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Spring Cleaning Party 4 years ago

Every year, we slowly come out of our winter hibernation and step out into the fresh air.  And when we do, many people feel a very strong urge to get their house in order.  Whether it is cleaning the apartment or refreshing their decorating.  The Spring Cleaning Party isn’t a party in that it combines residents together, but rather is a sense of rejuvenation for the apartment community.  There are two ways that the leasing office can jumpstart this process:

1) Community Garage Sale: There are all sorts of apartment community garage sales ideas out there, such as the “Swap and Shop”.  This gives your residents an outlet for all the junk they want to get out of their apartment.  Of course, this also possibly creates problems of more junk coming into their apartments, so maybe instead…

2) Give-Away-Day:  Let your residents know that the Salvation Army will be coming by with a truck on a certain day to pick up items.  Make it easy for them to drop it off in the office, so not only are they reducing clutter in their apartment, but they are also helping a good cause!

3) Cleaning Tips:  Share daily tips on how to clean tough stains, freshen up their apartment, and other tips helpful in the spring cleaning process.  For example, here’s a neat way to get rid of carpet dents!

4) Special Discounts and Deals:  Try negotiating bulk-rate special deals with a cleaning company for apartment cleanings.  The same goes for carpet cleanings, and you could even provide discounted accent walls!  Any way to refresh their apartment will be greatly appreciated by your residents.

All in all, these programs can easily be combined into a “Spring Cleaning Week” where the entire week has a theme of all sorts of cleaning/refreshing ideas for your residents!

Community Freezer Meal Prep 4 years ago

If your residents are anything like me, their days are hectic right up until dinner time, and their busy lives likely don’t allow for a lot of meal prepping and cooking time. One of my favorite things to do at the beginning of every month is get together with my girlfriends for a freezer meal prepping session. At the end of each session, we each have enough freezer meals for the entire month. This tradition saves us all a ton of money on groceries, cuts down on food waste and provides our families much healthier “quick” options for dinner. 

One way you can turn this idea into an event for your residents is to kindly provide gallon sized Ziploc bags and tin pans for the freezer meal storage. You can buy bulk cases of tin pans, here. You should also hold this event near a sink or water barrel with a pump, and be sure to provide plenty of paper towels and disinfectant so as to avoid any cross contamination with the variety of foods. If you wanted to get super involved with helping out your residents, you could also provide bulk amounts of common spices used in cooking for your residents to use in their meals. 

You will need several tables and chairs set up so there is plenty of room for each resident in your community to have ample space to prepare their freezer dishes. The following are some of my favorite go-to blogs for fantastic freezer meal recipes, grocery lists and instructions. You can print out recipes and grocery lists to give to your residents with the flyer announcements, that way they are sure to come prepared! Happy prepping! 

 

NewLeaf Wellness

 

Thriving Home

 

Real Mom Nutrition

 

Passion For Savings

 

Quality Time with Family and Friends –Potluck Dinner Night 7 years ago

Gathering together for food is among the most pleasurable times for children, teenagers, and adults alike. Because of this, planning a monthly potluck event can be an engaging experience for your community members: it also helps your community members get better acquainted with each other.

Planning the event

When planning a potluck event for a large number of guests – it’s essential to plan wisely and well in advance. Decide your theme, venue, and timing for the event.

Suitable locations for a potluck event on your property could be a community center, BBQ area, or community park.

 

Notifying residents about the event

Informing members about the event, at least two weeks in advance, will ensure better participation. Emails and Facebook event invitations can be sent your community members or you can notify them through handouts dropped at your resident’s homes.

***TIP*** SignUpGenius is a handy website for organizing group events. It provides an RSVP sign up format. Moreover, it can help in collecting information regarding numbers of people attending, guest names, and what people will bring along all in the same place.

Assigning duties and tasks

Once you’ve decided the time, date and place, the next step is to gather volunteers to make the dishes according to the decided theme. It will be necessary to let the volunteers know about the approximate number of people who would be attending the event, so that food preparation, utensils, plates, cups, etc. can be collected accordingly.

Residents that are not as confident about their cooking skills can be tasked with managing additional things such as utensils, dishes, beverages, décor, and cleanup.

Image source: Pixabay

Managing the event

It’s important to understand that events like these are only successful when residents are enthusiastic and have a good team spirit. Therefore, as part of managing the event, it’s important to make the event interesting for all ages. Events can be made even more fun and interesting through the use of themes, organizing music, and other activities such as a complementary movie to go with the theme.

To manage a successful potluck event Perfect Potluck is another wonderful resource. It will let you select a meal coordinator, enter the venue of event, assign volunteers for all the dishes, and also notify members about which services they can still sign up to complete.

***BONUS*** To make the event even more exciting, participants can also be asked to dress up in costume according to the potluck theme.

Image source: Pixabay

Creative themes to get the party started

As this event can be repeated as a recurring monthly get-together, themes may be selected by the organizers in line with important holidays or seasons each month.

Some popular theme ideas are:

  • Around the world/International Cuisine.
  • Stuff it up! Foods with stuffing such as stuffed turkey, stuffed bell peppers, etc.
  • By era (e.g. 50s, 60s, 70s, or 80s theme.)
  • Childhood memories. This theme can include the favorite dishes from one’s childhood.
  • Gluten-Free.
  • The bakery. Everything comes baked, from baked potatoes to chocolate lava cakes.
  • Theme by colors. For instance, every food must be red in color.
  • Sea food.
  • Challenge ingredient which must be present in every dish (e.g., cauliflower or potatoes.)
  • Movie theme. Select a movie and establish the food to go with it. (e.g. If you choose the animated movie Ratatouille, you can select French Cuisine.)
  • Breakfast for supper. This theme can include deviled eggs, waffles, pancakes etc.
  • Finger Foods.

No matter what the theme selected, the general idea of the event is for the participants to have fun and enjoy themselves. Therefore, it’s important to go with the mood of the people participating. It’s also important to communicate with your residents and  let residents communicate with each other. This will keep the  event is well-synchronized.

***TIP*** Help participants connect with each other, by creating a Facebook Event each month where they can discuss décor, give ideas, and notify each other of their contributions. You can also create a community group on Facebook in which residents can discuss the upcoming potluck events.

7 years ago

Just had this last month with only 1 resident trying it. This property I am at hardly had any monthly events and residents are used to it being this way. Now to break the mold!