Five renters on the easy and affordable ways they made their places feel like home

Melbourne renter Vince describes their tastes as "goth glam" and has worked hard to bring this gorgeous and slightly spooky aesthetic to their rental property too, without compromising their bond or annoying their landlord. 

Australia is experiencing a housing and rental crisis so it's no surprise that renters like Vince are trying to find affordable and approachable ways to turn a rental into a comfortable home, without being penalised by their landlord.

Vince and other renters offer their hacks and advice for improving your rental property.

Personalise your space

Vince, 29, Naarm/Melbourne

"It can be so hard to personalise your space and make it feel like it's yours when renting, so I looked for creative and affordable ways that could easily be reversed when I inevitably have to move again," Vince says.

Vince has spent a lot of time scouring online stores and op shops for ways to swap out items in their rental property, such as new curtains, moodier light bulbs, and more dramatic door handles.

"I will not have 'cool' or 'white' or fluorescent light globes — they are hideous and hurt my head and should be banned. Globes with a warm glow, even a 'vintage' look, are where it's at."

Their latest DIY project involved finding a way to use exciting wallpaper, without having to get landlord permission. Their solution: using wallpaper on a plain bookcase.

"I got to work sanding it back, painting it in a black gloss, and pasting the wallpaper to the back of the shelves so that it would peek out over the books."

Weatherproof your draughty rental

Deirdre, 35, Eora/Sydney

Working from home as a writer means that Deirdre needs her space to be comfortable — and, crucially, warm — to be productive. In order to make that happen, she's learnt how to DIY weatherproof indoor spaces.

"Depending on the places I've lived — most of which have been quite old, neglected by landlords and without proper heating or cooling — there are small and relatively inexpensive things I've done that make a big difference: door snakes, thick curtains for windows, cheap foam strips to seal around windows and old fireplaces.

The same tips work for keeping muggy weather at bay in summer, and also help keep Sydney's excessive warm weather bugs out.

BYO toilet seat

James, 57, Ngambri/Canberra

When James was a touring musician in the 1990s, his bandmate pointed out the deplorable state of most of the toilets they were forced to endure in the motels and band houses they usually stayed in. As a result, the band began packing a toilet seat as part of their touring rig.

"When I eventually got a 'real job' this habit continued," James told us, saying that his routine when getting a new rental was to replace the toilet lid with his own, the old one being put into a plastic bag, stored safely, and put back on when it was time to leave the property.

"Sure, some rentals were well maintained, but I had a heightened awareness of how many bums of various degrees of hygiene had been sat upon the throne over the years."

He also recommends buying new sink plugs for "much the same reason".

"I also made a habit to line kitchen drawers. Especially those for food utensils.

Change the way you cook

Lee, 33, Eora/Sydney

For science and climate expert Lee, weaning their rental off gas has become a personal quest, and has led to a couple of small but meaningful hacks — including buying an air fryer.

"The place I rent has a gas stove and gas oven. Gas has been linked to health issues, including being responsible for approximately 12 per cent of childhood asthma in Australia and is also a fossil fuel that contributes to climate change," Lee says.

"My advice is always to try second-hand first, no matter what you're buying! Think about how much space you use in your oven and what you normally make. For two people who mainly roast veggies, our air fryer was perfect and it means we aren't wasting energy heating up the entire oven space by just heating a small fryer."

Make your rental disability friendly

Erin, 38, Naarm/Melbourne

Erin is a wheelchair user, and has developed a range of accessible strategies that are less "hacks" and more necessities for his ability to live in rental properties.

"Accessible dwellings are nearly impossible to find," he says.

"When I say that, I mean that it is both difficult to find dwellings without stairs, and basically impossible to find actually properly accessible dwellings if you're not living in NDIS [National Disability Insurance Scheme] property or similar."

Much of his accessibility changes are about bringing things down to usable height, such as buying a small shelf to use as a pantry, and a stool for the bathroom sink.

Erin's modifications are simple but effective, including a portable induction cooktop so that he can use his dining table to cook. The standard stove that came with the property is unusable as he isn't able to stand for long periods of time. He also uses a long "broom holder" in the bathroom to hold the shower head at a height he can reach.

"I have to do these things if I want to have the kind of basic independence I think a lot of walking and able-bodied people take for granted — and there's not much I can do permanently while renting."

Erin says that things like the Victorian tenancy reforms in 2021, or similar laws such as in the ACT, have helped a lot — no landlord is legally allowed to refuse disability modifications without a good reason. But he also notes that it's "really only good for a grab bar here and there" and more needs to be done.

"The reality is that the kinds of renovations a property would need for me to be truly comfortable and independent in them are just not likely to get approved — especially in apartments, where body corporates have even more rules about what can and can't be done."