bookshelves, lamps and kitchen tables turn up on local marketplace listings and in Buy Nothing groups. Skip used mattresses and upholstered pieces you can’t inspect closely. For anything that has to fit a space, bring your tape measure and the measurements you wrote down on move-in day.

The first-week cleaning kit

You don’t need a cleaner for every surface. Melissa Maker of Clean My Space builds her kit from an all-purpose cleaner, a glass cleaner (one part vinegar to one part water), a disinfectant, baking soda, dish soap and a stack of microfiber cloths, plus two sponges in different colors so the bathroom one never touches dishes. She suggests about six microfiber cloths per floor or per 1,000 square feet.

Do the move-in clean before you carry furniture in: inside the fridge and cabinets, the bathroom, and the floors. It’s much faster in an empty room.

The small toolkit you’ll actually use

Renters mostly need tools for hanging, tightening and patching. A screwdriver with swappable bits, a claw hammer, a tape measure, picture-hanging hardware and wall anchors cover nearly every first-year job. Add a cordless drill later if you hang shelves or curtain rods. Before you put holes in the walls, check the lease, and keep a small tub of spackle and a putty knife for patching when you move out.

Our guides on how to unclog a drain and how to sew a button cover the two fixes new renters run into most, and meal prep on a budget puts that one pot and one pan to work.

What the pros say

• The Financial Diet, a channel on money for young adults, has Lauren walk through her first-apartment regrets: decor bought to copy Instagram rooms, a $100 food processor she used twice, and bins and under-sink organizers that didn’t fit. Her advice is to measure before you buy and to live in the space for a while before any big purchase.
• Melissa Maker, founder of Clean My Space, argues a basic cleaning kit fits in one caddy and doesn’t need hundreds of products. She says microfiber cloths clean better than any other cloth because they trap dirt and hold moisture, and can be reused up to 500 times.
• Adam Savage, former MythBusters co-host, lists the tools a new homeowner should buy: a claw hammer, a screwdriver set, a drill, wall anchors, picture-hanging hardware and a spackle knife. He says occasional-use home tools don’t need to be expensive, and nobody needs a set with 20 screwdrivers.

Gear that helps

We researched these picks against what the pros above recommend and the product listings; we haven’t tested every one ourselves.

Do this this week

• Get a renters insurance quote and set it to start on move-in day.
• Schedule utilities and internet in your name.
• Print the checklist table and circle only the Buy Now column.
• Take move-in photos of every room and email them to your landlord.
• Test every smoke alarm and find the water shutoff and breaker panel.
• Set a reminder two weeks out to decide what from Buy Later you actually missed.