I've technically been a renter my entire life, but the idea of "renter-friendly" wasn't introduced to me until a couple of years ago.

Growing up, my parents (and I, eventually) just did whatever they wanted in our apartment, because the idea of ever having to move didn't dawn on them. Over the years, our living room gallery wall only grew; every room in the apartment was painted a different color, and we even installed new flooring.

I knew that I was in a unique situation, and I knew things would have to change once I moved out. Enter: adhesive strips.

Why I Fell For Adhesive Strips in the First Place

When I moved out of my childhood apartment last summer, adhesive strips were one of the first things on my list. My new apartment is much more temporary, and I've got a much stricter landlord to keep in mind.

Like most people, I had seen endless videos of people losing their security deposit for putting holes in their walls, and didn't want to find myself in the same position. My lease never said I couldn't hang things up on my walls with nails, but I thought it was better to play it safe than sorry.

Plus, the idea of sticking some strips on the back of some art and throwing it on the wall seemed much easier than needing a hammer and nail every time I wanted to hang something new.

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My Breaking Point (Literally)

I bought a pack of the largest-sized strips that could hold the most weight. With multi-sized packs I feel like you always end up getting really small strips that aren't really useful for larger projects.

My first few, lighter, unframed pieces went up on my walls with zero issues. It hadn't even occurred to me that weight was a factor, since the strips that I bought could allegedly support up to 25lbs. Things started going downhill with my first larger, framed piece—though it probably weighs less than seven pounds total.

I started putting the art up, and it came right back down. Within 24 hours of putting up the framed piece, I returned home to it shattered on my living room floor. A week later, another similarly-sized piece (but still not 25lbs worth of weight) fell right off my wall after a few days of holding steady.

My final straw was when a framed poster (again, probably less than 4 pounds) fell straight off the wall mere minutes after I hung it up—I had just unwrapped the frame 30 minutes prior, and my heart skipped a beat at the thought of having to replace yet another frame.

Thankfully, that frame survived the crash, but I'd finally had enough.

What I Do Now: Nails—and No Regrets

Like I've said before, my parents and I pretty much did whatever we wanted in my old apartment, so I'm no stranger to hanging things up with nails. It took a little bit of convincing, but I finally got my partner on board, too.

Any nail you put in your wall will make a small hole. Sometimes the holes made by nails, hooks, or even thumbtacks (because at this point, anything is sturdier than these adhesive strips) are so small, you can barely even notice them.

Filling in these holes is easy as can be—especially if you have white walls—and can be done in a matter of seconds with the right supplies.

Now, I place nails directly into my wall, and if I need to move anything around, I'll just use an all-in-one small hole repair tool; they're super affordable and are essentially just a glue stick you just pass over the holes to fill them in. It takes seconds, will save you your security deposit, and you won't end up having to replace frames like I did.