Unless you have incredible luck, your dorm room will be incredibly tiny. Your storage space is limited, and if you’re sharing with a roommate, it will feel even smaller with the belongings of two people crammed inside. Thankfully, dorms have been around for a while, so there are some creative innovations you can use to give yourself more space in your tiny dorm room. Here are our 8 dorm organization hacks to give you more room in your dorm.
Dorm Organization Hacks: 8 Storage Tricks
Vertical & Over the Door Storage
While you don’t have a lot of square footage in your dorm room, you usually have plenty of vertical space available. Hang an over the door coat rack over your door to hang jackets, scarves, and towels. If you’re able to squeeze in a bookshelf, opt for a taller, thinner one to gain more shelf space.
Multifunctional Furniture
If your dorm room doesn’t come with a night stand or comfortable seating, look for a piece of furniture than can also function as extra storage. Opt for a night stand with drawers or baskets. An ottoman with a storage compartment functions as comfy seating as well as a place to hide your snack stash.
“Expand” Your Closet
Look for storage options that will expand your closet in areas you know could use a little help. If you’re bringing more than 3 pairs of shoes, you can save space by placing shoe shelves in the bottom of your closet. Alternatively, hang a cloth shoe organizer over your closet door. This can store not only your shoes but also things like hair care products or socks.
Create a Kitchen Area
Designate a kitchen area with your mini fridge and microwave. You can find dorm fridge caddies to hold paper plates, utensils, and napkins. There are skinny and tall shelving units that go over your fridge to store shared snacks. Keeping everything in one area will prevent your roommate from rummaging for paper plates on your side of the room while you’re trying to study.
Utilize Under the Bed Storage
Most dorm beds can be raised up on their legs to about 2 feet off the ground to give you even more storage space. You can use this space to store rubbermaid containers of out of season clothing or old textbooks you want to keep but don’t need to have out right now. If you used cardboard boxes to move in, you can take them apart, flatten, and store them under your bed until you need to reuse them when you move out. You could also put a small shelf underneath and create a decorative storage area.
Opt for Clip Lamps
You might want to opt for a lamp or two so you can avoid the harsh overhead lighting when your roommate needs to study for a few more hours but you’re ready to go to sleep. Lamps can have a large footprint. It doesn’t seem like they will take up that much space, but every inch counts in a dorm room. Clips lamps attach to a shelf, headboard, or any other flat surface or ledge. The usually have have a bendable body/neck, so if you place your headboard by the end of your desk, you can save some money and only get one clip lamp and rotate as needed.
Use Command Hooks or Strips
Student housing prohibits the use of nails, screws, or any other adhesive or attachment that will damage the walls. However, they do encourage the use of Command Strips or Hooks. And they can bear a lot more weight than you’d think. Make sure they are Command brand, and use them to attach frames to the walls or to hang hooks for tote bag or jewelry storage.
Look for Unique Storage Products
With a little bit of googling, you can find an innovative dorm accessory to suit your needs. There’s a tray that can attach to the base of your bed to act as your end table. If your desk is a completely flat surface, you can expand your storage with shelving specifically designed for your desk top. From above the bed shelving to wall hanging desk organizers, your storage options are almost limitless.
Once you determine which dorm organization hacks will work best, you may decide you want to utilize a moving company to make your move to college much less stressful. We at Moving U & Junk U believe we’re the movers for you. We provide packing, moving, and junk removal services. Whatever you need help with, we’ll tailor our services to meet your needs. Looking for us to only move the bulky items to your new home? We can do that. Are you interested in a hands off, full service packing and move? We can do that too. Our professionally trained, friendly movers are here to make your life easier on moving day so you can focus on a fresh, well rested start to your semester.
To get your free estimate for packing, moving, or junk removal, give us a call or text at 484-301-2442 or email us at info@movingujunku.com.
