If you're one of the millions of college kids living in a dorm room, you know the struggle. Those cinder-block castles are small, have awkward layouts (the outlet is WHERE?) and are forever trafficked by friends and strangers alike. They serve many more purposes than they were probably designed for, because after all, a bed, microwave, desk and chair automatically make one of those concrete cells into an all-in-one bedroom, living room, kitchen, dining room and office, right? Add a yoga mat and it might as well be a gym too. 

At first it was great. You moved into your shared 12-by-15-foot box on day one and put everything in its place. You made your bed with clean sheets and arranged the photos on your desk, then hung up your clothes and sorted your shoes in the closet. You even took a picture, chuckling to yourself how it may never be this clean again. 

Well, here we are. A few months have passed, and a tornado recently hit your room (or at least thats what you would tell anyone who saw it). Here are some tips to keep your room looking like it did on day one. 

1. Love your room when its clean.
You'll learn to appreciate how much less stressful life is when you don't have to spend that extra ten minutes in the morning trying to find the paper you printed last night. Seeing a clean room as a positive goal will help you improve your attitude towards cleaning, and give you a sense of accomplishment every time you do something to maintain an organized space.

2. Febreeze is your friend.
So is Lysol. So are those fancy little Tide pen things. Invest in them, use them and thank me later. 

3. Put a recycling bin for old papers next to your desk.
If there's one thing that engulfs my desk, its old papers. I never throw them out because I never know when I'll need them again. So what's the solution? Keep a bin next to your desk thats just for old papers. Keep filling it up 'til the end of the semester when you can tell yourself that if you haven't needed it yet, you won't need it in the future. Then recycle it all, because sustainability.

4. Pick up a little bit of mess each day.
Then you can avoid having to spend an hour or so on cleaning days. 

5. Leftovers = BAD
One day, you're just minding your business, going about your day, and you smell it. There's something in your room, and you don't know for sure what it is, but you have a strong suspicion that it's a dead rodent or something. It gets worse and worse 'til you stumble upon the source and two realizations hit you harder than the stench itself; one, you forgot to take your to-go box back to the dining hall, and two, your new collection of fungi rivals the biology department's. 

6. Put your clothes away.
This is the big one. Just do it.

7. Change your sheets. Contrary to popular belief, being in college is not an acceptable excuse to change your sheets once a semester. Once every 1-2 weeks is a good way to go.

Hope these helped! Good luck!