Tidying Up with Chi Nguyen
Chi shares her tips on how to keep your room tidy (and your roommate happy).
Chi shares her tips on how to keep your room tidy (and your roommate happy).
My roommate and my sociology reading do not spark joy, can I throw them away?
What are hooks?
Why clean up when you can just leave everything on the floor and grab ’em all in one go?
Well my dear…people(?), a clean dorm room is a happy little dorm room. I personally find cleaning up dorm rooms very relaxing (it’s like a form of therapy), and honestly, after a while, it is starting to get annoying seeing your clothes draping from the floor up to your chair, bundling up into a pile on your desk. Yuck.
DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NEVER WATCHED TIDYING UP WITH MARIE KONDO BEFORE AND ALL THE REFERENCES I HAVE COME FROM MEMES (by the way, Carleton has its own Facebook meme page!)
So what are some tips that I have gathered for myself over the past few months? Some of these may not be applicable to you, because of preferences and whatnots, and that’s okay. It’s just my personal experience that I am talking about here.
There are some of the techniques and essential stuffs that I possess that aid me in keeping my dorm room stress-free, and not-rest-free (at least I tried).
Whiteboard/Calendar
Seriously, I cannot imagine how life must be like without a whiteboard/calendar to remind myself of important events. Maybe I just tend to forget events. But I really love the sight of a colorfully decorated whiteboard whenever I look up from my notebook/laptop, and sometimes if I squint hard enough, I will find more events to put onto the whiteboard to prevent myself from doing my homework. A calendar/whiteboard is very useful because it reminds you of meetings that you have, etc.
I know what some of you may say, that this is the age of technology and isn’t that what phones are for, but let me tell you: you may set a reminder for an event about 2 months prior to that event and then immediately forget about it. But with a calendar/whiteboard, with such a constant presence, you can never forget. Because it is hard to resist a multicolor object, so remember the combo whiteboard + markers.
An organizational system
I honestly think the importance of an organizational system is always underrated. It’s the best way to keep track of your things! This drawer is for winter stuff like gloves and scarves. This one for electronic (laptops, wires, etc.). The other one is for food. Create spaces for your new belongings, and mark them down carefully so that you won’t forget. Better yet, label them! It’s very crucial to be organized. I find not living in a mess saved my time a lot, and I will continue to create more organizational systems for my rooms here at Carleton and back home.
Hooks/wall hangers
They are your best of best friends! You wanna re-wear this shirt? Hang it up! You don’t want to keep tripping over your bag pack? Well here’s a hook for ya! I never had the habit of using hooks to hang up my clothes (I would just throw them into the hamper and never look back at them again, but hey, I am a better person now! don’t shame me please), but I recently adopted this habit and wow, what a time-saver.
Clothes hangers
Personally, I don’t like folding clothes. It is a waste of time, and everything will be messy anyway after you try to get an item out. Therefore, I rely on hangers a lot. I would just fetch my laundry, do the magic with the hangers, and voila. Time and money well-spent.
Multi-Outlet Strips
Honestly, I feel that there are not enough outlets here at Carleton. My dorm has 4 double outlets on each side of the room, and a shared double outlet. But most of them were placed in a very awkward and inconvenient position, so I figured that I should invest in an outlet strip. And money well-spent, again! Best investment I ever made. Now I can freely charge my phone with my 1m cord as well as my laptop just from my desk. I also don’t have to make more room whenever I want to use my curling iron or the vacuum cleaner, or my water kettle.
Underbed containers/or whatever it is called
I am a huge knitting fan, so I need a lot of boxes and spaces to store my products and my yarns and my tools(?). I also have a wide range of lotions and shoes, so boxes and containers really help me out. They make rooms that you never thought you needed, and it is also a good investment as well. I also store most of my sudoku/crosswords magazines(?) in the boxes, since apparently I am also a fanatic notebook/stationery collector, so my desk drawers will never be enough.
Some plants
If you want, you can put in some plants to spark some joys. My roommate has several plants, but due to the busy schedule, she rarely has the time to take care of them. Therefore, if you want to add a few more colours to the room, be my guest. But make sure you have the time to take care of it!
Well honestly, it’s not much of a tip, but it is fun thinking about all the possible things you can do to revamp your room.
Chi is a self-proclaimed insomniac freshman zombie that always complain about not getting enough sleep, even though she deliberately goes to bed at 2am and wakes up spontaneously at 6am thanks to her roommate’s closet door. She constantly talks (obsessively) about how much she yearns to major in Chemistry and German, yet she’s starting to eye the awesome dark art that is called Geology with much desire. Meet the other bloggers!