If your toilet is clogged, that's not necessarily a reason to call maintenance staff, right? You have a plunger, and know how to use it! The only problem is that when you keep trying to flush and find out the plunger isn't working, suddenly your toilet is overflowing! – Everywhere.
The problem? Either the clog was too bad, or there was a problem in the pipes. Of course, a DIY-er would tell you that you can just dump some Drano down the toilet and everything will be fine. The problem here is that you’re dealing with a strong chemical with the potential for chemical burns and explosions. Drano, unfortunately, has a nasty habit of exploding when coming in contact with other chemicals. A helpful rental living tip would be "don't blow up your apartment." Suddenly, a problem that maintenance could easily fix has become a catastrophe.
But the DIY-er might go even further and say, "Well, if I can't use Drano, why not just try and snake the toilet?" Well, Mr./Mrs. DIY, what are you going to use to snake the toilet? There are lovely stories of people trying to use wire hangers among other things! Which, of course, ends up causing a hole in the pipe, a headache for the property manager, and extra costs for you. That's just no fun. So maybe the DIY-er realizes that plumbing issues are perhaps not the best problem to take care of themselves and should be left for maintenance staff.
Another aspect of rental living and in any home really, are crawly things. Insects. Ants. Spiders. Sure, maybe you can spray some Raid or try some traps, but what happens when those don't work? What if the pesty things just won't go away and you feel the need to go the extra mile?
Well, for the average person, the next step would be calling pest control. But for a DIY-er, just gas the entire apartment and your rental living will be a lot easier! Not so, especially since you’d have to make sure Fido and the family got out of the place for at least a day. Oh, and you find out that your neighbor is allergic to some of the chemicals. Generally, people who are allergic to some pesticides let their property manager know, considering property managers do like to get rid of insect problems. But you don't have the information to know that because you didn't call maintenance, so you end up causing someone a near death experience.
Ok, we’re exaggerating, but the point is, all of this could have been avoided by calling maintenance staff to help you out. They are there for your convenience and they know the rental living space the best. So just stick to browsing the DIY board on Pinterest.
Basically, the biggest rental living tip anyone can give you is this: you are not a DIY-er when it comes to maintenance. Call the maintenance staff when you need them! In case of a leaky pipe or some other kind of damage that occurs in your Redding or Chico apartment make sure you have Renter's Insurance! It's amazing what spending a little extra each month will get you when something is broken or stolen.