I thought my landlord's "no holes in the walls" rule was evil, then I tried hanging shelves with tape and learned why landlords win

Fiona Kim · 2026-10-11T12:50:03.321311+00:00

I rented a spot in Austin for two and a half years and refused to put a single nail in the wall, so I hung everything with those sticky strips. Last spring I came home and my $30 spice rack had peeled off the paint and taken a grapefruit-sized chunk of drywall with it. I was sure my landlord would keep my whole $1,200 deposit, but he actually just charged me $40 for the patch and said the sticky stuff does way more damage than a nail hole ever would. That sounds fake but he showed me three other units with the same torn paint from renters trying to be careful. So now I use a $4 pack of nail hooks and patch holes with spackle before I move out. Anyone else have a landlord who turned out to be way more chill about nails than tape?

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I thought my landlord's "no holes in the walls" rule was evil, then I tried hanging shelves with tape and learned why landlords win | Apartment Living Hacks - Free To Speak