why don't you just ask your landlord to do that?

investing in comfort improvements, not capital improvements.

I don’t know if this question comes from folks who have never had a landlord, or if there exists, somewhere out there, a cadre of landlords who stand ready to act on their tenants’ desires to have an apartment with doorknobs not caked in paint. If these mythical landlords exist, I’d love an introduction. In the meantime, I’m asked often enough why I don’t just ask my landlord to tackle the various apartment projects I find myself mired in, that I thought I would address the question as forthrightly as possible.

I’ll start by saying that I subscribe to the idea that whether tenant or owner, I’m the steward of the place where I’m living. This doesn’t mean I think it’s my responsibility to fix all the broken windows in this infernal apartment, but it does mean that if I notice a small improvement that I can make that will also improve my experience of the place, chances are, I’ll take the time to make it. This is partially because I can’t help myself and partially because despite all of the AI crap being pushed on us by loser tech bros, I do believe that honing real practical skills is a uniquely human need. We’re hardwired for this stuff, so might as well flex those muscles.

That said, for most part, the projects that I’m tackling in this rental apartment, and in all of my apartments before it, are comfort improvements not capital improvements. I’m not replumbing the kitchen or bringing the electrical up to code, I’m degunking the doorknobs and attempting to make it so the bathroom doesn’t give me the ick every time I step out of the shower. I’m painting the walls a color that I want to see day in and day out and I’m cleaning the radiators because if I don’t, who will?

Like all things, deciding what to take on in a rental apartment are personal decisions requiring personal calculations of available resources of time, energy, money, and expertise. No doubt there are opposing schools of thought on this. For some, investing time or money into a rental apartment is a fool’s errand that takes money out of my pocket and puts it into the pocket of a landlord who I’m already giving so much to. The reality though is that a home’s monetary value isn’t really affected by the kinds of changes I make, but my comfort in that home really is. For me, whether I’m painting the walls of an apartment that I own or an apartment that I rent, the calculation is pretty much the same. Will I like it? Will it make my day-to-day experience of a place more pleasant? Will the relatively small effort and expense mean falling asleep and waking up in a place that makes me feel peaceful or happy or otherwise good? Yes? Great. I’m all in.

Not all rentals or landlords are created equal. No doubt there are rental apartments in this city in far far worse condition than ours and others that are pristine in every way. Most often though, landlords take the path of absolute least resistance and lowest cost. This means that things aren’t fixed until they need to be, and when they are fixed, they’re fixed as quickly and cheaply as possible. Purely cosmetic upgrades are virtually nonexistent. With that in mind, these are the questions that I consider when deciding what I’m willing to tackle, what I’m just going to leave well enough alone, and what I’m going to ask my landlord for help with.