Anybody who’s leased an apartment at some point in their lives knows all too well that inner-city living is no easy feat. To be an inner-city resident, one must be creative and adaptable. One must be comfortable with not just living, but also thriving in compact spaces. But even the most experienced apartment dwellers cannot keep clutter at bay forever. Simply put, clutter is a side effect of a life well-lived. It’s an inevitable eventuality, an inescapable burden, but that doesn’t mean it should be difficult to overcome. Here’s a small guide for revitalising your cluttered apartment.
1. Start from the bottom up
Particularly with studio apartments, the best place to start is usually with your flooring, the foundation of your home. Do a full and thorough clean with your broom and dustpan, vacuum, and then follow it all up with your steam cleaner for maximum sanitisation. Any long-time renters would know that you can source steam cleaners online to purchase or hire with very little hassle, but a good steam cleaner should be considered an essential appliance for every inner-city household.
Another fantastic benefit of starting from the bottom up is the fact that in order to clean up your floors, you will undoubtedly need to shift your larger pieces of furniture and essentially trick yourself into getting a head start on addressing the foreboding clutter that surrounds you. Don’t be afraid to make a little more clutter in this preliminary step! Think of it like this: the more space you’re able to clear right now, means the more space you have to experiment and style with. And more experimentation means a greater likelihood that you’ll discover an interior design idea that really works for you!
2. Find and address your ‘clutter cocoons’
Every house has its problem areas when it comes to clutter. These are areas that naturally just seem to inspire or perhaps even cultivate clutter in next to no time, and then just as quickly allow that clutter to spread to other areas of your home. It’s time for you to take a long, hard look at the clutter that surrounds you and find those areas: your ‘clutter cocoons’. Think coffee tables, bedside tables, and closet space.
No doubt, one of your more prominent clutter cocoons has to be your kitchen space. This is a highly-functional space in your home that’s usually filled to the brim with appliances. For this reason, proper kitchen organisation can be a fantastic tool in the fight against clutter, especially when it comes to apartment living. Consider reorganising your kitchen cupboards and adding additional storage like shelves and pot racks to maximise your kitchen storage space. Another fantastic space-saving measure you can take is swapping out any large appliances for smaller kitchen appliances that are more suitable for inner-city living. This may prove to be a long-term solution for mitigating your abode’s knack for cultivating clutter.
3. Reframe your clutter into character
In any home environment, from a four-bedroom home to a modest dorm room, there’s guaranteed to be clutter that can’t really be helped. We’re talking about bookcases, bathroom cabinets, balconies full of potted plants, and maybe even the comfiest clutter known to man: couch cushions and throws. These spaces and elements usually add a touch of chaos or – perhaps more fittingly – ‘liveability’ to our homes. And aside from a little bit of straightening up here and there, you should learn to see this clutter as part of the natural charm of your apartment.
Believe it or not, the final step to revitalising a cluttered apartment is to learn to see whatever clutter remains as a part of you that shines through your personal interior design choices. What you might consider clutter, others might consider welcoming elements in your personally-curated space. So don’t let a fear of clutter keep you from stacking your shelves with your favourite books, or placing succulents on every tabletop. In essence, don’t let a fear of clutter keep you from expressing yourself!
We hope these little tips can be of some use to all you urbanites out there. Happy homemaking!