5 Hacks for Organizing Your Dorm Room
Are you a college-bound student gearing up for an epic return to school? Or maybe this is your freshman year, and you’re trying to figure out how to navigate life away from home. Regardless of your class seniority, cleaning and organizing your dorm or student housing will require some effort and strategy.
Fortunately, you’ve got the help of industry-leading cleaning professionals to impart some dorm organization and cleaning hacks for a more comfortable living space and a productive school year.
1. Condense, Condense, Condense!
Do you really need that huge century-old trunk your grandpa found at an estate sale? Maybe you need it for aesthetic purposes, but is it practical for a small dorm space? If the answer is no, you may want to chuck bulky furniture and condense your clothes and other essentials into a smaller storage container. The best part is that these more compact storage bins can be stored under the bed or on a shelf in your closet to house other items for daily use. We suggest going with something that’s transparent, so you can decipher the contents of the container easily without having to open and sift through everything to find what you need.
2. If You Don’t Need It, Let It Go
Is it just us, or are dorms getting smaller? If you’re into tiny living, you probably enjoy 200-300 square feet of living space and might be able to do a lot with very little. For us tiny-space rookies, pairing down is a must. If you don’t need it (or rarely use it), it’s got to go. You don’t want to clutter your closet with clothes you barely wear or have bulky furniture in the room that doesn’t serve a practical purpose.
3. Use Vertical Space to Save Floor Space
The one thing dorms have in abundance are blank walls and vertical space that rarely gets used. But not in your dorm room! You can do so much with your walls and use them as functional storage space to keep possessions off the floor or piling up in the closet.
Some great vertical storage solutions include:
Hanging shoe rack behind the door – How often do you use the space behind your door? Today, we’re changing that. A hanging shoe rack keeps your shoes from cluttering the floor and in an easily accessible area away from prying eyes.
Floating wall shelf – Floating shelves are decorative and useful when you only have a couple of hundred square feet of dorm space. Keep textbooks, pictures of family and friends, faux florals, and other personal tchotchkes to personalize your space.
Large peg board – Peg boards are becoming all the rage for vertical organization because they can be hung almost anywhere and personalized to match décor. Not only that, but you can purchase accompanying hanging bins and hooks to hold hats, filing folders to keep important documents, essential school supplies, etc.
4. Make Organization a Part of Your Daily Routine
You probably have a dorm cleaning schedule that you and your roommate follow weekly or bi-weekly, which includes decluttering and organizing. Still, it’s important to make organization a part of your daily life to reduce the time spent organizing weekly.
Have designated spots for keys and wallet/purse and place them there every day
Ditch the paper and go paperless as much as possible
Clean reusable items like dishes daily instead of letting them pile up for later
Invest in cord hooks and clips to keep wires off the floor and avoid tripping hazards
We also want to note that organizing doesn’t have to be dull. You can make it fun by blasting your favorite cleaning playlist, creating a game of “beat the clock,” or treating yourself as a reward after all the organizing is done.
5. Caddies Are Your Best Friends
Did you know that most dorm accessories have built-in caddies? From lamps to bed frames, you can purchase most things for your dorm room with a caddy to maximize storage space.
We recommend some of the following caddies for your organizational needs:
Shower caddy – You can’t start your first year (or the next three consecutive years) without the conventional shower caddy used to hold and easily carry all your hygiene supplies to the communal bathroom. If you don’t have one of these, can you even really say you’re a college student?
Bedside caddy – Is your dorm large enough for a bedside table or lamp? If not, a bedside caddy is the perfect college dorm organization hack. This storage companion will help you organize and keep track of the TV remote, movie-night snacks, your extra pair of glasses, and more.
Lamp caddy – Every dorm will at least have a desk for studying and writing that 30-page analysis paper you’ve been putting off. Your trusty lamp caddy can store pens, pencils, erasers, paper clips, staples, a mini stapler, and other small, necessary school supplies.
Desk caddy – Similar to a lamp caddy, a desk caddy works similarly in keeping your study space organized without the convenient light. Instead of housing school supplies, this dorm organization hack can be used to hold snacks to keep you fueled and push you through a late-night study session.
If Organizing Becomes Too Much, Trust Merry Maids®!
You’re a busy college student with very little time for anything other than schoolwork and de-stressing from schoolwork. We totally get it, which is why we want to help you get and stay organized.
For the parents who are tired of visiting kids at college only to find dorm rooms or campus houses in disarray, we’ve got you covered. A Merry Maids® gift card for cleaning services is the perfect back-to-school or mid-semester gift your college student will appreciate, especially after that major exam or finals week.
Call (888) 490-4227 to get more details or find a location near you and request a free estimate to get started!
