Dorm room space is limited, use these cheap inventive ideas to keep your room space maximized, organized and decluttered.
Under The Bed
Add up to 24 square feet of usable storage area by keeping stuff under the bed. Measure the height of the floor to base of the bed frame height to know your storage units size limits. Use thin and cheap cardboard boxes or buy designer storage trays that come with easy rolling wheels to store shoes, seasonal clothing, bedding etc. Be creative to match your creative budget, but don’t waste that space!
There are colleges that provide beds that can easily be stacked into bunks. Depending on the unit’s design, you can take advantage of this cheap space saving bunk bed option, which will greatly increase your living space. Use the bottom area to put your dresser and/ or create a work station.
Behind The Door
Hanging cheap shoe bags are designed to attach easily by using over the door hooks. These will create no permanent damage to the door and will use that wasted space behind the door to keep smaller items organized. Use these cheap hanging systems behind the bathroom door or the dorm room access door. You can store extra shoes, class room supplies, mail, bathroom supplies, whatever. There are plenty of pockets to accommodate your every small item need.
Look Up
Look up and notice how much space can be used for storage and display items. Install a cheap shelf approximately 2 feet down from the ceiling around the circumference of the room. Display your nick knacks and photo’s. Get cheap small boxes to keep the little things off the floor and keep those lower horizontal spaces needed for immediate access items.
Be Tech Savvy
Instead of hauling boxes of CD’s and records, download and record them all on your iPod type system or computer. Today’s technology is perfect for portable and small space living. If you don’t have a condensing record system, remove the sleeves off of your Cd’s and DVDs and store them in a cheap vertical stacking protective storage case.
What’s In The Closet
Just like the behind the door systems you should also invest in a cheap closet extender. These products provide extra shelving in the form of canvas shelves that hang from your clothing rod in the closet. This cheap option comes in 10, 16 to 18 shelve pockets with the average width being 12″ to 24″. Still allowing for plenty of clothes hanging space. The accordion style design makes for quick and easy take down.
A closet door that is either a bi-fold or hinge takes up area just for opening the closet. You can turn that space, up to 3″, by removing the door and replacing it with a cheap pressure rod and curtain system. Be sure to store the door and it’s associated parts in a safe place to rehang before moving out of the dorm.
The Cupboards
The average dorm room usually has some sort of conveniently built in shelving and cupboard units. Take advantage of the space behind the cabinet doors to hang jewelry, towels, technology cord organization. Once again, you can find cheap and simple hang over the door rods and racks to make this often neglected space a functional storage and delcuttering system.
Finally, look around the dorm room to see what other cheap bits of creative space you can exploit. We have not even touched on the bathroom. If you have your own bathroom, use plenty of cheap stacking baskets under the sink to keep this organized.