Having a fitness center at your apartment community is a must that comes with a number of advantages! Here are a few perks you will get from your fitness center at 500 Park Avenue in Mount Vernon!
You will actually go – One of the main reasons people skip their workout is that they just want to get home after a long day at work. If your apartment has a fitness center, you will no longer be able to use that as an excuse to skip your workout!
Fitness Center at 500 Park Avenue
You will save money – Having a fitness center included in your rent means that you’ll be able to cancel your gym membership, which will save you money every month! Not to mention the money you’ll save in gas getting to and from!
Fitness Center at 500 Park Avenue
You will save time – Getting to and from the gym can take up a decent amount of your time. That time also makes for a great excuse for not going. When your fitness center is at home, there goes another excuse to skip your workout!
Fitness Center at 500 Park Avenue
You might make new friends – Apartment Fitness Centers tend to be more intimate than larger, mainstream gyms. Which means you are likely to find yourself working out with other residents who keep your workout schedule. Not only could this lead to new friendships, but your newfound workout buddy may also hold you more accountable when it comes to showing up for your workout sessions.
Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash
It’s less intimidating – Another perk to a more intimate workout environment is the lack of gym-timidation. When the only other people sharing the fitness center with you are your friendly neighbors, you’ll be less self-conscious and more willing to go, regardless of your level of fitness or knowledge of the machines.
Photo by Danielle Cerullo on Unsplash
What’s another reason you love having a fitness center at 500 Park Avenue? Let us know in the comments!
Baltimore is a food mecca! Our city boasts an abundance of foods and drinks that can’t be found anywhere else - made up of both old school establishments and some of the most new and noteworthy names in the culinary world. The sheer quantity of good eats in Baltimore is seemingly never-ending. Here are just a few of our favorites!
LP Steamers
Photo Credit: @charmcitycook on Instagram
What would this list be without featuring our state crustacean – the Maryland blue crab!? For the best crabs in Baltimore year round, head over to L.P. Steamers in Baltimore’s Locus Point. With other items like oysters, scallops and clams on the menu, it’s a seafood lover’s dream come true.
Mount Vernon Marketplace
Photo Credit: @mountvernonmarketplace on Instagram
Mount Vernon Marketplace offers the finest, freshly prepared artisanal foods. With 16 vendors serving up items like artisan sandwiches & charcuterie, fresh local oysters & seafood , noodles & dumplings, Mexican inspired dishes, Korean style bibimbap, New York deli-style sandwiches and artisanal burgers, there is something here to satisfy every palate.
Lexington Market
Photo Credit: @baltohoff on Instagram
Founded in 1782, Baltimore’s Lexington Market is the oldest market in America. There is perhaps no better spot in Baltimore for a unique combination of history, atmosphere, and flavor. Its 67 vendors like Connie’s Chicken and Waffles, Angie’s Barbeque and Blue Island Malaysian have something for everyone.
Jimmy’s Famous Seafood
Photo Credit: @jimmysseafood on Instagram
Serving the community since 1974, Jimmy’s Famous Seafood has become a national destination for those seeking a true taste of Charm City. Jimmy’s has been featured on the Food Network and Travel channel for its impressive menu, which includes the 7-pound Seafood UFO . Served on homemade Greek bread, this sandwich is made up of crab cake, fried shrimp, fried oysters and shrimp salad and Chesapeake mustard.
Chaps Pit Beef
Photo Credit: @charmcityfoodadventures on Instagram
For the best sandwich in Maryland , visit Chaps Pit Beef. It’s “Meat paired with meat with a side of meat” at this no-frills pit beef stand.
Papermoon Diner
Photo Credit: @bmorecraves on Instagram
The Papermoon Diner offers an eccentric, eclectic, technicolor dining experience. This quirky Baltimore staple boasts being vegetarian and raging-carnivore friendly, with a jam-packed menu featuring everything from vegan nachos to shrimp and grits. Paper Moon is also the place to go if you ever wanted to try a bacon milkshake!
Gertrude’s
Photo Credit: @andrew_cosentino on Instagram
Located in the Baltimore Museum of Art, Gertrude's has been a neighborhood staple for 20 years. Gertrude’s serves locally sourced farm-fresh food that preserves Chesapeake culinary traditions. Gertrude’s is the place to go for a sophisticated menu with a view! The main dining room overlooks a sculpture garden featuring works by Alexander Calder, Isamu Noguchi, and Auguste Rodin.
One of your favorites not featured on our list!? Let us know in the comments!
While they may be beautiful, winter storms can also be dangerous. They create a higher risk of car accidents, hypothermia, frostbite, carbon monoxide poisoning, and heart attacks from overexertion. Use these tips to keep you, your family and your pets safe during winter storms.
Before the storm…
Sign up for local alerts and warnings.
Be prepared for a power outage by having emergency supplies like a flashlight, portable radio and three days' supply of food. Ask yourself what you, your family, or pets would need if you did not have access to a grocery store or pharmacy for at least three days.
Create an emergency car kit containing items such as jumper cables, ice scrapers, blankets, cat litter and water.
Make sure your vehicle is winterized with a full tank of gas, good winter tires, new wiper blades and winter formula washer fluid.
During the storm…
Stay indoors if possible. If you must go outdoors, dress warmly and wear loose-fitting, layered, lightweight clothing. Wear a scarf over your mouth to protect your lungs.
Watch for signs of hypothermia , including uncontrollable shivering, weak pulse, disorientation, incoherence and/or drowsiness, and frostbite including gray, white or yellow skin discoloration, numbness and waxy feeling skin.
Avoid carbon monoxide poisoning. Only use generators and grills outdoors and away from windows. Never heat your home with a gas stovetop or oven.
Avoid overexertion when shoveling snow to reduce the risk of heart attack.
To prevent frozen pipes, let your hot and cold faucets drip and open cabinet doors to allow heat to get to uninsulated pipes under sinks on exterior walls.
Never attempt to charge or jump-start a car battery that is frozen, as it may rupture or explode.
Never warm up a vehicle in an enclosed area, such as a garage.
Keep your pets inside.
If there are outdoor cats in your area, bang on the hood of your car before starting the engine to give them a chance to escape.
The ASPCA suggests wiping your dog's legs and stomach down when they come in from snowy or icy conditions. Dogs can ingest salt, anti-freeze and other chemicals when licking their paws.
Do you have any tips we forgot to mention? Leave them in the comments.
With the new year (and the new decade) here, it’s the perfect time to take stock of your personal possessions and give your home the fresh start it deserves!
Here are some tips for freeing your home of clutter and keeping it that way!
Visualize how you want your home to look . If you don’t know what you’re working towards, how will you know when you’ve accomplished it? Look at a room and think about how you want it to look. What pieces of furniture do you actually need ? What doesn’t belong in the room but has just gravitated there? Are there items on the floor or other flat spaces that don’t need to be? Which nooks and crannies give you the most anxiety?
Create a decluttering checklist . Now that you know how you want your space to look, grab a pad of paper and a pen and go room to room until you’ve covered every inch of your home . What projects do you need to tackle? What clutter do you need to clear? Write everything down as you go. You won’t believe how much weight will be lifted just by getting these things out of your head and onto paper!
Set up an outbox . Your outbox can be an actual box, an unused room, or any other designated out-of-the-way space. This is where you will put items that you are considering donating, recycling or throwing away. An outbox can be especially helpful for those items you need help loosening your attachment to. Once something has been in your outbox for a while, you’ll see it for what it truly is and determine whether or not it stays (and that’s ok) or goes.
Give yourself a quick win. Look over your checklist and find one or two items that would be easy to accomplish (in 15 minutes or less). Look for items you can throw away right now (does anyone actually sill have wire hangers?), or tackle a small area that you should be able to knock out in just a few minutes – like your silverware drawer.
Create a 30-day list . Once you’ve gotten your space in order, how are you going to keep it that way? You can declutter all you want, but it will just come back as you buy more stuff! The solution? Don’t buy the stuff in the first place! Set yourself up with a 30-day list. Every time you want to buy something that’s not absolutely necessary, put it on the list with the date it was added. Make a rule never to buy anything (except necessities) unless they’ve been on the list for 30 days. You’d be surprised how often you lose the urge to buy the items on your list!
Create a one-in, one-out rule. Another way to keep that clutter from coming back is to make a rule that whenever you bring a new item into your home, something else must leave! Finally picked up a copy of that book all your friends have been talking about? Pick a book from your shelf that you can donate. Implement this rule for everything in your life – coffee mugs, sweaters, candles etc.!
Do you have any tips for decluttering your home? Let us know if the comments!
If you think you're doing a bang-up job cleaning your apartment, well, think again.
What about the outside of the toilet bowl? When was the last time you gave that a good chlorine wipe down? Have you wondered if the pile of dirty dishes is a haven for bacteria?
Let’s get cracking to clean where you haven’t given it much thought until now.
Here are 10 ideas to start. It’s spic and span time, people.
1. Bathroom sink
Guys, this one’s for you. If your girlfriend or other visitors are coming over, you want to make a good impression. Be sure to get rid of shaving debris in the bathroom sink and dried toothpaste streaks.
What’s handy for a quick clean up ? Disposable wipes will do the trick, and don’t forget to do a once over on the countertop and faucets.
2. Appliances
How often do you think to clean around or under appliances? Think spilled coffee by the coffee maker, or the trail of crumbs under your toaster. The big appliances are dirt traps, too, like under the refrigerator and stove.
Set up a reminder that dings once every couple of months to wipe, sweep or mop. You’ll be glad you did.
3. Doorknobs
How many times have you touched a doorknob with sticky fingers? Or discovered a layer of dust on the hardware surrounding the knob? There could also be lint way on top of a doorway, where you need a retractable dust-grabber to reach it.
Doors that are used a lot, like the pantry, laundry room and bathroom doors, get grimier than you realize. Try your best to clean right away so you don’t forget .
4. Shower curtain
Have an icky shower curtain? Throw it in the wash with musty towels. A good wash will get rid of moldy black streaks that have accumulated over time at the base of the shower curtain.
Be sure to use a cup of detergent with white vinegar, or add half a cup of baking soda to equal parts of laundry detergent.
5. The rest of the toilet
There’s a ring inside the toilet bowl that can be pretty impossible to get rid of. But with a heavy-duty toilet bowl cleaner or one of the pods you leave in the tank — you can reduce the impact of the stain.
But the area at the base of the toilet bowl and the floor surrounding it is another story. It can get nasty down there, so be sure to wipe it off on a regular basis. Keep disposable wipes handy or a cleaning spray nearby as an inspiring reminder of the task at hand.
6. Backsplash
Cook much? The backsplash is a magnet for gunk. Check for layers of dust and grease build-up that you might not notice.
If you’re already wiping down the countertop , then you should add the backsplash to your must-clean list. Be sure to use a disinfectant that is non-toxic and safe around food prep areas.
7. Bedroom
Look, a smelly bedroom is unpleasant for everyone. But you might not even notice the odor because you’ve gotten so used to it. If the funk is from dirty sheets, wash them. Or clean up that pile of laundry that’s been sitting on the floor for way too long.
Reclaim your personal space by making everything smell nice again.
Step one to recovery: Air everything out! Open the windows!
Step two: Wash bed linens, that dirty laundry pile, your grungy gym clothes, plus the T-shirt you sleep in.
8. Windowsills
Next time you open or close your window blinds, give the windowsills and window tracks a hard look. You’ll be surprised with what you find there: Pet dander, dust, dead bugs and more grossness.
This is a quick fix and there’s no excuse to ignore something right before your eyes. Use a damp cloth or microfiber cloth and a cleaning solution and you’re done. To clean the cracks in the window tracks, use a putty knife wrapped in a cloth.
9. Under the couch
It’s hard to know what’s lurking under the couch until you take a look and realize you have a city of dust bunnies! You know, those small clumps of dust that are a tangle of pet dander, your hair and lint, among other icky things.
Be sure to clean under furniture and in the corners. If you’ve got carpet, then vacuum it all away, or use a sweeper-style duster or broom on laminate floors.
10. Garbage cans
What’s up with not lining a garbage bin with a bag? Loose trash is a big no-no, so don’t keep all the soiled remnants of your life out in the open.
Instead, stay private and clean by using a liner for the bin in the bathroom or elsewhere. You can even shop for bags infused with a scent to ease any chance of funk.
A little at a time goes a long way
Proud of yourself for cleaning those ignored places ? Now just think of everything else that deserves a good refresh in your apartment. Start making a list and take it one step at a time.
You don’t have to deep clean every day. Make a habit to take a look around every so often and clean things as needed.
Pets are the joys of their owners’ lives … you know, when they’re sleeping all curled up and adorable on the chair. But when those little guys are awake, they can be serious mischief makers.
Renting with pets brings their owners a lot of day-to-day nuisances, including litter all over the floor, scratches up and down the hardwood and all over the furniture, and general disarray that comes from sheer boredom after being home alone all day.
But some of these small issues have pretty simple solutions. Take a look at these easy pet hacks that will keep both you and your pet happy in your pet-friendly apartment:
Pet Deterrent Hacks
Ever lost a phone charger or piece of jewelry because your pet used it as a chew toy or absolutely had to bat it down the sink? Frustrating, yes — but there are ways to deter your dogs and cats from messing with things that don’t belong to them.
Dogs will avoid anything rubbed with Bitter Apple Spray, which you can buy at the pet store. As for cats, they instinctively avoid citrus, so if you use a citrus-scented cleaner they’ll likely stay off that surface.
If you’re hoping to keep your kitty off counters and other surfaces, try laying down tin foil or lining the counter or table with double-sided tape. Both methods are safe, and you can use them to teach cats to stay off.
Pet Hair Removal Hacks
Although your furball is adorable, they’re exactly that: covered in fur. Chances are your apartment is too, and sometimes vacuums and lint rollers just don’t cut it.
A couple of common life hacks for pet hair removal involve stuff you may already have laying around your apartment. If you’re struggling to get hair off the furniture, for instance, put on your rubber gloves, get them slightly damp and run your hands along the hairy furniture. The damp rubber picks up hair like a charm.
If you’re renting with pets in a carpeted apartment, use a squeegee, like the kind you use to clean your shower, to pick up fur from the carpet. Hardwood floors and tile can easily be cleaned with either a good old-fashioned weekly sweep or one of newer wet/dry mops on the market.
Scratching Post Hacks
One of the most common complaints that pet owners have is that their apartment and possessions suffer from scratches when they’re renting with pets. Both dogs and cats like to scratch to mark territory and because it feels good to them, so give them something they’re allowed to scratch up.
If you don’t have room for a scratching post, make your own using coarse sandpaper glued onto a wide piece of wood. If your cat or dog likes to stand up and scratch, try hanging it on a wall close to the ground.
Pet Food Storage Hacks
When it comes to pet food, the sooner you can get rid of the bulky and annoying large paper bags of dry kibbles and bits, the better. Many people use sealed plastic trash cans kept in a kitchen cabinet or closet to store pet food because they keep dry food fresh, and they’re easy to scoop food from. Plastic cereal containers are much smaller, but they also work great to easily store dry food and pour it into your pet’s food bowl at mealtimes.
Litter Box Hacks
When usually perfect feline has questionable litter box etiquette, it can leave an unsightly mess that you definitely don’t want guests to see. There are some awesome furniture options out there for hiding litter boxes , but there are also ways you can spend a little less money to hide the mess.
Some pet owners put the cat’s box under a side table, then attach curtains around the edges of the table to hide it. It’s a pretty touch that can easily complement your decor and hide the messy box, but can also give your pet some privacy.
If your cat kicks litter around like they’re going for the world kickboxing championships, you may want to try a covered litter box that’s facing a wall. The cover will keep most of the litter from flying everywhere, and the wall will keep the little bit that gets out of the door in an isolated area instead of all over your floor.
Doggie Boredom Hacks
If you want to cure your dog’s daytime boredom, leave Fido with an activity that will keep him occupied for hours. One of the more brilliant DIY life hacks is to cut about a 2-inch slice into a tennis ball, then fill it with small treats and short strips of fabric.
Your pup will spend hours trying to get to the treats inside the ball, and he’ll likely leave your plants, trash and/or other exciting apartment features alone. A similar idea for the warmer months is to fill up a dog Kong toy with a little bit of peanut butter, then put it in the freezer for a few hours. Your dog will love trying to get all of the frozen peanut butter out of the toy.
