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.

There are many important lessons you will learn when living away from home for the first time in a student apartment…and that lesson is that your mother was right when she said, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.”

Well, maybe agreeing with your mother is taking things to a bit of an extreme; after all, you don’t want to start out with sayings and immediately become her, but the fact is and will always remain that having a clean apartment when you’re in college makes life easier–you’ll have an easier time concentrating, an easier time finding things and a better sense of yourself and your life ahead. Here are a few good reasons to keep things clean:

Cockroaches

are fast…and they aren’t afraid of you. If you live in a relatively dry climate or your home has always been super clean (and has had several visits a year from pest control), you’ve most likely never seen a cockroach. You hear about cockroaches in songs, movies and stories (especially on the news) and how they are a growing pestilence. And while you may love the stories that say “when the world ends, only the cockroaches will survive,” you won’t enjoy them crawling on your food, your dishes, your clothes and of course, your bed sheets (when you’re in them, especially).

Hazmat

does not actually appear to help you gather specimens from under your bed. Regardless of how many times your mother warned you that she was going to call the government and have them send out a Hazmat team to collect year-old sandwiches from under your bed–and no matter how many times you rolled your eyes and dared her to do it–Hazmat is not going to come. Sure, that’s right. Be sarcastic. Have a laugh. But when you haven’t cleaned your apartment in 11 weeks and you find the remnants of last month’s spaghetti night in the corner under your bed (probably growing a pair of legs), you’ll be calling your Mom, begging for Hazmat’s phone number. Sadly, the best she’ll be able to do is ship out a pair of rubber gloves, a face mask and some air freshener.

Mold

is dangerous. Being slightly more serious for a moment may take some effort, but it’s worth a shot, for everyone’s sake. Mold comes in many forms, one of the most dangerous being black mold. Black mold is a disasterous disruption that leads to illness, death and the many times very necessary destruction of the housing unit (yes, the entire building!) where the mold was found. To avoid mold, always be sure that you clean up water spills in the kitchen and the bathroom immediately when they occur. And never allow leaks in the pipes, toilet, shower or kitchen to slide–if you notice a leak, however small, you should alert the apartment managers and the maintenance technician for your student apartments immediately and continue talking to them until the problem has been solved.

So, remember, as a first-time renter, you may not be used to doing things Mom’s way, but in time, you’ll get used to the idea that “Mother knows best” and that cleanliness is the only way to keep the “monsters” at bay.