Ways to make your modest apartment look its best, Part 4

Ask A Woman: Home, let me come home!

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We’re back with four new ideas for the organizing nerd in you. If you’re looking to make your home a little more shiny, a little more polished, these simple, inexpensive solutions will help you do just that. Take a peek back at episodes 1, 2, and 3 for more ideas.

 

Repaint floor grates

If I hadn’t just done this myself in my house, I would not have believed that this would make a difference. But it does. If you have heat registers in your floor, they are a likely scuffed, rusted, maybe even filthy. You see them everyday and never really take notice, but they could look SO much better and really make an impact in the overall feel of your place. Take out the registers. Dust them off. Buy cheapo spray-paint. Lay down newspaper. Give the grates a few light dustings of paint. Let dry. Put back in the floor. It makes a huge difference.

 

Organize booze

Bar carts have been a trendy DIY project in the last couple years, and with good reason. They’re easy to make, relatively cheap, and fun to personalize. Best news for those with a small or humble apartment–they can up the ante, decor-wise. If you have four or five bottles of booze haphazardly lined up on top of your fridge or taking up precious counter space in your tiny galley kitchen, a bar cart is your BFF. Find carts at thrift or antique stores, repaint, add hardware, and stock with booze, shakers, and glassware.  You can also repurpose small coffee tables, TV tray tables, or bookcases to use in the same way. A bar cart looks debonair in your pad and it makes your booze tidy. Win win. (Photo above via Honestly Yum.)

 

Open the windows

It’s springtime! You and your dander and your unctuous glands have been marinating for long enough in that cramped space. Throw open the windows! Get in the habit of making this your default, as opposed to flipping on the air conditioning. If it’s temperate and not precipitating, take advantage of the marvels that fresh air can do for the smell of your homestead. Much better than running the a/c all summer, and more economical, too.

 

Use bins

You may not have great built-in storage if you live in a small apartment. Time to make some storage of your own. Piling things on shelves in closets usually begins with the best intentions…and then devolves into an unholy mess. Buy bins–fabric covered or plastic or wicker or handwoven–and use them on shelves or on the floor of closets. You can also use them in big cabinets where you’re storing smaller things that have a tendency to become unruly.

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