Apartment Blog

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The key to organization for a great holiday is planning ahead.  Whether you plan on inviting people over for an event or traveling to see others, getting a head start is the key. Holidays are usually filled with chaos and disarray on the highway and in the airports, but yours doesn’t have to be. Following these 3 simple steps will help you organize your holiday:

1. Plan months ahead-Somehow the holidays seem to creep up on us, even though they are the same time every year. Funny, isn’t it? However, if you plan months ahead of a holiday you can account for most of the things that may come up to thwart your efforts. One rule of thumb is to start planning for the next holiday the day after the most recent holiday. Most likely you will be looking forward to the next holiday, so it will be easier to plan during that excitement.

2. Designate - Everyone has a person in their family who is good at organizing things and/or a friend that is a super organizer or designer. Don’t be afraid to ask for assistance with the party. If they love organizing and designing they will be more than happy to help you and excited that you noticed their skills.

3. Think outside of the box- It may be visiting a place you have never heard of or eating a non-traditional meal, but doing something most people are not doing can help with organization. It may be more difficult initially to visualize what you want to do, but doing something non-traditional will excite invitees and cause the organizers to focus more on the details.

Organization is a process. Don’t get frustrated if you don’t get everything right the first time.  Keep working at it until you get into a groove!

Isn’t Halloween for the kids?  Adults may never want to grow out of the Halloween costume phase; but, this holiday SCREAMS kids. Here are two main activities they can get involved in on Halloween night:

• 1. Trick or Treating- Kids love candy and their supply of candy will be increased exponentially on Halloween night. Trick or treating allows kids to dress up and walk around the neighborhood to collect candy. Once they bring it home, do your best to inspect the candy. If you’re have kids are participating this year, make sure you are with them at all times during this activity. There are too many things that can happen to just let your kids roam around, even if they are borderline teenagers. You don’t necessarily need to hover at every door, but make sure you can see them as they walk around. This activity is also a good way to meet neighbors and have your kids meet the neighbor’s kids.
• 2. Harvest Carnivals- Not everyone celebrates Halloween, but they don’t want their kids to be left out of the fun either. Organizations will hold Harvest Carnivals on Halloween night to celebrate Harvest instead of Halloween. Harvest carnivals usually have lots of candy and games for kids to enjoy. Even if the kids do a little trick or treating first, they may want to end the night at a harvest carnival where they can meet and have fun with other kids in the community in safe environments.

Make it very clear to the kids what your intentions are before they get excited to do one or the other.  Their friends will surely start making plans early, and you don’t want to thwart their fun altogether.  Let them know what the rules are now.  Have any other ideas of activities for kids?

I remember as a child when I asked my mother for my friend to come over, she would always state “Sure, as long as the house is cleaned up.” That exact moment would produce a frenzy of activity around the house, me racing against time to pick up everything so my mother would say yes. Ahhhh…. Those were the days. Now that I’m an adult, I don’t to have to deal with that when my friends come over. I want my apartment to already be kept up, so when a friend calls and says he/she is coming by I don’t have to worry.

Here are five foolproof ways I make sure this is accomplished for my apartment:

1. Make your bed as soon as you get up. As soon as I get out of bed, I make the bed. I feel like my room is extremely messy if the bed is. After all, the bed is usually the focal point of the bedroom; people tend to notice if that’s neat versus your vanity being kept up.

2. Unload your clean dishes from the dishwasher in the morning and make it a rule that if somebody uses a dish they are to load it into the dishwasher. If you don’t let dishes pile up, you won’t have a mess after dinner. And when the dishwasher is full, you can run it.

3. Clean up all spills immediately. That means on counter tops, on the stove, and on the floor when you are cooking. This will eliminate the hard scrubbing from food deposits sticking to the surfaces.

4. Make it a habit to take your shoes off at the front door when you come home. I have a shoe rack by the door for myself and guests to put their shoes. Doing this will keep dirt from being tracked in onto your floors or carpet, which will help them look beautiful longer! Remember, you want that security deposit back! J

5. Another thing people will notice when they come to your house is clutter. Make sure you have a spot for everything. When mail comes into the apartment, go through it immediately and throw away unnecessary items. Then, place your bills or other ‘keep’ items in their spot to go through when needed.

While I miss the good ole’ days from my youth, I certainly do not miss the frenzy of activity before a friend comes over. After all, it looks kinda bad when he/she shows up and I’m all sweaty & out of breath! J Hopefully these tips will help you whenever you are in the situation of needing a clean house on the fly.

The Economy is still struggling to gain momentum. Cable news reminds you that we are still in a recession. Friends, Family, and Co-Workers add to the water cooler talk, which can really get you down if you listen long enough.  How do you escape from all the negativity??? One way is to organize and arrange your apartment bedroom into your personal sanctuary of positivity and motivation.  There are many ways to do that, but here are few ideas to get you started:

1. Pictures/Portraits

- What is the first thing you see when you wake up? A white ceiling? The ugly alarm clock? The bathroom? Instead of waking up to bland surroundings, spruce up your apartment bedroom with pictures/paintings/portraits that motivate you. It could be a picture of your grandparents or parents who went through so much just to afford you the opportunities you have. You can also have pictures of your dream car, island, or vacation to make sure that you wake up every day with the goal of moving one step forward towards those dreams. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. So wake up every morning to a thousand words and let the pictures encourage you to take on the day with zest and zeal.

2. Quotes

- Quotes can be just as inspiring as paintings or pictures. A combination of both is probably best. Find a quote that really resonates with you and look at it every morning before going to work. This quote should help you stay focused and remind you of whom you are. The quote should be posted somewhere in plain sight for you to see every morning, either in the bedroom or on taped to the bathroom mirror.

3. CD/Alarm Clock

- What do you wake up to every morning? Chickens? Traffic noises? The dreaded default alarm setting??? Why not get an aesthetically pleasing CD/Alarm player. This way you can wake up to your favorite song or motivational speaker. The negative energy associated with the default setting is sure to induce another 5 minutes of sleep, but your favorite song or speaker will get you excited about the challenges ahead.

Who doesn’t love Dr. Seuss? He is one of my all time favorite authors. Not only for his rhyming words that just flow with ease, but for the lessons each book holds.  I read a posting on the Haystack Needle blog dated March 2nd, 2009 (Happy Belated Birthday Dr. Seuss) where the writer stated “I think Oh the Places You’ll Go should be the theme of this year, in light of all the flux with lost jobs in this economy. It’s a sweet book of hope.”

And I thought what an interesting thing to say? Have a book that is meant to be read to children be a theme of the year given the state of the economy? So I took to researching other Dr. Seuss anecdotes that could be taken for reflection of this year for companies.

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go. - Dr. Seuss

This is a motivating phrase to get everyone to learn more; to crave more knowledge. Learning will not only help your business in current situations but will also help prepare your business and employees for future changes.  If you are up to date on the ‘here and now’ then you will be one step ahead of your competitors. 

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the things you can think up if only you try!
- Dr. Seuss

If you have absorbed so much information from reading, reading and doing more reading, can you imagine all the ideas you will come up with for your corporation? Outside the box ideas will come freely as more information pops into your head. Answers to your customers’ problems will become clear when you try to find one. The possibilities are endless.

And when you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done. -Dr. Seuss

Just like Dr. Seuss mentioned in Oh the Places You’ll Go sometimes there are hang-ups and bang-ups and it’ll happen to you. Your company can generate ideas, think outside the box, struggle, work hard and it may still seem like you’re getting no where.  But no matter what, don’t go to the useless place. The waiting place, for people just waiting, that’s not for your organization! You must persevere. When you least expect it, things will happen. So keep your eye on the goal; continue learning, coming up with solutions, thinking creatively and it’ll work out so much better for your business than just waiting for something to happen. 

And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed.-Dr. Suess

If only there was such a number at 98^3/4 % to base your success.  But even the doctor said so himself. You will succeed.  If you continue to work hard, stay out of the waiting place by engaging new, innovative ideas, your business will succeed. Only you can determine the measurement by which it achieves and there will be a victory!

And the final sentiments to end today’s post, is this:

Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So… get on your way.
– Dr. Seuss

The very color of St. Patrick’s Day happens to coincide with the same color as reduce, reuse and recycle…. GREEN! So it’s only fitting that this St. Patrick’s Day you follow the second tip from our ‘10 New Years Resolutions for Renters’ blog by ‘going green’.

Did you know that 45 tons of used discs end up in the landfill every month where they will never degrade? There is a great organization called Discs for Dogs, a SPCA program, that uses your unwanted discs to help save animals. It’s a win-win!

This is an AMAZING way to go green this St. Patrick’s Day and help out a great cause.  You can mail in your disks for free and the SPCA will sell them for $1 each and all proceeds will go to help provide better living for sheltered animals.So why don’t you go through your unwanted disks (CDS and DVDS) and mail them in. You have a chance to really help out a lot of animals! An added bonus is you’ll be following our third tip from our ‘10 New Years Resolutions for Renters’ blog by getting organized!