While you don’t have to keep your apartment magazine-ready at all times, it is respectful to clean after yourself and keep your apartment neat, especially when you have roommates. Being a considerate roommate means you won’t have to worry about a messy apartment if a guest stops by unexpectedly or if you have to call your landlord to fix a broken appliance, and you can avoid piles of clutter and entire days spent cleaning. Use these six quick and easy housekeeping tricks to help maintain a neat apartment:
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Make Your Bed Daily
Making your bed every morning is often the one thing you don’t want to focus on when you’re trying to get ready for the day, but it’s a simple task that only takes a few minutes. Plus, making your bed daily makes your bedroom look tidy and more put-together.
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Clean as You Go
This might mean you wash dirty dishes while your pizza is baking in the oven instead of waiting to wash every dirty dish at once, or you fold your clean towels while your bed sheets are drying instead of folding everything at once. Cleaning as you go means you can finish one task while another task is still going on to multitask and save time.
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Clean a Little Every Day
If you don’t want to spend an entire day cleaning your apartment, choose to do one chore every day. You can make a schedule and set reminders to take the trash out every Monday and Friday and to vacuum every Wednesday, this way you can handle the upkeep of keeping a clean apartment without spending an entire weekend cleaning.
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De-clutter
Your apartment will look much tidier if you get rid of non-essential items you never use. From shoes covering your closet floor to too many books stacked in your bedroom, go through your belongings and get rid of the excess clutter.
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Assign Designated Spots
After you de-clutter, assign designated spots for everything. If you can never find your umbrella when it’s raining, install a hook inside your hall closet to hang umbrellas. If the mail is scattered in different spots throughout your apartment, assign a spot just for mail so you never lose a bill. If the remotes for TV and video keep on getting lost, get a little basket to store them. When you assign spots for everything – and actually put stuff where it belongs – you’ll always be able to find what you need, and your apartment will always be neat.
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Go Digital
From music to movies and books to magazines, if you go digital, you eliminate lots of items that can pile up and become clutter. Avoid stacks of magazines and DVDs by subscribing to online magazines and watching movies online.
For even more easy cleaning tips, check out Sarah’s 5 minute daily cleaning routine and her detailed weekly cleaning calendar. And if you have just moved in and are still assembling your cleaning arsenal, Chloe recommends 5 basic tools to get you started.
