How do you re-pot a plant ... inside an apartment?

Very carefully.

In the past, I've had a porch or a yard or some area outside where I could tackle such dirty deeds as re-potting a plant.  You dive in, do what you need to do and then leave it to the rain (or a hose) to wash away the mess. 

But over the past three years, I've learned a lot about living in the much more limiting space of an apartment.  Must be more concious about the volume of music and TV (respecting neighbors on all sides).  Must not vacuum too late at night (respecting neighbors below).  Must not run garbage disposal too late at night (respecting neighbors below).  Etc., etc.

So when it came to re-potting the plant my mom gave me on the first day of my "real world" job (which still employees me today), I had to give it some thought to figure out how I could feasibly do this within the confines of my apartment -- without making a tremendous mess.  The first time I re-potted it, I took everything down to the building's loading dock.  Which was such a pain.  Decided to not do that again.  Surely, if I just prepared a little bit and was fairly careful, I could do this on my hardwood kitchen floor without making a huge mess:

Success!  It was fairly easy to clean up.  Dumped the old dirt into a garbage bag, folded up the paper sack I'd laid out to catch the dirt and added it to the garbage bag -- down the trash chute it went. Rinsed out the old pot, vacuumed up the stray traces of dirt on the floor -- all done!  And my, my, the plant looks a lot better:

I hope that re-potting it will also help the plant be a little healthier.  May be wishful thinking to hope that it "thrives."  Don't know that I have that kind of magic in me. I'll settle for the poor thing just staying alive ... as I've miraculously managed thus far. 

Admittedly, I'm slowly but surely learning more about plant care.  So if this thing can live for long enough for me to learn more, we may just get to that lofty goal of "thriving."  So far, I've learned the importance of "feeding" the plant and of re-potting it periodically.  (Who knew it needed nutrients, and that you can't just plant it in a pot it once and forget about it?)  Still trying to nail down the whole watering thing.  (Seriously, after three years ... I still don't feel like I have that quite right.)

Maybe it would help if I gave it a name.  I think "Roger" would be appropriate.