Apartment Tour

I love apartment hunting. I get to imagine how I'd arrange my things in a new place. In my head, it's always much more organized than my current apartment. Additionally, if I'm viewing apartments that still have occupants, I get to see how other people organize their stuff! I get to look at their books and wall art and try to figure out what they're like. I can scan their DVD collections and guess whether or not we'd be good friends.

Yes, that chair is really comfy when it doesn't have coats on it.

Eric and I are moving in March, so our landlord has started showing our apartment. Suddenly I'm considering what magazines I've left lying around or if the sink is full of dirty dishes. Does the Iron Man poster make us seem fun or nerdy? What do they think if they look in our kitchen cabinets to see the jars of curry paste, the leftover Halloween candy, and the surprising number of coffee mugs? It's been an odd feeling to wonder who is walking through my apartment trying to figure me out.

I've only been on this side of things once before when the lease was up at my house in Ann Arbor. The people who toured it learned several key pieces of information about my roommates and me within the first few minutes of walking into our house:

1. We were dedicated Michigan students and fans.

Designed and painted by Amanda and Ellen.
The inscription: "This table is made with blood, sweat, tears and plywood."

2. We were the kind of people who considered decorations timeless.

This photo is from May 2010. 
The St. Patrick's Day decorations stayed up well past March 17, 2011.

3. The Marines tried to recruit three of my roommates with free giveaways. What visitors might not have been able to tell was that they recruited three of my smallest, most feminine roommates.

If you sat on our couch, it looked like the marine was pointing at you.
Amy, pictured here, was one of the three recruited.

I like to think that by making it clear that such great people lived in our house, it made potential renters more excited to lease 429 Hamilton Place. I hope they have the same reaction to my current apartment.

What are the first things to notice in your apartment?