Apartment Cleaning and Organizing for the Messiest of People

By Amanda Cohen on October 1, 2018

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Some people love to clean. I used to love bleaching my shower, doing my laundry, changing my sheets, and dusting my apartment. It was therapeutic for me. However, some people hate organizing and cleaning, especially when it comes to their apartment/living space. While some people smile at the thought of Windexing all of the surfaces of their home, others would rather hike up a mountain without any water.

For those of you who hate cleaning and organizing, I’m here to help. Cleaning/organizing doesn’t have to be a hard, dreaded, burdensome activity if you go about it the right way. I may not be able to convert you to a cleaning/organizing aficionado, but I can help alleviate some of the pain you feel when you think about the words Clorox and dryer sheets.

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Scheduling your Organizing/Cleaning Time

Instead of setting aside just one day to do everything, break it up throughout the week. Forcing yourself to clean for a couple hours just one day can be overwhelming and boring, so create a schedule that you can digest without cringing. Cleaning and organizing mean different things for different people and can vary depending on your current living situation, but to help give you a general head start, I’ve created a very general, miniature cleaning schedule to get you started:

  • Monday: vacuum and mop floors/carpets
  • Tuesday: clean the bathroom/bathrooms (bleach your shower once every two or three months)
  • Wednesday: take out the trash (this will probably happen multiple times a week, but do a big “trash run” on Wednesdays)
  • Thursday: clean the kitchen (you don’t have to clean your oven every week, this is a more once-a-month activity) and run the dishwasher
  • Friday: organize your drawers, closet, and clean out freezer and refrigerator (if needed)
  • Saturday: do your laundry (if you want to do darks and lights over two days, do one load on Saturday and one load on Sunday)
  • Sunday: wipe down all flat surfaces of your apartment and make your bed with your clean bed sheets from Saturday’s laundry day

Bins and Drawers

If you have a hard time finding things in areas that aren’t in clear view (like your floor), it’s a great idea to label your bins and drawers. If you designate each storage place for something, you will ever get items lost or mixed up and you will be so much more organized than before. For example, I had a bin for all of the items I needed for my printer—cords, ink, paper, etc.—and it made my life so much easier when I needed to use my printer. In addition to labeling your bins and drawers, you should also think about where you want to place your storage spaces. For socks and undergarments, you should place them in a drawer that’s in your room and that’s easily accessible. It doesn’t make sense to have these items in a hard-to-reach place since you use them at least once a day. For miscellaneous items, have a small bin in or on top of your closet because you don’t need them all the time and, if you use a bin that isn’t see-through, you can make it messy in the bin without anyone being the wiser.

Image via. https://pixabay.com/en/aim-for-home-parents-house-1825672/

Create Lists

The easiest way to become organized is to buy stuff that you don’t need and clutter up your living space. This phenomenon often happens when grocery shopping. To eliminate the clutter, only buy things that you for sure need and buy in bulk. If you buy in bulk, you won’t have to go shopping as often and you will have a designated amount of space for everything early on in your living arrangements that year. When I bought toilet paper, I always bought a pack of 28 rolls and designated a bin for the rolls in my bathroom. Not only did I save money by buying in bulk, but that bin was always for toilet paper and I never used it for anything else, which is a great way to keep organized. Onto my original point about lists, if you make a list every time before you go shopping, you won’t buy things that you don’t have space for. For example, if you buy milk because you forgot you already had some in the fridge, your fridge will become cluttered and you will waste space that could be used for something else.

Don’t let organizing and cleaning scare you… or, if you can’t help it, embrace the fear and just try to slowly keep your apartment clean and organized. If you need to start small, start by labeling and rearranging your drawers and bins and then work your way up to having a cleaning/organizing schedule. However, once you get into the habit of cleaning and organizing a little bit each day, it will become a part of your routine and you will never look back. After you see your apartment so beautifully organized and glistening clean, going back to a messy apartment will never be an option.

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