Resolve to Organize Your Apartment

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Resolve to Organize Your Apartment

aptsherpa · Dec 12, 2005

New Years Resolution: Organizing Your Life

It’s almost that time of year again. All year long you’ve been saying “Oh, I’ll do that next year,” and the time is finally upon us. And no, you can’t renege on your new years resolution to organize your apartment. Bet you wish you had only promised to visit your mother more often. Organizing can be difficult in a small apartment; sometimes there just doesn’t seem to be enough room to store everything. But with a few helpful organizing tips, you can really maximize your space, and rid yourself of unnecessary clutter in the New Year – you’ll have to deal with that pesky neighbor on your own.

Bedroom

Unfortunately, bedrooms typically end up as the receptacles of all your personal belongings: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Floors become hampers, bookshelves become trash cans, and desks become cd holders, dish racks, and file folders. First thing’s first: clean up your room, you filthy animal! It’s time to trash your 7 th grade spelling bee ribbons, they don’t impress anyone. Make a sweep through your room, and toss anything that you don’t really need. You’ll be surprised by what you find, and what you should’ve gotten rid of a long time ago. Once you’ve cleared out all the unnecessary items, you can begin organizing what you do want to keep around.

A great idea for extra space is bed risers. Since your bed takes up such a huge portion of your room, why not capitalize on that space by sticking drawers beneath your bed? There are many different ways to do this. Some beds come with drawers underneath – if you’re looking for a new bed altogether – but if you’re just in the market for a little extra space with your existing bed, you’re in luck as well. It’s super easy to put your bed on risers, and then buy inexpensive plastic drawers to stick underneath. This is also a great way to switch out summer and winter clothing. To help minimize the amount of clothing in your closet throughout the year, try dividing your clothes into seasons. Then just put the seasons you’re not wearing under your bed, and they’re out of your way! With so many different options, you’re bound to find something that fits your style.

Or, try taking the feng shui approach to home organizing and minimize, minimize, minimize. What do you need with all these “things” anyway? In a small apartment, less is more. One of the main issues in feng shui is the flow of energy. Too much clutter can inhibit this flow, creating bad energy. Make sure each piece of furniture in your bedroom is necessary. Get rid of that giant nightstand that you only use to set your cell phone on at night. Try hanging cubbies or shelves for picture frames, alarm clocks, and other small items. Not everything has to take up floor space. This will minimize your need to stuff things into bottomless drawers, never to be seen again.

Closet

Ahhhhh! Does a large heap of clothing fall on top of you as you open your closet door? This might be a small hint that closet organization is necessary in your immediate future. There’s a myriad of tools out there to help you keep everything in order, it’s just the task of actually organizing it all together that’s frightening. You’ve spent years adding to your collection of duds, how are you supposed to fit them all into that tiny hole in the wall they call a closet? Well, with the help of a few shoe racks, a stackable set of drawers, and about one hundred hangers, you’ll be set.

It’s good to mix and match in a small closet. That is, don’t use all hangers, or all drawers, but think about what a good combination of the two would be. T-shirts are thin and don’t take up much hanging room, so hanging those might be a good way to maximize space. Bulky sweaters and such can be stored in plastic boxes under your newly lifted bed. Pants, which can be neatly folded, can be stacked in vertical shelves. If your closet doesn’t come with shelves, they’re easy to install. Small stackable drawers can easily fit under hanging t-shirts inside a closet, and are good for storing small things such as your skivvies. Also, using hanging shoe racks – plastic or wooden – can really maximize floor space in a closet, so you actually have room for stackable drawers and shelving. They also make it a lot easier to see what shoes you actually have, rather than having to dig for them under piles of clothes. That’s where your favorite pair of shoes went!

With the winter holidays approaching, you’ll have a little extra time to get it all together. So hurry up and get organizing!

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