How to Keep Your Student Apartment Neat All Semester Long
Even if you don’t particularly care about keeping your student apartment clean, you need to put in the effort out of respect for your roommates. However, this can be quite a challenge if you tend to accumulate things or if you’re not naturally a tidy person. Since dirt, mess, and unpleasant smells can be distracting, it’s important to have a strategy to keep your apartment tidy all semester long. Here are some tips to guide you.
1. Set a Cleaning Schedule — But Be Ready to Clean at Any Time
Different tasks need completing with varying regularity. For instance, while you need to dust, vacuum, and wash your bedsheets every week or so, you can clean window sills and doors once a month. Spills, however, require immediate attention.
2. Prevent Food Smells
Regularly wipe down your microwave, stove top, and refrigerator to remove any remnants of food. Other ways to prevent odours include throwing out any food that’s gone bad and then emptying the trash into a dumpster as soon as possible. Stop your trash can from smelling by wiping it down when you notice it’s dirty.
3. Air Your Rooms
Whenever the weather allows, open windows to bring fresh air into your apartment. This will prevent rooms from feeling stale and remove any lingering smells.
4. Organize Your Study Materials
It’s frustrating when you’re unable to find a handout or notebook because your study materials are unorganized. Plus, piling everything up on your desk means you won’t have enough space to work comfortably. A simple desk organizer and drawers can hold all your textbooks, cables, stationery, and anything else you need.
5. Put Away Your Clothes
It only takes a few seconds to hang up your clothing or put it away in a drawer instead of throwing it on the floor or the back of a chair. Putting dirty clothes straight into a hamper will also make your life easier when it comes time to do your laundry.
6. Create More Storage Space
If you still have clutter remaining, find more ways to store items. For instance, you could put some items in a bag and hide others away in a box under your bed or use a crate that also serves as a seat. Create a system for putting away certain types of belongings. This way, you’ll always know where to put something and where to find it again.
7. Pay Particular Attention to Shared Spaces
Avoid problems with your roommates by going beyond your normal standards in places like the living room, kitchen, and any shared bathrooms. Together, decide how clean you would like to keep the apartment and rotate tasks among you to ensure everyone does their fair share of cleaning. If something is bothering you, be specific — instead of simply asking your roommates to be neater.
It’s easier to keep your home tidy when you live in a spacious, minimalist suite. Find apartments near Carleton University — including one-bedroom and bachelor apartments that you can have to yourself — at The Revalie. Take a virtual tour to see all the building features.