TIPS: MY FIRST PLACE 101

‘Tis the season when many high school grads, college grads, and even continuing college students look to begin a new phase in their lives – the first dorm room, the first off-campus apartment, the first no-roommates apartment. Because we want to help you avoid some of the mistakes we made ourselves when moving through these phases, we’d like to offer up some helpful hints when planning out these firsts.

1. Pick a color scheme – This is step one no matter whether you are moving into a dorm room, new rental, or if you’re very lucky, your first owned property. Color schemes aren’t just for the paint on your walls. It’s for your textiles (towels and bedding), curtains or blinds, and accessories, like throw rugs and desktop items. Try picking three colors you want your scheme to revolve around (red/grey/cream or blue/gold/white or some other combination) and then choose items that  coordinate with those colors. An easy way to do this is to go to a paint store or the paint department of a home improvement store, and look at the paint sample cards. Take a couple, they’re usually free. Play around with them to see which combination you like best. Keep the sample cards with you when you shop for your design items.

2. Always keep lists and update them – Write down what items you know you will need and what items you know you will want. These are two separate categories. Needs should always come first and then wants should be fulfilled if you have the room in your budget (see item 3).  As you purchase items, cross them off your list so that you don’t forget you already completed those items.

3. Decide on your budget – Figure out what your budget is and plan to stick with it. If you set a goal of spending only $500 and decide that you absolutely must add the $399 throw rug, after you already spent $400 on your “need” items, you may feel the burn of buyers regret when you receive your credit card bill, if not sooner. That said, you should also build a little wiggle room into your budget – say $50, or some other amount that you know won’t affect you too much.

In the coming posts, we’ll get specific about tips for each type of “My First”. Next time - the dorm room.