If this is your first time living in an apartment, sometimes when things go wrong everything can feel like the world is ending.  So what do you do?  Call your property manangement company, right?  Not quite!  Does your problem fall into one of these categories below?  If it does, try to resolve the issue yourself to avoid the awkward phone call and paying maintenance fees.

Batteries

We all hate the sound of the smoke detector beeping.  So, the last thing you want to do is wait for your apartment's maintenance staff to come out and handle that maintenance ticket.  Usually if you hear a sound like this it's likely your smoke detector chirping at you.  Need instructions?  I've included a brief video like this one to help you walk through the process.

Light Bulbs

This always seems to happen at the most inconvenient times.  You're running late to class and you jump out of bed to go get ready, and--the light is out in the bathroom and you have to either get ready in darkness or say "screw it!" and run out the door the way you rolled out of bed, because the dim lighting doesn't make your touseled hair look that bad.  Instead of dealing with the lack of light you should spend the $20 bucks and purchase a big pack of light bulbs like these.  Otherwise you are looking at a minimum of $45 dollars to pay our maintenance staff to come out to handle this.

Clogs/Plunging

Similar to plunging, sometimes clogs happen in your sink or shower drain.  I had them happen a few times in the apartments that I lived in and while they are a pain there is a simple solution.  Invest in some good ol' Drano and a plunger with a toilet bowl brush.

Cleaning

Your leasing company does not function like a hotel where room service will come every morning at 11am to start cleaning.  I know it sucks that mom and dad aren't around to keep your apartment clean, but do not submit a maintenance request asking for maintenance to come clean, because they won't.  That microwave covered with red sauce from your speghetti?  Yes, you will need to clean that up.  Unfortunately, once you hit college, typically your parents won't ever be around again to clean up after you.  This is what I like to refer to as "adulting".  Don't worry, I hate it too.

Check Light Switches/Circuit Breaker/GCFI Outlet

Just because an outlet doesn't work doesn't necessarily mean there is something wrong with the apartment.  Some outlets are triggered by light switches while others just need to be reset via the circuit breaker.  Give both of those options a try then if it is a standard twist bulb go right ahead and change it out to see if the light bulb has burnt out.  Then if all of those don't solve your problem, give us a call.

Don't Put Things Where They Don't Belong

You aren’t supposed to heat up things in the microwave with aluminum foil.  Also, do not put any kind of metal anything in the microwave.  The same goes for the garbage disposal.  The garbage disposal is only for food to be ground up.  It is not meant to be a trash compactor.  Another piece of advice: make sure you store potatoes where you can see them.  Trust me.  Just do it.  You don't want to find out what happens if you store them somewhere and forget about them.

Pest Control

Gnats are one of the most common pest control requests that are submitted and it's mostly because there is food rotting in the apartment or the apartment is not being well taken care of.  Make sure you watch your food that you keep out.  Most of the time when you start to see bugs in your apartment such as Gnats or ants, it's because food was dropped somewhere or because there is food rotting and bugs are being attacted to it.  So, before you call to submit that pest control request make sure you give your apartment a good once over.

Ultimately, the best way to handle maintenance issues is to put these items into routine checks.  Since I consider myself a visual person and a planner, I like to have a calendar for sorting out what exactly needs to be cleaned and when.  This will help minimize on issues such as the ones that I mentioned above.  Check out Printable Crush's website for a colorful and helpful cleaning list.  Don't worry fella's, you can print it off in black and white.  You may also want to take a peak at JSM's Living Guide to see what the rules are when it comes to maintenance requests!