Organizing Your Apartment: The College Student’s Nightmare & Fantasyland

Ever hear the saying, dogs are man’s best friend? When you’re in college, organization is your best friend.

That’s right. Roll your eyes and think to yourself, “I don’t need to be organized…everything will work itself out.” Now try telling that to yourself the next time your midterm paper is due and you finished it two weeks ago but you haven’t cleaned your apartment in five weeks and now you can’t even find the floor, let alone your left shoe, your clean underwear and of course, your midterm paper.

As a college student, you’re one of those notoriously busy people who just can’t find the time to clean up after themselves, so what can you do to keep disaster from striking you? Follow a few simple tips to get organized from the start and the apartment organization nightmare will move on to the next vulnerable freshman.

Believe in shelving

That’s right…skip right over believing in miracles (because not even a miracle will save you if you lose your midterm paper in a pile of greasy dishes and dirty laundry) and head straight into believing in shelving. Most dorm rooms come equipped with some inadequate form of shelving, as do most apartments, especially student apartments. But lucky for you, certain discount stores and super stores carry a wide variety of plastic shelving and bins that you snap together and that fit the budget of a minimum-wage-working-for-peanuts-and-basic-sustenance college student. You can use this type of shelving in your closet to give you extra storage space (great for shoes!), in your kitchen to create extra shelving in cupboards so you can store more Ramen Noodles and Mac & Cheese and of course, anywhere else you can think of that needs extra space.

Invest in organizers

Okay, so most college students are not going to spend money on organizers (except for the flatware organizer for the kitchen drawer–you know, the one you put the forks and spoons in that costs $1), but that doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from organizers. Go to the grocery store and see what types of organization tools they have and then build them out of cardboard boxes and duct tape–come on, you know you have cardboard boxes and duct tape…you just moved! If you have a little extra moving cash to invest in your own organization, there are literally hundreds of different drawer, closet and under-the-bed organizers out on the market. Choose the ones you like best and keep your place and your life in line!

Create and stick to a weekly cleaning schedule

Let’s face it. Anyone can create a weekly cleaning schedule. The real heroes are the ones who stick to the cleaning schedule. Part of being organized when you’re living in a student apartment without Mom & Dad is learning how to manage your time. When you lived at home, chances are Mom cooked dinner, cleaned the house and did the laundry…partially because that’s what a lot of Moms do but mostly because Mom didn’t want you anywhere near the stove, the laundry room or any other part of the house, for that matter. But now that you’re on your own, learning to do these things is paramount to earning a million bucks–you’ll never be the same and it will all have been worth it. Making certain that your laundry is done on time and that you go shopping on a schedule will keep you from wasting both time and money.

The way you handle yourself and your lifestyle when you’re renting for the first time will determine how well you do in school, work and life in general–only you can prevent depression and disappointment in your life and your student apartment, and you can take the first steps by keeping clutter out of your life.