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If you have lived in a dorm or moved a child into their dorm you understand the need for small space organization. Dorm living is taking your whole life and fitting it into one side of tiny room. Tell me I am not right? Granted some of the newer dorms have amazing designs but the need for dorm room organization is still very needed.
The most important thing when organizing a dorm room is to create more space. Weather its adding a hutch to your desk, raising your bed up for additional storage or finding a way to create optimal closet space. Organizational products are the key to dorm room living. Thankfully, Amazon have a ton of organizational items perfect for dorm move in day. Plus with prime it’s sure to arrive just in time.
DESK HUTCH
Adding a desk hutch to your dorm room is a perfect way to create space on your desk. The hutch gives you ideal shelving without putting any holes into the walls. Desk hutches create more surface desk space plus help the ladies create a dual vanity space on their desk for makeup and hair. It’s imperative to get the width of your desk in order to purchase the correct desk hutch.
What I also love about these desk hutch is the array of different styles they offer. There is truly a style for anyone. If you want basic you can find it. Basically, If you want something more trendy amazon has that available as well.
CLOSET ORGANIZATION
Let’s face it, dorm closets are teeny tiny. My kid goes to school 6 hours from us and she has to have clothes for all seasons, formal dresses for events, snow clothes, dress up gear for special events and the list goes on. Above all, the key to a small organized closet is continued organization all semester. Yep, do the small things daily, is the key!
Below are some of our favorite closet organizers. The space saving, double hanger rod is an absolute must especially for the guys. It a toss up if the girls can use it depending on the width of their closet and if they have dresses.
Certainly, the girls will LOVE and use the multi tank top hangers and the skirt/short hangers. They are phenomenal!! However, they have to be willing to continue to take the time all semester to hang their items on the hangers!
The bar and sock organizer is great if you have limited drawer space. I will be honest that we used a variety of all the products below to build an organized closet. It really does take it all. Ha!!
OVER THE DOOR ORGANIZERS
Before we get too far into the door organizers, I do realize not all dorms have doors or are even allowed to use over the door organizers. However, several of the items I am featuring can actually be secured with heavy duty command stripes on a sliding door or even a wall.
These over the door organizers provide extra storage a shelving for the room. It’s a great place to keep all the extra items like toothpaste, shampoo, medicine, heating pad, cleaning products, shoes etc. If you do have a door that is usable check out the mirror, jewelry and makeup organizer. Likewise, it is like the Swiss Army knife of door organizers for the girls!
UNDER THE BED PLASTIC STORAGE DRAWERS
Nevertheless, let’s not forget how important under the bed storage will be for your dorm room. Obviously, you will need adjustable beds but thankfully many dorm rooms seem to offer this feature. While some of these plastic storage units are plains, let’s focus on how far plastic bins have come, given that when I went to college they were just plain and honestly ugly. For this reason, colleges kids today have no idea how lucky they are. Right!
Below are several of our favorite storage draws. Basically, you need to decide what style and function you are needing in storage draws. Do you need rollers for easy movement, or will the drawers be stationary? Will you be looking at the drawers regularly and want them to be appealing to the eye or will they be in the closest. Regardless of where the drawers will be, the reality is, you WILL need more drawer space.
BEDSIDE ORGANIZATION
Due to cell phones being college students lifeline, a good bedside organizer is a must have. Rather than having the phone in bed with them, having one of these organizer keeps the phone in its spot and out of the bed. Depending on the kind of bed your dorm offers will largely account for which type of bedside organizer you will choose.
Some beds are perfect for the bed shelfs. If that’s you, they work great plus offer a drink holder as well as hooks too for all the extra items.
Since not all beds are suitable for the shelves, the adhesive bedside organizers are a game changer! They easily adhere to the wall close to your bed and serve the same purpose as a shelf.
To clarify, providing one of these bed organizers will not insure that your college student will answer your phone call and not claim their phone is lost. In fact, getting them to answer your phone calls and text will be a daunting task that first freshman semester.
DESK ORGANIZATION
Below are several desk organizer which will make college dorm life so much better. Without a doubt several of these items I wish I had at my own desk.
The multi purpose charger is key! It helps prevent having several charging cords cluttering up your desk. Since many students prefer laptops, the standing lap top charger is ideal at keeping laptops and ipads up and off the desk where things can spill or be sat on top of them.
Let’s face it, no matter how hard we try, cords are everywhere in dorm rooms. The colorful magnetic silicone twist ties are amazing at keeping the cords pulled together. Since many of us spend a lot of time chasing our charging cables off the floor, the adhesive cable management organizer holds charging cords in place.
Lastly, while a little more pricy than a regular power strip, this desk clamp power stipe is wonderful. It clamps securely to all different widths of desk. Not only does it work for plugs but also for usb ports.
JEWELRY ORGANIZATION
Obviously, this is more specific to the ladies. There are so many options for jewelry organization and it honestly depends on how much jewelry your college students takes with them to college. Some might be happy with a small travel jewelry organizer while others like my own daughter needed something a little larger.
If they have space on a desk or dresser, four of the finds below will be perfect for them. However, if surface space is limited adding a closet hanger jewelry organizer will work perfectly. There are also plenty of options for a light weight wall hanging jewelry organizer. Again, these wall organizers can be hung with adhesive command stripes which will be found at the bottom of this post.
MINI FRIDGE ORGANIZATION
Undoubtedly, college kids need a mini fridge. However, they can become an area of blank space. If there is space in the dorm room several of these mini fridge cabinets will create and offer even more space around the mini fridge.
I have always loved the cabinets above the mini fridge as they allow for a small coffee maker or panty items to be stored. Yet, we have not tried the below cabinets but I really like the look. The reviews seem great as well.
If there isn’t room for a cabinet try magnetic shelves for some extra storage. They are super strong and will at least give you some extra storage.
NO DAMAGE WALL HANGING HOOKS
I mentioned several times above using adhesive wall hanging hooks. Undeniable there are so many options available. I honestly took a variety of many different kinds with us to move in. When deciding which ones to purchase make sure to check on how many pounds they hold. Some items you will be hanging will be much heavier than you think.
Command strips are seriously dorm room lifesavers. They work so well and leave no damage. I do have one trick up my sleeve. I always clean the wall and allow it to dry before attaching the adhesive part. I find it works best.
I can not describe how these will be the most used item on move in day! Start stocking up because you will need a variety.
