In a college dorm room or any small bedroom storage space under the bed is often overlooked. First, if the bed is not raised, you can consider adding bed risers underneath the legs of the bed (if your college or university permits it). With or without risers, you can use plastic drawers, a wire basket system, containers, or bins to maximize the space under the bed. This space is ideal for items such as dirty laundry, off-season clothing, sports gear, luggage, and extra blankets. You can even have three bins to sort your laundry – white, lights, and darks as depicted in this photo of under the bed storage.

When choosing a storage system for under the bed you’ll need to consider what you are going to store in it, what your budget is, and how you will transport it to your dorm room. Plastic drawers may be less expensive but will not be as sturdy as a wire basket system made of steel. Plastic drawers may end up being too bulky to transport to new living quarters while a wire basket system can be nested and used to carry items as you move into your new room. However, wire baskets will be more costly. Collapsible bins are also a consideration as they fold down for easy transportation, but you may have difficulty purchasing them in sizes large enough to meet your storage needs.

Happy college space planning!

The way to maximize space in any area is to “go vertical.” When you add storage components to a small room be sure to build up as high as you can go. A person typically can reach a foot higher than their own height to pull something down off of a shelf.The photo is from a residence hall room I set up at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA.

The pictured wire basket system worked ideally to maximize height and storage space in this on-campus room. The top of the double-stacked set of wire baskets (far left corner) has a height of 84 inches or 7 feet.  The top basket is easy to pull out and use, but keep in mind that something lightweight and non-breakable should be placed in the top basket such as sweaters, sheets or blankets. 

In this picture you’ll see three wire baskets systems for maximizing the height in a room. These systems are ideal for a college residence hall or apartment.

Happy organizing and space maximizing!