So lovelies, as you know, recently I made the big move into an apartment with BF. Here are some tips I have for making your own move go smoothly…

Finding the Right Apartment

If you’re trying to get an apartment in Manhattan you need to know that you’ve got to be ready to pounce. This means you have to get everything in order before you even go look at apartments. Typically you need a picture i.d., tax records for the past 2 years, proof that you have a bank account, so something like statements. Different buildings may require more things I can’t remember what else ours required but definitely those things. You also should be ready to write a check for at least the application fee on scene. If you don’t have this stuff, someone else will. Be prepared and be prepared to stalk the leasing office until your apartment goes through. Also you’ll most likely need 1 month’s rent ready soon after your application is approved as well as at least 1 month’s rent for a security deposit.

Once you’ve been approved you should try to negotiate. In this market lots of apartments are available and you can most likely knock at least $100 off the monthly rent.

PS-you don’t need to use a broker. There are plenty of apartments in rental buildings that you can walk in yourself. If you do this make sure you ask for a price reduction since they’d definitely be paying the broker a hefty fee. Craigslist also has some gems, you just have to dig.

The Move

If you have heavy furniture, hire movers if you have the money. It’s worth it. BF moved himself with a UHAUL with friends but even they would have had a hard time moving my couch complete with sofa sleeper and gigantic mirror and I didn’t want any of it to get damaged. I hired Flat Rate Movers. Here’s their deal, when you set up the move you have to give them a list of every piece you’re moving: TVs, Mirrors, rugs, furniture, boxes, you name it. Each piece you add of course hikes up the price. Ask them though what they charge for certain pieces because if you can move some of your stuff on your own it might be worth it. For example BF had a UHAUL so I gave him some of my stuff that we could lift in order to reduce the stuff my movers had to take and therefore lowered my price, which came out to be about $500. Now, you can go to Craigslist and hire movers there but they’re probably not insured and that scared me a bit. Included in Flat Rate’s price was up to $5000 worth of your stuff (there is a deductible though). All I know is my move went off without a hitch (minus the movers getting blocked in my alley by a police car but of course that wasn’t their fault). The movers arrived On Time and ready to work. They didn’t break one thing and they were very fast.

Visit FlatRate.com for more details

Where I DO NOT think you should scrimp and save is on tips. These guys are working hard to move your stuff and even though you’re paying a big company big bucks, they’re probably not seeing much of it. I didn’t know what I should tip them so I asked around and the consensus seemed to be at about $40-$50 per person who is moving your stuff. Trust me, they’ll be very grateful, and really, it’s well deserved.

Furniture

We tried to keep any furniture we could from my last place, this included a Jennifer Convertibles couch (complete with bed). This was a great investment. Not only have I had the couch for 3 years but at Jennifer Convertibles you can purchase something called Stain Protection. This means if you spill on it and can’t get it out they’ll come clean it for free and if they can’t get it out they’ll give you a new couch! Definitely worth whatever we paid for it. We may have to test this out since we just found a spot on it.

Target has decent furniture. Beware though you need to put everything together. How much is your time worth? Some of the pieces are upwards of $350. At that point you may be happier going to a furniture store and purchasing a piece that’ll come already assembled. Also realize that Target furniture isn’t always the best quality often you get what you pay for. If you do get it (we ordered our TV stand) be careful when assembling it. Make sure that you put it on towels and don’t scratch it by moving it on wood floors.

Crate and Barrel and West Elm are much cheaper than you’d think and have great stuff. The Door Store has some good furniture too. We ordered our coffee table from there. It comes assembled and is real wood. For us, we’re trying to make some small investments so that the next time we move we won’t want to just toss all our furniture.

The Relationship

Try to be patient with your new roommate, be it a friend or boyfriend. Keep telling yourself everything takes time and take it step by step, together.

Get ready…Pictures to follow once I’ve got everything together!

Click HERE to read this article.

Girls, seriuosly! Go for a run or even layout in the actual sun for a short period of time to get some color if you absolutely MUST be tan! Tanning beds are NOT worth it!

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BF’s Grandma recently turned 85 so to commemorate this joyous occasion his fantastically adorable fam decided to invite the entire extended family over and do all the cooking…for an army… for the party. There was literally enough food to feed an elementary school full of growing kids. In sum, parties thrown yourself, with homemade cooking and decorations are the way to go in my opinion. Not only does having your special occasion at a restaurant raise the bill, there is no way it could be as special as this party was at home. Everything was made with love, which obviously (and cheezily) makes it taste better.

On another note, bragging rights reserved, please look at the cake. BF’s Mom and Aunt baked the cake and BF’s cousin and I frosted it…by hand…for 3 hours! (It was a super fun, albeit terrifying experience. I’m pretty sure if I ruined the cake I would have been exiled. Kidding…Kinda…) It is tiny individual dots, which I’m not sure you can decipher from this not-so-high-resolution camera. Needless to say, it was so beautiful. Proving once again, that just because something has a hefty price tag, doesn’t mean it’ll ever taste as sweet! That said I do now understand why wedding cakes cost as much as college tuition. With the 2 of us frosting this bad boy it legit took us nearly 3 hours! And that’s just the frosting part!

Happy Birthday, Edith! So happy I could partake in the celebration!