Moving Into an NYC Apartment: The Handyman Checklist

Moving into an NYC apartment goes smoothest in three waves: before move-in (building paperwork and the freight elevator booking), day one (change the lock, from $95, and assemble the bed, from $110), and week one (TV, shelves, curtains, anchoring). Budget roughly $400–500 in flat-rate handyman work for a typical one-bedroom setup.

I set up apartments for a living, so here’s the checklist I’d hand my own friends — organized by when things actually need to happen, with real prices next to each item.

What should I do before moving into an NYC apartment?

The pre-move week is all paperwork and photos. Boring, but this is where deposits are won and freight elevators are lost.

1. Get the building paperwork sorted — this is the one everyone misses. Most co-op, condo, and doorman buildings in NYC require paperwork from your movers and sometimes from any contractor or handyman before they’re allowed in the building. A missing form means the super turns your movers away at the door while your couch sits on the sidewalk. Ask management for their requirements the day you sign, forward them to your movers — and to whoever’s doing your setup work — so nobody discovers the rules on move day.

2. Book the freight elevator. Buildings with elevators usually require a reservation and often restrict moves to weekdays. Around June 1 and September 1 — NYC’s twin lease-turnover tsunamis — elevator slots and movers book out weeks ahead. If your lease starts near either date, book everything early and expect every price in the city to be at its seasonal worst.

3. Photograph everything before the first box. Walk the empty apartment and shoot every wall, floor, window, and fixture, plus close-ups of existing damage. Timestamped photos are your move-out evidence file. Two years from now, that hairline crack above the door frame is either “pre-existing, see photo” or “$200 off your deposit.” Your call, but it takes ten minutes now.

4. Read the alteration rules. Some buildings restrict drilling hours, TV mounting on certain walls, or anything touching brick. Knowing this before you buy a 65-inch TV for a wall you can’t drill saves an annoying conversation. (If it is brick or concrete, that’s a thing I handle — more below.)

What should I do on day one?

Two jobs. Everything else is optional; these aren’t.

Day-one job	Why it can’t wait	Flat rate (from)
Change the lock / new lockset	You have no idea who has copies of that key	$95
Assemble the bed frame	Tonight you need to sleep somewhere that isn’t the floor	$110
Smart lock or video doorbell (optional upgrade)	Same visit, and renter-friendly options exist	$100

The lock is the one people rationalize skipping. Don’t. Previous tenants, their exes, their dog walkers, that one contractor from 2023 — the key population of an NYC apartment is unknowable. A fresh lockset is $95 and about an hour, and most leases just ask that you give the landlord a copy of the new key. If you want keyless, a smart lock runs $100 and most models are renter-friendly — they replace only the inside half, so the original hardware goes back at move-out.

The bed is the other one. After twelve hours of moving, nobody has the will to fight a bag of cam locks. Bed frame assembly is $110 flat; the full furniture assembly menu covers everything else IKEA sold you — dresser $90, PAX wardrobe $180.

I do evenings and Sundays, which is exactly when move-ins actually end — and Sunday, conveniently, is when everyone else in this trade doesn’t answer the phone.

What’s on the week-one apartment setup checklist?

Once you can sleep and lock the door, week one is about making the place livable. Here’s the standard list with flat rates:

Week-one job	Flat rate (from)
TV mounted, up to 55” on drywall	$120
TV on brick or concrete (hello, brownstones)	$160
Curtain rods or blinds, per window	$80
Floating shelves	$60 each
Gallery wall, up to 10 pieces	$140
Heavy mirror, properly anchored	$90
Furniture anchoring (dressers, bookcases — non-negotiable with kids)	$90
Window AC install (if you’re moving in summer)	$90

A few NYC-specific notes:

• Know your walls before you drill. Prewar buildings hide plaster over lath or brick behind that innocent-looking paint. Drywall anchors that hold 50 pounds in a new glass tower hold approximately nothing in crumbling plaster. This is most of why TV mounting and picture hanging are worth handing off — the price of getting it wrong is a $140 drywall patch and a cracked TV.
• Renters: damage-free options exist. For curtains, shelves, and even some anchoring, I can often use methods that leave no holes or only small, easily-patched ones — and I’ll tell you which is which up front.
• Anchor the tall furniture. Dressers and bookcases tip. If there are kids in the apartment, furniture anchoring at $90 is the cheapest important thing on this whole list.
• Moving in June through August? Get the window AC in before the first heat wave, not during it. Install is $90; my full guide to NYC window AC rules and brackets covers the bracket question your building will ask about.

Typical all-in for a one-bedroom — lock, bed, TV, two curtain rods, a dresser, anchoring — lands around $650–700 in flat-rate work plus materials, usually across one or two visits. Every number is published on my pricing page, and I confirm the exact total from your photos before I show up.

How do I protect my security deposit from day one?

Think about move-out on move-in day. Future-you says thanks.

• Photos first (see above). This is 80% of the game.
• Keep a “wall map.” A note on your phone listing every hole you make and where. At move-out, patching is systematic instead of archaeological.
• Prefer removable methods where it doesn’t matter, real anchors where it does. A TV needs real hardware; a poster does not.
• Patch before the walk-through, not after. A drywall patch with paint blended in is $140 flat with me, and it’s dramatically cheaper than whatever number the landlord’s contractor invents after you’ve handed back the keys. Same logic for a room touch-up paint pass at $150.
• Landlords reading this: I do turnover punch lists between tenants too — details on the landlord page.

One more move-out-mindset tip: fix small stuff as it happens. A door that started rubbing in July ($110 to plane and rehang via door repair) is a five-minute conversation now and a deposit line-item later.

When to call me

You can DIY plenty of this list. Call me when:

• Your building restricts drilling hours or work days, and you need someone who plans around them instead of arguing with the super.
• It’s day one, it’s 7 p.m., and the bed is still a diagram. I work evenings and Sundays, until 10 PM.
• The wall is brick, plaster, or a mystery, and the thing going on it is heavy.
• You want the whole week-one list knocked out in one visit with one flat quote.
• You’re a renter and want damage-free methods chosen deliberately, not by luck.

Text me photos of the jobs, I quote flat prices before I come, I answer my own phone, and I sweep up the packaging before I go. Start at the pricing page or just reach out — and if you’re still comparing costs, my handyman cost in NYC guide breaks down what everything should run.