17 FEBRUARY 2016
SPRING 2016
HOUSING
GUIDE
S E E O U R A D O N PA G E 1 6
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HOW TO:
Become an adult, Move in to your own place apartment. Know what you can and cannot live without.
MCKENNA WIERMAN
Mckenna.wierman@yahoo.com
STEP THREE:
You’re finally taking that next step as an adult. Kiss the dorm rooms goodbye, kids, because you’ve just leased your first apartment. Or maybe you and a group of buddies rallied together and found the sweetest of condos just a few blocks from the Square. Either way, it’s all yours and you couldn’t be more ready to finally have a place of your own to call home sweet home. Or are you ready? The fact is, not all renting options come fully furnished— meaning you may find yourself with the responsibility of rounding up all the things that make a house a home on your own. Although having to furnish your own place as a 20-something who has lived with your parents all your life may seem intimidating, it really isn’t as difficult as it seems. In a few easy steps, you could be well on your way to having a comfortable living space with everything you need.
STEP ONE:
Communication is key. Find out for sure what will and will not be provided. Speaking from personal experience, even if an apartment comes “fully furnished,” that may not include some things you would expect. The last thing you want to do is show up on move-in day, walk into your new bathroom and discover you don’t have a shower rod or shower curtain. Some places will include everything from curtains to a flat screen, while others may only provide a bed frame and coffee table. The easiest way to be prepared
is to call call your landlord or apartment complex office and just ask. Touch base with your roommates, too, and figure out who will bring what. You’ll be surprised how easily things will come together.
STEP TWO:
Apply yourself. Let’s say you are leasing a house or you know for a fact the only “furnishings” included in your new digs are the toilet and the sink. You might want to take a different approach to gathering up what you’ll need to live your life. First off, get your priorities straight. Will your new abode have all its appliances? Washer, dry-
er, microwave? What about lamps, a nightstand or even a bed frame? Box spring? Think about the things you use every day that make your life comfortable. You may want to tell yourself you don’t need a dresser because you can just live out of your suitcase, but honestly, who can stand that for an entire year? And don’t believe the hype on Instagram— a lone mattress plopped on the floor isn’t as glamorous as it seems. Walk yourself through your morning or evening routine as you get ready for and end your day. Make a list of everything you use and get that for your
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Nine steps to being a good roommate HAILEA LAMER
hrlamer@go.olemiss.edu
Living in a house or apartment is completely different from living in a dorm. You have a bigger place to take care of, and you might be living with more people than you’re used to. Even though there are no RAs to tell you what to do and no set rules you have to follow, living with a bunch of other college students can be tough. Take note of these easy tips and you’ll be sure to have a year of smooth sailing.
1. CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF
Nobody wants to wake up to a countertop filled with crumbs from your morning toast and a sticky floor. If you make a mess, take responsibility and clean it up. Leave the mess and you’ll find yourself with annoyed/grossed out roommates and, possibly, ants. Nobody wants ants.
2. WHILE WE’RE SPEAKING OF CLEANING ... SPLIT UP THE CHORES
Nobody wants to be the only person taking out the trash, loading and unloading the dishwasher and wiping off crumby counters. Split up the responsibilities or risk having a resentful roommate who wishes they lived by themselves.
3. BE RESPECTFUL OF YOUR NOISE LEVEL
Nothing is more irritating than when you’re trying to study for your biology test and your roommate is throwing a raging dance party. Unless it’s a weekend, there is really no need to turn up the volume, especially if the people you live with have schoolwork to focus on.
4. UNLESS YOU’RE SHARING, DON’T EAT SOMEONE ELSE’S FOOD
Those Tostitos sitting in the pantry might look like the perfect after-class snack, but if they aren’t yours, be respectful of whoever bought them and leave them alone. If you are sharing your food, replace whatever you ate last. There is nothing worse than running late for class and wanting to grab a Pop-Tart only to find out that the box sitting on the shelf is empty.
5. ALTERNATE WHO BUYS EVERY DAY HOUSEHOLD SUPPLIES
One person shouldn’t be in charge of buying trash bags, paper towels and paper plates. These can really add up throughout the year, so take turns buying items that everyone uses. Another tip: buy them in bulk! Go to Costco or Sam’s Club and buy the 20-pack of paper towels. It might seem excessive at the time, but you won’t have to worry about running out because those packs last for months.
ADULT
continued from page 3 who did quite a bit of research to write it before throwing it together. Again, speaking from personal experience here, you may think getting a trashcan for the kitchen, your bathroom AND your bedroom is excessive — it’s not. And don’t be too cool to listen to any parental advice on what you’ll need, either. You may think your mother is acting nuts when she tells you to get curtains, but you’ll thank her when they are the only thing standing between you, your useless broken window blinds and the 6 a.m. sunrise.
STEP FOUR:
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Shop around. Look for new stuff at the bigger stores, but don’t be afraid to check out garage and estate sales, Goodwill or even the side of the road. A neighbor throws out a perfectly good moss green
6. INFORM EACH OTHER IF YOU’RE PLANNING ON HAVING GUESTS
Having friends and family come to visit is normal, but do make sure your roommates know so there aren’t any surprises. It can be a little weird to walk downstairs in your pajamas only to find three strangers sleeping on your couch. Make sure your guests are respectful to your roomies as well.
7. DON’T TAKE THINGS WITHOUT PERMISSION
Living with other people means more closets to peruse, more DVDs to pick from and more people to ask if you need a last-minute Scantron. Ask your roommates if you can borrow something of theirs instead of just taking it. They’ll be more likely to say yes and let you borrow things in the future.
8. DON’T USE ALL THE HOT WATER
Raise your hand if you enjoy taking cold showers. Nobody? Half-hour showers aren’t necessary, so cut down on the time and let your roommates enjoy a nice hot shower, too. Besides, you’re saving the environment by taking a shorter shower, so that’s definitely a win-win situation.
9. BOND WITH EACH OTHER
It can be pretty awkward and tense if you decide to just coexist with your roommates. If you don’t know your roommates that well, get to know each other over dinners, movnightstand? Buy some spray paint and put it in the back of your truck. Check out social media too — Oxford has more than one Facebook page dedicated to furniture resale. If you’re looking for some extra cash, this may also be a nice way to get rid of unwanted coffee tables and chairs. College-aged individuals do have a habit of accidentally ruining things, so there isn’t really a point in buying a $3,000 leather sofa if someone is just going to spill Hawaiian Punch all over it. Don’t be afraid of a little HGTV-style refurbishing.
STEP FIVE:
Don’t be scared. Just prepare yourself as much as you can— relax, breathe and live a little while in your new situation before you freak out over the blender you forgot to get or the lamp you drove 9 hours with only to discover it no longer works. No one is going to judge you if you’re using the same mug to drink
ie nights or nights out on the Square. If they aren’t already, roommates can turn into some of your best friends if you give them a chance. Having roommates can be one of the best (or worst) parts of college life. You will be living with each other for a year, after all. By following these simple tips, you can guarantee that you’ll be the best roommate in Oxford.
coffee, juice and milk out of (as long as you wash it out after each use). This is college, not a five-star hotel. Embrace the idea that there may be some things you’ve got to live without. Anything you’ve forgotten, you’ll quickly remember once you settle in, and anything you cannot live without, you’ll find a way to acquire. The most important thing to keep in mind is that home is place you’re supposed to feel safe— a place you return to at the end of a long day, a place kick off your shoes and be yourself. As you furnish your house or apartment, don’t be afraid to include things that will make you comfortable. Splurge on that extra-thick mattress pad if it means you’ll sleep easier at night, hang your state flag on the wall, bring pictures of your dog to tape to the fridge. It’s exciting to have a place to call your own, so make it yours.
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THE PROS AND CONS OF LIVING ALONE
S S S L I A M T N D E L O R It’s that time of year again, when Ole Miss students are shopping around for a place to live for fall semester. In a college town like Oxford, it can be hard for people who prefer to live alone to find a reasonably priced one-bedroom apartment without struggling to make ends meet each month. You’ve had a roommate for the entire year and, frankly, you’re ready to get out on your own. But you may be signing up for more than you bargained for. An elementary education major said she regrets getting her own place after living in the dorms for two years with a roommate. “It’s so expensive,” she said. “I really wish I would have gotten a roommate or at least shopped around a bit more. I like having my own place, but I am going to have a roommate next year.” Everyone’s experience will be different. Here are my Top 10 pros and cons of living alone.
PROS:
Bills: All of your bills are on you. While this may not sound like a pro, consider this: You don’t have to worry about a roommate being late on the rent, the lights being cut off, or the cable suddenly
File Photo
going out, and if you do it will be your fault it happened. Creativity: Of course you got to decorate your dorm room, but you only got to decorate YOUR side. Now you have the creative ability to make your apartment your own. The entire space will look exactly how you want it to look. Privacy: Want to have a guy or girl over? No problem. You don’t have to close your door or make sure your roommate is comfortable with having others in the house. You and your company
will have complete privacy. Don’t want to have anyone over? That’s cool too. The only people coming in and out of your place are the ones you invite. Food: All of the food is yours. Every single morsel. You don’t have to worry about anybody eating your food and you can cook what you want when you want it. Sense of Independence: This is by far one of the most important things you can gain from living alone. Living alone means you’re all grown up and the responsibil-
ity that comes with that can teach you valuable life lessons.
CONS:
Price: Difficult to find a reasonably priced pad (unless you don’t mind paying $1,000 a month or more in rent). Boredom: Unless your buddies are going to be hanging out at your new place 24/7, be prepared to experience long bouts of quiet, long text conversations, hours of Instagram and Twitter, and long phone calls with your mom just to hear
another human’s voice. Difficult to focus on studies: When you have a roommate, there is the slight chance that you motivate each other to study. When you live alone, your studying consists of binge watching Breaking Bad and Orange is the New Black, so your studying turns into... well, not studying. Chores: The cleanliness of your new digs is solely on you. You and your roommate probably divided up dorm cleanup equally or you didn’t clean your dorm at all and complained to your mom that your roommate was the nastiest creature ever. When you move in by yourself and find dishes stacked high to the ceiling and laundry overflowing, you may be in for a reality check. Or you may have the spiffiest apartment in North MS. Either way, all of the housework is now up to you. Fear: You remember how everything used to be a whole lot scarier when your parents left you home alone as a teenager? Well be prepared to relive those super scary moments every single night of your solo living life. The toilet running, the refrigerator noise, and even the sound of your air conditioning coming on in the middle of the night will cause you to clutch your bedsheets a little bit tighter.
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Living with your best friend: Can you handle it? Supreme per week? We’re all just human, after all. Your best friend is your biggest supporter, and if your goal for the day is to sit around eating pints of ice cream, then they will help you achieve that goal. This does not include only food, but also procrastinating and overall avoidance of all practical decisions.
SHELBY PACK
sepack@go.olemiss.edu
One of the most important decisions you make when choosing the perfect place to live is who your future roommate or roommates will be, a decision that can easily make or break your entire year (no pressure). You might be thinking, “Duh, I’m going to live with my besties!” But before you sign that lease, take a look at this extremely important and hard-hitting information — the definitive pros and cons of living with your best friends.
PRO: WHAT’S THEIRS IS YOURS
This applies to many things, including but not limited to: clothes, shoes, space, time and love. Obviously, this excludes food. That’s sacred. You might ask for permission for one or more of those things listed, but eventually you’ll find yourself wearing your roomie’s shirt and booties while laying between her and her boyfriend, forcing them to watch another episode of whatever you’re binge-watching at the time. This is a totally hypothetical situation, of course, and has never happened to me before. Maybe.
PRO: LIVING WITH YOUR BEST FRIEND(S)
This is obviously the first pro, because almost nothing is worse than having a long distance bestie, even if that long distance is just two miles down the road. Instead of having to get out of bed, put on pants, get in the car and drive to your best friend, they are just one room away! You don’t even have to put on pants to see them, and that is a major pro in my book. However, this also leads to my first con.
CON: NEVER WANTING TO LEAVE THE HOUSE
When your best friend is your roommate, any reason to leave the house basically goes out the window. This rule only increases by the number of roommates you have. For example, I live with three of my best friends, and we are all pretty much hermits who bask in each other’s presence at this point. You always think there will come a time when you’ll “need space” or see each other “too much” but I’m here to tell you the hard truth
— that time will never come, and one day you’ll wake up only to realize it’s been three weeks since you’ve seen the outside world other than going to class and getting food. Beware of this slippery slope to social seclusion.
PRO: NEVER GETTING BORED
While it is entirely possible that you’ll become a recluse, you will not be a bored one. Living in a box with your best friend is kind of like your own personal social experiment. Fun will begin to take on an entirely new meaning and you won’t hate it. Even just enjoy-
ing an easy silence with your bestie will be considered a good night. You’ll find yourself telling stories to other people that seem riveting in your memory until you realize the tale is actually just about you and your roomie perfecting your music video skills via the fabulous app Triller. Eventually you’ll learn to refrain from telling other people things of this nature because (spoiler alert) you and your roommate(s) are the only people who think dramatically dancing to Britney Spears’s “Lucky” is art.
CON: BAD HABITS
One of the top causes of weight gain among college students is living with a best friend. If that isn’t statistically recorded, it should be, because it is too real. If you’re on the fence about a bad food decision, your bestie can almost always be counted on to help you make up your mind. A midnight run to Taco Bell alone is always nice, but a midnight run to Taco Bell with your best friend is a real event. A real fun event. Such a real fun event that what starts out as a treat quickly turns into a routine. Who can have just one Crunch Wrap
CON: HAVING TO MOVE OUT AT THE END OF THE YEAR
The idea of going even one day without your best friend is a nightmare to be avoided at all costs, but when summer rolls around, the concept of months without your bestie is all too real. Sadly, your time together must come to an end, and the absolute worst con on this list is the feeling you’ll have while watching your best friend drive away after the best year of your life. Luckily for you, though, there is always another lease to be signed and another year to be conquered. Unless of course you’re graduating, in which case this is a true con and I feel your pain.
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