Make More Space in Your Dorm Room

Bed Risers and Under-Bed Boxes

If you have a single bed, you ‘ll be amazed at how much you can store under it, especially if you add some bed risers to increase the height. Even if you only have a twin bed, you have about 16 feet to play with, plus whatever height you can add using bed risers. Space under you bed is great for storing towels, linens, sweaters, shoes, coats and other items you might not need all the time. Specialty boxes are available just for under-bed use including shoe storage boxes, roll-out plastic storage drawers with wheels, and a variety of other under-bed solutions.

Vertical Storage Strategies and Specialty Closet Hangers

Unless you are extremely gifted at the art of minimalism, your dorm room is just not going to have enough storage. As with any small space, think vertical. You’ll find lots of storage space you didn’t know you had on unused walls, behind doors, and beneath clothes hanging in your closet. Read more useful information in our vertical organizing blog post.

Compact Clothes Folding Methods

Your dorm drawers are going to be too small and you won’t have enough of them, unless, of course, you are a super-evolved minimalist, which you may very well be. But don’t despair, you can double or even triple your drawer space by learning to fold your clothes efficiently. For jeans, rolling them as you would when traveling is probably the most efficient method. You can pack a whole lot of t-shirts into a drawer by using our method and stacking them sideways. I was able to pack about 60 shirts in my drawer using this method. I also threw out about 20 t-shirts in the folding process, as I accepted that other people find my stained and holey t-shirts uncompelling. Also, no human needs that many shirts…

Socks are more efficiently stored by simple folding or stacking. Rolling them deforms the elastic and actually takes up more space. Plus, folded socks can be stacked atop each other.

Hate folding? Well, there are two gadgets that can make your life easier. One is a t-shirt folding board and the other are the Tidy Snap fasteners, which take a second to fasten, and keep underwear and other small items neatly rolled for uniformly filling drawers. Easy to use and inexpensive, these products are great if you’re one of those non-fussy, inpatient people and you want to add a little tidiness to your drawers.

Over-Door Organizers

Over-door organizers are the bees knees for organizing your stuff. Most fit over standard doors and a huge variety of styles are available to store shoes, purses, jewelry, towels, clothes and lots of other things. Over-door organizers are one of those things that can be repurposed for a variety of uses – especially some of the soft shoe organizers. You can use the pockets for jewelry, socks, underwear, devices, and everything that doesn’t have a secure storage location in your home.

Magazine Holders

Magazine holders aren’t just for magazines. Use them for all of those paper things that get scattered around your room. Yeah, you are probably very digital and most things live inside your laptop or iPad, but think receipts, takeout menus, pizza coupons, notes to self, love notes from others or self ;-), course books, and all those paper vestiges of the old world order need a place to be. Put them in the magazine holder so they don’t get lost. You can also put non-paper items in them (see below). Magazine holders come in a variety of styles, materials and colors including bamboo, black, red and green. They make great decorative accents along with providing extra storage in your dorm room.

Repurpose Stuff You Already Own

It’s okay to get creative and make up your own storage solutions by repurposing stuff you already own. Silverware organizers are great for organizing jewelry, devices and a variety of other items. You’ll find lots of uses for magazine holders and other storage items on Pinterest or all over the internet.

Collapsible Laundry Storage

Laundry and laundry baskets tend to hog a lot of space in your dorm room or closet. Two things can reduce this clutter: a regular washing schedule and collapsible laundry bags/sorters. Oh, and a third, fold your laundry and put it away as soon as it’s clean. That way it won’t accumulate around your room or take up valuable surface space.

Baskets for Everything

Baskets are a great way to organize and store a variety of possessions and they come in a huge array of styles, sizes and are made in a range of materials from wicker to fabric to wire. They look great inside a closet shelf, on your desk, on bookcase, or on top of a dresser. Use them for linens, clothing, papers, craft items, magazines and more. Baskets make a great decorative element as they add texture and style to your dorm room. I’ve even seen people attach flat baskets to walls for inexpensive, temporary shelving. This is especially effective for bathroom storage of towels and other essentials.