By Suzannah Young
For college students, keeping a clean dorm room is not an easy feat. Students must find places to store luggage, toiletries, clothing, and shoes, and decide how to share the little space they have with their roommates.
Still, with many resources to help improve organizational skills, keeping a room clean can be made easy. Most famously, Marie Kondo, a celebrity organization consultant, has built an empire advocating the “KonMari” method for organizing, advising people to keep only the items that “spark joy.”
The Buccaneer decided to embark on a challenge to find out Barry students’ secrets to avoiding clutter and using small dorm rooms to their fullest potential.
First on Barry’s list of Marie Kondo afficionados is junior communications and public relations major Meera Abdo. Abdo claims that she and her roommate have a very organized and clean space.
“I clean my room every day,” Abdo said. “I sweep the floor and clean all the surfaces. I cannot focus in a space when it is not clean.”
Abdo also has her closet organized according to style, with “going out” clothes in one section and more casual clothing in another.
Ashleigh Pink, senior sports psychology major and women’s basketball player, also keeps a well-organized closet.
“My closet is organized in color order with items of clothing grouped together,” Pink said. “Right to left, I have hoodies going from dark to light, then sports tops [and] jerseys. They meet in the middle with other items starting from my shoes hanging at the left, then dresses, jeans, and tops.”
For extra storage space, Abdo advises students to raise their beds to the highest level, storing all unessential items—like storage bins and household products—out of sight.
As a resident in Kolasa, sophomore English and criminology major Kelly DeRosa agrees. She says another way to keep rooms clutter free is to put a curtain over the closet.
DeRosa believes that having her room in order helps keep her stress levels down.
“I have all the [clothes in the] drawers folded and organized, but if it does get messy, I can just close the curtains so it doesn’t give me anxiety,” said DeRosa.
This sentiment isn’t specific to DeRosa. According to verywellmind.com, a 2015 study from Princeton reported that “clutter can make it difficult to focus on a particular task.” In addition, women living in cluttered spaces reportedly had higher cortisol levels.
A busy student-athlete on the rowing team, managing stress and maintaining mental health stability is a top priority for DeRosa. She also advises keeping up with laundry and maintaining a Sunday cleaning ritual.
Pink believes another way to keep clean is by sticking to a minimalist mindset. She and her roommate “don’t accumulate unnecessary items,” helping to make the most out of the small space.
If keeping a clean space is a struggle for you or your roommate, there are multiple resources to help.
Netflix recently released a show called “Sparking Joy with Marie Kondo” starring Kondo herself, where viewers can learn how the expert transforms cluttered spaces into organized masterpieces. Social media is another place to turn to, where accounts like @shiragill and @organizedbyellis will have even the messiest of people fantasizing about the beauties of organization.
