How to Stay Organized in College

Don’t bring too much with you

If you really want to avoid your room and backpack being a mess, don’t bring a ton of things with you to campus! For your dorm or apartment, buy only the big necessity items before move-in. Once move-in day arrives, you can head to the store for the little things you might need such as cleaning supplies, office supplies, or even miscellaneous things like an umbrella or an extension cord. I was able to keep my things neat these past two years, by not bringing every cute poster and coffee mug and saving room for myself to purchase things once at school!

Clean your room right when you move-in

There’s that first day of move-in where you’re so determined to get everything out of their boxes that you’re running around like a mad-woman just giving things a random place. After all your cardboard boxes are empty, take another day or a few hours or so to arrange things as you want them and throw out any trash that has found a place in your room or dorm.

Now is also the time when you decide what dorm or apartment storage you might need. A couple plastic bins from Walmart or Target can make great space savers for out-of-season clothes, your shoes, or even your textbooks! Get a good size that can fit under your bed or in your closet!

Buy notebooks to correspond with your class days

Here’s what I mean: have one notebook (or binder if you prefer) for your Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes and one for your Tuesday/Thursday classes. A friend of mine taught me this trick before I started college and it’s never failed to help me keep things organized! On M/W/F I grab the corresponding notebook and know I have all that I need for class and I grab the other one for Tuesday/Thursday classes!

Keep all study-aids and supplies in one place

If you have a desk, I recommend a quick trip to the office supply aisle to get all that you need. I love my desk from Ikea because it has one giant sliding drawer that I can have everything in within reach. I keep sticky notes, pens, flashcards, and highlighters on hand. I also got a cute little pencil bag from Target for just a couple bucks, so I can put what writing utensils I need for class in there.

If you aren’t going to be using a desk or you prefer to study outside of your room, get a pencil pouch and load it up with whatever you need. Do all this before the first day of class so you’re prepared and be sure to keep up with how you’re doing on supplies so you never get to a test or a study session and you’re missing something!

Get a good backpack

My freshman year of college, I dared myself to dress cute every single day. (This meant no shorts and t-shirts and it lasted till about December when the temperature got down to 16 degrees on my walk to class! Haha!) I had this weird notion that I’d look silly wearing a backpack with a cute outfit, so I used a tote bag. My. Shoulder. Killed. It was horrible! I was uncomfortable, my bag started ripping, and I could hardly fit what I needed in there.

I’ve now converted to a backpack person because you can fit so much and it’s much more comfortable to wear. (I also gave up on dressing cute to class…haha!) Last year, I was disappointed because I couldn’t find a sturdy backpack under $60. I knew that most people preferred a Northface one, and even though it would last me through college, I didn’t want to drop $100 when I needed the money to furnish my apartment.

I ended up getting a $25 backpack from Target which I totally loved. However, it only lasted me that one year because it got really dirty and started to fray in places from the weight of my books and laptop.

Granite Gear reached out and wanted to send me a backpack to try and it couldn’t have come at a better time!

This is the Eagle backpack from their campus collection and it is so spacious and lightweight! It’s only $40, which is the perfect amount to spend on something that you want to last and still have money leftover for the school supplies you’ll need to purchase. They have a bunch of other cute packs in their campus collection, so go take a look!

Set a cleaning day

Set a day once a week or once every two weeks to clean your dorm or apartment. I liked to clean on the weekends after I got back from the farmer’s market. During the week, I found that I was busy with school and blogging and I needed a clean space to be able to study and take pictures for the blog. Saturdays were the perfect day to vaccuum, throw out any trash, clean out my backpack, and freshen up my space. Set a day and even an alarm to remember to tidy up!