5 First Apartment Essentials, Must

Let me be the first to warn you: There are few journeys quite as harrowing as the one you’ll take from your first-ever apartment to the nearest home goods store. A decade ago, in my first few weeks as a post-grad New Yorker, I must have completed at least a dozen roundtrip voyages to Bed Bath & Beyond—and that's not counting all the pit-stops at drugstores, supermarkets and coffee shops along the way. (Schlepping willpower is highly correlated with caffeine intake, studies show.) I’d trudge home wearily alongside my then-roommate, our arms heavy with desk lamps and gallon-sized detergent.

In the end, of course, it was all worth it: Every towel, toothbrush and tissue box eventually settled in and found its rightful place in our apartment. Each morning, we were greeted by the shiny toaster we had selected, the nonstick pan we’d arbitrarily deemed "the best." We were building a home.

They may not look like much, but these essentials are all but guaranteed to seriously upgrade your ... [+] living experience.

As you set off on your own expeditions, take heart in that fact. You, too, are working toward a tangible goal: the creation of a livable, furnished (or semi-furnished) space tailored to your unique preferences and habits. It won't be perfect, but it’ll be yours. If you’re overwhelmed at the prospect of outfitting an entire space, start by thinking about what matters most to you. Is a clean, uncluttered space what you’re after? Investing in pantry storage bins, dish soap and dustpans should be among your first orders of business (after the true necessities, of course). Plan on exclusively working from home? Stock up on office supplies, purchase a great desk chair and consider a laptop stand or wireless keyboard, too.

Ahead, find several other seemingly-humble-but-critical items that’ll help you take the first step toward claiming your space.

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You’d be hard-pressed to convince any apartment dweller to pare down their personal collection of "must-have" kitchen gadgets. (My KitchenAid stand mixer and I, for one, will be parted only when I part from this earthly realm.) But even the most gadget-happy among us would have to admit that a sheet pan is one of the most versatile items you can buy. With this humble-looking tray at your service, you can bake cookies, cakes, biscuits and bars—not to mention roast veggies, make pizza, toast nuts and fry bacon. Forget the days when the words "first apartment" were synonymous with "sad spaghetti and canned tomato sauce dinners." Instead, sheet pan dinners—entire meals prepared on one pan, and all at the same time to boot—will save you from extra dirty dishes at the end of the night.

Short on space? Stow the pan inside of your oven when not in use…or better yet, opt for a smaller version. Forbes Vetted's top sheet pan pick, the Nordic Ware Natural Aluminum Baker's Half Sheet, also comes in ¼- and ⅛-sheet sizes, the latter of which can be used right in your toaster oven.

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Here's something all college grads should know before they head off into the real world: Good lighting is not a guarantee. Heck, lighting isn't a guarantee. Technically, apartment ceiling lights aren't required by the government's building codes per The National Electrical Code—at least not in every room. But don't scratch "ability to see" off your nonnegotiable list just yet. Additional lighting is easy enough to come by, whether you’re looking for a dedicated task lamp like the aged brass model above or a more modern arched design. Let there be light.

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At what moment does a house truly become a home? We can't say for sure. But with some degree of certainty, we can tell you when a house is not a home: when you walk into the bathroom and find a lonely, wayward toothbrush resting on a sink ledge, precariously positioned above an open toilet bowl. Our advice: Give it a real home—someplace it’ll be safe from germs and falls. One of Amazon's bestselling options, the WEKITY Wall-Mounted Toothbrush Holder, is a must-try. Beyond its most obvious use, the holder features not one, but two toothpaste dispensers and a small but useful shelving unit. It's also wall-mounted, but don't let that scare you off, renters: A strong sticker gets the job done here, and reviewers claim it's easy enough to remove using a scraper.

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Step one to feeling like a true adult: waving goodbye to that defeated-looking pile of clothes on your desk chair. Instead, invest in an easy-to-transport hamper, like the under-$15, no-frills Starplast Tall Flex Laundry Basket. If you’re nervous you’ll forget about laundry day unless those dirty clothes are in plain sight, opt instead for the quick-shipping, hand-woven Seville Classics Water Hyacinth Oval Double Hamper. It's elegant enough to earn an out-in-the-open spot, and it even features two bins for easy sorting. The thick, natural canvas bags hidden inside are machine-washable and feature built-in handles.

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If you’ve got more than one working source of electricity at your new place, consider yourself lucky. And if said source is located in the right place—not too far from your desk; not hidden beneath a bed or (yikes) inside of a closet—you’ve just about won the first apartment lottery.

For the rest of you, there are two options: You can let your bleak, bleak outlet situation rule you, shifting around furniture and crawling into tight spaces to accommodate the poorly positioned outlets…or, well, you can simply invest in an extension cord or two. The choice is yours, but we’ll just leave this 8-prong extension cord strip right here. It features a whopping eight prongs and a flat plug that allows it to sit snugly against the wall and as far away as possible from any nearby furniture. A built-in surge protector guards against dangerous shocks and shorts, too.