From personal experience, I'd say once you reach the halfway point on a lease, it's time to call it quits. One time we put quite a bit into a townhouse we were renting on a 12 month term, but we ended up staying only about 9 months.

I know we regretted the improvements we made given we didn't stay long enough to really enjoy them.

Ange
www.weloveindie.com

I've moved 18 times in the last 8 years, and really, if I'm not going to stay somewhere more than a year, I do the minimum necessary to make it livable, and that's it. If I do more than that, I stop at the 6 month point, because at that point, you're not really getting your money's worth. I've wasted SO much money over the last 8 years trying to fix up places that I'm just going to leave. Sure, it's nice for the next tenant, but it ends up largely being a waste of money.

Depends on if the improvements are being reimbursed by your landlord; I did repairs on a rental house right up until moving because it was easy to put in the free labor and get after-tax money off the rent payment or at minimum no expenses but a nicer place to live in.

since it took me seven years to finally decide to paint my apartment I'm probably not one to answer this. Didn't think I'd stay here that long so lived with the white walls until the started looking dull and gray. I kicked myself for not painting soon after moving in.

If you want it, do it. You could be dead in a few months. In a few seconds, actually.

Live in the moment! Life is short.

I'd say it depends on how long you're going to live there. I moved only 2 times in last 11 years and am planning to stay at our current house for a long time, so I do as much improvment as I feel like it.

I just put up shelves I've had laying about for 14 months. I am on a lease, signed up another year in March. I will be going month to month in 2010 as my condo should be ready in June (let's hope). I put up the shelves this weekend because I needed a change :)

I haven't painted since I have to put it back to white when I leave, so I find other ways to add colours.

Also since it isn't mine, I really haven't spent any money...saving that for "mine".

If we take the motto of Apartment Therapy seriously--"saving the world, one room at a time"--then we must in fact follow that rule, and not decline due to a lease that soon ends or any similarly flimsy excuse. Come on...you're alive now, not just when you buy your own place! Enjoy where you're at NOW.

krister - i completely agree with you. if you perceive value in the improvements, and the cost isn't prohibitive, then i think they should be made. our houses/apts/condos are our HOMES ... please make them homey!

Where we live we trade some good land-lord approved fixes for cheaper rent. We've since, sanded and stained the hardwood floors, painted, landscaped the front yard, and now landscaping the back yard. We don't plan on moving anytime soon, and have a five-year lease. The improvements are worth it- especially since we've got such a bargain on rent.

Like Gaytha, I'm in a lucky situation where I've got a great deal and no intention to move. I do lots of little repairs around the place and am constantly improving things. I do things as inexpensively as possible while still maintaining quality. The former landlord appreciated it and pitched in by helping me when I needed him and lending me tools. The current landlord doesn't seem to care one way or another.

I changed all our light fixtures in our new apartment, not to anything expensive, just some very basic ikea types and not the pug-fugly original broken down lights that were here. We donated them- I am considering the new lights my gift to the next tenant. And we painted a few key walls but not the whole place, to make it easier to repaint when we move out. I have to have a little colour in my life!

I have never made alterations to a rental. Well, apart from putting in picture hooks. I don't see the point in spending money and effort on stuff like that.

We make our environments lovelier with cool artwork, fab furniture etc. I guess I'm lucky that the places I've lived in have always been pretty neutral so easy to inject our own personalities into by filling the house up with our own belongings.

It's even taken us months to decide whether or not we want to start a vegetable garden in the soil. At the moment we have decided not to. We just plant things in pots so we can take them with us when we move.

We moved house 3 times last year so we are careful not to lay our roots down too deep. Though we love our place now and I'd love to stay here for a few years, we never know what might be around the corning.

I just hung a bunch of artwork and painted over the inside of the MC wood plane door in the bathroom because the finish looked so worn and dreary from probably 50 years of steamy showers. I move out at the end of July. I say, if it's little things, go for it. The project cost nothing really, the art was things I had (although I framed a couple scarves and had to buy square frames new- about ten bucks at a canadian store called Jysk), and the paint was leftover from when I did paint when I had just moved in (in November). However, when it comes to painting the whole bedroom of my rental (not very big, but I live alone), I'm living with the fugly baby-poop tan that was here when I moved in. I do, however, wish I had found the time and energy to just do it when I first moved in.

I think making more daring design decisions or experiments is perfectly suited to the time preceding your departure-- if you like it, do it in the next place, and if not, you won't live with it for long anyway!

For me, whenever I've stayed in a flat long-term (anything more than 6 months) I was fixing and changing right up until the last week. Of course, with shorter-stay flats I was doing the same, but I just focused my energy on improvements that I could take with me - new furniture, gadgets, etc.

@quiltmaster - your comment made me look over my shoulder to see who might be standing behind me!

Depends on how long you're staying and what the project is, exactly. If I only had six months left on a lease, I probably wouldn't embark on a big painting project, adding light or window fixtures, hanging shelves or redoing the grout in the bathroom or anything like that.

But I'd go for cosmetic changes (window film, paint touch-ups, adding hooks, etc.) that can be done quickly with little expense or fuss at almost any point in the lease (not a month before moving out, maybe).

Why would you move just because the lease is up? Most leases allow you to stay under a month-to-month arrangement.

I've been in the same apartment for 16 years on the original 1 year lease - and since it's under rent-control, the rent has only gone up a small percentage every year.

It doesn't matter how long I stay at a place, I make it my own and that makes me happy.

bepsf,
we could stay of course, but we aren't allowed to have dogs at our current place and we really want one. not yet sure if we'll extend the lease.

I say the minute you decide you're not renewing your lease, it's a good time to stop with any renovations, furniture shopping, etc. If anything, this should be time to purge... you don't want to move to a new place with the same old crap (if you don't have to). OH! and make sure that if you used any colors other than eggshell white, that you paint it back to the way things were when you moved in. Also fill-in the holes you made. This is the extent of any work I would do in a place when I know for sure I'm not renewing my lease. Good luck!

In our first place we painted every single room, and we were only there a year and now I really regret all the work we did there to make it nice. I've decided we're not painting from now on unless it's touch ups to what's already there. It just really bummed me out to have spent that much money on paint for 6 rooms and not be able to appreciate it for more than a year. We do basic things, putting up shelves and new towel bars etc... but that stops after 6 months unless we know we'll be there longer than that.

Renting is quite different where I live- you can't paint anything, make any new holes in the walls (ie. hooks, shelves).. basically it's the landlord's responsibility to make any improvements and if they are not willing to do so, you just have to live with it. I don't know of a single renter around here who would dream of sanding and polishing the floorboards. Painting is a no-no, however if the landlord agrees, you could come to an arrangement where they could to supply the paint if you supply the labour (they'd want to have a say n the colour though). My general rule is, only make changes that you can reverse when you come to move out (eg. new curtains, taking doors off cupboards to have open shelving, new light fittings etc). Then you can take those fittings with you to your next rental.

when you fix up a rental, what you're doing is practicing for when you have your own place... how do you get to ______ (fill in the goal)? practice, practice, practice.

you're developing skills, and testing your eye, and finding what works

do you LIKE (or even LOVE) doing it? so... do it.