A college dorm is a tricky space to organize. When you move off to college, you have to consolidate your life, pack it up, and move it into a tiny room that you would normally share with one other person or maybe two other people in some cases. Regardless of what your case may be, you still have to figure out how to organize everything that you bring with you to college.
1. Make sure that your desk is organized.
I don’t know about other people but I can’t focus if my desk is a mess. That’s why organization is so important. Focus on the top of your desk first and decide what you really need to have on top of it, such as writing utensils, your phone, a stapler, tape, a pair of scissors, your laptop/computer if you’re going to need it, and your to-do list or agenda. These items will vary depending on what you know you're going to need at hand. Depending on the size of your desk, you can definitely make adjustments so that you have the most important things on top in addition to adequate workspace. The smaller things such as paper clips, thumb tacks, rubber bands, and other office supplies can be stored in a drawer organizer like the one shown below:
2. Use the space under your bed.
You can use your bed to create storage by lofting it or raising it to the highest setting. At my school, you couldn’t loft your bed so I couldn't fit my desk under there. Bed risers like the ones pictured below were a life saver and I totally recommend them! They gave me the extra space that I needed to fit both mine and my roommate’s dressers under my bed as well as my mini refrigerator. You can really do whatever you want with this space. I’ve seen some people store their desks under their bed if they can loft their bed, and I’ve seen people put a lot of storage bins under their bed if they can only raise their bed a few feet off of the ground. Regardless of what you decide to do, this is a great space for you to utilize. By the way, it sounds silly, but making my bed every morning or when I had a break between classes totally made me feel like I had my life together. If everything else was going haywire, at least my bed was made and it looked nice.
3. Use your closet space wisely.
Another thing to take advantage of is your closet. Some dorms don’t have doors on their closets, but that’s an easy fix with a cute curtain. Anyway, if you’re anything like me, your closet is going to get a little messy at times. I tried my best to keep it clean, but when you have three tests, two papers, and a bunch of other assignments on your to-do list, cleaning and organizing your closet is the least of your worries. If you can maintain a clean one, though, it will make getting ready and storing your things a whole lot easier. I organized my closet by pants, blouses, t-shirts, pajama shirts, pajama pants, hoodies, jackets, and sweatshirts. Organizing my clothes this way made getting ready in the morning a whole lot easier. Another tip for saving time in the morning is to pick your outfit out the night before. I went to a high school where we had to wear uniforms, so I knew what I was going to wear every day, but when college came along, I was a mess. It took me forever to pick out an outfit, and I would end up rushing out of the door at a break neck speed to get to class on time. That’s when I decided that I ought to start picking out my outfits the night before. Oh, and velvet hangers like the ones below are going to be your best friends when you need to hang your clothes. The velvet makes it harder for clothes to slip off of your hangers, and they're thin, which means extra closet space!
4. Don't use your dresser drawers as junk drawers.
If your school supplies you with a dresser, use it. It doesn’t just have to be for clothes. It can also be for food, too! In one drawer, I had underclothes, another I had shorts, and another one had all of my extra t-shirts (like I didn’t have enough in my closet already). In the bottom drawer, I had my shelf stable food, which made for super easy access and a great way to organize all of those snacks that you bring with you or you receive in a care package. By the way, thanks for all of the food, fam!
5. Do your laundry.
Laundry seems like such a small thing, but it makes a big difference. Make sure to do your laundry every week so that you don’t have it piling up everywhere. Clean laundry makes for an empty laundry basket, which just means there’s one less thing on your to-do list for you to worry about.
6. Keep your floor space clear.
I can’t tell you how many friends I had in college that wouldn’t keep their floors and their paths clear. If you have a roommate, you’re not going to be able to turn the lights in the room to make sure that you don’t step on anything if you have to get up during the night, so keep your floors clean and clear.
7. Find a safe place to store your textbooks.
Books are expensive and you definitely don’t want to end up losing them or spilling something on them. Keep them in a safe place and make sure they’re away from any type of liquid or food that could get on them.
8. Take out your trash.
This isn’t really an organizational tip, but it an ABSOLUTE MUST! Trash starts to stink and it can attract bugs into your room if you let it stay there. Make sure that you take it out at the end of every week and definitely don’t leave it sitting around in your room for a month because; one, there’s no need for it and two, it really makes your room an unpleasant place to be. My roommate and I made sure that one of us took out the trash every Friday and cleaned up anything around it if we happened to miss the trash can during a game of trashketball. ;)
9. Clean your dorm.
Again, this isn’t really an organizational tip, but it makes a huge difference in your tiny dorm. When our dorm room was clean, I was able to focus and get things done and not worry about how our floor needed to be swept, vacuumed, and mopped. You’d be amazed at how much hair girls can shed in just a week and how much of it stays in your rug if you decide to bring one. My roomie and I made sure that we cleaned our room together on Friday mornings when we both had a break, but you can figure out a time to do this that works with your schedule. Oh, and splitting tasks makes this task a whole lot easier when you have a room to get clean in a short amount of time.
Whether you stay at school 24/7 or you’re able to go home on the weekends, that dorm room is your space and you’ll make your life a lot easier by keeping it organized. Yes, you have a small space to work with, but a little organization can make a world of difference when you’re trying to figure out how to cram your life into your new space!
