5 Tips for Organizing your Apartment in the Fall

The days are certainly getting shorter, and you and your family are running in all sorts of directions.  Add on the holidays which are fast approaching and you have a very busy time of year.  We have pulled together some tips to share with you for keeping your apartment home and life organized while minimizing your stress. See our 5 tips for organizing your apartment and setting the stage for a more enjoyable and relaxing holiday season.

1. Declutter, declutter, declutter!  This is the fastest way to help you relieve stress.  By ridding our home of items we no longer use, and donating them to someone who can use them, you are blessing yourself and others as well!  If it’s no longer taking up space in your home, it’s no longer something you need to clean; end of story.
2. Do some basic fall cleaning; it’s the halfway point after spring cleaning.  See Real Simple’s Fall Cleaning Checklist for some ideas.  If you are already living in one of Hirschfeld Home’s apartment communities, you are in luck; all of the outside work is taken care of for you!  You are getting your home in the holiday spirit already!
3. Create a “Launch Pad” – we are big followers of the FLYLADY, and when she recommends a Launch Pad, so do we.  This Launch Pad is an area you set to help you get out of the house.  This is a place to store all of the items you need to take with you as you walk out the door in the morning.  This includes keys, wallet, sunglasses, etc.  It also can include items you need to take with you such as dry cleaning, returning library books, store returns, etc….. Having one central place in your home where you can locate your “out the door” items makes leaving in the morning (or any time of the day) that much easier.  It also gives these items a home, so you always know where to find them.
4. Store your summer clothing – yes, in the northeast we are sad to see the summer clothes be put away but we need to do it now.  It’s time to bring the cold weather clothes out and these take up much more room.  Store your warm weather clothing away, try bins for under bed storage, or perhaps a container placed on the floor of your closet.
5. Freshen up those closets – if you haven’t worn it, it doesn’t fit, or perhaps is not something you enjoy wearing, get rid of it.  You can donate it to those less fortunate, or even sell it to a consignment shop.  Once you have reduced the amount of items in your closet, consider the layout.  Is this optimal?  Can you add a shoe rack? Do you have shelves?  If you use your shelves to store sweaters, handbags, or other clothing items we recommend a shelf divider to keep your items from toppling over on each other while providing more vertical space solutions.  We really like these from the Container Store.

According to apartmentguide.com the average American wastes 55 minutes a day looking for things.  What???  (They also have some other interesting tips too, like, the Top 5 Most Difficult Tasks in Organizing an Apartment. ) What would you do with an extra 55 minutes every day?  Your minutes are precious, and could be spent on doing things you enjoy.  By implementing the five organizing tips above, you can start saving your time for more fun things, or perhaps maybe just some relaxing.  Whatever it is you like to do with your spare time, we hope these tips help you to find more time for it!