Renter-friendly light fixes, no drilling
Okay. So we've done bright versus dim, we've done windows and which way they face. Now for the part everyone actually asks me about after class, usually in a whisper like it's a secret: what do you do when your best window is already full, or your lease says no holes in the wall, or you rent and the landlord would have a fit if you put a hook in the ceiling.
Good news. Most of this doesn't need a drill.
Move the plant, not the wall
First option, and it's the one people skip because it feels too obvious: just move the plant around the room, or around the apartment, until you find the good spot. I mean actually move it. Set it in a few different places for a few days each and watch how it does. We're so used to picking a spot because it "looks nice" there and then just leaving it, but the plant doesn't care about your furniture arrangement. It cares about the light.
A windowsill six inches back from the glass is a different plant experience than the same windowsill with the plant sitting right on it. Try both.
Rolling carts and plant stands beat wall shelves anyway
If you want your plants up off the floor, get a little rolling cart or a plant stand instead of a wall-mounted shelf. Nothing to patch when you move out, and honestly, it's better for the plant too, because you can wheel the whole cart closer to the window in winter when the light gets weak and pull it back in summer if the afternoon sun starts scorching things. A shelf on the wall is stuck where you put it. A cart isn't.
Tension rods, no drilling required
For hanging plants, tension rods are the move. The kind that wedge into a window frame or a doorway using spring pressure, no screws. You can hang a pothos or a string-of-hearts right in a window this way and get it right up close to the glass without touching the wall at all. I use one in my own kitchen window over the sink, it's not fancy, it's a ten-dollar rod from the hardware aisle, but it works and it comes right back out when I want to change things up.
One real caution here: check the weight rating on the rod before you hang anything heavy off it. A small pothos in a plastic pot, fine. A big trailing plant in a heavy ceramic pot, that can pull a tension rod right out of the frame and drop on your floor, or worse, on you. Read the packaging. It'll tell you.
Adhesive hooks, but be honest about the weight
Command hooks and the like work for lighter plants, same idea, mind the weight limit, and test it for a day or two before you trust it with something you love. I've had one let go on me at 2am with a soft thud and I just laughed because it wasn't holding anything breakable at the time. Wouldn't have been as funny with my Grandma Anderson's old pitcher sitting under it.
Grouping plants near your best window
Here's a trick that solves two problems at once. If you've only got one decent window, group your plants there instead of spreading them out to "decorate" different corners of the room. It looks a little more like a plant shelf and a little less like accent pieces scattered around, sure, but the plants will actually be alive in six months, which is the goal. Someone once told me I was a plant witch, so, take that for what it's worth, but I promise there's no magic in it. It's just, put the plant where the light is instead of asking the light to come to the plant. Light doesn't negotiate.
When you truly have no good light
If your apartment is just dim everywhere, and some are, a small grow light clipped to a shelf or a bookcase is a totally normal thing to own. It's not a science experiment, it's not embarrassing, it's a little bulb that plugs into the wall. I'll do a whole lesson on those down the road, but for now just know it's an option, and it needs zero holes in anything.
And this is a good place to mention: my friend Shannon once handed me a cutting from her own pothos, just snipped it off and stuck it in a jar of water for me. I set that jar right on the windowsill where the old dead one used to sit, and over about two weeks I watched these little white roots grow out of the stem. That was honestly the first time I thought, okay, I actually like doing this. That plant's still alive at my house today, no drilling, no fancy shelf, just a windowsill and some patience.
Before next time
Walk your place and find your actual brightest spot, not the spot you assumed was brightest. Put a plant there for a few days and see what happens.