Aussie renters are feeling the squeeze with housing becoming somehow even more unaffordable by the day. And so, in chaotic good fashion, they’re sharing tips on how to scuff up your place just enough to (hopefully) keep your rent from rising without it looking gross.
A Tiktoker who lives in an exxy area of Sydney’s eastern suburbs and posted a (since-deleted) TikTok detailing her hack of “totally clutter[ing]” her apartment to make it look as “cheap as possible”, which she hoped would make it look smaller and therefore not worth a huge raise in rent.
In the video, she showed that she had taken a bunch of her appliances out of cupboards and placed them on her kitchen countertop to make her kitchen look crammed and like it didn’t have much storage.
She and her husband brought in their bar trolley and outdoor chairs to fill up their lounge area, closed all their blinds, brought out their old fan and heater, and even moved their couch forward to create an authentic claustrophobic experience.
There’s no word as to whether the tactic worked (and the deleted video doesn’t bode well), but before she took it down others shared their own hacks in the comments.
One user commented that their “friend printed heaps of fake overdue bills and final reminders” and pinned them on the fridge for their landlord to spot in an “attempt for sympathy” at her inspection. Honestly, bold of her to assume landlords are capable of compassion or empathy.
Another suggested putting away any expensive appliances or decor, in case a landlord takes these to mean the renter has extra income that can be mined.
“Hide the MacBook and the Smeg toaster!” they said.
“Fancy things will put in his head that you can afford a rent increase”.
My favourite hack was from the agent of chaos who suggested “planting some stink bombs around so there is always a smell from outside that wafts in”. Pure genius.
These frantic (and honestly, kind of tragic) attempts at lowering the value of a property may be for nought, though.
I mean, there are landlords out there trying to put garden sheds and patches of grass up for rent for exorbitant prices, so it looks like a stink bomb is hardly going to stop a genuinely liveable apartment from being priced up beyond belief.
