Apartment Blog

As everyone knows, Lent is in progress. This is a time when many people choose to give up something in their life for 40 days. The standard is to sacrifice something in your diet, such as chocolate, candy, etc. Many health conscious individuals give up something diet related, enabling them to adhere to their program. But what some fail to realize is that the true purpose of Lent is for your sacrifice to help you recognize the blessings that are taken for granted most of the time.

According to AmericanCatholic.org, “Lent is about conversion, turning our lives more completely over to Christ and his way of life. That always involves giving up sin in some form. The goal is not just to abstain from sin for the duration of lent, but to root sin out of our lives forever.”

Now I am just as guilty as the other health conscious individuals because I gave up chocolate this year for Lent. While I could make the argument that chocolate is considered a sin to my diet, I have no plan to give up chocolate for life. So I am not really taking the true meaning into my lifestyle. But that hasn’t always been the case for me; one year I gave up swearing and had a jar to collect money from myself should I ‘slip’ up. That period of time has impacted my vocabulary ever since.

So whether you gave up sugary treats, smoking, swearing or whatever-my question to you is…how are you doing? Have you been able to maintain some resistance towards the something you gave up? In my opinion, if you follow through on a goal you set for yourself (no matter what that goal may be, e.g. giving up chocolate for 40 days) then you have made an improvement in your life and maybe one day you’ll be ready to take on something bigger!

I hope everyone is doing well with their goals! Good Luck!

Source: AmericanCatholic.org

A New Year’s Resolution is a commitment that an individual makes to a project or a habit, often a lifestyle change that is generally interpreted as advantageous. The name comes from the fact that these commitments normally go into effect on New Year’s Day and remain until the set goal has been achieved[1].

We at ForRent.com strive to be the leading internet listing service for apartment seekers. We want to give you an opportunity to choose your next loft, townhouse, condo, efficiency, house, duplex or apartment for rent by searching through over 50,000 apartment listings nationwide on our website. We also wish to be apartment hunters’ guide when searching for tips and advice in their daily life as well as during the apartment search. So that is our resolution, to be all those things for you!

So what are your resolutions this year?? If it’s to find a great new place to call home, go to ForRent.com! We can help you make your resolution a reality!

[1] Wikipedia.org

Since we’ve posted information about Christmas and Hanukkah, I thought I’d post a brief history of Kwanzaa as well.

Kwanzaa is celebrated from December 26^th (today) till January 1st and is a holiday for honoring family, communities and African Culture. The name Kwanzaa is derived from the phrase “matunda ya kwanza” which means “first fruits” in Swahili, a Pan-African language which is the most widely spoken African language. It was created in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, a professor in the department of black studies at California State University at Long Beach. This celebration is held for seven days, one day for each of the below principles.

Day One: UMOJA (Unity)

This principle promotes togetherness among families, communities and races.

Day Two: KUJICHAGULIA (Self-determination)

This day is about creating and living with each others’ unique identities.

Day Three: UJIMA (Collective work and Responsibility)

On the third day, those who celebrate Kwanzaa encourage each other to embrace individual problems as issues that the community can solve.

Day Four: UJAMAA (Cooperative economics)

Ujamaa promotes entrepreneurship that will benefit the community.

Day Five: NIA (Purpose)

People strive to improve the community with their vocational skills.

Day Six: KUUMBA (Creativity)

Kuumba is closely related to Nia. Kwanzaa stresses any creative work that will make the community a better place for present and future generations.

Day Seven: IMANI (Faith)

The last night of Kwanzaa encourages people to believe in each other and the victories won by their ancestors.

Kwanzaa isn’t a religious holiday, so it is not uncommon for a family to celebrate both Christmas and Kwanzaa.

Do you or somebody you know celebrate Kwanzaa? Tell us a little bit about your traditions?

Source: OfficialKwanzaaWebsite.org

There is a great deal of diversity in today’s apartment communities, much like the diversity throughout our country. And when I think about diversity, I don’t think about students. But there are large cities that often have many students from various countries such as Atlanta, GA. Did you know that Atlanta has 5,500 international students from 140 nations studying at its area colleges and universities! That’s amazing! Many of these students will live in apartment housing, either student housing or regular apartment communities and even though they are living here during their studies, many never really get to meet and know Americans. However, the Atlanta Ministry with International Students (AMIS) has provided “getting to know you” opportunities to students since 1978. Through churches, civic and service organizations, corporations and individuals, the international students get to connect with Americans. “AMIS” is a French word that means “friends” and AMIS has built friendship and hospitality bridges with over 50,000 students!!

One of the programs AMIS has is the Christmas International House. International students from colleges and universities across the US come to Atlanta, and Atlanta international students go out to different cities. Families and individuals share their homes for a one or two-week period during the holidays, and everyone shares another culture, perhaps a different religious background and often different political views. Wouldn’t that be neat, to share your culture/values with a person from another country? Imagine what we’d learn?

Whether you live in an apartment, a condominium, a small house or a big house, there may be opportunities like this for you in your area. In the midst of our diversity everyone stands together as one human family. You could build a bridge!

Do you know of any similar programs in your area that you would like to share?

You love your apartment community so why not help keep it safe? There are some things that all of us can do to help make where we live just a little safer! For example, you could start a neighborhood watch program, or if your apartment community already has one, become more involved.

Any motivated individual or a collective group can organize a neighborhood watch program, doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, single or married. All you need to do is send a flier around the neighborhood stating your wish to organize a neighborhood watch program or visit your neighbors to communicate your efforts. Set up a meeting at your apartment or the clubhouse so that you and your neighbors can discuss any issues that are occurring. As a group, you should create a list of topics that you find concerning and that need to be addressed. The committee can organize a schedule for who will be patrolling areas and when. Other items you may need are mentioned below:

A time and place to meet regularly, a map of the community with spaces for names, addresses and phone numbers, brochures or other material on topic of interest (i.e. crime rate, neighborhood facts, etc.) as well as Neighborhood Watch Signs that need to be posted around the community (You can purchased these at the National Neighborhood Watch Institute website)

Once you’ve got the basic set up taken care of, you may want to have a police officer come in and sit with the committee to give some ideas of how to spot a potential crime or unusual behavior, how to handle a crime, and how to report one.

Hopefully with all the steps mentioned above and of course visiting the USAOnWatch.org site, you’ll be able to accomplish your goals in making your apartment community a safer one for you and other residents alike.

ForRent.com has many resources to help apartment seekers search for apartments for rent in their area, such as locating movers, truck rentals, etc. But another tool ForRent.com offers on it’s website is how to find a roommate! Powered with Roommates.com, we allow the apartment seekers on ForRent.com to view hundreds of possible roommates nationwide.

Just click on Find a Roommate under the ‘Getting Settled‘ tab on our homepage. The next page will prompt you to fill out criteria for your search. Whether you would like your roommate to be male, female, a certain age, and of course location. After you submit, you’ll receive results based off the criteria you entered in. Search the huge selection of possible roommates and view more information about them. To be able to view more information about a certain individual, or many, visit ForRent.com today and create an account with Roommates.com, it’s fast and easy!!