Bye Laws are the constitution of a Housing Society (Refer: old post on bye laws). Every registered housing soiciety have bye-laws that contain the governing principles of that society. Every society has the right to amend these bye-laws from time-to-time to ensure the governance and administration is more efficient.

However, in almost all societies its a night-mare to find the list of all amendments done to the bye laws at one place. These amendments are typically scattered over in multiple mails, minutes of meetings, some presentations or word documents – making it almost impossible to keep track of how the bye-laws evolved over a period.

Not anymore! In yet another first, with the launch of new Bye Laws module in ApnaComplex, members can read the bye laws and all the amendments at a single place. No more searching for documents in the repository – the content of bye laws and amendments can be accessed right from the menu bar by members.

Administrators can update the bye laws and also add/update/delete amendments and capture details such as date of amendments, date of meeting in which amendment was approved, who proposed it and who seconded it.

ApnaComplex makes information instantly accessible when you actually need it!

---

Get your Society on ApnaComplex – Today!
ApnaComplex is India’s most comprehensive web based housing society accounting, management and communication software. It is designed to make the life of residents and owners a lot better by bringing in more transparency and accountability in managing a housing society. Check out the features of ApnaComplex and sign up your society today to get the benefits! We offer a free 30-day trial as well so that you can try before you buy!

If you have been thinking of providing your home a huge makeover, New Year is the best time to do so. Remove the thought from your mind that it will cost you a bomb; denial won’t help you achieving the makeover you want. Re-invent your home by deciding the perfect theme you want for the rooms.

To carry out a successful garage sale you need to first figure out what you do not need, that is, the items you need to dispose off. There can be many things in your house that are cluttering up your home space unnecessarily and do not have much use such as old boxes, extra clothes, unused furniture or more. Here’s a list on what can be thrown out.

The unused stuff above the shelves and beneath the beds, storage spots in the backyard; every place that has been cluttered with household items needs to be figured out.

Things to Do

• Clean all the items you plan to sell out so that it is presentable and neat.
• Check the online sources such as eBay on how much they are selling the same items for. Always remember that people want garage sales to be way cheaper than the others.
• Price everything decently with clear labels on each of them.
• You can use stickers in case you are pricing everything individually. Make different labels of the prices and put the items having the similar price range at a same place.
• Make signs to direct people to the right spot when you put up a garage sale. But make sure you do not put them up before you have organized the sale.
• Maintain a cash notebook and note down what you have sold and for what amount.
• Keep a change bag with you, which you can clip on yourself.
• Get packaging material such as boxes, plastic bags and other basic amenities so that you can carry things back home easily.
• Group selling with neighbours is a better possibility to sell off your old stuff as soon as possible.
• Make a list of all the people who would co-ordinate with you for the sales. If more people are selling off the stuff reach an agreement on the profit percentages to be shared.

Spice up Your Sale

• Don’t forget selling drinks like coffee, tea, cold soda to the buyers during the sale.
• You can add to it with having a sausage sizzle along with the garage sale. This attracts customers and also gives you new avenues to make profits.
• Cakes, cookies, muffins can also be sold along with the packaged items
• You can also put plants and pots from the plant cuttings in your garden, for sale. If they don’t sell it doesn’t really dent your selling plans.

How to Present

Set up the yard in such a way so that it’s easy for people to walk around and sell your stuff. Don’t clutter up the space where you have set up things for sale. Make sure you label the things so that people find it very organized and easy to sell.

---

This article aims at collating and providing information for benefit of ApnaComplex customers and blog readers. While ApnaComplex has taken every care to ensure the information is accurate, we suggest to please use it only as a guidance for further discussion and action with help of relevant professionals.

Get your Society on ApnaComplex – Today!
Get your Society on ApnaComplex – Today!
ApnaComplex is India’s most comprehensive web based housing society accounting, management and communication software. It is designed to make the life of residents and owners a lot better by bringing in more transparency and accountability in managing a housing society. Check out the features of ApnaComplex and sign up your society today to get the benefits! We offer a free 30-day trial as well so that you can try before you buy!

Having your own home is definitely a priority in life. One of the first impressions while buying a home is that it should be large and spacious and that can burn a hole in your wallet. You start compromising on your shopping, partying and other luxuries when you plan to buy a spacious apartment.

However, when you actually move in to your new place with all the furniture and other storage boxes, the house looks crammed up. Figuring out the right places to store all the old and unwanted items is definitely a challenge. Following are some useful tips on how to effectively make your house more spacious.

Placement of Furniture

The furniture needs to be in the perfect place to efficiently partition a room into two. For example, you can use a big wardrobe to separate a large room into two, which will offer more privacy. A kitchen platform is a nice way of dividing an entire kitchen into a cooking space and a separate dining space.

Storage Space

You can always reduce the storage area by keeping all the container boxes and seasonal items below the beds or underneath the furniture. Buy beds or tables which have drawers or storage spaces in them. You can use shelves and hooks behind the doors or wardrobes to hang your clothes.

Colors and Paints

Using pastel and light colors makes your room look bigger. For better illusion you can use colors like cream, yellow, icy blue and white. Dark colors absorb most of the lights and hence make the room look darker. You can paint your room with light vertical paints to give a high rise look.

Natural Light

Avoid placing big furniture in front of the windows; it blocks the natural light from entering the room. It is always advisable to install high rise windows at your such as French windows to give your room a more spacious look. Don’t clutter up your window sill if you have smaller windows.

Installing Adequate Mirrors in Your House

Placing a mirror in your apartment makes it look more spacious. A mirror reflects both artificial and natural light. Using cabinets, which have mirrors, can be used to store a lot of small stuff. You should keep the mirror at a place where light falls on the mirror.

Electronic Goods

Making use of electronic goods can clutter up your home space a lot. Take optimum care when you plan to place the TV or the LCD in some room. Laptops are more useful than that of personal computers.

Interior Décor

The walls should not be cluttered up with many photo frames and pictures. Using one or two pictures on the wall is a better option. Feng Shui or Vaastu Shaastra can be implemented in your place to bring in a good ambience to your apartment.

---

Get your Society on ApnaComplex – Today!
ApnaComplex is India’s most comprehensive web based housing society accounting, management and communication software. It is designed to make the life of residents and owners a lot better by bringing in more transparency and accountability in managing a housing society. Check out the features of ApnaComplex and sign up your society today to get the benefits! We offer a free 30-day trial as well so that you can try before you buy!

While setting up your house, remodeling the kitchen according to your need is an important factor. Eco-friendly updates to the kitchen are some of the best ways of reducing power and using the entire workspace. Transforming the kitchen into an eco-friendly one leverages the value of your apartment and also helps in conserving the environment. There can be a whole lot of aspects that can be kept in mind while upgrading your kitchen.

A kitchen can be easily made into an eco-friendly one by using many energy-saving equipments and appliances such as water-saving faucets, eco-friendly lighting and energy efficient windows.

Ventilation and Natural Light

You can save unnecessary wastage of electricity and save power by working closer to skylights and windows. By setting up your kitchen that way, you save a great amount of light. If your kitchen is not well ventilated and does not receive a good amount of light, then you should opt for LED or CFL bulbs. Installing an exhaust fan in the kitchen is very necessary; it fans out the entire bad odor in your kitchen and does not let the fumes stay. This in turn increases the amount of fresh air in the kitchen and removes any dampness. Using daylight controllers and energy efficient bulbs is a great way to save energy from being used.

Making use of Energy-Efficient Appliances

Energy consumption depends a lot on the appliances that are being used. Usually, new appliances always come with more efficient energy-saving technology than their previous counterparts. All modern electronic appliances use considerably very less amount of energy than the older equipments. All the Energy Star appliances use less energy and are more efficient to operate.

Cooking at a Time

Instead of cooking many times, try cooking once. Multitasking while cooking such as cutting vegetables can help you save a lot of fuel and time. Cutting of vegetables into small pieces increases the taste of the dish you are cooking and at the same time also cuts down the preparation time. The USP of cooking at a time is that you save a lot of fuel.

Choosing Cookware

Be choosy while buying your utensils; do not just go for the cheap ones as they increase you cooking time. Low quality utensils take time to heat up and hence consume huge amount of fuel or gas. Try not to use disposable products as they are made of low-quality cast iron, which affects your cooking process.

Adopting a Green Living

Keeping a separate dust bin for recyclable and non-recyclable wastes will help you do your bit for the environment too.

---

Get your Society on ApnaComplex – Today!

ApnaComplex is India’s most comprehensive web based housing society accounting, management and communication software. It is designed to make the life of residents and owners a lot better by bringing in more transparency and accountability in managing a housing society. Check out the features of ApnaComplex and sign up your society today to get the benefits! We offer a free 30-day trial as well so that you can try before you buy!

ApnaComplex organized the Oota from Thota event on Sunday, 8th Jan, 2012 at Electronic City, Bangalore and here is the participants perspective of the event.

There was a sizable crowd of green enthusiasts with personal passions of greenery, gardening, no-plastic, organic farming and community well-being, bonding together through a common thread on this platform. Delighted to see participants coming from far distances such as Hanumant Nagar to attend the event and that’s true passion!

The pace got set with a talk from Dr.Viswanath of Garden City Farmers Trust – who presented some hard facts on the kind of food that we eat today. The dangers of consuming pesticides-ridden food taking their toll over a period of time was emphasized to create awareness. Though the speech was an eye-opener, all hope was not lost yet. Be it a terrace or a balcony, Dr. Viswanath & Laxminarayanan, also from Garden City Farmers Trust, showed the basic steps of planning for a garden, soil, grafting, seeds, seasonal plants etc. Pictures and success stories were shared on how even amateurs grew their own vegetables like capsicum and brinjal and fruits like the papaya and grapes in as little as 2ft by 2ft by 2ft space.

Following this, was another inspiring session from the Ms.Vani Murthy, another go-green expert who gave an actual demo of the materials that can be segregated in our day-to-day rubbish from our homes. Simple things like dry leaves, vegetable peels that can be separated out and mixed with soil and shredded newspapers to create nutrient-filled compost for plants. The difference between recyclable and reusable materials was also spelt out for the rapt audience.

The way the questions and queries from the audience till the very end were answered reflected the passion of the speakers.

Finally there were the packed stalls relevant to the theme of the day. Kids and their family thronged to the tasty organic chaat and snacks stall put by In the Pink. Then there was the unique and surprising flavours of homemade jam from Nature in a Bottle that teased your taste buds – you couldn’t resist taking home a bottle or two. For those looking to start their own kitchen garden, they were spoilt for choice of the garden tools and instruments, and exotic seeds by Varsha Enterprises. There was on display and sale, a variety of very informative and cost effective composting products and solutions from “Daily Dump” right from offices to homes to communities. Also present was Opron Biotech providing digital diagnostic equipment such as Thermometers, Blood Pressure Devices.

All-in-all a very satisfying and different way to spend a Sunday – one small step for the conscientious citizen. Heartening to see the pockets of change and hoping that this cascades into the right direction for Bangalore and rest of the world.

The event was supported by Garden City Farmers Trust, Celebrity Paradise Layout and Citizen Matters along with ApnaComplex.

---

Get your Society on ApnaComplex – Today!

ApnaComplex is India’s most comprehensive web based housing society accounting, management and communication software. It is designed to make the life of residents and owners a lot better by bringing in more transparency and accountability in managing a housing society. Check out the features of ApnaComplex and sign up your society today to get the benefits! We offer a free 30-day trial as well so that you can try before you buy!

New Year Eve is a time for revelry and merry making. But it does make sense for your housing society to take a few basic precautions to ensure that the celebrations do not go out of hand. Problems caused by excessive alcohol intake, too much of loud music, the nuisance of fire crackers and a lack of security due to revelers coming into your residential complex are some of the basic issues that most housing societies face during New Year’s eve.

Most of these problems can be avoided with a bit of advance planning. Regulations should be issued well in advance and circulated around the housing society. Here are a few steps that can help ensure that New Year celebrations do not go out of control.

Steps for a Fun but Safe New Year’s Eve

(i) Get everybody on board as far as your “Safe New Year” campaign is concerned. There is no point in the housing society management issuing guidelines arbitrarily. Call a meeting and seek everybody’s co-operation. Discuss the troubles that normally arise and ask for suggestions to deal with it. Getting everybody involved will lead to greater success.

(ii) While you cannot enforce the number of guests each resident can invite, you can definitely keep track of which apartment each visitor to the complex is entering. Issue gate passes to your residents. They can pass these on to their invited guests. The guests will be allowed into the housing society only if they have their gate passes. This will eliminate the possibility of troublemakers entering your complex

(iii) Keep a time limit as far as playing of loud music and bursting of fire crackers is concerned. While there are definitely going to be fireworks at midnight, request residents to avoid the noisy ones. Also ensure that fire extinguishers are in place and in working condition to avoid mishaps.

(iv) Arrange for some kind of medical back up. Accidents and binging on alcohol can raise medical emergencies during New Year’s eve. It makes sense to keep a doctor on call to deal with any emergency situation that may arise.

(v) Residents normally like to light up their homes with decorative lights on New Year’s eve. This can cause power to trip. Ensure that an electrician appointed by the housing society checks all the connections in the apartments to ensure that there is no danger of short circuits.

(vi) Ask your residents to take responsibility for any guests who may have drunk too much. The host should see that the drunken guest does not get behind the wheel of the car. Excessive drinking can lead to loutish behavior and residents should be held responsible for the behavior of their guests.

(vii) Make a list of dos and don’ts well before New Year’s eve and circulate it among your guests. Put up notices in all public areas so that even the guests who arrive are aware of the regulations.

With a few basic precautions, it is possible to have a fun and safe New Year celebration. So go ahead and enjoy!

---

Get your Society on ApnaComplex – Today!

ApnaComplex is India’s most comprehensive web based housing society accounting, management and communication software. It is designed to make the life of residents and owners a lot better by bringing in more transparency and accountability in managing a housing society. Check out the features of ApnaComplex and sign up your society today to get the benefits! We offer a free 30-day trial as well so that you can try before you buy!

As the year end comes , we just recieved great testimonial from Mr. Ganesh Raja, treasurer of Ittina Abby, a 200+ unit society in Bangalore who have been using ApnaComplex for past 6 months now. Below is the testimonial:

Gone are the days of Maintaining Excel sheets and reconciling the same for Expenses made … Gone are the Days of having a home grown solution that crashes or have sleepless nights thinking about a Hard Disk crashes… ApnaComplex has really revolutionized facility maintenance all the way from collecting Maintenance to spending it. We at ITTINA ABBY are so happy and yesterday also a resident was saying how easy it is to use it and they never have to come to the Treasurer’s office for anything.

Great Team who is always ready to hear our problems and offer a solution even if it means more work for them. Always there to correct mistakes made by our Facility Manager, Support is so important for a System like this and the Team at Apnacomplex have understood that very well.

Kudos to the team and hope to see them enhance this more as we roll into 2012. — Ganesh, Treasurer ITTINA ABBY LBS Nagar Vimanapura PO”

Thank you Mr. Ganesh for your kind words!! We are so happy to receive these words from you!

---

Want to ease your (or your treasurer’s) burden? – Get on to ApnaComplex – Today!

ApnaComplex is India’s most comprehensive web based housing society accounting, management and communication software. It is designed to make the life of residents and owners way lot better by bringing in more transparency and accountability in managing a housing society. Check out the features of ApnaComplex and sign up your society today to get the benefits! We offer a free 30-day trial as well so that you can try before you buy!

The kitchen is undoubtedly the most important part of a housing society flat. In a housing society, depending on the complex, kitchens maybe fully furnished or partially furnished, with modular kitchens et al.

Whatever may be the case, you can implement these helpful pointers in order to maintain an organized kitchen because a well functioning kitchen leads to a happier and healthier family life.

• Observe Cleanliness All the Way

To maintain a perfectly functional kitchen you should keep in mind that the first thing to do is to make sure complete cleanliness and hygiene is followed within the kitchen.

Food wastes should be disposed off as soon as possible, because otherwise the waste bin will witness rotting and serve as a growing habitat for bacteria and fungus, leading to the spread of food borne diseases.

• Maintain All Utensils and Cutlery

It is of utmost importance in every kitchen that each and every utensil used for cooking and the cutlery used for serving should be completely cleaned after usage for hygienic purposes. The upkeep of these utensils is also important because many problems such as rusting, coating, drying and melting can affect the quality of food prepared.

• Assign Specific Spots for All Items

To ensure that you have an organized kitchen, you must keep different food products in designated areas of the kitchen. For example, separate shelves and areas must be provided for dry foods, grains, spices, fresh fruits and vegetables, meats and preserved foods.

Each type of food also requires a particular optimal temperature to ensure that the food is in perfect condition. Generally, meats and most preservatives are ideally stored at a cooler temperature. You can place dry food items in Tupperware containers, neatly tucked away in cabinets.

• Store Items by Frequency of Use

There are some kitchen appliances or utensils which you may tend to use more often than others. Ensure that your everyday dishes are placed on lower shelves which are easily accessible, while your fancy cutlery is placed on higher shelves.

Aprons, dish towels and gloves can be conveniently hung at a safe distance from the stove. While organizing your cookbooks, ensure that you save a small open space on one of the shelves. You must keep in mind that cookbooks can get easily exposed to grease from the stove or fridge if kept too close.

• Create a Cooking Space

While organizing your kitchen, make sure that you designate a special zone for cooking. This zone should usually be centered on the stove. Pots and pans should be stored in close range near this area. Stirring utensils, egg beaters and other cooking tools can be neatly placed in a container near the stove.

• Other Storage Tips

It can be extremely helpful to store snacks and fruits in see-through baskets or containers. While storing cutlery, use dividers to organize vessels of different sizes and purposes. If you want to save a little storage space, hanging heavy utensils such as pots and pans will do the trick.

In order to maintain a clean and organized kitchen, housing society residents can take note of these simple pointers and spread awareness about the growing need for cleanliness in a kitchen. The key to an organized kitchen is arranging utensils in such a way that there is maximum storage space, making it easy to move around and work efficiently.

---

Get your Society on ApnaComplex – Today!

ApnaComplex is India’s most comprehensive web based housing society accounting, management and communication software. It is designed to make the life of residents and owners a lot better by bringing in more transparency and accountability in managing a housing society. Check out the features of ApnaComplex and sign up your society today to get the benefits! We offer a free 30-day trial as well so that you can try before you buy!

Indoor gardening is always a great option, and if you’re considering growing herbs in your housing society flat, there’s nothing better. Thyme, Parsley, Basil, Tulsi, Mint, Rosemary, Cilantro, Oregano, Masterwork, and Fennel are some of the herbs that you can grow in your flat.

The Benefits of Growing Herbs

There are some primary benefits involved with growing herbs in a housing society flat.

• Growing herbs in a housing society flat requires just a small area
• It requires very less initial investment and maintenance
• Many herbs that have proven medicinal values can be used as a part of home remedy solutions
• Indoor herbs can be used as additives in food  items to make lip smacking dishes
• The natural smell of certain herbs can be used in aromatherapy
• You can cut down on the cost of buying herbs from the market
• Herbs can be used all round the year and for various purposes

There are some points that you need to keep in mind while growing herbs in a housing society flat, though.

The Type of Herb

Choose the herbs carefully as not all of them can grow in an indoor environment. Herbs which grow well in conditions involving less sunlight, air and soil are usually preferred for flats. Some herbs which are apt for indoor cultivation include Parsley, Cilantro, Basil, and Rosemary. Herbs like Chives are not an ideal choice for cultivating inside flats as they possess complex root systems that require large spaces to grow.

Ample Light Source

Light can be either from a natural source, sunlight, or from an artificial source, mainly fluorescent lights. Herbs require adequate amount of light for their growth and photosynthetic activity. Devoid of such light, herbs cannot survive. Hence, for growing herbs in a housing society, flat it is essential for you to choose a place which has enough supply of sunlight or artificial light.

Nutrition and Soil

Herbs require sufficient nutrition for their growth and development. Soil, being a major source of nutrition for herbs, contains all the essential elements that promote and sustain life. Some herbs require scanty soil whereas others require a lot. Fertilizers also provide an additional nutritional boost for herbs and ensure that their normal growth pattern doesn’t get disturbed. When you are setting up a container for growing herbs in a housing society flat, make sure that it contains right amount of soil and fertilizer.

Water Issues

Water your herbs regularly to prevent the soil from going dry. However, take care not to use too much water on the herbs. To ensure that the excess water is drained out, choose a pot with a hole at the bottom and fill it with layers of stones or broken tiles.

Proper Maintenance

Constantly monitor your herbs for any diseases or pest trouble. Ensure that the herbs are supplemented with fertilizers from time to time. You can pinch off the apical node in the herbs to get a bushy growth of stems and branching of roots instead of elongation of stems or deepening of roots.

Harvest your herbs at the right time and use them when required. You can also dry and store the herbs for long term use. Growing herbs in a housing society flat is a good option through which you can add a touch of greenery to your home.

---

Get your Society on ApnaComplex – Today!
ApnaComplex is India’s most comprehensive web based housing society accounting, management and communication software. It is designed to make the life of residents and owners a lot better by bringing in more transparency and accountability in managing a housing society. Check out the features of ApnaComplex and sign up your society today to get the benefits! We offer a free 30-day trial as well so that you can try before you buy!

Recently Kamal Co-operative Housing Society, Mumbai went live on ApnaComplex. The society has moved all thier accounts into ApnaComplex and for the first time issued digital invoices and receipts to its members. Mr. Hemang Thakker, Hon. Treasurer of the society was very pleased with the many positive comments from their members and has the following to say on ApnaComplex –

“We were on the lookout for an accounting software for our society for quite some time. We zeroed in on Apnacomplex as the site is well designed and featured all the things one looks for in a good software AND offered a no-obligation one month free trial.

The best part is that ApnaComplex delivers what it promises. I am very happy to say that all the doubts, queries and issues raised by us were addressed promptly and in a very positive manner. And as new features are being added the whole experience becomes richer.

We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship and would recommend the program whole heartedly.”

Thank you Mr. Thakker for your kind words!