An organized dorm room may seem like an oxymoron, especially when you think about two or more people living in one tiny room with most of their belongings. Things end up strategically shoved under the bed and all over the floor. Luckily, keeping a dorm room organized is simple. In just a few steps, your room will be the cool place where everyone wants to hang out. Does this Spark an idea?
Under-the-Bed Options
Take advantage of as much floor space as possible. Your bed is probably the largest piece of furniture in the room and can take up a lot of square footage. To take advantage of all this area, use under-the-bed storage. You can find wide, shallow rolling storage containers at many department and home stores. These units can be quickly rolled out for easy access to clothes, food and other necessities. For even more storage area, buy a set of bed risers. These simple blocks go under the legs of the bed and raise it up eight or more inches. This can add a significant amount of space. To keep things looking neat, put a long bed skirt on the bed to hide the containers. Then when you need to, just flip it up to access your things.
School Work Organization
Despite a loaded social calendar and the importance of sleeping in, you may need to do some academic work when in college. You will never end up scrambling around the room, upending furniture, looking for that English paper if you properly organize your school work. Purchase some magazine file boxes from a home store. Ikea has a great selection. Buy one for each class and line them up on your desk. You should be able to fit your book, a notebook and any extra papers in each box. Just label each one and then before you leave for class, grab the contents that you need. Another way to keep your assignments organized is to have a wall calendar above your desk to keep track of due dates. Check the calendar every morning.
Closet Makeover
With a standard closet containing a hanger rack and one measly shelf, your closet may soon start to overflow and spill into the rest of the room. To keep closet contents where they belong, employ an organization system of boxes or baskets. Instead of tossing sweaters up on the top shelf in unsteady piles, use fabric baskets or sturdy boxes to hold foldable clothes. A variety of decorative boxes and baskets can be found at home stores. Divide the clothes into the baskets, sticking to a different category for each one. The next time you are looking for your favorite sweater, instead of digging through every pile of clothes, you can find it in the sweater box instantly.
Tags: boxes baskets, dorm room, home stores, your desk
