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Rarely Guide
Not a Dorm Anymore
Your first place deserves better than a plastic dustpan and a roll of paper towels that costs more per year than you’d expect. We picked five things that actually work, actually last, and actually look good sitting on your counter. The kind of stuff that makes a new apartment feel like someone who has their life together lives there. Even if you don’t. Yet.
Break It DownThe Essentials
Five Things Your Apartment Actually Needs.
Why These Five
The Starter Pack That’s Not a Joke
Skip the Disposable Phase
Reusable paper towels save you $200+ a year. The broom outlasts anything with a plastic handle. The soap dish doesn’t melt. You start with things that last, so you don’t replace them six months in. Your future self is already grateful.
Looks Like You Have Taste
An Amish-made broom, a Japanese steel box, a terracotta soap dish from Paraguay. These are the details guests notice — the ones that make someone think you’ve been living on your own for years, not weeks. First impressions, earned honestly.
Actually Useful, Day One
Every item in this guide gets used immediately. Towels, broom, soap dish, storage, paper towels. No decorative-only pieces. No things that sit in a closet. This is stuff you reach for every day and quietly appreciate every time.
Things Made by People Who Care
The Everyday Broom is handwoven by Amish makers in Pennsylvania on a traditional loom that’s been in the same family for over 50 years. Natural broom corn, solid oak handle, made the old-fashioned way because the old-fashioned way still works better than anything a factory has come up with. It’s the kind of broom you actually want to leave leaning against the wall where people can see it.
The Toyo Steel box has been pressed from single sheets of steel in Japan since 1969 — originally for craftsmen, now for anyone who wants their junk drawer to look intentional. The lids interlock for stacking, there are no seams or weak points, and eight color options mean you can match it to the personality you’re going for in your new place.
Then there’s the soap dish, handmade from terracotta clay found in the hills of Paraguay. Each one is individually stamped by the potter who made it. Marley’s Monsters makes the reusable paper towels from cotton flannel — a 12-pack replaces over $200 a year in disposables, which is money you could spend on literally anything else. And the Ritz towels are just solid, no-nonsense kitchen towels that look good and hold up. Twelve of them.
“The Everyday Broom is handwoven on a family loom that’s been in use for over 50 years. Some things don’t need improving.”
— Amish makers, Pennsylvania
Questions
The Stuff You Want to Know
What’s in this guide?
Five home essentials: a handwoven Amish Everyday Broom with a solid oak handle, a 12-pack of Ritz Farmhouse Stripe Kitchen Towels, a Toyo Steel T-190 stackable storage box from Japan, a 12-pack of Marley’s Monsters reusable paper towels, and a handmade terracotta soap dish from Paraguay. It’s the “I just moved in and somehow already have good taste” starter pack.
Who makes the broom?
Amish makers in Pennsylvania, on a traditional loom that’s been in the same family for over 50 years. Natural broom corn, solid oak handle, made in small batches by hand. Each one is a little different because that’s what happens when humans make things instead of machines.
Do the reusable paper towels actually work?
They do. Marley’s Monsters makes them from cotton flannel, they get softer with every wash, and a 12-pack replaces over $200 a year in disposables. Toss them in the washing machine and reuse. Your paper towel holder will feel neglected, but it’ll get over it.
Is the Toyo Steel box just for looks?
Absolutely not. Toyo has been making these in Japan since 1969 — originally for carpenters, electricians, and mechanics. People use them for keys, craft supplies, first-aid kits, pocket knives, tea bags, and things they’d rather not describe in public. The fact that it looks great is a bonus, not the point.
Move In Like You Mean It
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