Blog Posts

Add Some Greenery to Your Apartment

Adding greenery and a variety of plants to your apartment can bring many benefits. It can purify your air, bring life and a feeling of vitality, and beautify your space. In today’s Sunset Palms Blog, we’ll be sharing a list of some of the best indoor plants to bring into your space as well as some basic care instructions. We hope you enjoy your month here in Hollywood, FL! Snake Plant Able to withstand weeks of neglect, snake plants are one of the most tolerant plants you will find. Even under conditions of neglect, they won’t lose their shape or color. They thrive in environments with very little light and water. If you are new to having plants or worried about forgetting to care for your plants, give one of these a try first. Snake plants also naturally remove toxins from the air. Aloe Vera The aloe vera plant is useful in many ways. It’s a great detox ingredient, skin soother for burns, and hair conditioner. It prefers lots of light and little watering. Check out the link above for more information on what type of soil, container, and watering it needs to thrive. Dumb Cane Dumb Cane or dieffenbachia plants are great plants to have in your apartment space. They do fairly well is a variety of living conditions. They do prefer filtered or indirect sunlight. They also need to have moist soil, but it shouldn’t be soggy. Make sure they have a good drainage system to allow excess water to drain out. Learn more from the link above. Dragon Tree The Madagascar Dragon Tree is a pretty plant that will look great in your space. These trees do well in an average lit and dry environment. Just make sure that you don’t overwater the because this can cause root rot. Do you have any plants in your apartment? Let us know which ones you have and how easy they are to care for. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks for reading and visit the Sunset Palms Blog again soon!

National Nutrition Month

March is National Nutrition Month and the Sunset Palms Blog has several healthy eating tips for you to try out. Adjust your eating, get some exercise, and celebrate healthy living this month at your apartment. Stay healthy and happy by using these easy tips here in Hollywood, FL. Track Your Eating Not happy with your diet? It’s hard to change when you don’t know where (and how) you need to change. Spend a couple of weeks tracking what you eat and how much you eat. The government’s healthy eating resource, MyPlate, has a wonderful SuperTracker that you can use. If keeping an online log isn’t for you, try keeping a food diary instead. You can record how much you’ve been eating, what you’ve been eating, and write down the names of new foods you want to try in your food diary. Tracking your eating will let you know exactly how and where you need to change. Adjust Your Diet Now that you know where and how you need to change, it’s time to adjust your diet! Focus on adjusting your diet through small, incremental changes. Not eating enough fruits and veggies? Start by incorporating just one extra serving of strawberries or green beans into your meals each day. Eating too many sweets? Limit yourself to one or two treats per day, or cut soda out of your diet (for the time being, at least). Change your diet slowly so that you don’t feel too restricted by the adjustments you’re introducing into your life. Get Out of the House Healthy eating needs to be balanced by a moderate amount of exercise. Spend some time exercising in the way that works best for your body and your lifestyle. Are you a fan of soccer? Join a city league. Play a pickup game of basketball after work or join a baseball team. Take a walk through a park. Just remember to get some exercise every week! Do you have any healthy eating tips for us? Leave us your best advice in the comments. Thanks for reading our post!

Organizing Tips for Your Sunset Palms Apartment

Organizing can be a big task, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. In today’s Sunset Palms Blog, we have some tips and ideas on how to organize in order to make it an easier and more manageable task. We hope you enjoy a cleaner and more put-together apartment here in Hollywood, FL! Label It. A label is such a simple thing and it can be a key component of being organized. Label your containers for ease in getting things put away in the right place. It also makes it easier for people who live with you as well. Chunk It. Sometimes looking at a whole room that needs to be decluttered is simply overwhelming. The answer to the riddle, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time” holds true when it comes to getting a whole room organized. Break down tasks into doable chunks. By doing a little bit at a time, the larger goal is accomplished. Delegate It. Do you have to do it yourself? If not, consider delegating the task to someone else. For example, the stack of clothes that need to be mended; it may be well worth the money to simply find someone to do it for you. Time It. Give yourself fifteen or twenty minutes to work. Start with a drawer or a closet, and go through each room in your apartment until you’ve sorted through everything. As you sort, designate things as 1) Throw Away, 2) Give Away, and 3) Keep. These three options make it simple to go through a desk or closet quickly and efficiently. You’ll then end up with just the things you want to keep. When you have a place for everything it is much easier to keep the clutter to a minimum. Use shelves, baskets, totes, boxes, or whatever it takes to organize your storage space — and label it! Feel free to share your favorite organization tips with us in the comments below. Thanks for reading and visit the blog again soon.

New Movies to See This Month

February is bringing in some great movies that we think you’ll enjoy in theaters this month. In today’s Sunset Palms Blog, we have a list of some of these movies. Invite along friends, buy your tickets online, head out of your apartment, and enjoy a movie night here in Hollywood, FL. Cloverfield Movie (February 2nd) After a scientific experiment aboard the space station involving a particle accelerator has unexpected results, the astronauts find themselves isolated. Following their horrible discovery, the space station crew must fight for survival. Winchester (February 2nd) Eccentric firearm heiress believes she is haunted by the souls of people killed by the Winchester repeating rifle. Peter Rabbit (February 9th) Feature adaptation of Beatrix Potter's classic tale of a rebellious rabbit trying to sneak into a farmer's vegetable garden. The 15:17 To Paris (February 9th) American soldiers discover a terrorist plot on a Paris-bound train. Black Panther (February 16th) T'Challa, after the death of his father, the King of Wakanda, returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation to succeed to the throne and take his rightful place as king. Early Man (February 16th) Set at the dawn of time, when prehistoric creatures and woolly mammoths roamed the earth, Early Man tells the story of Dug, along with sidekick Hognob as they unite his tribe against a mighty enemy Lord Nooth and his Bronze Age City to save their home. Every Day (February 23rd) Based on David Levithan's acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Every Day tells the story of Rhiannon (Angourie Rice), a 16-year old girl who falls in love with a mysterious spirit named "A" who inhabits a different body every day. Feeling an unmatched connection, Rhiannon and A work each day to find each other, not knowing what or who the next day will bring. What other movies are you excited to check out this month or this year? Let us know in the comments below!

Start your own Book Club

Start your own book club this new year using our tips and tricks. Invite friends, neighbors, and family members to join. The Sunset Palms Blog is featuring our favorite books and a checklist to help you start your book club. We hope that you get the chance to read a good book and spend some time with friends this month. Book Club Checklist — Decide which genre your book club group will read. Are you a fan of fantasy? Graphic novels? Science fiction? Pick a genre that you love and find friends who love it, as well. Or if you’ll be sampling from a variety of genres, be upfront about that and make sure everyone’s on board. — Decide when and where you will meet. Pick a time that works for all of your group members. An easy way to find a time that works for the majority of your group members is by using Google Forms or Google Calendar . Have your group members mark days and times that work for them, and then pick the date and time that works for the majority of your members. — Pick a book. Have group members nominate and then vote on which book to read (again, Google Forms is a great way to do this). Remind your book club members to nominate books that fit your genre. Or you can have a different person choose a book each cycle. — Nominate a discussion leader. Your discussion leader will come up with questions and guide your book club discussion. — Have members sign up to bring treats. No book club is complete without a good meal! Make salads, sandwiches, snacks, and desserts for your everyone to munch on while you discuss your book. Book Recommendations Emma by Jane Austen “Beautiful, clever, rich—and single—Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protegee Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected.” I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb “When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. [...] I Am Malala is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls’ education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.” What’s your favorite book? Let us know in the comments. Head to your local library in Hollywood, FL for a good book this month. Thanks for reading our post!

January Holidays to Celebrate

Do you need a reason to celebrate? In today’s Sunset Palms Blog we have a list of holidays to enjoy this month. Take some time to do something fun with family and friends. Enjoy your month here in Hollywood, FL. New Year’s Day (January 1) The start of a new year is a great thing to celebrate. It represents new beginnings and a fresh start. Spend some time thinking about what you want to happen this year. Whether or not you believe in having new year’s resolutions, visualize what changes you want to see in your life and take a few small steps to make them happen. For example, if you want to lose weight or be healthier in general, take a small step to reach that, such as drinking more water or eating more vegetables. You don’t have to set a large goal, just some small and reasonable ones. Houseplant Appreciation Day (January 10) This is the perfect holiday to celebrate at your apartment. Go out and buy a new houseplant to liven up your space. Houseplants can purify your air, beautify your apartment, and bring life to your space. Check out this list of Forgiving Houseplants from HGTV . If you’re nervous about getting a houseplant, start out with a succulent. They don’t die easily and don’t need much watering or attention. National Hot Tea Month (All Month) Hot tea has all kinds of health benefits . Make some tea at your apartment this month and enjoy the energy, relaxation, or other benefits it’ll give you. Try out some of these tea recipes ! National Oatmeal Month (All Month) Oatmeal is a great breakfast option that you can pair with your morning tea. Oatmeal also has health benefits such as its high levels of antioxidants. Overnight oats are a popular breakfast item that can be healthy and tasty; try out this Banana Bread Overnight Oats recipe. Check out this list of ways to make your oatmeal more delicious from BuzzFeed . What holidays do you want to celebrate this month? Share your ideas with us in the comments below!