Maximizing Space in Your Cramped Dorm Room

Last Updated on May 23, 2023

The term “limited space” may take on a much more profound meaning when you see your dorm room and realize that you’ve brought too much stuff from home. If you think the space isn’t enough for your things, it’s time to organize your allotted space and make everything fit. A semblance of order will help you adjust to your new space, as well as put your new roommate at ease.

Rotate Your Bedding

Your choice of bedding elements may depend on how warm or how cold your school’s location is. Bring a fitted sheet, more for your comfort than anything else. You don’t know if the dorm used a new mattress for your bed or they used refurbished ones. Ask about the dimensions before you buy new ones. For sure you’re going to need a pillow, but bring no more than three if you’re assigned a bunk bed. Too many pillows make your bed look messy.

A thin blanket is ideal for those hot days when you don’t need a thick comforter. But bring a comforter anyway. The comforter can help keep your bed looking neat for when you don’t have time to fix the beddings in your rush to get to class.

Buy two of every bedding item. This way, you can rotate the beddings weekly and you don’t have to allot closet space to keep the thicker ones.

Use Stackable Bins

Plastic bins are not just for trash, they’re useful for organizing your mess. You can chuck your school things in one bin and your “for laundry” clothes in another. If you’ve never really folded your underwear or shirts at home and you’re bound to revert to old habits after the first week, it’s better to have small bins to separate your clothes from your other stuff inside the closet.

You may also place tags on the bins to help you remember which ones are for soiled clothes and which ones are for newly laundered clothes. Seeing your soiled clothes inside a translucent plastic bin may also serve as a reminder to do the laundry at the end of the week.

If you’re short on cash and you don’t intend to buy new plastic bins, you can also use the smaller boxes you used during the move.

Attach Wall Hooks and Mounts

Wall hooks are useful for your coat, hat and hanging knick-knacks. Wall mounts are good for setting up shelves for books. If your hall doesn’t provide a full-length bookshelf and a coat rack, you need to ask whether you can set up wall implements to keep your stuff organized. Some residences allow improvements in the rooms if you leave them behind when you move out. But some dorms don’t allow wall mounts because of potential damages to the plaster. Always ask before you install any permanent fixture in your dorm room.

Whether the residence allows you to use hooks or not, you need to find a way to keep used coats and scarves organized without stashing them in your closet along with the fresh clothes. Some students make do with hangers hanging from the rails of the top bunk, while others insist on having communal racks inside their rooms.

Dorm Photo Courtesy of Thomas Huston, fickr Creative Commons