Essential Items for Your First Apartment in Crete

Moving into a furnished Cretan apartment and finding it ready to live in are two different things. Landlords provide the furniture, the washing machine, and usually a set of plates that look like they survived the Minoan era. The rest is on you.

This is the list of things I bought in the first two weeks — the ones that actually made the place liveable.

Bedding and Towels

Furnished apartments almost never come with bedding. Pillows, duvet, duvet cover, fitted sheet — all of these you need to source yourself. Beach towels too, unless you plan to use the same small hand towel for six months.

Jumbo (the Greek equivalent of a slightly chaotic homeware superstore) has cheap, reasonable-quality bedding. IKEA delivers to Crete and their bedding is worth the extra cost if you plan to stay more than three months. I made the mistake of buying bargain pillows on day two and ordered better ones from IKEA within a week.

Kitchen Essentials

A furnished kitchen typically means: some plates, some glasses, cutlery, a pan that has seen better days, and possibly a pot. What it rarely means: a good knife, a chopping board that does not flex when you press on it, a colander, a wooden spoon, or anything you would actually enjoy cooking with.

Things worth buying immediately:

One decent chef's knife (look in Praktiker or any kitchen shop in the central market)
A proper chopping board
A colander or strainer
A grater
A decent frying pan — Tefal and similar are available in most supermarkets

You do not need to replace everything the landlord provided. You just need to supplement the gaps.

Cleaning Supplies

Nothing makes an unfamiliar apartment feel more like yours than cleaning it properly on day one. The landlord may have cleaned before you arrived, or they may have cleaned in the way that people clean when they know someone is coming to view it rather than live in it. Buy: a mop, a bucket, a decent floor cleaner, bathroom cleaner, sponges, and a good broom. Sklavenitis and AB Vassilopoulos stock all of these. Budget about €25.

A Power Strip with Surge Protection

Greek apartments — especially older buildings — do not have many sockets. A power strip with surge protection solves two problems at once: gives you enough plugs for your work setup, and protects your electronics from the voltage fluctuations that older wiring occasionally produces. This is genuinely useful, not a precaution. Buy one on day one.

Hangers

Landlord wardrobes reliably come with approximately six hangers. You need more. Jumbo sells them in bulk for almost nothing.

A Drying Rack

Most Cretan apartments do not have a tumble dryer. The washing machine handles washing; sun and air handle drying. A decent folding drying rack costs €8–15 and becomes essential immediately, particularly if you arrived in the winter months when outdoor drying is slower.

A Fan or Portable Heater

This depends on when you arrive. In summer, the apartment AC is your main climate tool, but a floor fan in the bedroom costs €15–20 and makes sleeping considerably more comfortable on very hot nights. In winter, a small oil-filled radiator for the bathroom (which rarely has heating) is the one quality-of-life improvement I would not skip.

A Decent Bin

Furnished apartments have bins. The bins in furnished apartments are the size of a wastepaper basket. Buy a proper kitchen bin — 20-30 litre capacity — within the first few days.

Personal Care and Bathroom Basics

Pharmacies in Heraklion are well-stocked with everything you would expect. Bring a month's supply of anything prescription or specific. For everything else — shampoo, soap, toothpaste, any standard personal care product — buy it locally. It will be slightly cheaper than at home and you will not have wasted luggage allowance on it.

What to Buy Online vs In-Store

For basics (bedding, cleaning supplies, kitchen items, hangers): buy in Heraklion the first week — Jumbo, Praktiker, the covered market in the city centre, or the main supermarkets. You will find what you need.

For anything more specific (a particular type of coffee equipment, a specific kitchen gadget, good headphones, electronics accessories): order from Amazon Greece or Skroutz (the Greek price comparison and marketplace platform). Delivery to a Heraklion address typically takes 2–4 working days.

The rule I follow: if it costs less than €20 and I need it now, I buy it locally. If it is over €30 and I can wait a few days, I check Skroutz first.