Organize Your Apartment: Get Rid of Stuff
If you’ve got a cluttered or messy apartment, your first problem may be that you’ve just got too much stuff. After your long search for an apartment, you don’t want to be buried in it by miscellaneous piles of papers and clothes that you know you’re never going to wear. Organize your apartment by clearing out the clutter!
Take a Trip to Charity or the Library
If you’re not using it, maybe someone else can. Load up those extra clothes and the furniture that doesn’t quite fit your new digs and drop it off at the local thrift store. Do the same with some of those books that you’ve already read and don’t want to give up, or those you’ve “been meaning to read.” You can always donate books to the local library, and if you ever really need to read them, you can simply borrow them. If you have less stuff, you are on the way to having an organized apartment.
Organize Your Apartment: Rent Storage
You’ve got to keep certain items where you can find them, but you don’t need to trip over them every time you get in the door. Documents proving what you claimed on your taxes, for example, should probably be kept around for 5 to 7 years. Why not rent a storage space to keep some of this out of your apartment complex and out of your way? If the tax man comes round, you can always go and retrieve it. Ask at your management office. Some complexes even offer additional storage right on site, so you don’t have far to go to organize your apartment.
Buy a Few Key Organizational Aids
You don’t need to clean out this whole section of the store. Take a look around your apartment and see what would benefit you most. For example, whether you take your shoes off at the door or pile them up in your closet, either way you’re likely to have a pile cluttering up your floor somewhere. Why not invest a small amount of cash into a shoe rack or shelves so you can stack them neatly and organize your apartment using vertical space?
If paper clutter is your enemy, try scanning documents into a computer and keeping electronic copies only, or investing in a file cabinet. Clearing out the paper piles will help you organize your apartment – and help your state of mind too!
Create Your Own System to Organize Your Apartment
Decide how you’re going to deal with things like mail every day, and find tools and systems that work for you to organize your apartment. Try immediately dealing with junk mail, and having a mini-filing system right at the door to separate bills and materials that you want to read later.
Good luck, and happy organizing!