Seven Nights on a Mattress: The 10 Things Our New Flat Needed
We signed for an unfurnished flat and learned what that means one evening at a time. The first week, and the small things that filled each gap as it appeared.
10 products8 min read
What “unfurnished” meant
We picked up the keys on a Friday in late September. The listing had said unfurnished, which we had taken to mean no sofa. It meant one working socket in the bedroom, a shower that produced a warm thread the width of a pencil, a front door with a gap at the bottom you could feel from the hallway, and a kitchen whose drawers were lined with someone else’s crumbs.
We had a mattress, two suitcases and a car full of boxes, and we had not thought about any of the small things that make a room usable. So we bought them as the flat asked for them, one gap at a time, over seven nights and the month that followed. This is the order it happened in.
Friday, 10 p.m. — one socket, two phones, no light
The first night was the mattress on the floor, a laptop playing something, two phones at eleven percent and one socket, behind the headboard we did not have yet. At midnight one of us walked into a doorframe on the way to the bathroom, because we did not know where the hall switch was and still, a month later, are not sure.
The strip that made one socket into seven
The desktop power strip with USB-C, clock and night light, about $25, was ordered from the mattress by phone on the Friday and arrived on the Tuesday. It has three sockets, two USB-C and two USB-A ports on a metre of cable, a clock on the end and a soft night light along the edge, which meant both phones, the laptop and a lamp ran off the one socket and the bedroom had a glow in it that was not a screen. It comes with a European plug by default, so pick the plug option that matches your sockets before you order; we nearly did not.
Desktop Power Strip with USB-C, Clock and Night Light
$24.89
The light that found the bathroom
The rechargeable motion-sensor LED bar light, about $14, is a thin bar on a magnetic strip that sticks to a wall with an adhesive pad. It comes on when you walk past and fades out half a minute after you leave. We put it on the hall wall at knee height, pointing at the floor, and the route from the mattress to the bathroom at 3 a.m. stopped being a hazard. It arrives flat and needs a charge before it does anything, which we found out at 3 a.m. on the Tuesday; since then it has needed a charge roughly once a month.
Rechargeable Motion-Sensor LED Bar Light
$13.85
The strip that stopped the door whistling
The self-adhesive door frame seal strip, about $23 for six metres, is a soft foam strip in a fabric skin that presses into the rebate of the door frame. The front door had a gap that whistled whenever the stairwell door opened, and one of us is a light sleeper. We cut the strip with kitchen scissors on the Saturday morning, pressed it round the frame, and the whistle stopped. The trick is to wipe the frame with alcohol first; the piece we put on a dusty section peeled within the week and had to be redone. It is thick, so if a door already closes tightly it may not shut over it.
Self-Adhesive Door Frame Seal Strip (6 m)
$23.09
We slept, eventually. The first morning had its own problem.
Saturday, 7 a.m. — the shower and the cupboard under the sink
The shower was a tap at head height. We stood under it in turns and agreed, dripping, that this came before the sofa.
The shower head that changed every morning after
The Zloog 5-mode rainfall shower head, about $21, is a wide handheld head that screws onto the existing hose by hand. It took two minutes, no tools, and turned the pencil of warm water into a shower that rinsed shampoo out in one pass. Of everything in this story it is the thing we have noticed most, because we notice it every day. It has five spray patterns, of which we use two. Check the hose has the standard half-inch thread before ordering; nearly all do, and we kept the old head in a drawer for moving day.
Zloog 5-Mode Rainfall Shower Head (175 mm)
$20.67
The thing that made the cupboard under the sink a cupboard
The under-sink pull-out storage organiser, about $32, is two sliding wire baskets on a frame that sits around the waste pipe. The cupboard under the kitchen sink was a dark hole with a pipe in it, and on the Saturday it was also where the cleaning things from the move had been thrown. The organiser went in without tools, the baskets slide out so you can see what is in them, and the bin bags and sprays have lived there since. It was the most expensive thing of the week and the one we debated longest. Measure the depth of the cupboard and where the pipe sits before ordering; it needs about forty centimetres clear.
Under-Sink Pull-Out Storage Organiser (2-Tier)
$31.59
By Saturday lunchtime we were clean and the kitchen had one working cupboard. Then the furniture arrived, flat, in nine boxes, with nine small bags of screws.
Saturday, 2 p.m. — nine boxes and a butter knife
Flat-pack furniture comes with a hex key and the assumption that you own a screwdriver. We owned a butter knife. We also did not know whether the wardrobe would fit along the bedroom wall, because we had never measured the bedroom.
The bits for every small screw the flat turned out to have
The 170-in-1 magnetic precision screwdriver bit set, about $26, is a case of small Phillips, Torx and hex bits with a slim magnetic driver and an extension bar. The big cam bolts in the wardrobe were done with the hex key in the box; the thirty small screws that hold the back panel on, and the hinges on the bedside cabinet, and the drawer runners on the desk, were done with this. Then, over the weekend, so were the thermostat cover, the brackets on the blind, and a cupboard handle that had been loose since we arrived. It is a precision set, so the handle is thin and the bits are short; for anything that needs real force it is the wrong tool, and for everything small it has been the right one most weeks since.
170-in-1 Magnetic Precision Screwdriver Bit Set
$26.29
The meter that measured the flat alone
The mini USB laser distance meter, about $20, is the size of a lighter. You point it at the far wall, press, and the distance appears. One of us measured every room, the gap for the fridge and the wall the wardrobe was going on in five minutes, alone, while the other was still looking for the tape measure, which was in a box in the car. It struggles on a dark wall in bright sunlight; indoors, which is where flats are, it was never wrong. It is a convenience for one move, and we say so below.
Mini USB Laser Distance Meter (30 m)
$20.25
The shelf that got the shampoo off the shower floor
The suction-cup corner bathroom shelf, about $9, is a triangular shelf that presses onto two tiled walls in the corner of the shower. We put it up on the Saturday evening after the wardrobe, pressed hard, and left it empty overnight as the leaflet said. On Sunday the shampoo and the shower gel came off the floor for the first time. It has slipped once, when one of us put four bottles on a shelf meant for two, and we have not done that again.
Suction-Cup Corner Bathroom Shelf
$9.45
By the second Friday the flat had a bed, a wardrobe, a shower and a lit hallway. What was left were the things nobody notices until they live somewhere: the cutlery in a heap, the clothes with no shelf.
The second Saturday — a month’s worth of small things
The kitchen drawer was an odd width, as rented kitchen drawers are, and the forks and spoons lived in it in a pile. The jumpers lived on the bedroom floor in a pile of their own.
The tray that fit the drawer we were given
The expandable drawer cutlery organiser, about $18, is a plastic tray that pulls out sideways to fit the drawer it is put in. Ours stretched to the width of a drawer that no fixed tray would have fitted, and the first time we opened it with the cutlery in rows, one of us said it was the moment the flat became a flat. At full stretch the extended section is shallower than the main tray, so measure the drawer and buy the size that is not quite at its limit.
Expandable Drawer Cutlery Organiser
$18.49
The basket for the clothes with no wardrobe yet
The foldable quilted fabric storage basket, about $10, is a soft basket with handles that took the jumpers and scarves off the bedroom floor and made them look like a decision rather than a pile. It has no lid and soft sides, so it is for clean clothes, not for anything heavy or damp. When the wardrobe got shelves it went on the top one, and it still holds the scarves.
Foldable Quilted Fabric Storage Basket
$9.59
By the end of the month we cooked in a kitchen whose drawers closed, showered under something that deserved the name, and did not hear the door. The sofa arrived in November. Nobody noticed it the way they noticed the shower.
What we’d leave at home
Everything in this story
Desktop Power Strip with USB-C, Clock and Night Light
$24.89
Rechargeable Motion-Sensor LED Bar Light
$13.85
Self-Adhesive Door Frame Seal Strip (6 m)
$23.09
Zloog 5-Mode Rainfall Shower Head (175 mm)
$20.67
Under-Sink Pull-Out Storage Organiser (2-Tier)
$31.59
170-in-1 Magnetic Precision Screwdriver Bit Set
$26.29
Mini USB Laser Distance Meter (30 m)
$20.25
Suction-Cup Corner Bathroom Shelf
$9.45
Expandable Drawer Cutlery Organiser
$18.49
Foldable Quilted Fabric Storage Basket
$9.59
Everything here comes to about $198. Prices in USD; they move a little from week to week.
Frequently asked questions
What do I need for the first night in an empty flat?
A way to charge two phones from one socket, a light for the route to the bathroom, and something to stop the draught if the door has a gap. Everything else can wait until morning. Those three cost us about $62 and we would order them before the move, not after.
What can I change in a rented flat without drilling?
More than you would think. A shower head screws onto the existing hose by hand, a corner shelf and a door seal stick or suction on, and organisers sit inside cupboards and drawers. Every item in this story went in without a hole and comes out without a trace.
Is it worth replacing the shower head in a rental?
It was the most-noticed change of our week, every morning, for about $21. Check the hose has the standard half-inch thread first; nearly all do. Keep the old head in a drawer and put it back when you leave.
How do I make rented kitchen drawers and cupboards work?
Measure them and buy things that adjust. An expandable cutlery tray fits the odd drawer widths rented kitchens have, and a two-tier pull-out organiser turns the dark cupboard under the sink into shelves you can reach. Together they cost about $50 and they were the last two things we bought.
How much did the first week in the flat cost?
About $198 for the ten things in this story. The first night was about $62, the first morning about $52, the first weekend about $56, and the two drawer-and-floor organisers a month later about $28.