Dorm Room Essentials: Organizing and Decorating

Above everything, it is important to remember that a dorm room is still a room that you’ll have to go to everyday after class. It should be warm and inviting, or at least comfortable for you. This means there should be minimal mess and a personal touch here and there.

1: Too keep things off the floor, find a place for everything.

Cleanliness may not be a “young adults” strong point but in college, it’s something that should be quickly learned. No longer do you get your own room to do whatever you want but you’re usually sharing a small space with at least one other person. This space should be as clean as possibly, clutter wise, so as to not annoy your roommate and to make living just that much easier.

This means that you should have a place for everything. If something doesn’t have a place, find it one or rethink keeping it with you. If it stays free floating around the room, it could cause a gigantic mess, which is not what you want. So move-in day, as you’re unpacking, designate a special spot for everything ( and make sure it’s not on your roommate’s side).

If you’re really anal (like me and my roommate were/are), before you move in, get the floor plans to your room and go ahead and map out where all the big stuff is going. This is a step I really recommend if you plan on bringing big things. It’s better to find out before hand if that futon fits into the room and not after you carry it up nine floors.

2: Not enough space, then create more.

As you’ve probably gathered, most dorm rooms are tiny. This means you’ll have less space but you know a great way to gain more room?

Lofting your beds, which essentially means making your bed a bunk bed with out the bottom bunk.

Some dorm rooms might already come with “loft-able” beds, meaning that the bed is made to be able to shift or placed into another rung on the bar. For those dorms that don’t come with these wonderful beds, you can pay someone to build a loft in room, which could run anywhere from $150.00 to $300.00.

NOTE: Make sure it’s okay with your college to have a loft in your room. Consult your student agreement contract or even your college’s student housing web page to make sure it’s okay. Don’t assume because it doesn’t say anything about lofts that it’s okay. Call the university to make sure if you can‘t find it elsewhere.

Lofts are very useful just because now you have places to put more things. Want a fridge, microwave, and TV but have no where to put it? Just stick it underneath one loft and if your roommate’s bed is directly opposite, stick some seating under there. Do as you prefer. It’s your room.

3: Still not enough room?

Then look into organization packs. Get some shelving or storage unit and place it under the bed with the rest of the stuff, having multiple cubbies to put things were you need them. It helps if you have a storage unit who’s cubbies are evenly divided amongst the roommates. You can either assign certain cubbies for a certain roommate or for certain shared items.

For closets, get a shoe rack for over the door if you have a lot of shoes, leaving the floor space for anything else. You can even get a closet extender, which is something that attaches to the upper bar in your closet to make an extra rack. Even “monkeying” the hangers can help. (For those who don’t know, monkeying the hangers mean to attach multiple hangers together in a vertical line, like you do when you play monkeys in a barrel.)

If you already live in a small living space, don’t buy things that you don’t already use at home. I’m actually going up in closet sizes and so don’t need as much as my roommate does, who is going from a walk-in closet to one that is slightly bigger than a standard house closet.

4: You still have stuff that has no place but you’ve bought all the organization tools at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

Here’s where the hard part comes in. If you still have lots of stuff that still doesn’t have a place to go, it’s time to weed out the things that you don’t need as much and save them for home. Just make a list of everything you’re taking, and I do mean everything. Once that is completed, go

down the list, one-by-one, and ask these questions:

1: Why am I bringing this?
2: Will I really need this?
3: Is this pertaining to my education in an important way?

By these answers, you’ll know what needs to be brought and what can stay behind. As a rule, if the answers “yes” to the last question, go a head and put it in the “keeps” pile. Remember, college is all about your education. Everything else, just be truly honest with yourself.

If you still have too much stuff afterwards or (heaven forbid) you actually add on more, bring a third party person into your decision making place. Usually if someone who isn’t you is there, you may see that the toaster with the six slice holder is not something you “need” in college, especially since you really only use it for two pop tarts anyways. Which, come to think of it, you really like to eat cold anyway.

5: Everything is settled but you feel like you’re living in a prison cell.

If you can, always remember to have a central theme in at least your part of the room. As an example, my roommate and I decided early on that we were going to have bright, happy colors, with her side being more about blue and mine about green. A friend of mine found a pillow that was bright and funky, just like her personality, that she fell in love with so bought pieces that matched that one pillow, which makes her room feel more put together. Yet another friend is going to try a middle eastern theme in her room, meaning lots of pinks, oranges, and golds.

That’s what I mean about a central theme. It doesn’t have to be as exact as the last one but just something to make the room feel happier. Remember that brighter colors tend to make a room easier to enter and muted tones tends to help people relax. Stay towards colors that work for you and make you happy. When you’ve picked the colors, as you go shopping, look for items that reflect your theme, i.e. picking out a cover that has orange and pink colors in it for you middle east theme.

Also, look into bringing art into your room to help lighten up the blank walls. You can go and buy some cheap art at any local store or, if your artistic, create your own. If you were big into art in high school or at least took an art class or two, dig up some old pieces and see if they’ll fit into your new living spaces.

6: Home Sweet Home.

Liven up the place with things from home, your personal touches, so to speak. Bring a picture frame of the family (limit them, though. Too many and you’ll have a mess) to keep by your desk. As a family of six, I had to have a picture of my family with me and so my mom actually framed a couple of family photos in one frame for me to take along.

Also, bringing some pictures of your friends from high school is good, too. Just keep in mind that college is also about meeting new people so don’t get so caught up in the high school news that you forget to make new friends.

Even some organizational pieces can be personalized. For my jewelry, I’m actually bringing this ceramic elephant that my mother gave me when I was small. It has holes in it’s ears to hold earrings, it’s nose is big enough to hold all my rings, and it’s ears are also perfect for hanging watches and bracelets on.

Stuff like that is something that is really a personal pick. Know one can tell you what home items to take with you to make it more like home. Just think and it’ll come to you. Remember, though, a little can go a long way so don’t pack the entire house to take with you.

7: Final Word.

Organizing and decorating dorms is something that has suddenly become very mainstream in the dormitory world. Companies now realize that there are a plethora or opportunities in the college market if they have a product line that caters to one or, better yet, both of these aspects. Just remember that you are always more than welcomed to go outside the dorm and do as you please when you’re looking for the perfect for your room.

Just look inside yourself and decide what you want and what you need, not what a magazine or even this blog tells you. As always, this is just some hints and suggestions, not rules.

Photos, this time, were taken from various sites.
Green and Blue Bedding.
Red and Crème Bedroom.
Pink Bed Spread.
Dorm Floor Plans.
Lofted Bed.
Closet Organizer.
Green Room.

As always, feedback is more than welcomed. I’m also wish to hear some readers personal ideas about college so either leave a comment or send me an e-mail.

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,
Ran