Free Printable First Apartment Checklist (PDF)
The First Apartment Starter Kit is five free printable PDF sheets — essentials by room, an 8-week moving timeline, a budget planner, a tour + red-flags sheet, and a move-in inspection form — sent by email.
Most "printable checklist" pages online are one page and a pop-up ad. This is five, and they're built to be used in order: plan the budget, hunt on a timeline, inspect before you sign, buy what the empty apartment actually needs, and document the walkthrough that protects your deposit. Print them, tape them up, check boxes with an actual pen — no app, account, or login required after the one-time email opt-in.
What's in the Kit
Room-by-room essentials checklist
One sheet per space — kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living room, cleaning — each with a checkbox list of what to buy, grouped so you're not hunting through one giant undifferentiated wall of items.
When to use it: Before your first big shopping trip, and again after move-in day to catch what the empty apartment revealed you actually need.
8-week moving timeline
A week-by-week grid running from 8 weeks out to move-in day, with the boring admin (utility transfers, address changes, insurance) already slotted into the week it needs to happen.
When to use it: The day you know your move date — tape it somewhere visible and check off a row each week instead of remembering everything in the final weekend.
Budget planner
A fill-in-the-blank sheet covering every move-in cost (deposit, first month, application fees) and every recurring monthly cost (rent, utilities, groceries, insurance, subscriptions) with space for your real numbers.
When to use it: Before you start touring, so your rent ceiling is based on your actual budget instead of a listing price that looked fine at a glance.
Apartment tour + red-flags sheet
A room-by-room inspection form for the tour itself — water pressure, outlets, locks, pests, damp — plus a separate red-flags column for landlord and lease warning signs to watch for in the moment.
When to use it: Print one per unit you're touring and fill it out on the spot; comparing four filled-out sheets afterward beats trying to remember four apartments from memory.
Move-in inspection form
A dated, room-by-room condition form with space to note existing damage and a reminder to attach photos — the exact evidence you'll want if a deposit dispute ever happens.
When to use it: The day you get keys, before a single box comes inside. This is the sheet that gets your deposit back.
Print tips
Every sheet is designed to print cleanly on a standard black-and-white printer — no wasted color ink on backgrounds you don't need. A few things that help:
- Print at "actual size" or 100%, not "fit to page," so checkboxes stay a usable size
- Standard 8.5"×11" letter paper works for all five sheets
- A library or campus printer is fine — these are plain text and lines, no image-heavy pages to choke on
- Print the tour sheet in multiples if you're touring more than one unit that day
- Keep the move-in inspection form and your move-in photos together — that pairing is your deposit insurance
Prefer to browse first?
If you'd rather read through the content on the web before printing anything, the free web versions cover the same ground: the room-by-room checklist and the 8-week moving checklist are both open pages, no email required. The Kit's value is the bundle — five sheets, formatted to print and use together, instead of five browser tabs you'd have to reconstruct yourself.