Archive for ‘College’ Category
Paper Doll & Real Simple Organize Dorm Rooms: SUPER-EXTENDED Edition
This post originally appeared in September of 2018. The links and prices have been updated as of July 2024.
Happy new school year!
I am very excited to have been interviewed again by Real Simple Magazine, this time about How To Make the Most of a Dorm Room, According to a Professional Organizer. (If you get the print copy, it’s page 52.)
Longtime readers of the blog know that everything I need to say on any given topic can’t be contained on one page of a magazine, so I’d love to share the rest of my advice with you today.
Whether you are a student or you just dropped yours off at college last week, dorms (and other small living spaces) offer an opportunity to minimize without being altogether minimalistic, to be practical without giving up style. And be assured that it’s not too late, parents. Your college kids will be home for Fall Break or Thanksgiving, giving you the opportunity to surprise them with room improvement assistance.
Thirty-three years (and a few days ago), Paper Doll was a college freshman, far above Cayuga’s waters. For most of my life, I had a bedroom and a bathroom to myself, and (long before my professional organizing days), an entire house as an extension of my “space” to keep my stuff. Having a roommate, and sharing a bathroom with five other young women, all in a space smaller than what I’d previously had to myself was an education!
A dorm room has to serve as a study lounge, sleeping area, kitchenette, exercise room, and more, but space is at a premium. Keep surfaces clear and the clutter at bay with these organizing essentials.
MAXIMIZE VERTICAL SPACE
Declutter doom room floors and desktops by maximizing underused vertical surfaces. You can create DIY organization with corkboards, available by the board, tile, or roll.
Pegboards are another do-it-yourself option, especially if you can’t use adhesive on your walls. Hang colorful pegboards from the ceiling, flush against the wall, and then add the hardware – hooks, baskets, and even small bulletin boards.
For students who want to upgrade (or who have no visual artistic talent, like Paper Doll), the attractive and sturdy Copper Wire Wall Grid uses re-positionable hooks, shelves, and baskets.
[Editor’s Note: Since this post was published in 2018, The Container Store stopped carrying this product. You can find a similar grid and accessories at Amazon.)
The same amazing 3M Command-brand hooks that help you keep track of keys and jackets at your house can do wonders in dorm rooms and bathrooms. Attach Command hooks, strips, and decorator clips to walls and doors to hang coats and clothing, hair dryers and jewelry, headphones, photos and tapestries without fear of damage to paint or finishes. (Command.com)
When you need more than desk space for your brilliant ideas, repositionable whiteboard sheets stick to the wall with static and let you write or draw. Snap a photo and send it to Evernote to preserve your brilliance, and then erase when it’s time to move to the next problem set. (White or clear from WizardWall.com or Amazon, from $42.)
REVEAL HIDDEN STORAGE
These sturdy bed risers with outlets and USB chargers let you reveal the possibilities of under-bed storage, from nylon duffel bags for corralling bedding and towels to storage tubs for off-season clothes. (Available at Amazon, and most big box stores, usually around $40.) The risers come in a variety of styles, but none are what you’d call fashion-forward, so also consider a long bed-skirt if you want to keep your bed high and at the height of fashion.
OVER-THE-DOOR ISN’T JUST FOR SHOES ANYMORE
Over-the-door shoe organizers keep your kicks (that’s apparently what they call sneakers these days!) from crowding a tiny dorm wardrobe’s floor, but the concept works for everything from hair care products to cleaning supplies to lingerie.
For those with suite-style bathrooms, swap your shower caddy for a hanging mesh shower pocket organizer to keep toiletries handy. (Amazon or CampingWorld.com, about $8-$11)
FOCUS ON PRIME REAL ESTATE
When there’s no room for a bedside table, keep everything you use (or should use) close at hand. Store your phone, tablet, glasses, tissues, highlighters, and spare notebooks in the unused space hugging your bed with any of a wide variety of bedside storage caddies. Check Wayfair for this colorful option, or Amazon for longer options, like the Whitmor Bedskirt Organizer, both around $20.
Don’t waste the space on the top of your mini-fridge. Let a Mini Fridge Caddy for about $19) hug your fridge to give you space for dishes and cutlery, and use that prime real estate for a milk crate storage box (Walmart) with hanging file rails to store papers or use as a snack pantry. (You might be able to create your own version; Paper Mommy and I were more inclined to shop than sew.)
MAKE (THE MOST OF) YOUR BED
Keeping the peace means never having to worry about roommates keeping you awake. Zip up into a private room within a room to shade light and muffle sound with the Privacy Pop-up Bed Tent, usually under $100.
GROUP LIKE WITH LIKE
Don’t let your limited desk drawer space turn to chaos. Small spice bottles corral push pins, staples, rubber bands, alligator clips and other small supplies. Pop them on a Lazy Susan with a tall mug in the center for pens, highlighters, and scissors, you have a supply station.
MAKE CLOSETS DO DOUBLE-DUTY
Most dorm closets having nothing but an inconveniently high shelf and one hanging rod. Do double-duty by hanging a second rod (Room Essentials Adjustable Closet Rod Extender), a 6-compartment vertical sweater organizer and a valet rod for putting together outfits. Attach your valet rod well above eye level. Don’t ask me how I know.)
STAY TIDY & CHARGED UP
With so many electronic devices to keep track of, you and your friends will need to stay charged up. Pick a flexible power strip surge protector that can curve around the leg of a bed or desk like the Quirky Pivot Power Genius Power Strip at Amazon for about $18.
or one with rotating outlets and USB ports to accommodate larger plugs and adapters, like the Power Curve (Amazon, about $49).
Create a work hub/charging station with a wall-mounted option like Belkin’s USB Outlet Extender with a phone cradle. (Container Store, $30)
Make sure your unplugged lightning cables and cords never fall to the floor or snake behind the desk again with the MOS Magnetic Organizing System for cables.
If you aren’t familiar with MOS, definitely check out this classic Paper Doll blog post for one of my favorite cord control solutions.
SHELVE INSTEAD OF PILE
Dorm rooms usually lack shelving, leaving it hard to group similar items to keep them organized. Stacked milk crates are easy to break down at year’s end, but can be wobbly, and bookshelves can be hard to put together or move and impossible to disassemble.
A magical option is the OrigamiRack’s 6-Tier Bookshelf, which comes flat-packed, expands accordion-style (like opening an ironing board), sets up in two minutes and collapses for easy storage during the summer.
This is the bookshelf that I own, and as an apartment-dweller, I can’t think of an easier bookshelf option. If you don’t mind TV shopping, you can see how the Origami Racks work here.
CLASSIC DORM ESSENTIALS
Of course, most of the old standbys from my own college days are still in vogue because they are practical.
- Lamps – Dorm overhead lighting is uneven and harsh. Limit the eyestrain and brighten up the room with colorful clip-on and gooseneck desk lamps. (In 1985, I set off for college with an incredibly ugly, olive-green, wide-bar gooseneck lamp of my father’s that he may have had since he left the army in 1946. They really made things to last in those days! But your student will probably prefer a pop of color.)
- Reading backrest pillow – you can only sit in your 1950s-era desk chair so long before you’ll need an ergonomic break. Snuggle up to one of those pillows with arms to support your back while you read, game, or hang out with friends.
- Tower fan – desktop fans have limited range, and tend to be noisy and get dusty quickly. A tower fan takes up little real estate, can be tucked in the corner when not in use, and cools a stuffy dorm room. (Honeywell QuietSet, Amazon)
- Pop-up laundry basket – When I went off to college, Paper Mommy sent me with a full-sized rectangular laundry basket. It was great for carrying folded laundry back to my room, but it took up a ridiculous amount of floor space and ended up sitting on top of all my shoes in the wardrobe. A mesh pop-up laundry basket, available in any dollar store, is inexpensive and easy to tuck out of the way.
College has changed a lot since my day, when there was one TV for 144 students, no students had their own cable or internet, you needed memo boards because their were no cell phones, and you had to traipse through the snow to use a computer with green typeface on a black screen and a dot-matrix printer that sounded like a wounded animal. That said, a little ingenuity has always been able to keep students organized and productive in the dorm, and that hasn’t changed.
Study well, and whether you’re a parent or a college student, have a great year!
Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, and I may get a small remuneration (at no additional cost to you) if you make a purchase after clicking through to the resulting pages. The opinions, as always, are my own. (Seriously, who else would claim them?)
Paper Doll Post:
Paper Doll’s Campus Tour: Organize Your College Life
Paper Doll is old enough to remember the excitement that the August back-to-school issue of Seventeen Magazine would bring. I especially loved the articles about preparing for college.
Long before I was ready to go to college, I couldn’t wait to get organized to go to college. And by the summer between graduation and going off to school, it seemed like Paper Mommy and I comparison-shopped every possible dorm room item, as if we were setting up a color-coordinated magazine spread for Dorm Room Beautiful!
Over the years, I’ve offered a lot of advice about preparing for college. Elsewhere on my site, I’ve written articles like Organizing Your College Search and Application Process and Organize Your Dorm Room. A search of the Paper Doll blog for the tag “Notes and Notebooks” examines options for the right note-taking solutions and resources, and the blog covered Textbook Rentals: How to Avoid College Textbook Clutter as early as 2009, and then in again in 2010, and looked at 11 Tips for Beating the High Cost of Textbooks in 2012.
Today’s entry offers up some of Paper Doll‘s favorite items and venues for organizing college life.
QUIRKY
Pivot Power — this flexible power strip and surge protector from Quirky comes in a few versions: junior, with three outlets, as well as six-outlet versions in traditional black, white with blue, and various colors in the POP line. This full-sized pink POP Pivot (say that three times fast!) runs about $20.
Bend the Pivot to accommodate hairpin dorm room turns, large chargers and inconveniently-placed furniture.
SMEAD CAMPUS.ORG
We’ve already talked about the Vertical Step Index Expanding File and the
Organized Up™ Vertical Stadium File when we looked at NAPO2014: Our Friends at Smead Are on the Up and Up!, and we’ve covered the Organized Up™ folders, which have dual tabs for easy storage in backbacks and when traditionally filed. But be sure to check out other backpack-friendly vertical school supplies in that same line. I’m particularly fond of poly folders, as they won’t rip or get wrinkled with overuse, and seem like a step up from the paper subject folders prevalent in middle and high school.
For example, there’s the Poly Backpack Folder.
These upright folders are designed to hold one subject at a time, and the fold-over flap keeps your syllabus and handouts secure. The flap is straight-cut, so it can be tucked or untucked (like college shirts after the Freshman Fifteen take hold) and each Poly Backpack folder will hold up to 100 sheets and run about $1.29 at Amazon and elsewhere.
Smead’s Campus.org line also includes the similar Poly Backpack Organizer. Each of the three pockets will hold up to 50 sheets. (For those who are still fond of paper over poly, both products are available in 11-point textured paper stock, as well as poly.) You can find the organizers for about $5 each.
CAMPUS CANDY
Paper Doll perennial faves Office Candy have a whole line for fashionable college students to get their organizational groove on. Collegiate-themed Campus Candy has the same philosophy as its older sibling — if your organizing resources are appealing, you’ll be more likely to use them to keep yourself orderly.
From Kate Spade storage boxes ($52 for a set of three sturdy, patterned boxes with gold foil accents and gold foil ID labels)
to a plethora of Lily Pulitzer agendas, spiral notebooks, water bottles, desk sets and more, Campus Candy offers decorative sweets.
BATTLE OF THE BACKPACKS
I’ll admit, in my day, when dinosaurs roamed the campus, backpacks were pretty basic. One large interior pocket, one smaller, zipped exterior pocket, and if you were lucky, padded straps. As far as I can recall, bottle water (let alone mesh pockets for water bottles) wasn’t even a thing yet. Now, students have an embarrassment of stuff-schlepping riches from which to choose.
Cocoon Innovations, makers of the Grid-It! (in all of its various incarnations), has always been a Paper Doll all-star. I think college-bound students should be considering a variety of Grid-It! resources, from the standard Grid-It! Organizers (Medium shown here, 10 1/2″ x 7 1/2″, $18, available in red, blue and black)
to the Grid-It! Wraps for tablets (in black, grey and red) for $30.
But the backpacks have taken the game up a notch — and while the Central Park Professional Backpack (designed to hold a 17″ laptop) is definitely practical and stylish, the Cocoon Slim Backpack (able to hold up to a 15″ MacBook Pro) has everything a college student might need to make it from breakfast to bedtime without a moment’s clutter kerfuffle.
The slim has a padded compartment for a laptop as well as a separate iPad compartment, and a built-in 16″ x 10 1/2″ GRID-IT! front pocket. There’s an interior document section, and an exterior zippered compartment for more storage. The whole interior is lined in faux suede to buffer the high-tech gadgets, and the exterior features water-resistant ballistic nylon, waterproof zippers, and gun-metal hardware. Ridiculously organized and durable, but also sleek, when fully packed, it’s still only 3 1/2″ deep:
And it’s only $79! I’d always thought that if I were going back to college, I couldn’t find anything more perfect for me than my Züca bag combined with a Grid-It for all my chargers and gadgets, but the Slim is mighty tempting.
Of course, if you (or your college-bound student) want a similarly lean alternative but with a little more minimalist cachet, the Evernote-branded, French-designed Côte & Ciel Flat Backpack may fit the bill. The high performance, dark grey EcoYarn exterior is tough but attractive
in that oh-so-Old-World, “Oh, this old thing?” manner, and the three interior pouches will accommodate a 13″ or 15″ laptop, a tablet and stacks of papers, all in under 4″ of depth. The price, however, is a not-so-slender $180!
RISE UP FOR SWEET DREAMS AND LATE NIGHT STUDYING
Most college students can adequately outfit themselves for campus survival without ever leaving their nearest Big Box store plaza. For example, Power Bed Risers, like these from Bed, Bath and Beyond, serve two purposes: superior storage and increased available outlets.
A set for four, for $30, raises a dorm room bed 7″ from the floor, allowing for more ample storage of lidded tubs (for extra supplies and off-season clothing) without cluttering the room. Additionally, one riser in each set includes twin 110-volt, 15-amp grounded power outlets and twin USB 5-volt DC outlets with a charging light, so you can make sure everything from phones to Fitbits, iPads to (probably still contraband) toaster ovens will be ready when the need arises.
BACK TO BASICS
Finally, there’s something to be said for the basics. College students have put milk crates to use as bookshelves, open armoires for clothing, fridge-top food storage, filing boxes, chairs, dining tables and more for about half a century.
Nowadays, they’re designed primarily for files, not wholesome dairy products, and have hanging file rails running along the interior in both directions to corral letter- or legal-sized files.
For between $4 and $6 each at Walmart, Target or Staples, you can grab two or three plastic milk crates in mix-and-match colors, pack and stack them with minimal fuss and cost, and maximize the organization in your postage stamp-sized castle. It’s academic.
And by the way, Seventeen Magazine is still offering advice on what to bring to college.
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