New Years Resolutions For Apartment Life

With the New Year right around the corner, it's time to take stock and make resolutions for the coming year.  Even those of us living in apartments can make New Years resolutions.  Here are my New Years resolutions as an apartment dweller.

1.  Use the gym.  I already pay for it.


2.  Use the pool.  I think I saw the groundskeeper clean it....once.
3.  Get unpacked.  It's been a couple of months.  The boxes in the corner have to go.
4.  Run a vacuum every week.  It's unlikely that they ever clean the ducts here.

5.  Wipe down the kitchen counters every night.  Otherwise, we might have to pay a pet deposit for insect visitors.

6.  Save up for a house.  It's past time to get one.
7.  Don't punch the surround sound gamer who lives upstairs.
8.  Lighten the load before our next move.  Why pay people to haul crap.
9.  Figure out who has been dinging our door down in the parking lot.  Paybacks are hell or at least little paint chips.
10.  Legally change my name to "Current Resident."  I will control all the mail.

Have a great New Year!

Apartment Architecture for Multi-Culturalism

As American corporations continue to welcome legions of guest workers from around the world, architects are faced with the challenge of designing apartments in an era of multi-culturalism.

New residents from around the world often live in different living arrangements.  In some instances, three generations of family may be living in the same apartment.  In other cases, many unrelated people may jam into an apartment and literally share floorspace.

Newcomers may often have different attitudes towards money and frugality.  They may opt to cook more at home amd they may use the apartment complex amenities more intensively.  in some cases, many people may share the same car.  In other cases, there may be seven cars to the apartment.

For recreation and exercise, newcomers may walk the grounds of the complex more than American residents.  This calls for more sidewalks and walking trails that would keep pedestrians and cars seperated.

Finally, day-to-day activities like laundry and cooking are often handled differently by newcomers.  Newcomers may want to hang their laundry on their balcony.  Foreign guests may cook with pungent spices that permeate their apartment and even surrounding units.  This may require apartments with laundry lines and heavy duty kitchen fans.

All of these lifestyles are quite different than the lifestyle of a typical American-born tenant.  Landlords and architects need to adjust theircplans accordingly.