Small NYC Apartment Hacks

Living in NYC is a dream come true for so many reasons, but it’s important to face up to the realities of city living so you can make the most of it. NYC apartments tend to be pretty darn tiny, even if you’re willing to shell out big bucks for one you love. But as long as you know what you’re getting into, you can start planning to make your first apartment in New York as cozy and well-designed as possible, even with limitations on space. Here are some great hacks for turning your tiny apartment into a comfortable and handsome place to live.

Maximize Entryway Space

Now that you’re getting settled in your small place, you’ll soon realize that you have to take advantage of every nook and cranny the apartment has to offer. You’re paying for each and every square foot, after all. Your entryway or hallway is a great place to start. It’s probably very small, but you can consider adding a thin bench or side table to create more storage options. Using the walls is also a wise idea; hang a couple of hooks for coats, scarves and your keys or a wall shelf for mail and other items you can drop off on your way into the apartment.

Hanging Storage in the Kitchen

Your kitchen is one of the first places that can easily get cluttered and overwhelming. You don’t want your stuff to hog all the shelving and counter space, so think about installing a hanging pot rack from the ceiling. That way, you can get your bulky pots and pans out of the cabinets and put them on display.

Start Stacking

Many people only take advantage of the bottom of a shelf or closet for storage. You can maximize on space by stacking shelves within cabinets and closets to make use of the vertical space as well as the bottom area. You can find small stackable storage trays or buckets at hardware stores or specialty stores like the Container Store.

Use a Shoe Rack for Cleaning Supplies

Your cleaning supplies can take up heaps of room in your kitchen or bathroom. Instead of piling them all up under a sink, use an over-the-door shoe racks with individual pouches, and hang it on the inside of your bedroom or utility closet. You can fill each pouch with a bottle or a pack of sponges and save the floor or under-sink space for other stuff.

Furniture Arrangement

One important part of making an apartment look bigger is to divide it into separate spaces. If you live in a studio apartment, you can use a tall bookshelf or sofa to partition the bedroom from the living room. Ikea has great tall, square bookcases where you can leave certain squares open to allow more light into a space, like this picture. It’s also very helpful to use dual-purpose furniture, such as sofas or chairs that have storage space under the seats.

Makeshift Closet Space

It sounds crazy, but a lot of NYC apartments come with super-limited closet space or don’t even have a closet at all. If this describes your place, fear not. You can purchase armoires and buildable closets from Target or Ikea, or you can make your own with a clothing rack and a set of curtains. A folding screen is also a great way to conceal a clothing rack and give yourself a little extra storage space for your wardrobe.

Mirrors

Ask any interior designer. Mirrors are the magic when it comes to making small spaces seem larger because they appear to be a continuation of the room–total  visual manipulation. Rule of thumb: the larger the better but, in a small apartment, don’t go crazy. Positioning them is also key when it comes to making rooms look larger. Placed by a window, the eye is tricked into thinking that it’s another window rather than a mirror. Both space and light are amplified. Large floor mirrors placed by accent furniture also add a decorative touch to the room.

Many NoFee Rentals units have built-in loft beds, the quintessential space saver. Don’t let a small apartment infringe on your life. These apartment hacks can help you overcome the tiny-space blues and make you feel like you’re living in luxury in NYC. When you’re ready to find your perfect space, CLICK HERE

For some, a few years in New York City is a required rung on the ladder of success. But can it also provide a safe, secure, exciting and affordable life for Millennials just starting out? You’ve probably heard the Big Apple is overcrowded and astonishingly expensive, but don’t give up yet: With focus and determination, you’ll find a suitable habitat in one of these five neighborhoods that welcome young residents into the world’s most exciting metropolis.

Chelsea

Just a block from the Empire State Building is Chelsea, the neighborhood that once inspired the Joni Mitchell tune “Chelsea Morning.” Known for its vibrant arts scene, the residents often pool resources to rent apartments in 24-hour doorman, well-kept brick high-rises on busy streets that define hustle and bustle. Millennials can work at or just enjoy retail shops and restaurants, have a few laughs at the Gotham Comedy Club, see “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and pick up groceries at picturesque vegetable stands and health food shops. Like most New York neighborhoods, public transportation is available in all its forms — choose between the subway, bus or taxi.

Upper West Side

Get a bit of breathing room on the Upper West Side, a beautiful section flanked by the Hudson River and Central Park. With the Metropolitan Museum of Art nearby, world treasures lie in your everyday path. There is no shortage of international cuisine, trendy boutiques, major retailers and stellar educational institutions like Columbia University and Barnard College. You might brush elbows with a celebrity, fashion designer or sports star — the UWS is home to plenty of them. Millennials and people of all ages and incomes live in high-rise apartment complexes and townhouses. Sharing space is a probable must if your income is limited.

East Village

If edgy performance art and late-night music shows are your thing, base yourself in the East Village, the legendary bohemian mecca where Andy Warhol, John Lennon, and many other artists, musicians and writers have lived and worked. With innovative institutions like New York University nearby, you’ll be sharing sidewalk space with some of America’s most interesting and intelligent people. Eco-shops, vegetarian restaurants and healthy grocery stores mean good living for socially conscious Millennials. With a long history of sheltering young idealists, this neighborhood likely has an apartment you can afford.

Murray Hill

A favorite enclave for many (such as graduate students and young families), the eight-block square known as Murray Hill is located on midtown Manhattan’s east side. Although the nearby Queens Midtown tunnel generates ample traffic in this neighborhood, the large parks and easy public transportation make life without a car effortless. If you do have a car, you’re in easy reach of major highways. Well-surveilled and well-maintained apartments are found in brownstones and multi-story complexes. With coffee shops, bookstores and the United Nations so close by, this family-friendly intellectual community is a good bet for Millennials looking for stable and safeguarded surroundings.

Long Island City

Located across the East River in the borough of Queens, this well-watched, well-lit neighborhood is known for spacious luxury condos and loft-style apartments. Public transport is plentiful and rents are slightly lower here than in Manhattan proper, but you still might need to team up with friends if you’re on a minimal budget. Life in Long Island City means living adjacent to vast art annexes, chic galleries, fresh-air markets and cooperative spaces of all kinds. The innovation doesn’t mean sacrificing ordinary resources, however. Drug stores, convenience stores, movie theaters and public libraries thrive in this waterfront district.

No matter where you drop your moving boxes, New York City offers abundant opportunity for excitement, adventure and employment in multiple industries. Once you’ve unpacked your belongings, learned to navigate the subway and picked a favorite sports team, you’ll be enjoying your own tiny slice of the Big Apple along with the natives.

From studios to three bedrooms, we have apartments available in all of these neighborhoods and more. If you’re looking to start your New York story or continue to the next chapter, we’d love to welcome you home. CLICK HERE to see our available apartments or call our office at (212) 533-1300 to speak with a leasing specialist who’s happy help find you the perfect address or answer your questions.

If it’s your first time renting an apartment in NYC, congrats! It’s an exciting decision to live in New York and you’ll have plenty of adventures and awesome experiences ahead of you. You can choose from a number of wonderful neighborhoods depending on your personal tastes, where you’d like to be located for work, your budget and so on, but there are some tried-and-true tips that will help you land a great apartment no matter where you are looking.

No-Fee Apartments

Many apartments in New York come with a hefty fee attached – usually 10-15 percent of the yearly rental cost. If you’re going through a broker, which makes the process much simpler, the fee will usually go straight to them. However, if you deal directly with an on-site leasing agent, you can often skip this fee. Many of them will advertise no-fee buildings or no-fee units. This just means you have to do the legwork of finding them and contacting them to set up a viewing – but it’s well worth the extra time in order to save a few thousand dollars! No Fee Rentals is a great resource for finding NYC properties without a fee – we keep our listings updated every day so you know you are checking out the best available properties.

Using a Broker

Brokers can be a big help in your hunt because many have exclusive access to great apartments and relationships with the management companies. This means they can slip your paperwork in with a recommendation and increase your chances of scoring the apartment you want. Most will ask for a 15 percent fee, but know that a lot of them will reduce this if you ask – depending on the monthly rental price, some will go down to 12 percent or even 10 percent, which can end up saving you a lot of money.

What to Look for in a Viewing

It’s good to take some time to try to see as many places as possible before you settle on the right one. When you do go to viewings, make sure to look for or ask the broker or leasing agent about the following:

• Average utility costs
• Rodent or pest issues
• Reliable heat and hot water
• On-site super who can tend to issues
• Closets/storage space
• Noise level
• Whether pets are allowed
• Amount required upfront (first month, last month, security, etc.)

These are just the basics, but there may be plenty of other factors that are important to you in choosing an apartment, such as amount of sunlight it gets, number of units in the building, washer/dryer, dishwasher and so forth.

Living With Roommates

One of the best ways to lower your rent is by living with roommates in NYC. Studios and one-bedroom apartments tend to be much more expensive than two- and three-bedroom units. If you have friends or acquaintances who are interested in sharing a space, you can start to look at bigger apartments together. Otherwise, you can ask around for friends of friends who might be looking, check sites like Craigslist for open bedrooms in other people’s apartments that you can rent, or look for ads from other people who want to go in on the hunt with another person. If you don’t mind sharing your space with someone else, this can often reduce your rent by hundreds of dollars.

RELATED: Finding a Roommate for Your First NYC Apartment

Gathering Your Paperwork

Before you get started on the hunt, there are some basic paperwork essentials that pretty much every broker, landlord or agent will ask to see.

• Copy of your government issued photo ID
• Proof of Income (paystubs and/or a letter from your employer stipulating how much you make)
• One or two years of tax returns
• Copy of the beginning/ending balance of your bank statement for the past two to three months
• Copy of your credit report (many times they will charge you a $25-$75 application fee to cover the cost of running this)
• Proof of any other assets you have, such as savings accounts, IRAs, etc.
• Copy of Guarantor’s photo ID and Tax Return (some landlords require a guarantor from prospective tenants)
• Rental Screening Report (many times you will be charged an application charge to cover the cost of running this report)

There could be some additional paperwork that landlords or agents will require depending on your circumstances, but it’s good to know these basics so you can jump on an apartment as soon as you’re ready!

We own and manage over 50 buildings in and around Manhattan and, with us, there’s never a fee. Be sure to check out our listing of available apartments to find something that’s sure to meet your needs and budget.

If you’re moving into your first NY apartment, there are plenty of decisions to make. You have to decide what neighborhood you’d like to live in, what your monthly rental budget is, what features of an apartment are important to you, how to go about finding an apartment and more. One of the biggest decisions you have to make is whether or not to live with a roommate and who that roommate should be. Having a roomie can be a great bonus for many reasons, so if you do decide to share your space with someone, here are some handy tips to help you figure out how to find a roommate for your first NYC apartment.

Benefits of Having a Roommate

Living alone can be great but there are also plenty of benefits to sharing an apartment with a roommate. For starters, it can cut the cost of your rent down considerably. According to Rent Jungle, the average listing for a one-bedroom apartment in NYC is around $2,700, while two bedrooms average about $3,469. That means that between two people, you’d be paying about $1,000 less, on average. Roommates also just make great company, especially if you like to have more activity in your home. Plus, you get to share housekeeping and maintenance duties with them and can even chip in together for things like groceries and housing supplies to further cut down on costs.

Ways to Find a Roommate

The most obvious way to find a roommate is to ask around to see if anyone you know, or friends of friends are looking for an apartment at the same time as you. You might know some people who are coming to the end of their lease and want a new situation or who are moving to the city at the same time as you. Social networks like Facebook can be super helpful in advertising your hunt for a roommate. If you don’t know of anyone personally, you can check online sites like Craigslist. Look in the “Housing Wanted” section to find people who would like to hunt for an apartment with you or in the “Rooms/shared” section to find people who have available rooms in their apartment.

What to Look for in a Roommate

The ideal roommate obviously varies for every person. But there are some basic factors you should both consider before agreeing to move in together. Consider some of the following questions:

• Do they keep a tidy home?
• Do they have the same schedule as you or very different hours?
• Do they spend a lot of time at home?
• Do they have friends over often?
• Are they very outgoing or introverted?
• Will they be respectful of your space and belongings?
• Do they have a lot of furniture and belongings to bring to the apartment?

These are just a few basic questions to consider. Try to think about what qualities are ideal for you in a living situation and if your potential roommate can live up to them.

Avoiding Sticky Situations

Lastly, when you’re choosing a roommate, especially one who you don’t know personally, it’s important to remember that you are becoming financially intertwined with them. If both of your names are going on the lease, that means that if they can’t pay the rent, it falls back on you, and vice versa. So you want to make sure that you have at least a basic sense of the person’s background, income and general responsibility when it comes to managing their lives and finances. You can ask for references or ask a few basic questions just to get more familiar with them. At the end of the day, always trust your instincts.

Once you find a roommate, contact No Fee Rentals. They have apartments in some of the most sought after NYC neighborhoods that are perfect for sharing!