10 Cleaning Hacks For Your Dorm Room
Your days at university will (ahem, usually) begin and end in your bedroom. And whilst the majority of your cleaning will most likely be done to avoid writing an assignment, as you spend so much time in this room it might be nice to keep it relatively clean throughout the year. So keep reading for 10 amazing cleaning hacks for your halls room and avoid your parents from wrinkling their noses when they visit.
NB: This list does not include vinegar. Though I do not doubt its cleaning efficiency, I do not wish to smell like a chippy.
1. Keep baby wipes handy at all times.
Also known as “anything” wipes. Come on now, these are made to tackle all manner of baby related messes. They are tough, despite the genteel packaging. Use for dusting, cleaning surfaces, getting marks off walls, disinfecting sinks or mirrors…and they double up as face wipes and emergency toilet roll if you should ever need it.
2. Use Blu Tack or Command Strips if you want to hang things from your walls.
Every university room has posters or photos or timetables adorning the walls. At the end of the year, the sticky tack and marks left behind can be easily removed with exactly the same stuff. And it collects dust too. Ingenious!
3. Use ‘Wine Out’ for when you spill your glass on your friend’s bedspread by accident.
People will confidently tell you that white wine on a red wine stain works. It doesn’t, and why are you wasting wine? Stain remover will be your friend, unless you want to emulate my first year flatmate and frantically paint over the hair dye stains on your sink with white nail polish the week you’re due to move out. Wine out is a neat little discovery that actually works on a variety of stains on carpet or clothes, including red wine.
4. Never underestimate the power of fresh lemon juice.
Step one; buy a lemon. Step two; cut the lemon in half. Step three; scrub all stainless steel (like your taps and shower heads) with one half, until they are all shiny and smell lovely and fresh. Step four; pour yourself a drink and add the other half of the lemon, sliced. You wouldn’t want to waste it.
5. Bleach is, of course, useful in many, many ways.
A bottle of domestic bleach is cheap as chips. Cheaper, if we’re talking medium fries. And occasionally chucking a bit of bleach down the toilet or plugholes isn’t exactly strenuous cleaning, but saves scrubbing later. Also, a bucket of bleach and hot water is perfect to soak a stained shower curtain.
6. Invest in a bin, and a washing basket.
Why yes I do like my award for most obvious ‘hack’. I keep my award shiny and scented with lemon juice because I polish it every day… Seriously though, you would be surprised how many students lack these items, using their floor, chair, desk , or bed as a not-so-clean or organised replacement.
7. Keep baking soda nearby at all times.
Much like baby wipes, baking soda can be used for nearly everything. It cleans and deodorises. My favourite use is to clean and freshen up carpets and mattresses. Ignore the people that tell you to use vodka. Fight this epidemic of people wasting good alcohol on cleaning. Simply sprinkle copious amounts of powder over the floor or mattress, go about your business elsewhere for an hour or so, and then hoover. And maybe hoover again. Voila, lovely fresh room. Lovely safe vodka.
8. Use linen spray whenever you are short on time.
Alright, this isn’t exactly a cleaning hack. Consider it a I-really-don’t-want-to-do-cleaning hack. Hack no.7 is the good stuff. Linen spray is so you can pretend you have done that.
9. A subtle diffuser in the background will keep your room smelling clean and fresh.
I am a serious fan of a diffuser. So effortless! A pretty little vase thingy, and thirty or so days of a lovely fresh, clean smelling room. What’s not to love?!
10. Leave the door open!
As much as this will help to keep your room light and airy, this is on the cleaning hacks list for one reason. If your door is open, your flatmates can see you. And judge you. And your messy room. Lovingly, of course.
And so ends my list of cleaning hacks. If you tried any of them, you may now congratulate yourself on all your hard (ish) work, and take a nap. Or get back to that assignment.
