3 Ways We Are Keeping Our NYC Apartment Clean

Living in big cities has taught us a great deal abut making the most of our space. Matt and I lived in San Francisco for nearly five years and space was tight even with just the two of us. Now that we are here in New York City, we have more space but have added a few additional roommates. First we got Batman, then Pfeiffer and now our little Sebastian. Matt and I are both pretty clean people and can’t stand messes. Anxiety kicks-in when there is stuff out of place for any lengthy period of time. It’s inevitable that with pets and now a child, there will be times when the house is, to say it lightly, untidy. One problem, however, is that neither one of us particularly enjoy cleaning. Like most of you I’m sure! The thought of always sweeping the floors, doing laundry, washing the dishes, and cleaning the bathroom gives me heartburn. Particularly since I’m working and taking care of Sebastian. Now that Matt and I will be going back to work over the next several months, we realize that we had to find a way to be able to keep the apartment in proper order consistently.  We have implemented a couple things, including Febreze Home, that are already working great. Moving forward I am sure we will need to add some more “cleaning strategy” but we are off to a good start.

STORAGE

First we added more storage, lots more storage. One of the biggest perpetrators to any messy home is clutter. To counter this problem, we added some storage cabinets from IKEA, both in the living room as well as the hallway leading into our bathroom. This is more of a temporary solution until we decide how to create a better storage system that is tailor-made to maximize our space. The living room cabinets are great for storing all the things that we end up leaving throughout the house or piling on an empty chair. So far so good there. The cabinets in the hallway have been a lifesaver to keep tidy all my beauty products. It was overflowing into our bedroom so the cabinets have really helped to clean up my beauty clutter. I don’t know who is happier about this, Matt or me. We also got some large storage baskets from Serena & Lily that we have added in our bedroom and Sebastian’s nursery. They are perfect for storing blankets, Sebastian’s toys and also make great laundry hampers too!

PET HAIR & DIRT

The second thing we did was making sure we protected our furniture. As you have seen in quite a few of my pictures on Instagram, Batman has a specific area where he likes to sit on the sectional. We got a nice blanket for him to lay on so he won’t get the couch dirty. He loves it, we love it. We also do that with our chairs and the bed. Our animals sleep with us each night. At least Pfeiffer tries to until Batman chases here off. We simply lay a white sheet over the bed to protect the mattress from dirt but especially hair. It is an easy way to keep your bed clean if you have animals who refuse to sleep on the floor. When we make the bed in the morning, we stow the sheet away. The blankets and sheet keep us from having to constantly clean our couch, chairs, and quilt. Works like a charm!

ODOR 

The third area we addressed is smell. With Matt, Batman, Pfeiffer, Sebastian, and I all living under the same roof, you can bet from time to time the apartment doesn’t always smell like a bed of roses. Anytime there was an odor, we would do the typical things like opening a window, lighting candles, spraying scent into the air, etc. They worked, at least temporarily, but there is never any consistency with how our apartment smells. That is until we tried Febreze Home. We have all probably used Febreze Spray before and it works like a charm. However, they just kicked it up a notch. Febreze Home connects to your phone through your Febreze Connect App. Another really cool feature is that if you have NEST in your home, it connect to that as well. What it allows you to do is control the scent in your home to provide a consistent smell and block any bad odors. Over time it will become smart to each room and know when it needs a burst of freshness and when it doesn’t. How awesome is that?! One of the our previous problem areas was the bathroom. That’s where we keep the litter box for Pfeiffer and it has worked brilliantly. Eliminating surprise odors from our pet’s accidents is a big plus! We don’t have to burn through candles or leave the windows open even when it’s 20 degrees outside. Febreze Home can also act as a pathlight and nightlight with a full range of color choices to choose from. You can even select the duration for how long you want the lights to stay on. We love the blue as that’s Sebastian’s favorite color. Setting-up the device is a breeze and adjusting your settings over time is even easier. Starting in March, there will be a series of new integrations rolled out, including Amazon Echo and Google Home. It will allow for hands-free control using voice commands and IFTTT to connect to your favorite services to do more with the services you love. Check it out!

We are always looking for advice and tips so please let us know if you have any other suggestions for how you are able to keep your place nice and tidy with a busy schedule! Thanks for reading!!

 

Above you can see the full range of color. I have pink set for our pathlight. It’s nice to have when getting up in the middle of the night! 

Shop my Bedroom

xo, Olivia

This post was created in collaboration with Febreze Home, as always, all words, opinions, and photography are my own.

 

2 Comments

  1. Pork & Cookies wrote:

    Thanks for sharing! We just moved to NYC and it’s so tight! We had to sell so much stuff but we are learning methods for organization and that really helps!

    -Kirsten // http://www.porkandcookies.com

    Posted 3.1.17 · Reply
  2. Ronda wrote:

    Those pajamas are fabulous! what’s the brand?

    Posted 3.2.17 · Reply

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