On the Hunt

Hi everyone, we asked our friend L to make a cameo on the blog, so here she is and she is AWESOME.

Hi! Currently, I am living a similar lifestyle to some of you out there who have been hit by the economic crisis...unemployment. For the last 4 months or so, since I got back from being overseas, I have been searching far and wide for a job and an apartment in the city. Some tips I have to offer to keep yourself occupied while on the hunt:

• Space out your errands: do one or two errands per day, and fill your time in with coffee breaks and stops at the local second hand book stores. Also, walk rather than taking public transportation
• Enjoy your time off: take up a new hobby, start a new book, write a letter to someone
• Upload CD’s onto your computer from your friend’s music collections
• Play scrabble on Facebook - it’s fun and it stimulates your mind.
• Read the newspaper from a different city/country
• Visit your friends at work (if appropriate). Bring them something sweet.
• Start a vegetable garden: it’s fun to watch things grow and it’ll save you money on groceries.
• Walk around a neighbourhood you’ve never been to.
• Volunteer at a yoga studio - some studios have energy exchange programs where you do things such as clean or reception and you get unlimited yoga classes in exchange

Something else I am confronted with is the search for a great apartment. Here is some advice based on situations I have encountered along this journey:

• Trust your instincts: if something seems off, it probably is
• If the first thing the current tenants say to you is “We have 3 basic rules, the first one is that we need 2-3 advance notice if you are having people over...” run fast! It doesn’t matter what the 2 other rules are, if they are that strict and uptight it’s not worth it.
• Don’t settle until you find something you really like: if you are time constrained, and you don’t find a place by the time you have to move out of your old place, then sublet somewhere for a month and continue your search for a more long term place that feels right.
• If the apartment smells, don’t expect that smell to go away (even with a variety of incense, candles, or air fresheners)

Different websites you may want to try if you too are looking for a place to call home:

• http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/
• I have found this to be the most useful website thus far and have visited quite a few places based on its postings. Downfall is there is no way to track which places you’ve e-mail and which you haven’t.
• http://www.nowtoronto.com/
• Very limited postings, averages 3-10 per day
• http://toronto.kijiji.ca/
• I am not a big fan of the layout of the website, it’s a bit unclear. On the plus side, it has a nice feature of starring a place you like, which goes to your “watchlist” for easy retrieval later.
• http://www.viewit.ca/
• Good for people who are wanting to rent out an entire apartment, rather than finding a place to move into that currently has tenants.
• http://www.housing.utoronto.ca/offcampus/offCampus.html
• This site is only good for students. There is a “non student” option, which costs $22 for 8 weeks but the landlords who advertise on the site are only interested in students so unless you are a student at U of T or another university, it is useless.

Happy hunting and good luck!

Until we meet again...

L

Thanks for the space e & S!