Student accommodation is known for many things, from late night parties to last minute revision sessions … But there’s one thing it’s not known for, and that’s being spacious. Luckily we’re here to help with a few tips to help you fit all you need into your student accommodation.

 

Use Your Wall Space

Rather than letting your desk get cluttered up with paperwork and notes, use a pin board on your wall to store these in a much tidier way. Not only will this make it easier to find and read whatever notes you’ve stuck on your wall, but it will free up valuable surface area on your desk for whatever you need.

Another way you can use wall space is for storage. If you can make any modifications to your room then putting up shelves would be a great way to gain some extra space.

However, most students won’t be able to put up shelves, in this case hanging storage baskets / hanging storage pockets are the way to go. You can hang these using a stick-on wall hook that won’t peel off the paint when you remove it.

 

Remove Excess Furniture

Space is at a premium in student accommodation, so you might have to make some difficult decisions as to what stays and what goes. One of the first things you can get rid of are items of furniture whose purpose can be served by other furniture in your room.

You probably only need one chair in your room for you to sit at your desk. Having a spare chair for guests might be great, but you can also give your guest your desk chair while you sit on the bed.

Similarly it might be nice to have a coffee table, but if you’re low on space and the coffee table doesn’t have any storage space underneath it then you might be better replacing it with one that does, or buying a small storage box and using that as a coffee table.
On the subject of having multi-function furniture: often you won’t have a choice of bed for your accommodation, but if you do then it is a very good idea to get a bed that also has storage space underneath it, this is vital space that you wouldn’t get otherwise.

 

roommate

Share With Your Roommate

There are many items like a hairdryer, printer, speakers etc. that it doesn’t make sense to own two of.

If you’re staying with a roommate, or you’re using these items in shared spaces then it makes sense to share these with multiple people.

Maybe you split these up between you, So you provide the printer, and your roommate provides the speakers. Then you can leave your speakers at home.

 

Use the Backs of Doors

This is one of the best places to store items as you won’t be able to use the space behind a door for anything else.

You can either hang your clothes from the back of a door, or for something more practical you can hang storage baskets.

If you don’t already have hooks on the back of your door and you don’t have permission to screw these in, then you can use either suction hooks, or stick on hooks as an alternative.

 

Get Rid of Anything Unnecessary

There’s no getting around this point. One of the easiest ways to gain space for storage is to clear some space taken up by unnecessary items.

This doesn’t mean embracing minimalism or asceticism, but if you’ve used all the possible storage space in your room, and you still can’t fit things in, then maybe you need to get rid of something.

Or…

 

Use a Storage Unit

Most students only use a storage unit for their holidays, when they’re returning home, but don’t want to take all their things back home with them, only to have to travel back in a few months.

However, if you keep your storage unit year round then you can gain extra storage space that will probably be cheaper per square foot than if you looked for bigger student accommodation. This would allow you to have your cake and eat it too. You can still access your belongings 24 hours a day, but you would store the things you don’t need to use every day like notes or books from classes earlier on in the year.

If you’re in need of Self Storage in Dublin, we can help – head over to our student storage page to learn more.