organize your apartment

We’re just a little into the new year, and it’s around now that many find that their resolutions are a little harder to accomplish than originally imagined. If one of your resolutions this year was to get more organized, and you don’t think Marie Kondo will stop by your home anytime soon, here are a few tips to get started.

The best part is, none of these tips will require any permanent installations, so your home or apartment won’t face any damage.

Contain and Corral:

Minimalism is growing in popularity, but that wasn’t always the go-to method to organize. Having less will allow for better organization, but you don’t have to abandon all your possessions to have a tidy home. Instead, try to contain and corral like items. House your belongings in a spot where they can be easily put away after use. Remember, the key to organizing for your home is ensuring your organization plan is easy to maintain. If you have to walk to another floor to put a small item away every day, it likely won’t make it there consistently. Put items away where you would most use them to make things easy on yourself.

Use Command Products:

Don’t underestimate the power of using your wall space. If you live in an apartment, it can be difficult to truly utilize the walls to their fullest without fear of the repercussions of damaging the space. Thankfully, taking advantage of all the command products available on the market today can help you organize and use the vertical space you have available. Removable wall hooks can be used to hang keys, coats and small baskets of items, while removable photo ledges can be used to house pictures, books or small bric-a-brac you would like to display.

Remember the Classics:

Organizing can be a big goal, and with any large goal, it can be easy to toss aside all working and non-working solutions in hopes of starting from scratch. Realistically, organizing is all about finding what works in your home. Don’t hesitate to get rid of the methods that are clearly creating chaos in your space, but don’t try to reinvent the wheel. For instance, a well-styled bookshelf is a classic and time-tested organizing tool that’s not just for books. Use photo boxes or magazine holders to house important papers, think in layers to display your child’s art and your beloved collections, and of course, they easily corral all your books.

Ignore the One-and-Done Temptation:

You may be tempted to work excessively hard to reign in the chaos and then assume that you have completed the organization process long-term. This can be the biggest hurdle with organizing. Maintenance tasks will be key. Truly organized individuals devote attention to the task throughout the year. They clean as they go, refine solutions for their lifestyle, and set aside time to redo problem areas. All are important aspects of the overall organizational process. Remember, regular adjustments of your system will translate to less huge clean-up projects down the road.

Seeking a more organized apartment is a great goal for 2019, and one that will keep your home enjoyable throughout the year. You may not have the floor-to-ceiling built-in shelving on every organization guru’s Instagram, but you can certainly find easy to maintain solutions for your apartment. Creating a haven out of chaos can be an overwhelming task, but taking it in small steps and remembering the basics can go a long way.


RELATED READING FOR YOU: