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Sort your student storage
Is your living space looking a little cluttered and untidy? Why not undertake a student house spring clean. It is almost April, after all.
Typical student accommodation in Leeds comprises of a bedroom and a shared bathroom and living area. Your bedroom has to function both as a workspace and a place to relax, so it’s important to keep it as tidy as possible – which is sometimes hard when storage scope is limited.
When the space you sleep and work in is cluttered and untidy, it can reap havoc on your stress levels, productivity and even sleep. In fact, a study linked clutter with higher levels of procrastination and a decrease in life satisfaction.
If your student accommodation in Leeds is looking a bit dishevelled and disorderly, here are a few ideas you could incorporate into your student house spring clean to help make your space a more pleasant and productive place to be.
Make use of every inch of space
When space is at a premium, you need to utilise every last inch. If you have room under your bed, invest in a few shallow storage boxes to slide under. You can fit your spare bedding in there, towels, and seasonal items of clothing you only wear half the year.
Don’t forget the back of your door too. You can turn this prime real estate into serious storage by snapping up an over-door hanging system that can house everything from shoes to towels to toiletries. Browse Amazon, Wilko, and Dunelm to find some cost-effective options.
Organise your wardrobe
Any good student house spring clean should involve a wardrobe clear-out. Delve inside and remove all the items of clothing that you no longer wear. Be ruthless - your wardrobe will thank you for it. Take any wearable cast-offs to the charity and anything stained or beyond repair to your local recycling site.
Next, take a look at your storage options. You can double the amount of space in your wardrobe simply by adding another rail underneath the first. They’re cheap to pick up and require minimal DIY skills. Ask your landlord if they’d be happy for you to do that as it does require you to screw the rail in. Alternatively, pick up some clear stackable boxes from Amazon and fill the dead space below with shoes, bags, or accessories. Sticky hooks attached to the inside of the door make a good place to hang belts, necklaces and hairdryer or straighteners.
Divide and conquer
Struggling with the desk drawer from hell or an underwear drawer where socks and pants meld together into one overflowing mess? You’d be surprised at the space you can free up in your drawers if you add some organisers. Whether it’s a plastic drawer organiser for your pens, Post-Its and other stationery, or fabric boxes for underwear, hats and accessories, once everything has a place, it fits in much better and is easier to find.
Create end-of-bed storage
Placing a low-level unit at the end of the bed gives you extra storage without taking up valuable wall space. It’s a great place to store books, study essentials, shoes or bedding. It also gives you extra seating when you have people round.
Head to IKEA for a cheap solution or scour second-hand and charity furniture shops.
Elevate your laptop
Adding a monitor stand allows you to raise your laptop to eye level to help aid good posture. But it also gives you scope to store items underneath, making valuable extra desk space. We found a great two-tier stand with space underneath for books, mouse and keyboard for under £12 online.
Get it pegged
Peg boards are a cheap way of keeping your desk items organised and away from your desk. Pick one up from Dunelm, IKEA or Amazon and buy a few baskets to store pens, scissors, notebooks and other stationery.
Got a lot of books or files to store and not much desk space? Look for a ladder bookshelf. They take up a lot less room than a solid bookshelf and you might just be able to squeeze one in next to your desk. Keeping everything off your desk should help you to focus on your work, rather than the clutter surrounding it.
So, whether you were planning a student house spring clean or not, we hope these ideas have given you inspiration on how to turn your student accommodation in Leeds into a beautifully ordered oasis, perfect for work and play.
Take a look at our latest Leeds student properties here.