The first apartment list, in the order you will actually need it
The first flat needs about sixty things and you notice most of them the day you need one. Plan it as a board split into the first night, the first week and the rest, against a number that has to cover all three.
The short version
A first apartment list fails because everything looks equally urgent on paper. Split it three ways: what you need the first night, what you need the first week, and what can wait a month. Buy the first group properly and the third group slowly, and put the deposit outside the furnishing budget.
A sample board
The first flat
First night, first week, and the rest. One number across all three.
- Items
- 6
- Purchased
- 1 of 6
- Total
- $1,222
- Budget
- $578 left of $1,800
Open any item for its details.
$340WantedStore · OaklineSize · DoubleWhen · First night
$420PurchasedStore · NorrlandSize · DoubleWhen · First night
$260IdeaStore · Halden & CoSeats · 4When · Later
$68IdeaStore · RavelWhen · First night
$45IdeaStore · Fielder HomeCapacity · 1.7LWhen · First week
$89IdeaStore · Fielder HomeWhen · First week
Board photos from Unsplash, by Martti Leetsar, Kathyryn Tripp, ONNO, Dmitry Ganin, engin akyurt and Cooker King.
Who it's for
Anyone moving into their own place for the first time, alone or with someone, working from an empty flat and a fixed amount of money.
What people use today
Every retailer publishes a first apartment checklist and every one is a list of things they sell. There is no shortage of lists. There is nothing that holds your list, with your prices and what you have already got from family.
What a board tracks here
Fields you name yourself, on the item they belong to. These are the ones that decide a purchase and have nowhere else to live.
- When needed
- First night, first week, or later. The single split that makes a sixty item list manageable.
- Got it free
- Half of a first flat arrives from family. A list that does not record that overbuys.
- Fits the door
- A sofa that will not go up the stairs is a story everyone in a flat share has.
- Who is paying
- Two people splitting a flat need this on the item, not in a separate note.
Reading
- The First Night Box: What a First Apartment Needs in the First Twelve HoursA first apartment list has about sixty items on it and they are not equally urgent. Here is the small group that has to exist before you sleep there, and why everything else can wait.
- Half a First Apartment Arrives Free, If You Track ItA large share of a first flat comes from family, storage and friends moving out. The people who end up buying twice are the ones who never wrote down what was already coming.
- Splitting Furniture Costs When You Move In TogetherFurnishing a flat together is the first joint financial decision most couples and housemates make, and the arrangements that cause arguments later are the ones nobody wrote down.
Start one of your own.
Paste a link from any store and Vurra reads the page for a title, price and image. Free while Vurra is in early access.