Starter Story – How I Made A Share Rental Home

Recently Compass invited me to participate in their Starter Stories Series. If you don’t know who Compass is let me catch you up to speed on who they are. Compass is a new real estate service that helps people find the perfect neighbourhood with their platform for finding NYC apartments. Their goal is to find the best match based entirely on your interest and personality. As well as giving you a friendly and personable real estate experience. What I think is that this idea is genius! I hope that this expands and they can do this for people like me over here in Toronto Canada.

My Living Room

I may not actually have a starter home. I have started in many homes…townhouses…apartments.  I have always made it my own even though I knew that each home was always temporary. Home-wise, I have moved about 13 times and before you ask, no I do not live in a military household. Our family just seems to like to move (more my mom than me).

Since I share my rental apartment with my mom, three younger siblings and toddler son, it may seem hard to make a home my own. When I am sharing with five other people, can seem impossible but somehow, no matter where we are I design it and make it my own. We lived in this apartment for about three years. We moved from a very spacious four bedroom townhouse with a basement to a three bedroom apartment. So we had major downsizing to do. Then about a year or two in we now had a new addition to the family, my son. Therefore my room went from just mine to me sharing with my son.

My Bedroom

I made it work. Take my room, for example, I just finished my desk area and gave it a great makeover. It’s more of my style now compared to how it was before. Sometimes it is the simplest things that help to make a space your own. My bed was in need of a change as well so creating a duvet out of curtains happened to work well for me and it gives my bed a refreshing style. 

Another thing I like to do is using furniture that can be used in multiple ways such as my entertainment/ storage wall. I have shelf space, dresser space, and TV space. But my favourite section would have to be my son side of the room. He has his own customized closet where I transformed an Ikea bookcase into a closet which is conveniently next to his big boy bed (that is the crib that converts into a toddler bed). Of course, I still need a little space so I made sure to have a small space for my makeup and collage mirror.

For my Son

Apart from my bedroom. I also found other ways to help make this rental apartment feel like home. I know that sharing a room can be hard. So for my little sister, she shares her with my other two siblings. Yet I designed a great plan for her to get everything she needs on the top bunk of her bed and providing her with the ultimate Top Bunk Makeover. An artistic girl like her now has her own private desk. This desk is for her crafts and also has a hanging Barbie Storage for when she wants to play.

 My Sibling’s Room

So although I may not have bought my place I still made it my own. Yes, even if it is only temporary.

*This post is inspired by Compass and contains non-affiliate links. Opinions are 100% my own. For more information, see my disclosures page.*