DIY home hacks that your landlord probably won't hate

Summary

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Life Kit (NPR): “DIY Home Hacks That Your Landlord Probably Won’t Hate”

Host: Marielle Segarra
Guests: Cliff Tan (Architect & Feng Shui Practitioner), Amanda Poe (Attorney & DIY Influencer), Shael Milgram (Vintage Finder & DIYer)
Date: March 9, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Life Kit tackles the unique challenges—and creative opportunities—of making a rental space feel like home without risking your security deposit or your budget. Host Marielle Segarra and guests share practical, renter-friendly DIY hacks and design wisdom, proving that limitations can spark some of the most delightful home transformations. Through expert advice and personal stories, they offer listeners empowering strategies for understanding, revamping, and truly loving their rented spaces.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Start by Understanding Your Space and Yourself

• Perform a “senses audit”: Use sight, sound, airflow, and light to identify which spots in your home feel the best or worst.

• Align your activities with your home’s assets: Place your most-used zones (e.g., desk, couch) in the best-lit and most pleasant areas.

• Quote (Cliff Tan, 03:44):
  “It’s better to kind of understand and appreciate what your space can give than to try to force it away.”

• Think about how your home supports you: Consider your lifestyle and what features are truly necessary for your comfort.

2. Rethink Function: Embrace Creative Repurposing

• Don’t get hung up on intended uses: Almost anything can be something else with a little imagination—think bread baskets as side tables or tomato cages as plant stands.
• Quote (Marielle Segarra, 00:52):
  “Don’t get hung up on what something is supposed to be for. Think about what you could turn it into instead.”
• Guest Story: Marielle uses an antique “porcelain stool” as an end table.

3. Tackle the Ugliest Parts First

• Prioritize the biggest pain points: Start your DIY journey with the most frustrating or visually displeasing areas (“the shoe rack” or “the ugly light”) rather than immediately jumping to the fun accents.
• Quote (Cliff Tan, 07:51):
  “Start with the ugliest things in your home…that’s where the impact is the greatest.”

4. Paint is Powerful (and Often Reversible)

• Check your lease, but most paint projects can be undone: Just repaint when you move out.
• Test before going big: Always sample paint at home as store lighting can deceive; try large samples and see them at different times of day.
• Quote (Amanda Poe, 10:50):
  “Let’s go big…spend a dollar on a poster board, paint the whole swatch, and stick that on every wall…morning, afternoon, the time you’re going to spend in the room.”
• Pro Tip: Need to match paint for repairs? Remove a sample from behind an outlet cover (12:20).

5. Lighting Transforms Everything

• Lighting is both form and function: It sets mood and directs energy. “The big light”—the standard overhead—can create a harsh ambiance.
• Workarounds:
  • Change out or adjust fixtures if you’ll be there long-term (can lights, adjustable bulbs).
  • Use warm bulbs (2700-3000K) for a cohesive, relaxing feel across your home.
• Quote (Cliff Tan, 13:56):
  “We never ever, ever, ever use the big light.”
• Thrift & upcycle: DIY lamps, thrifted fixtures, and creative solutions like upcycling salvaged pieces are budget-friendly game changers.

6. Sourcing Materials: Be Resourceful

• Thrifting tips:
  • Use generic search keywords (“teak shelving unit,” “funky chair”) to find affordable, overlooked gems on platforms like Facebook Marketplace.
  • Avoid deals that seem too good to be true and carefully check seller profiles to avoid scams.
• Tool tips:
  • Start with the basics: measuring tape, simple tool kit, level, drill with bits/anchors, and painting supplies.
  • Leverage local resources—tool libraries, makerspaces, hardware store rentals—to save money and storage space.

7. Why Bother at All? The Value of Temporary Comfort

• Renter freedom is a gift: You can reinvent (or leave!) your home as you like.
• Quote (Amanda Poe, 20:09):
  “Do you spend money on a great dinner? … These are also things that are not permanent and improve our life…to the extent that maybe I’ll only love it for a year, that’s a really significant amount of time.”
• Emotional payoff: Creating a space you’re proud of can become a major source of joy and self-expression.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The front entrance is the most important part of the home because that’s your first impression…to yourself. You need to feel good every time you come home.”
  — Cliff Tan (05:30)
• “Sometimes you can peel up paint from places. Like a really common place to grab some paint would be behind an outlet cover.”
  — Amanda Poe (12:20)
• “When someone says ‘Where’d you get that?’ and you say ‘I made it’—it’s like being an artist and people come inside your canvas.”
  — Amanda Poe (19:03)
• "The temporariness of a rental is freedom. It’s a gift. ... If the whole apartment doesn’t suit you, move.”
  — Amanda Poe (21:33)

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Key Takeaways (Recap)

(Timestamp: 20:47)

1. Understand your space—and yourself.
2. Don’t feel limited by furniture’s intended uses—get creative.
3. Start with the ugliest thing; fix what bothers you most first.
4. Paint for high-impact, reversible upgrades.
5. Lighting is key; embrace warmth and lamps over harsh overhead lights.
6. Get resourceful with sourcing materials and tools; thrift, borrow, improvise.
7. Above all, remember: you deserve to love your space, even if it’s temporary.

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Practical Resources Mentioned

• DIY Starter Kit: Tape measure, tool kit, level, drill (and anchors), paint supplies.
• Public Resources: Tool libraries, hardware store rentals, makerspaces.

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Final Thought

Even temporary renters deserve permanence in comfort and style—take risks, get creative, and make your space yours, even if you don’t own it. The act of personalization isn’t just about aesthetics: it’s about well-being, pride, and daily joy.

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For more expert advice and inspiration, listen to Life Kit or read episode transcripts via NPR.

Transcript

[Sponsor Announcer]

This message comes from Charles Schwab with their original podcast Choiceology. Choiceology is a show about the psychology and economics behind people's decisions. Download the latest episode and [e-mail] podcast.

[Marielle Segarra]

You're listening to Life Kit from NPR. Hey, it's Marielle. A couple weeks ago I bought something at an antique store. It was labeled as a vintage Japanese porcelain stool and set up next to a makeup table and it's gorgeous white with a blue and pink floral design. Now, though, it was labeled as a stool. In my apartment, it's an end table. I put down drinks and snacks on it when I'm watching tv. That's what we call repurposing, and if you rent your space, repurposing is a great way to go, especially if you start with the stuff you already have.

[Narrator / Host]

Don't get hung up on what something is supposed to be for. Think about what you could turn it into instead. This is how bread baskets turn into side tables and tomato cages can become

[Marielle Segarra]

plant stands like many Americans, reporter Adjoa Jema Brempong rents her apartment and she says just because you don't own your home doesn't mean you need to accept drab walls and harsh lighting. There are lots of changes you can make that your landlord probably won't hate and that won't require you to invest buckets of money into a space you're going to leave on this episode of Life Kit. How to make your rental feel like home. Adjoa's got lots of tips for us, by the way. She first reported this episode in 2024 when she was living in a one bedroom apartment in Lisbon, Portugal. She's since moved to Porto and tells us that she's loving her new rental and is thinking about buying a base for her coffee table that's shaped like a black pan.

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[Narrator / Host]

so what's a forever renter to do? A tiny kitchen that might not bother you in a six month lease may be a lot more frustrating after two years, and you may not be overflowing with cash to solve the problem. Enter DIY's my current apartment has bright walls, a ton of storage, and plenty of places to hang plants, bags and lighting. None of that was here when I moved in. I did it myself. I spend a lot of time in this space, so it's important that it feel good to me.

[Cliff Tan]

The first thing is really understanding your space. It's better to kind of understand and appreciate what your space can give than to try to force it away.

[Narrator / Host]

That's Cliff Tan. He's the architect, author and feng shui practitioner known as Dear Modern on Instagram and TikTok. Cliff says it's important to use your senses to figure out what a space has going for it.

[Cliff Tan]

Where is the nicest part of the space? Where is the less nice part of the space? Most of the time, the best part of the space is where there's a window, nice fresh air, nice natural ventilation. The worst part of the space is probably like far far away in the darkness or something like that close to the entrance way.

[Narrator / Host]

So Takeaway one. Get to know your space, but it's just as important to get to know yourself. How do you want your home to support you?

[Cliff Tan]

So what you want to do next is to understand what activities you spend most time doing. If you spend most of your time on your couch watching tv, you want to be close to the window. If you spend most of your time working from home, you want that close to the window too. So it's about placing your most frequented activities closer to the nicest part of the home.

[Narrator / Host]

I work from home and I'm a homebody. A big cozy couch is more important to me than a desk or formal dining room table and I didn't have room for both. So I installed a Cute little gate like table that folds down against one wall. Now I have a working surface when I need one and a place to hang out the rest of the time. Cliff says. It's also important to understand not just where things are placed in your home, but how that feels.

[Cliff Tan]

Energy makes its way through a home based on how you flow through your home. So this is why the same home can have different energy paths depending on who lives in it.

[Narrator / Host]

And that's why it's important to start your arrival off right.

[Cliff Tan]

The front entrance is the most important part of the home because that's your first impression. Not just for new guests to come, not just about showing off how beautiful your home is. It's also to yourself. You need to feel good every time you come home. Even something as simple as having a pile of recycling bags right by the entrance that you have to kick every time you open the door. You have to push the door to shove it in to go through. That is enough to minus two points every time you come home, which compiled over 10 years. You will hate your home. You can't wait to move.

[Narrator / Host]

When I first moved in, my home had no storage in the entryway whatsoever. I was always putting my purse on the ground and forgetting gym supplies across the house. So I installed hooks for my bags, keys, and even a hand fan. Then I upcycled an Ikea shoe cabinet that now does triple duty as a linen closet, workout supply storage, and a gathering point for my electronics. That brings us to takeaway 2. Don't get hung up on what something is supposed to be for. Think about what you could turn it into instead. This is how bread baskets turn into side tables and tomato cages can become plant stands.

[Amanda Poe]

I think so many times renters feel really restricted by the exact thing that they have in their home. And I think there's a really easy way to look around and say, what do I really wish this apartment had? And see if there's a way to make that happen.

[Narrator / Host]

That's Amanda Poe. She's an attorney by day, and she also runs the home decor Instagram page Boho Frisco. The project grew out of her frustration with beige, white, and neutral heavy home decor stores.

[Amanda Poe]

The desire to DIY really came from not being able to source the colorful things that I wanted, and so making them on my own was the best way to find them.

[Narrator / Host]

You probably have at least one interior design dream. Some people want a clawfoot tub. I would love a lofted bed one day. And for Amanda, that element was a fireplace.

[Amanda Poe]

I was always so jealous that People were decorating seasonally for their mantels. You know, they were putting their garlands or their wreath above it. And then I realized, like, ugh, if only I had a fireplace. And so with a couple of pieces of wood and a weekend, we built one.

[Narrator / Host]

So you're gazing around the house, an ongoing list of projects dancing in your head. Where should you start?

[Cliff Tan]

I would say you start with the ugliest things in your home, then it sounds funny. But look for the things that are actually ugly in your home, like the shoe rack. You deal with the worst things first. That's where the impact is the greatest. Because it's like no point creating a cute little shelf in the kitchen when every time you walk home you see this shoe rack, it makes you angry.

[Narrator / Host]

So Cliff brings us takeaway 3. Start with the worst thing first. Once you've improved, whatever bothers you the most, the statement pieces can follow. And he's so right. I hated the overhead light in my place so much. So much. It wasn't until I brought in some funky lamps and could really turn off the big light that the room came to life. So think about what's bothering you about your space. The lack of storage in the closet or nowhere to put all your books. And focus on that first. Contractor. Lights aside, my apartment was pretty great when I moved in. I have three criteria that are non negotiable. Good light, top floor, no carpet. But several people I spoke to told me they took much bigger risks when selecting their spaces, including Shael Milgram, also known as FBMarketsLut on Instagram and TikTok. She finds gorgeous vintage pieces as is or for restoration on Facebook Marketplace Today. Her apartment is lovely. It has huge windows and a ton of cool projects, including painted doors and a glass brick wall. But when she first viewed it, the

[Shael Milgram]

moment we stepped into this apartment, our, like, eyes burned. It, like reeked. It smelled like cat feces. I have like old videos on my Instagram of what it looked like previously, but there was like green and red walls. There was like fluorescent blue murals somewhere. And it was. Was like absolutely horrific.

[Narrator / Host]

After cleaning it within an inch of its life, the first thing she tackled was the paint. And Amanda gives us the details on why that's takeaway. 4. Paint is a high impact upgrade. You may be thinking, am I allowed to do that? The official answer is check your lease. But on a practical level, when you

[Amanda Poe]

paint a wall, all you have to do is paint it back.

[Narrator / Host]

That's.

[Amanda Poe]

That's it.

[Narrator / Host]

I love paint projects both on and off the walls. But I don't always get it right on the first try. There's a pink wall in my house that I painted three separate times until I got the color right. Amanda had some tips for me on how to minimize the guesswork you really

[Amanda Poe]

need to start with a swatch. You bring those home into your space, not the fluorescent lighting of the store. Then you move on to a paint sample. Also, the different walls, even in your room are going to look different.

[Narrator / Host]

I found that one out the hard way. My living room faces south onto a balcony, so the space gets very different amounts of light throughout the year. It's brighter in winter when the sun is low enough to shine directly into the room. So the little patch I painted didn't show me what the whole wall would look like when it was done.

[Amanda Poe]

Let's go big. Let's not try to imagine the whole room with a post it note size swatch. Let's get a poster board from the store, spend a dollar on it, paint the whole swatch, and stick that on every wall. You know, trying different times, mornings, afternoon, the time you're going to spend in the room.

[Narrator / Host]

The other nice thing about paint is that it's reversible. Many diyers will say that for some projects, it's better to ask forgiveness than permission. But with repainting, if you're thorough, it will look like that pink wall was never there. Amanda has a series called Renter Friendly Reality Check where she brings viewers along on the takedown process of a project. I asked her how she handles paint situations that need a more serious rescue. Some landlords do leave paint in an apartment for minor patches, so you could always ask. But if you're flying under the radar, here's how to make it work.

[Amanda Poe]

I would say the most important things are the sheen, obviously, and the color. And so even if you color match perfectly but you get the sheen wrong, the place that you repaired is going to stick out so bad. I would say when your paint is peeling, like maybe your project has gone wrong, pulling up like more than an inch of a swatch, like something bigger than a quarter, that is going to give you the best surface so that you can take it to your local hardware store and they have a system that will paint match it with a computer.

[Narrator / Host]

Then she dropped some wisdom on me that I could have definitely used in one of my first college apartments.

[Amanda Poe]

Sometimes you can peel up paint from places. Like a really common place to grab some paint would be behind an outlet cover. Because if you peel some of that paint away, you can put the outlet cover back and it would never know that that paint was missing.

[Narrator / Host]

I love this is brilliant.

[Marielle Segarra]

When Life Kit returns How lighting can transform your space on a budget.

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[Narrator / Host]

so a little paint can go a long way, but there's another element that can completely transform a space. Shael and Cliff agree. Takeaway 5 Lighting is the key to

[Shael Milgram]

a room Lighting is like the biggest thing that affects a space. I think it's the most pervasive as well as it can be the most eye catching thing because a light is

[Cliff Tan]

a light, it actually glows so it attracts your attention.

[Narrator / Host]

That's for better or for worse. As I discovered in my living room, there's an ongoing TikTok trend called we never use the big light.

[Cliff Tan]

I don't have many rules for my house, but I do have one and that is that we never ever, ever ever use the big light.

[Narrator / Host]

The big light is that central overhead lighting that is so common in rental units it can bring a harsh energy to space. But even if you draw the short end of the stick as far as lighting goes, Cliff says there are ways to work around it.

[Cliff Tan]

If you are going to rent for longer, you could change your let's say you have can lights.

[Narrator / Host]

Can lights are those recessed lights in the ceiling. They're like a step up from the standard contractor rental light.

[Cliff Tan]

You could buy can lights that are adjustable, meaning you can point them in different directions, find the same can light with the same hole size and just replace them one for one. And then you have all these candles that can now point around and you can shine it onto your artwork, shine it onto your table and create focal points instead of just glaring down the floor. You can create a bit of depth using the lights that you already have.

[Narrator / Host]

And even if you don't change any fixtures at all, there are other things you can do to make a space feel cohesive.

[Cliff Tan]

Make sure all your bulbs are the same color temperature, which is like 2,700 kelvins, 3,000 kelvins light comes on a

[Narrator / Host]

spectrum from cool to warm. Cool light is bright and good for task oriented spaces like a kitchen. Warm light in the 2700-3000 Kelvin range is nice and relaxing.

[Cliff Tan]

Decide on one and make sure your whole house is the same. It will make your house feel more consistent.

[Narrator / Host]

My place has a bit of everything rewired sconces from big box stores, DIY mushroom lamps, paper lanterns. My favorite is a two foot tall table lamp shaped like a miner from the San Francisco Gold Rush. Just like my Ikea entryway. Once you start looking at form instead of function, there are so many great places to find things to upcycle. Thrift stores and architectural salvages are a great source of raw materials. When you find a good one, become buddies with the people who work there. Do they get their best deliveries on a certain day? Find out when that is. I have a rule that I don't spend more than $100 on anything other than a couch or a bed. So for online shopping I'll figure out what I want, set some Craigslist alerts and wait. Shyel has some Facebook marketplace search tips too, and they do not involve typing out fancy designer names.

[Shael Milgram]

If I actually did that on Facebook, then it would show me a bunch of people who know exactly what they're selling and will sell it for those expensive prices which, you know, good for them.

[Narrator / Host]

But those of us with champagne tastes on a beer budget are probably better off finding people who just want to get that old piece of furniture out of their grandma's basement.

[Shael Milgram]

And normally those people will just use very generic language. For instance teak shelving unit or wood shelving unit. Funky is another keyword that I like to use. If you want to like find funky chair, sometimes you'll get lucky and you'll find like an Eames. Keep it generic and if you are going to go specific, then be willing to like open your wallets wide.

[Narrator / Host]

If the photos of that Eames chair look like stock images and the price is suspiciously low, remember to keep an eye out for scammers.

[Shael Milgram]

Always look at the profile. You can look at their account. You can see like when they open their account, for instance, my Facebook it's been open since like 2009 back when like I was in middle school or elementary school. It kind of shows you that I'm a real person and I got like real friends and whatnot and like embarrassing profile pictures versus someone who like just opened their account last year and has one picture and no friends. Kind of shows you who might be a scammer. Also if they ask for like Zelle up front, then they're probably a scammer. Try not to pay anyone anything until you see the item in person.

[Narrator / Host]

In your DIY journey, you'll likely need to fix something you found on Facebook Marketplace, or maybe want to customize a goodwill framework. So takeaway 6. When assembling what you need, get creative. Whether it's an actual thrift store, a reused market, or an IKEA hack, think big about how to find what you need for a project. And that's not just materials, but all the tools you need to get your project done. My DIY starter kit has five elements. First, a measuring tape, and I carry a small one with me at all times just in case I come across something that could work for an ongoing project. Then a small set of basic tools like screwdrivers, pliers, and a hammer. A level is important for anything that's going to have a flat surface. A drill, drill bits and drywall anchors are probably my most used tools. You can use those for anything from hanging something on a wall to drilling a hole in ceramics to use as a pot for plants, and lastly, those paint supplies. But there are also larger supplies that you may not need to keep on hand. A lot of public library systems have tool lending libraries that members can use. There are also makerspaces with larger things like saws, and some hardware stores will rent out tools as well. I've done plenty of projects. I probably wouldn't try again as a renter, stapling fabric to the wall instead of wallpaper, for example. But finding a beautiful solution to what started out as a problem can be a real source of pride.

[Amanda Poe]

Yeah, it's that urge when someone says, where'd you get that? And then you say, I made it. It's like being an artist. And people come inside your canvas.

[Narrator / Host]

They.

[Amanda Poe]

They come over for dinner inside of your artwork, and that feels really cool.

[Narrator / Host]

And you might be living with that canvas longer than you think, as Amanda and I have both learned. How long have you been renting our last apartment?

[Amanda Poe]

We were there for over 10 years in the same space.

[Narrator / Host]

Did you expect to be there for that long?

[Amanda Poe]

Oh, no. I. I first signed like a 90 day lease.

[Narrator / Host]

Oh, wow.

[Cliff Tan]

Yeah.

[Amanda Poe]

And when we moved out, I just kept occurring to me, if someone had said in that first month, you know, you're going to be here for 10 years, how many more chances I would have taken? How many more times I would have painted the walls or I would have done something that I wanted?

[Narrator / Host]

Some of you might still be asking, why bother to fix up a rental. Why build a fireplace or customize shelving or do anything that would threaten your deposit when it's time to leave?

[Amanda Poe]

I mean, to those people like, do you spend money on a great dinner? Do you spend money on a concert? These are also things that are not permanent and they improve our life in so many ways. And to the extent extent that maybe I'll only love it for a year, that's a really significant amount of time. Life is so short and I think to the extent that I can decorate a room or paint a wall and make the next six weeks just full of joy every time I walk into my bedroom, I really don't think there's

[Marielle Segarra]

a much better investment.

[Narrator / Host]

So just to recap takeaway 1 Understand your space, which also means understanding yourself. Takeaway 2 Don't feel limited by an item's purpose or by what you already have in your home. Imagine what you'd like to see instead and then figure out how to make it happen. Takeaway 3 When in doubt, start with the ugliest thing in your house. Takeaway 4 Paint is a high impact way to transform a space. Takeaway 5 Lighting is the most important part of your home. Turn off the big light and make way for table lamps, sconces and directional light. Takeaway 6 Get creative with where to find tools and materials. And one last thing, don't think of yourself as less than just because you rent.

[Amanda Poe]

The temporariness of a rental is freedom. It's a gift. You know, if the wall color doesn't suit you, repaint it, you know. But if the whole apartment doesn't suit you, move. That's not a choice that people that own their home get to do.

[Narrator / Host]

Forever Renters we have our answer.

[Marielle Segarra]

That was journalist Adjua Jemabrampong. One last thing. Would you consider rating and reviewing Life Kit on your podcast app? It helps us grow the show. Here's a review from Listener Creative Katie H. I've changed a lot of things in my life because of things that I've heard while listening, and it's improved my quality of life. That's really our hope here at Life Kit. Help us spread the word. Leave us a review in your podcast app right now. This episode of Life Kit was produced by Sylvie Douglas. Our digital editor is Malika Garib. Megan Keane is our senior supervising editor and Beth Donovan is our Executive producer. Our production team also includes Andy Taegel, Claire Marie Schneider, Margaret Serino, and Mika Ellison. Engineering support comes from Robert Rodriguez. Special thanks to Kyle Norris. I'm Mariel Segarra. Thanks for listening.

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