Keeping a small appartment clean

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Anglewannabe

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I live in a 2 bedroom apartment. Considering I live alone, objectively, it is more than enough space. Especially since I don’t golf, or play hockey or have any other hobby that requires owning a lot of equipment. However, my place is always messy. I never really had the knack or organizing objects in an efficient way. Consequently, I always have junk all over the bedroom floor and kitchen table.

I have come to the conclusion, the best way to keep my apartment clean is to first, get rid of non essentials so I will have room in my closet and cupboards for the essentials. Then if things are all over the place, it will be a lot easier to dust and do the floors.

Just curious if other people have any hints on how to keep an apartment clean. I was going through a photo album today. I look at this album twice a year at the most. I was thinking of putting it in the bottom of a box in my closet since it does not have to be easily accessible. It would be out of the way and there would be less clutter in my living room. However, knowing me, I will forget it is there. The day I will want to look at it, I will not find it and flip everything in my apartment upside down to find it. But what if it is not something sentimental but practical like an insurance policy. Then I would be really in a pickle if I did not know where it is.

Also, I admire the Jesuit philosophy of living a simple lifestyle. Of only having the bare essentials. I had a lock of hair from my first hair cut I came upon 6 months ago. Since there is no use for it and do not need it, I threw it out. When I told a friend that, she was shocked at my lack of sentimentality. But on the other hand, I really did not see the point of lugging around something that I would never use and is of absolutely no value to anyone else.

So, if others could please share their housekeeping hints and opinions, it would be appreciated

Angie
 
“But what if it is not something sentimental but practical like an insurance policy.”

Fire-proof safe. Keep all important documents in a fire-proof safe.

Your thoughts on downsizing are very good. Once you thin things down, treat yourself to meatballs at IKEA (if you have a local IKEA) and study home-organizing there. If you don’t, you can send away for their catalog and study it.
 
Xantippe said:
“But what if it is not something sentimental but practical like an insurance policy.”

Fire-proof safe. Keep all important documents in a fire-proof safe.

Your thoughts on downsizing are very good. Once you thin things down, treat yourself to meatballs at IKEA (if you have a local IKEA) and study home-organizing there. If you don’t, you can send away for their catalog and study it.
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Do you mean like renting a safe at a bank? Or is there such a thing as buying a small one? And meatballs at IKEA? I though IKEA was a furniture store, or is meatballs a name of an organizer?
 
I mean a small fireproof safe that you can keep in a location where casual visitors or repair people won’t notice it and figure you’re keeping the Hope Diamond there. We keep passports, our house documentation, and other hard-to-replace documents in one.

IKEAs usually have an inexpensive cafe inside where you can get Swedish meatballs with lingonberry sauce.
 
You could buy a small safe, or locking box. They sell them in places like Home Depot.
Ikea is a furniture store, but the one near us has a cafe, with Swedish food. Famous for the meatballs, but they are Swedish.

I recommend looking at www.flylady.net for tips and support for keeping your place clean. Flylady has it down to a science. (FLY= Finally Loving Yourself)
 
Start by getting rid of the clutter. If you haven’t used something in 2-3 years, get rid of it. And yes, get a small fire-proof safe for legal documents. When cleaning, think of a room as a clock. Start at 12 and work your way around. When you get junk mail, magazines etc., after reading, discard, don’t let them build up.
 
Viki63 said:
You could buy a small safe, or locking box. They sell them in places like Home Depot.
Ikea is a furniture store, but the one near us has a cafe, with Swedish food. Famous for the meatballs, but they are Swedish.

I recommend looking at www.flylady.net for tips and support for keeping your place clean. Flylady has it down to a science. (FLY= Finally Loving Yourself)
Click to expand...
I’ve got to second “Flylady.” I moved in late 2012 from a large house (1,700 sq ft) to a one bedroom, 540 sq ft apartment that gets government inspections nearly every other month (low income). I couldn’t make it without Flylady’s daily advice.

I agree about the fireproof box. We sell them at Ace Hardware, too. With all the fire evacuations we have had this year, I feel much safer with my documents in one.
 
If you have room…shelves…bookcases,etc. It gets stuff off the floor and let’s you have easy access to that photo album without making a mess when you look for it. If your closet is big enough you can even put a bookcase inside it.
 
I’m not a naturally tidy person and struggle to keep the house and my office at work in order. The most important thing for me is to keep it easy. If I have to pull a vacuum cleaner out of a closet that is crammed with junk, then the floor won’t get vacuumed.

Put all your clothes on hangers facing the same direction. When you wear something, put it back on a hanger but put the hanger facing the other way. This time next year, any clothing on hangers facing the original way, get rid of them.

I’ve found baskets with labels useful. I buy matching baskets, put labels on each and put whatever stuff is lying around into them. Because they are labeled, it will be easy to find things. The matching basket already look tidy and all the items are now off the tables, sofas etc.

Clean the kitchen sink every evening before going to bed. Starting off the day with a clean sink, helps me keep the rest of the house tidy.

Spot clean also helps - set an alarm clock or your phone for 30 minutes. During that 30 minutes, decide to clean e.g., the kitchen closets under the sink. Do this every day until you get things in order. I’ve found longer than 30 minutes makes me frustrated.

A fireproof safe (we have a small one) is a good place to keep important documents. You can buy them in any home depot type store. Have a folder in there with labels (I like labels!) and put any important documents into the correct section so you don’t have to pull everything out of the safe when looking for something.
 
I don’t think I’d keep the deeds to the house at home in a fireproof safe, but insurance docs etc. would be, but would those ins. docs not be replaceable by your insurance company, they are 'prolly just for your reference, you are on their system.
Sounds like you need some storage space, and since you have neither attic nor basement how about a giant spanish chest (its decorative) from a flea-market or ebay. Everything to be stored gets heaved in there so you know where everything is. Useful stuff on the top, less used stuff lower in the pile.
 
My husband and I have a hard time with keeping the house clean, too. Things just seem to build up. We are trying to fix this by getting furniture that doubles as decent storage. Just yesterday we bought a new TV stand with cabinet doors so our DVDs will be out of sight rather than stacked on a shelf below the TV. It already looks better! I have re-purposed the old TV stand with exposed shelving into a place to hold my plants near a window. I threw some old curtains over it to cover it and now it just looks like a small table with a table cloth.

The key for us really seems to be switching from shelving to actual cabinets that cover the stuff. Even when you have everything picked up off the floor, if you can see it all over your walls on a bunch of shelves it still feels a bit messy. Covering things up with opaque storage seems to make a big difference.
 
Do it the way special forces soldiers do. Compartmentalize. What you may see as an enormous task in front of you of cleaning up the whole place, should be broken down into manageable bits. Otherwise the task seems impossible, you don’t know where to begin, and you tend to procrastinate. Make a list room by room of what you want to accomplish. Then create a 5, 10, or 15 minute rule. For example: “bedroom is cluttered with laundry and other items. I will spend at least 10 minutes per day putting laundry into baskets, and decluttering the floor.” Don’t worry about the other rooms. Gradually finish the bedroom and check it off your list. Then move to another room.
 
Viki63 said:
You could buy a small safe, or locking box. They sell them in places like Home Depot.
Ikea is a furniture store, but the one near us has a cafe, with Swedish food. Famous for the meatballs, but they are Swedish.

I recommend looking at www.flylady.net for tips and support for keeping your place clean. Flylady has it down to a science. (FLY= Finally Loving Yourself)
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting the flylady link. 👍 That was my first thought as well.
 
Just take small, baby steps towards a cleaner, tidier apartment so that you won’t get overwhelmed and give up. Spend some time in your closets trying to organize and trim what is in them. If possible give to SVP all that you can as there are many needy people out there who would benefit from this. Each day give yourself a small goal and when you achieve it a pat on your back! Before you know it you will have a beautiful, comfortable home that you love living in. Praying for you,
 
You are doing the right thing by lightening up. There’s a really good book called, “Clutter’s Last Stand” which also said that was a necessary first step. So, you’re on the right track there! 👍

It said to imagine you are moving. Look through your possessions and ask yourself, “What here haven’t I used in the last 5 years?” Begin with that. Next ask, “What here haven’t I used in the last 3 years?” Go to that. Then,…1 year…

If you haven’t used something in years, probability is you won’t use it.

It suggested going through the photo álbum. Look at all the pictures. Did you keep a bunch that look terrible? Your eyes are closed, etc. They are repeats of the same. Okay, you can sift some of those out of there.

After this, I am at a loss, since I’m not really neat and tidy, myself. Others can take it from here! Good luck!

I know I pitched much of my possessions in the past, different times, and, that alone, made cleaning a snap!
 
tawny said:

“When cleaning, think of a room as a clock. Start at 12 and work your way around.”

Very good advice! I believe that’s what commercial cleaning companies teach their employees to do.

There’s a book called “Apartment Therapy” (it has some New Age-y spots) that may also be inspiring. The author wants to encourage apartment dwellers to make homes out their apartments, rather than just thinking “I’m moving anyway,” and putting up with the suboptimal–for the next five years. Clutter’s Last Stand is also very good. Your local library will probably have lots of titles on this for inspiration.

One thing IKEA does that I like is that on their showroom, they will have an example of how to compactly live in a small space (like 300 sq. ft.).
 
Another good book is Good Housekeeping’s “The Complete Clutter Solution.” It goes through the various zones of the home in a very helpful way.

(By the way, I have to admit to like reading these books way more than I like actually following their advice.)
 
Don’t be afraid to spend some money to buy yourself storage solutions, like bins, shelves, boxes, etc.

My wife had a friend who is a commercial artist/illustrator. She lived in a tiny two room apartment, and ran her business from there. Every conceivable supply that she needed was in that apartment. There was hardly room to turn around, but every single item was stored neatly and accessible.

That’s not much of a helpful tip, other than to say it can be done.
 
If you have a Container Store near you, I would recommend going there. They have a tremendous amount of items to help you organize small spaces.
 
I strongly recommend the book *Make Room for God: Clearing Out the Clutter *by Susan Rowland. It’s not necessarily a how-to about organizing, but rather how to figure out what things are important and what things to get rid of, and how to go about clearing both things and worry from our lives.

I also second the suggestion for the Container Store. If you don’t have a store where you live, they have a lot of products and tips online to help make a small space more livable.
 
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