Room-by-Room Organization Tips

Posted on April 23, 2013 by mprice

Not sure where to begin organizing? Just take it one room at a time.

Home organization can seem like a daunting task, but when broken up room-by-room, it’s easier to tackle. Here’s how to divide and conquer to tame the mess.

Read on to learn more about our Spring Clean Sweepstakes.

Bathroom

No nonsense. Space is often at a premium in your bathroom, so it’s important to be firm and decisive about getting rid of things you don’t need. Toss out toiletries and equipment that you rarely use. In your medicine cabinet, limit yourself to just the essentials to keep your organization goals on track. Trust us, you can live without that seventh bottle of nail polish remover.
Space invaders. Nothing can make a room seem more like a mess than a cluttered countertop. Maximize valuable space on your vanity by utilizing utilitarian storage containers like this 5-in-1 toothbrush holder that also stores toothpaste and other toiletries like hand soap and lotion. Hang a rectangular wire basket (purchased from an office supply store) on the side of your vanity to hold your hair dryer and other gadgets.
Clean sweep. Keep bottled cleaners organized by hanging a tension rod in your cabinet. These adjustable rods are available for cheap and are a great quick fix to keep tight spaces organized and the cleaners you use regularly within arm’s reach. For cleaning supplies you don’t grab on a regular basis, keep them in an easy-to-reach basket that can be stashed when finished.

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Downsizing to an Apartment? Here’s What You Need to Know

Posted on March 21, 2013 by sroman

Downsizing to an apartment? Don’t raise the white flag. Use our tips to stay sane.

Whether you’re leaving home to find your first apartment or just want to save some money, downsizing from a house to an apartment can be overwhelming if you aren’t prepared.

You may find that you have many items that you no longer need or want in your new space, and it will help to do a little research before moving in. Does your new apartment allow pets? Will your unit come with a garage or storage space?

By finding the right information before hand and devising a game plan to deal with your accumulated belongings, you can stay sane while downsizing. Here’s how.

Find your perfect apartment!

Search Smart
Ask lots of questions while searching for your new apartment and measure the size of bedrooms and living areas to see how much of your furniture will fit. Check for ample cabinet and closet space. It may be possible to store larger items like outdoor furniture or a grill on your porch, but some apartments have regulations on what can be stored or displayed on porches. If you will have a storage unit, consider how many of your larger or rarely used items could fit here. You’ll likely not need a lawnmower or leaf blower while living in an apartment, so think about how to sell or store these kinds of items.

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Storage Tips for Small Apartments

Posted on March 20, 2013 by mprice

Feeling trapped by stuff in your small apartment? Take control with our storage tips.

Moving into an apartment you can afford sometimes means opting for a smaller space.

Find your perfect apartment now!

But if you come with a lot of baggage, it can be difficult to figure out where to put all your stuff.

Maximize your storage space by following these simple and clever techniques below.
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DIY Unique Jewelry Displays

Posted on January 10, 2013 by tpham

Is your jewelry jumbled in a pile? Use our ideas to properly display (and show off) your jewelry.

Long necklaces, long earrings, studs, rings, bracelets and bangles…oh my! How do you organize your jewelry? Do you dump it all in a drawer or hang your necklaces around a door handle? Do you often lose one earring in a pair? We have a few suggestions for not only organizing your jewelry but also putting it on display. Below are a few unique do-it-yourself and repurposing projects to properly display (and show off) your beautiful jewelry.

Cheese Grater
Sounds strange, doesn’t it? This one is rather simple, but it’s an easy and unique way to display your earrings. You can make it your own by spray painting the grater with a color that goes well with your décor. First, spray paint the grater with a primer. Once it is completely dry, cover the grater with a color of spray paint that you like. Let that coat dry, and if needed, add an additional coat of spray paint. Use the holes to display your earrings.

Start your apartment search today!

Branch
This one is simple, and you can use supplies you may already have around your apartment. First, head outdoors and search for a small branch. Next, hammer smaller nails into the branch on the same side. To attach to your wall, hammer two larger, stronger nails into the wall, and prop the branch on the nails. Next, hang your necklaces from the nails on the branch.

Rake
To continue the theme of repurposing old items, enter the garden rake. Living in an apartment means not having to worry about raking leaves in the fall. So repurpose that old rake and turn it into a jewelry holder. Take a head of an old rake and clean it off. If you’re feeling spontaneous, prime and spray paint the rake to match your décor. Next, tie jute twine around the top part of the rake for extra earring storage. Mount the rake head with a screw onto the door of your closet or on the wall. Use this to hang your necklaces.

Knobs
Craft stores, antique markets and stores like Anthropologie all have collections of old door knobs, drawer knobs and drawer pulls. Install small knobs on the wall to hang your necklaces and bracelets. Select three or five different knobs that go with your décor to display your jewelry. Drawer pulls are perfect for rings and earrings.

Picture Frames
You have several options to display your jewelry using picture frames. One way to display your earrings is to attach picture wire to the back of a frame. Use an old frame, if possible, and repaint it with acrylic or spray paint. Attach picture hanging wire to the back of the frame with a staple gun. If you don’t have a staple gun, use small thumb tacks. Repeat this step several times until your frame is filled up. Space the rows about 2.25 inches apart. Place this on top of a dresser, chest of drawers or your bathroom counter.

Another option is to attach a peg board to the frame. Prime and spray the picture frame to match your décor. Next, attach a peg board to the inside of the frame with Gorilla glue, and apply some weight. If you want the peg board to be a different color, paint it before attaching it to the frame. Then, attach small accessories to the peg board, such as baskets and hangers. The baskets are useful for rings, bracelets and stud earrings. Use the hangers to display your necklaces.

Photo credit: iStockphoto/Hofmeester

Keep Your Clothes Looking New With These At Home Garment Care Tips

Posted on December 18, 2012 by mprice

Keep your clothes looking so fresh and so clean with these at home garment care tips.

If you’re on a budget, buying new clothes can be costly and unnecessary. Taking good care of your clothes will not only make you look better, but it will also make them last longer. Here are several tips to consider when you are caring for your garments at home.

Hang It Up
Make sure to put your clothes on a hanger at night if you are going to wear them again. Put dirty clothes into a hamper to be washed. Try to avoid crumpling up your clothes into a ball on the floor, which will help protect the fabric and make them last longer. Button the top button on shirts and blouses and hang them neatly on the hanger, while pants and jeans should go on a special hanger with clips that hold the top of the waist.

What’s In Store
If you need to store items seasonally, like sweaters or purses, make sure you’re storing them properly. New, airtight garbage cans make great storage containers for freshly cleaned clothing. To prevent mildew from forming in a purse during storage, stuff the inside with crumpled newspaper and leave it unfastened.

Washed Out
Wash your clothes often, using a gentle wash cycle for delicates and separating whites from colors. Don’t use liquid bleach in the wash, but instead choose a pure soap with a scoop of baking soda for a cleaner, more environmentally friendly solution. Chemical bleaches don’t completely wash out of clothes, posing a potential danger to your health.

Out to Dry
Try not to use a dryer at all, as dryers can wear out your clothes and make colors fade more quickly than if you just air dried your clothes. Additionally, dryers use a large amount of electricity, which you will see reflected on your power bill. Try drying your clothes on a drying rack, which are generally inexpensive and can be found at any home furnishings store. Once your clothes are finished drying, remove them immediately and hang them up or fold neatly to avoid any wrinkles that might occur.

Blow Off Some Steam
You can de-wrinkle clothes quickly by running hot water into a bathtub and hanging the garment on a shower rod – the steam will help to remove the wrinkles. Or, invest in a portable steam cleaner and fabric steamer that sanitizes surfaces and freshens garments without the use of chemicals, like the EnviroMate Pronto, which features a 15-piece accessory kit, four bar pressure for maximum cleaning power, a 1200W heating element and a soft touch ergonomic handle. The best part? The steamer heats up in only two minutes, which is perfect for when you need to freshen up clothes in a hurry.

DIY Quick Fixes
Just a few simple tips can help fix clothing snafus or prevent them from happening. When you first purchase a garment, dab clear nail polish on the center of each button to seal the threads and prevent the button from popping off. Rub zippers with wax occasionally to keep the teeth from snagging. Wrap tape around your finger with the sticky side out to remove lint from a concentrated area. To create your own DIY lint roller, roll up a magazine and wrap double sided tape around it.

This post was sponsored by Reliable Corporation, which carries an extensive line of home and professional sewing machines, steam cleaners, steam irons and industrial fabric cleaning products

Photo credit: iStockphoto/lucentius

Don’t Forget These Five Essentials in Your Apartment

Posted on December 10, 2012 by jgrimes

Don’t forget a sewing kit when you move into your first place.

Photo Credit: iStockphoto/Nadzeya_Kizilava

As you prepare to move out of the house or dorm and into your first real apartment, you will have a long list of items you need to buy, borrow or steal. For starters, there is the furniture: a bed frame and mattress, dressers or drawers, a couch and other seating and a table. Then you’ll need staples like dishes and cookware and cleaning supplies.

In the midst of all this shopping and packing, a few things are bound to slip your mind. So before you move, make sure you have these five essential items often left out of a first apartment.

Tool Box
While setting up decorations and picture frames, making small repairs or replacing batteries, you will need a tool kit. However, these handy tools are easily overlooked when moving, especially by girls. You don’t need to make a major investment in your tools (nice and detailed boxes can cost hundreds), but make sure you have the basics: hammer, pliers, screwdriver, wrench, nails and screws. This kit will make your life much easier when a picture falls in the middle of the night or your necklace breaks as you’re about to leave.

Storage Bins
At your childhood home, you are likely to have much more storage room than in your new apartment, so finding places to put all of your stuff in a tighter space may be a challenge. After ciphering through your things and throwing the junk out, buy a few cheap but durable, large plastic bins. Use them to store off-season clothes, school and home supplies, extra blankets, sheets and pillows or books and movies. Then, move the bins to the back of your closet or under your bed.

First Aid Kit
Accidents happen, and you should always be prepared for the medical variety with a first aid kit. Whether you buy it or build it, yours should include: tweezers, ibuprofen, adhesive bandages (several sizes), antibiotic ointment, hydrogen peroxide, medical tape, gauze, rubbing alcohol and gloves.

Lighting
Since most apartments come equipped with the big lighting fixtures, the smaller ones are often left off apartment checklists. You’ll need lamps for your bedside table and desk and perhaps for extra lighting in your living room. You’ll also need a flashlight and candles in case the power goes out. Therefore, make sure you also have appropriate battery sizes and matches on hand.

Sewing Kit
You may not be the next fashion designer or expert seamstress, but you should know how to (or at least have the supplies for) re-sewing a button or quickly stitching up a small hole. Sewing kits are cheap and contain a few needles and small spools of the most common colors.

Tomboy Tools, Inc., an Entrepreneur Magazine Top 100 Brilliant Company, and provider of hands-on education and high-quality tools for women, sponsored this post.

Get Your Apartment’s Kitchen Holiday-Ready With These Space-Saving Ideas

Posted on November 29, 2012 by sroman

Get your apartment’s kitchen holiday-ready with these space-saving ideas.

At the holidays, the kitchen often becomes the focus of family gatherings and parties. But in most apartment kitchens, space is at a premium. If your holiday plans call for entertaining or hosting friends at your home, having an organized kitchen will assist with meal preparation and help keep your holiday hub show-ready!

Check out these easy space-saving ideas to keep your apartment’s kitchen organized this season.

Magnetic Spice Rack

Ever thought about how much shelf space you’d save by eliminating all of the little bottles in your cupboards that contain spices and seasonings? A revolving spice rack is one option to stack and store all of your spices in a compact space, but it still needs room to stand on your countertop. The Large Magnetic Spice Rack from A Place for Everything takes up zero counter or shelf space, and it looks cool! Made from 18-8 stainless steel, each individual spice holder is clear on top and magnetic on the bottom. They will stick to your refrigerator, or they can be arranged on the included stainless steel back plate.

Hang Pots and Pans

Install a hanging rack above your kitchen counter or island to save space in your cabinets — and make your pots and pans easier to find. Place them near the range or oven for convenient access.

Storing Knives

Here’s an amazing tip from the queen of kitchen organization – Martha Stewart! Say goodbye to bulky knife blocks or dangerous drawers filled with loose sharp utensils by transferring your knives to a shallow drawer lined with artists’ drawing-board liner (available at most art supply stores). The fabric wipes clean easily and has a slightly rubbery surface to keep knives in place.

Hanging Bike Baskets

Bowls filled with fruit can add a pop of color to your kitchen, but not everyone has precious counter real estate to spare for a large bowl or basket. But if you have some spare wall space available, purchase a few baskets designed to hold fishing tackle or those that hook onto a bicycle’s handlebars. These baskets come with holes in the back and can be easily hung on a kitchen wall with hooks, or onto a peg board. Choose a few to hold kitchen tools, potatoes or fruits and vegetables that don’t need to be kept in the refrigerator.

There are many stylish ways to save space in your kitchen, and with a bit of planning and creativity, you’ll soon be hosting and toasting in the most organized kitchen on the block!

Photo credit: iStockphoto/mattjeacock

How to Maximize Space in Your Apartment

Posted on October 10, 2012 by tpham

Space is limited in an apartment, but with a few simple additions, you can maximize what you have. Keep in mind that these additions can also act as décor pieces in your space. Find shelves, racks and hooks that are not only functional and space saving but also have character and serve a decorative purpose.

<a href="http://www.apartmentguide.com/blog/how-to-maximize-space-in-your-apartment"><img title="Tips to Save Space in Your Apartment" src="http://www.apartmentguide.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/apartment-space-saving-tips.png" alt="space saving tips" width="600" height="1802" /></a><br /> <a href="http://www.apartmentguide.com/college/">Apartment Guide – Find Off Campus Housing for Rent</a>

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Tips to Organize Your Apartment’s Multipurpose Room

Posted on October 8, 2012 by ag-admin

With planning and the right furniture, your do-it-all room can become the multipurpose heart of your home.

Your multipurpose room may be working overtime as a craft room, library, office, lounge, guest room… and anything else you can think of.

How can you keep all these various activities organized so that the paraphernalia of one doesn’t get lost in all the others? The secret is order, and we’ll show you how to achieve it with these tips to organize the space for all your apartment home endeavors.

Storage is king
No matter which functions you call on your multipurpose room to fill, the key is finding furniture that can be stowed attractively until you need it. The right storage space allows for easy access to the supplies and accessories you need for each activity.

Cases with baskets for cubbies, beds with storage, and shelves around the perimeter of the room (close to the ceiling) can all provide year-round storage for the many moods of your multipurpose room, letting you organize your apartment activity center into an orderly hotspot.

Multiuse table
A solid table with space for a rolling cabinet underneath can become your desk, craft table, sewing surface and wrapping center all in one. You might even use a painted piece of wood suspended between two short filing cabinets as a makeshift multipurpose work space which can be easily hidden away.

For a wrapping center, simply install (with your landlord’s permission) a bracket and spool on the wall above, the width to hold a roll of paper. You could do the same for rolls of butcher paper (hung close to table surface) to have ready access to paper for crafts and drawing.

Use the closet
If the closet in your multipurpose room is simply holding some stray clothes or boxes, you’re missing out on prime real estate. Your closet can be converted into a power-packed space.

Consider building it out formally, or attempt a more frugal do-it-yourself version. For DIY, you can place cabinets, bookcases, additional shelves or a storage system inside your closet. You might purchase a space-saving wardrobe for guest clothes and additional storage in the room.

If you’ve found space to store all your goodies in smart furniture and shelves around the room, you can even use your closet as the multimedia brain of your apartment space, housing a wireless entertainment system.

Hide the bed
One of the greatest space wasters in a multipurpose room (and typically the one item that is most difficult to multitask around) is a guest bed. Consider that, for guests, you don’t have to use a traditional bed. A much better use of space is to use a convertible sofa, a futon on a convertible frame or a daybed. All three of these options will give you seating by day and a comfy bed for occasions when you have guests stay overnight.

Getting enough space in your apartment to do everything you want offers a strategic challenge. With planning and the right pieces of furniture, your do-it-all room can become the multipurpose heart of your home.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock / Baloncici

Turn Your Home Office Into a Functional Storage Space

Posted on September 19, 2012 by ag-admin

Whether you live in an apartment with lots of space or in a 1930s house like mine with little space, you should never ignore your home office. We all know your home office’s function is to keep your life organized, as well as allow you to have a place to get your work done, but this can also serve as extra storage for your apartment. With a few simple steps, you’ll have your place organized in no time. If you’re wondering how to make the most of your space without sacrificing your work area, check out these storage solutions every renter needs to know.

1. Have dedicated shelving from the ceiling down. If you have it, use it. Sometimes your home doesn’t come with a lot of storage. Take advantage of all the vertical space that you can for storage. An easy way to do this is to add floating shelving from above the desk all the way to the ceiling. Find inexpensive shelving units, such as Elfa shelving from the Container Store, which has limited wall damage – a plus for renters! With the shelves, create an organization system so your things don’t look cluttered. Invest in matched boxes for a cohesive look, but remember that not everything has to be in a box.

2. Invest in storage furniture. Storage furniture is functional, as it serves two purposes. This is a must, especially for small spaces. When I pick out furniture for a space, I ask myself, “Is this piece working hard for the right to be here?” For your home office, pick furniture that packs a one-two punch, like coffee tables, ottomans or benches.

3. Oz-Style Storage. Create an illusion in your home office while keeping your items stored – behind a curtain just like the Wizard of Oz! Pick a wall in your office and hang a curtain rod from the ceiling, approximately a foot away from the wall. Choose any pattern or color that you want for the curtain. This creates an amazing space solution, as it becomes a “soft” or faux wall that hides an extra foot of space. The possibilities of what you can store behind this curtain are endless; you can store your bike, cleaning supplies and miscellaneous office supplies behind it, and no one will ever have to see it. Not only is this useful for storage, but it’s a great opportunity to get color in your white box of a space.

This article was written by TV host and design expert Kim Myles, who partnered with Apartment Guide for the 2012 “Your Picks. Your Place.” sweepstakes. Kim Myles won the HGTV reality series “Design Star 2” and hosts HGTV’s “Myles of Style.”

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