Are You Ready for 2014?

Are you ready for 2014?  Have you done a review of 2013 and determined your accomplishments? Have you reviewed what needs to be done to improve your property in the New Year?  Now is the time!

The National Apartment Association suggests that you look at the following five areas to improve maintaining your property.

1. Assess your order history: Get in touch with your primary supplier and ask for a list of the items that were ordered for the property over the last year. Some suppliers have the ability to break it down by accounting code and price. This will enable the property to plan for upcoming seasons based upon what happened this past year.

2. Hazardous communications update:  By the beginning of December, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) required every employee to receive training on the new Hazardous Communication standards. In addition to this, the end of the year is a great occasion to review the Safety Data Sheet (formerly called the Material Safety Data Sheet) notebook.

3. Issue new updated staff communication information: Over the course of the previous 12 months employees may have been added or subtracted, and/or their contact information may have changed. This is a great time to confirm all that information. Be sure to include all methods of communication, including email, cell phone, land-line phone, and handles for various messaging apps, depending on company policy.

4. Review emergency action policies/procedures: This is especially important if your area experiences weather extremes. Think of what can happen under Murphy’s Law (whatever can go wrong will go wrong) – then consider Simon’s Law (that Murphy was an optimist!).  Be sure you have a plan that enables you to successfully deal with as many variables as possible.

For example: What if the Property Manager/Maintenance Supervisor is unavailable? Do other staff members know who to call to report a widespread power, gas or water outage? How would staff handle a quick evacuation of the property if necessary? What about speaking with the media?

 5. Clean out the shop: An often repeated statement of maintenance technicians trying to find a part is: “When I have time, I’m going to reorganize this place.”  The time is now!

Your suppliers can help with bins or boxes that can keep smaller parts separated. Keeping the low-flow flappers separated from the standard flappers will be a time saver! Be sure to get rid of the parts that seem to collect over time. Garbage disposal collars are often kept “just in case,” but you only need one on hand, not 23.

Lastly, empty the area and perform some intelligent design. This means putting the most used items at eye level and lesser used items out of the way. Once items are placed, mark the shelves so those items don’t move. This can help when you reorder, since there will only be one location for all of the stocked items.

Happy New Year!