Apartment living is a bit different than having your own home. For one, the square footage is usually bigger in a house. You also have limitations on things you can hang and renovations you can make.
But there are so many benefits to living in an apartment that makes many people prefer this type of home. And if you know how to get and stay decluttered, the smaller space doesn’t matter.
If you’ve been in your place for a while or are just moving in, these five easy steps will help you organize each room. From there, you can enjoy the perks of your apartment!
1. Open Up the Storage Areas
Before you begin organizing a room, check out the prime storage spaces. Closets, drawers, and empty walls need to be cleaned out and ready for whatever you’re putting in them.
So, in other words, to get clean, you need to make a mess.
One room at a time, open up those storage areas. If you’ve already been living there a while, take an empty tote or a wide-open surface and dump the drawers out, one by one. Pull everything out of each closet, and then reevaluate how much room you have in there and what you can better use the space for.
If you just moved in, you don’t have to make that big mess. But don’t throw things in your drawers and closets willy-nilly. Wait until you have an organizing plan.
2. Use Organizers
Those empty areas need to be maximized for optimal storage space. That might mean investing in some organizers, like baskets, drawer dividers, and totes.
The world of organizing has grown in leaps and bounds over the past few years. If it’s new to you, you might be amazed at all the products you can choose from to help you straighten up your stuff.
From attached bedside tables to plastic bag holders, everything you need to make your room more efficient is out there.
For more advice on using organizers in your apartment, check out this article.
3. Focus on Shared Areas
Unless you live by yourself, there are some areas that you’ll be sharing with other people. Those spaces need to be organized in a way that makes sense to everyone.
The desire for a clean and tidy home isn’t in everyone’s blood. But by organizing shared areas in ways that are easy to use, it’s more likely that the other people living there will follow your methods.
Remember, your way isn’t always the only way. Ask the others who live with you what their thoughts are on decluttering and storing in each shared room.
You might be surprised when they come up with an idea even better than yours. And by involving them in the process, they’re more likely to follow through with keeping the place neat.
4. Declutter the Messy Areas
We’ve all been guilty of it at some point in our livesusing that one area as a clutter catch-all. Whether it’s a junk drawer, a corner of the room, or somewhere else, it’s so easy to toss your stuff in a pile and deal with it later.
But those are the areas you need to work on the most. Go through every room and take note of the clutter-collector spots. They might be a flat surface, like a table or counter, or where the shoes come off in the entryway.
Sometimes, these places are hidden, but they still need to be fixed. Check the drawers and closets for miscellaneous spots. Then, come up with a plan to declutter those areas.
Get rid of anything you know you haven’t used recently and probably won’t anytime soon. Use organizers to tidy up small spaces and flat surfaces. As much as you possibly can, avoid the urge to have a junk area.
5. Tweak Your Habits
If you think about it, you will probably realize that a lot of your apartment organization style is a habit. You’ve always seen it done that way, so you’ve always done it that way.
If you tweak your habits a little bit, you might find a better way of doing things.
Maybe you always kept your hamper in the bathroom, but your messy spot in your room is a pile of clothes in the corner. Move your hamper there instead, and the problem is solved!
Do you go to bed and leave everything to deal with in the morning, then rush around stressed out when you’re running late for your day? Why not take ten minutes in the evening and put away the clutter?
Habits are often hard to break, especially if they’ve been part of your life for a long time. However, experts say that if you force yourself to do something for around 66 days, your new habit will become automatic behavior.
What better time to try to form better living habits than when you’ve moved into a new apartment?
Conclusion
Living in an apartment, especially a shared one, requires a lot of organizing to keep everything efficient and clean. But once you master these five tips, you’ll reap the benefits that go along with your new, tidy home!
I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!
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