Health & Safety
Remember the good old days, when finding an apartment was as easy as walking up to the landlord and asking if there were any vacancies? Today, apartment hunting is a bit more involved, leaving renters with many things to consider before choosing a place to live. For instance, it's no longer the noisy neighbor--you know, the one who plays Molly Hatchet CDs until two in the morning who is the big problem. The real concern is the kindly neighbor in Apartment 12, who just happens to be a registered sex offender. In this day and age, the old hippie with the love for southern rock may just turn out to be your favorite neighbor.
Does this sound familiar? It's been a long day at work, you want nothing more than to come back to your apartment and relax. You walk up the stairs and unlock the door. Before you even have the chance to turn on the lights, your nose tells you what you don't want to know: your apartment stinks! Sure, once you've settled on the couch and turned on the TV, the bad smell seems to have faded. Don't be fooled--your apartment smells as bad as ever. Your olfactory system has just acclimated itself to the funk. Planning on having friends or a significant other over anytime soon? You've got to get rid of that smell first.
Most of us try to keep our wits about us on the street or while driving through an unfamiliar neighborhood. But the one place we're supposed to be able to relax and not think about the potential of danger is in our own homes. That's why it's so deeply disturbing when we hear about a crime committed by a stranger in the victim's own home. It's horrible and it does happen. The chances are slim, but it makes sense to be prepared on the off chance that someone tries to break into your apartment.
How to Secure your Stuff in and Around Your Apartment
Living in an apartment complex can sometimes give you a false sense of security, as if your apartment is safer because your neighbors live so close by. In some sense, it is safer--it's easier to find a neighbor to come to your aid in an emergency than it is for people in rural areas. But when it comes to keeping your things safe, living in an apartment can be more risky.
Once your apartment starts to feel like home, the rest of the building often follows. While pulling into the building lot after work or running downstairs to take out the trash, you may feel as relaxed and unguarded as if you're actually in your own unit. While building parking lots, fitness centers, basements and storage areas are generally safe, you need to be aware that they aren't really home. Here are some things to think about when you walk outside your apartment door.
When choosing an apartment, diligent renters pepper landlords and real-estate agents with questions about square footage, amenities and security deposits. However, few renters consider the air quality in potential apartments. Most of us don't think about the quality of the air we breathe at all -- until we begin to suspect that the air in our apartments might be making us sick. As we learn more about how air quality affects common diseases like asthma and with new concerns about "sick building syndrome" in office complexes, more and more people are starting to take air quality seriously.
Have you ever taken a good look at the labels on your household cleaning products? They probably feature a long list of chemicals you don't recognize as well as warnings to contact the Poison Control Center if the product is accidentally ingested or inhaled. Unless the packaging explicitly states otherwise, you can bet the products aren't biodegradable, natural or renewable. Unfortunately, many chemicals used in standard soaps, detergents and other cleaners aren't removed by standard water filtration systems. They end up back in our waterways and it's unclear how they might affect our environment and ourselves. Environmentally friendly cleaning products appeal not only to environmentally conscious consumers, but also to people worried about exposure to toxins or about the accidental poisoning of pets and children.
Apartments have a way of transitioning from freshly cleaned spaces to chaotic pits of dirty laundry and dishes, seemingly overnight. We can blame this on any number of factors: the small size of many apartments, the hectic nature of life, or simply the law of entropy. Whatever the reason, it doesn't change the fact that many of our apartments are disaster zones. Keeping a clean apartment isn't impossible, but it does require a plan of action.
Power outages always seem to happen at the worst times: the hottest night of the summer, the dead of winter, or during dinner. One minute, your TV is blaring, the AC is running at full force and you're hard at work on your computer ... and the next minute it's nothing but silence and darkness. Getting prepared for a power loss isn't hard. The problem is that most of us don't get around to it until we're already in the dark.
Anyone who has spent a few years living in an apartment has a pest story to tell. Whether your home has ants, roaches, mice or even (gasp) rats, having an apartment pest is practically a right of passage. When you see something scurry across the floor or into the kitchen cabinet, your first priority is to find a way to get rid of it, whatever it is. However, if minimizing animal suffering or keeping toxic chemicals out of your apartment is important to you, you may want to consider some humane pest control alternatives. Not all of them work well or reliably. On the other hand, if you have had problems with pests before, you’ll know that even conventional products frequently fail. If you are thinking of getting rid of your pests in an environmentally friendly, humane way, consider some of the following tips.
Second-hand smoke (also called environmental tobacco smoke or ETS) is a health risk for everyone, and particularly for children (who become very susceptible to developing asthma or respiratory infections when exposed to smoke) and the elderly. It’s within your power to quit smoking if you’re a smoker, choose to live with only non-smokers, and ask your guests to smoke outside if they must. But what if your neighbors are smokers? Even if they smoke outside, the smoke might migrate into your living space through cracks around doors or windows or in ventilation system, posing a threat to your health. So what rights do you have when it comes to protecting yourself against second-hand smoke? Read on for more information about the dangers of second-hand smoke and the ways you can protect yourself.
Most people can agree that cockroaches are a disturbing pest that needs to be gotten rid of. There are several approaches to eliminating cockroaches, which we’ve covered in a previous article. But how can you prevent cockroaches from returning once you’ve made them vacate your home? Read on for an overview of common cockroach characteristics and the best prevention methods.
You’ve probably seen cockroaches before, but were likely too concerned with screaming, running away, and finding a can of Raid to notice much about the bug. There are many, many different types of cockroaches, and every variety has its own unique set of characteristics and habits. It’s definitely possible that your area is inhabited by a number of cockroach species, so you’ll probably need to use a combination of pest control methods to battle all the different cockroaches that want to share your home.
We’ve all heard the adage—reduce, reuse, recycle. But how can you recycle if your apartment doesn’t offer a program, and you don’t know your local recycling resources? Never fear—environmentalists are in every city or town, and want nothing more than to help you learn about recycling—or even start a recycling program of your own if necessary. Whether it’s plastic, aluminum, glass, or paper, there will be people and places that can help recycle almost anything.
Living in proximity to a known sexual offender can be scary, but it's even more frightening--and more dangerous--if you're not aware of it. State governments and a variety of watchdog groups offer a wealth of resources for looking up and tracking sexual offenders in your area. Use these resources to become and remain aware of who your neighbors are, and teach any children in your household what to do if a stranger approaches them.
