Does it make sense to put money into decorating a rental? Hell, yeah it does! Especially when a few small changes make a dramatically more efficient use of your space, which is quite possible when your apartment is small.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to improve a small apartment. On a blog called Renov8or, they share a retro renovation in our rental’s kitchen that cost only $350. You can see that the butcher block countertop they scrounged on the cheap from IKEA’s “As Is” department gave them much needed prep space. And a few base cabinets gave them a place to tuck away small appliances, keeping clutter to a minimum, which is so important in a small kitchen. The rest of their $350 budget was spent on kitchen accessories, like the open shelving and the spice bins above the range. It gave a complete cost breakdown as well as insider info about finding IKEA price reductions. Though they lived in rental for just three years, they cooked some fabulous meals in that kitchen at a cost of $100 per year. Money well-spent.

So, how do you embark on a rental remodel without breaking the bank and how do you do it in such a way that you don’t lose your deposit?