Moving into shared accommodation for the first time can feel overwhelming and cramped. Suddenly, your entire existence has to fit into one room, a wardrobe and a fraction of the kitchen. After years of shared flats, halls and house shares, here are my practical, budget-friendly tips to help you reclaim space and keep your sanity in the process.
Think vertical storage before you think bigger
When floor space is limited, always go up! Think of things like over-the-door hooks for coats, bags and dressing gowns, shelves you can stack, cube units or boxes inside wardrobes. And if you’re a sucker for a real book like me, a tall and narrow bookcase instead of a wide one will literally save your life.
For your desk, a way to avoid clutter and have more desk space for actual studying is to place everything on the wall, above where your laptop sits, using things like hook racks. You would be surprised how many little pen-pots and random objects you can hook up.
Your bed has untapped potential
From my experience, nothing beats a bed with storage! Winter coats, blankets, duvets - gone in an instant, but at an arm’s reach when you need them the most. I love rolling storage boxes for the beds with space empty space underneath, and vacuum bags for divans with drawers. But if your bed is low, consider getting some bed risers; they’re cheap and will create enough space for storage. Just remember to keep everything covered or else you’ll be cleaning dust off your seasonal clothes.
Multi-purpose everything
You only have a limited amount of space. So naturally, the things you do have will have to work hard at multitasking. Think ottomans - great for storage, they look good, and they make great seats when people are coming around. Foldable desks and chairs are another one; most of them look like little decor tables you can place a nice candle or vase of flowers on while they’re not in use. Even cleaning supplies can be multi-purpose: things like disinfectants and even some liquids can double as a cleaning spray and floor cleaner, ideal for small kitchens where you can’t store five different types of cleaning products.
Divide spaces early (and clearly!)
Nothing is worse than being kicked out of your designated kitchen cupboard three weeks down the line because you and your housemates have not done a great job at organising and remembering the early arrangements. That’s when I love to use labels (and text evidence). But you can also use things like colour-coded drawer dividers, stackable containers and toiletry bags/caddies. Having clear boundaries will avoid arguments about who’s using whose shampoo and cereal in the morning.
Go digital
Some people still work well on paper, and others, like me, appreciate the option to switch it up. But the truth is, paper is nothing more than dusty clutter. Luckily, in the modern are we have apps for organising notes, cloud storage for digitalising documents and access to textbooks online. Oh, and that cute stationary shop in the mall? Forget about it, you do not need another to-do list pad. For the papers you must have around, keep them in a folder so they can be neatly tucked away on a shelf instead of taking up desk space.
Rotate, don’t hoard
It took me a while to get my head around this one, but you don’t need everything up for grabs all the time. Keep your current-season clothes only. Yes, there may be a colder day or two in the summer, but you have long sleeves and jackets for that; you don’t need the entire winter clothes collection out “just in case”.
Occasion wear can always be stored separately, unless you party every night, in which case I would be worried about your studies. But the real hack is setting aside a day every month to review your space and do a thorough clean-out, reassessing whether you actually use the things you have. And if you don’t, they have Vinted for that now, or you can make charity-shop donations.
Learn from the Japanese: soji
This last one is as much about storage as it is about maintaining a pleasant and clutter-free space. In the Japanese culture, there’s a daily practice called soji where, out of respect for their space and belongings, people clean every day for as short as 10 minutes. If you think about this, this allows you to move your body doing “chores” every day, it gives you opportunities to regularly reassess where things belong, and it keeps your space clean and tidy, so you won’t need to do a weekend deep clean any time soon. Other good practices are making your bed first thing in the morning, and “don’t put it down, put it away”, which is really just returning items to their space immediately after use to avoid random items lying around.
Take it from me, you do not need a Pinterest-perfect room, but you do need a functional one. Start simple, live in the space for a week or two without feeling you have to have everything set in place as soon as you move in, then adjust based on your needs. However, don’t delay too long, or you’ll get used to grabbing things out of a mixed-items carrier bag you haven’t unpacked for weeks, and by the time you get to it, there might be no free shelves left.
Welcome to student life! This is an opportunity to really declutter and lead a simpler life with only the essentials sometimes, but you’ve got this!
