One of the easiest and fastest ways to make your apartment into your home is to put up photos, art, or posters. It becomes a colourful and creative solution to fill your beige walls and make it quickly feel like your own space. But how to hang things without creating holes that could jeopardize the return of your security deposit? Here are some great ideas to avoid damaging the walls in your rental apartment using adhesive strips and hooks.
My favorite is the 3M adhesive strips or hooks. They come in a variety of sizes and come off with no sticky residue left on the walls. I buy them at 'dollar' stores to save money.
Adhesive Strips/Putty
Adhesive strips or putty are perfect for attaching things to a wall with a flat back. Here are 5 ideas on how to use them:
Use them to put up family photos around your place. Attach one of your favorites to the inside of your medicine cabinet, or beside your light in your bedroom so that you see a reminder every day. I tend to use the putty more with photos so it comes off easily.
There are a lot of great websites that sell very affordable posters that ship to your door. Attach a large poster that you love on the ceiling of your bedroom so you see it every morning. Or hang a poster of a place you want to travel and are saving money to go see. Again, use the putty option on this one.
Find some small fancy picture frames, and attached them using the strips around your light switches, to fancy up your apartment.
Buy a variety of color and size of picture frames at the dollar store and put them on the wall behind your couch using strips, and fill them with photos, postcards or letters from family and friends.
Attach your power bar to the wall using adhesive strips to keep cords off the floor and more organized.
Adhesive Hooks
The adhesive hooks are surprisingly versatile; here are my top 5 favorite uses:
The most common is using a strong adhesive hook on the back of your doors. You can hang towels, jackets, scarves, and hats to give you more space.
Use a command hook on the wall beside your bedroom nightstand to hang your reading glasses. Or put one on the wall beside the front door to put your sunglasses on.
Hang two large adhesive hooks and put a curtain rod between them. It instantly creates a shoe rack, perfect for organizing high heels together off the floor and creating more space.
Storing pot lids in your bottom kitchen cupboards. Using two small adhesive hooks at an angle allows you to slide in your pot lids on the side of your cupboard, giving you easy access. It also works well to hang kitchen utensils if you have little counter space.
Attach a wire file box to the side of your bathroom cupboard below your sink, where you can put curling irons or straighteners.
Note: Just remember to leave some of the tab exposed so you can remove them easily. Here's a video showing the proper removal technique.
Mainstreet Equity Corp. is a publicly-traded (TSX: MEQ) residential real estate company in Canada. Mainstreet currently owns and operates properties in Surrey, BC; New Westminster, BC; Abbotsford, BC; Calgary, AB; Cochrane, AB; Lethbridge, AB; Edmonton, AB; Fort Saskatchewan, AB; and Saskatoon, SK.
Mainstreet provides affordable, renovated apartment suites to Canadians, and is committed to creating real value without diluting shareholder interests.