Hello, lovelies. I was supposed to post a dorm tour today, but it was gloomy all week last week and I couldn’t take many good pictures, so there are some sneak peaks in this cleaning routine post.
I moved into a dorm a little under three months ago, and I’ve gotta say that it’s a lot easier to clean my room. This is likely because I have more motivation to clean my space and my mom isn’t here to dust and vacuum for me. I’m sure this habit will continue in the future when I get an apartment and buy a home.
I’ve noticed that most college students don’t keep their room as clean as I do because they don’t have as much time to do it. I’m here to tell you that it’s pretty easy and takes 15-minutes at most every day. Here’s my cleaning routine:
//Daily
Make Bed – I don’t do this in the morning because I’m usually running to catch the bus. I make my bed in the afternoons after class when I get back to my dorm. This is because I can’t get myself to do work when my bed isn’t made. The second the bed is made, the room seems completely pulled together no matter how messy everything else is. I don’t feel the need to make it in the mornings because I’m not even in the room, but once I have to spend time in it, it’s the first chore I do.
Tidy A Little Every Day – I usually vacuum every few days because my dorm room has carpet and it accumulates a lot of dust and hair very quickly. I also straighten my books and put things away once I’m done with them. This is an easy way to keep things tidy throughout the day.
Wash Dishes – I mentioned in this post that I don’t like doing dishes in my dorm room. I don’t mind the chore in general. It’s just that our dorm room sink is tiny and water scatters everywhere because the dishes don’t even fit in the sink. Oh, well. Necessary evil. I used to wash the dishes after every meal, but I started doing them all together at night. I just put the dirty dishes back in my fridge so that they don’t smell up the room (Lazy girl lifehack).
Reset Room Before Sleep – Before going to sleep, I set everything straight on my side of the room. I lay my clothes on my chair, clear off my desk and just tidy everything up in general. This takes 2-minutes and makes a huge difference in the morning.
//My Weekly Cleaning Routine
I try to deep clean my room once a week. Instead of doing little daily cleaning tasks throughout the week (i.e. Dust on Mondays, Vacuum on Tuesdays, etc.), I do it all at once on Tuesdays (I only have one class that day) so that I don’t have to think about it for the rest of the week.
Make Bed – I usually clean immediately after I get back to my dorm, so the first thing I do is make my bed.
Clear All Surfaces – Then, I clear off my desk, dresser, and windowsill and place all the items on my bed or on the floor.
Wipe Down Windows (Every Other Week) – There is a huge wall of windows in my dorm room and I absolutely love it. My room is positioned where the light streams in the afternoon and the windows aren’t blocked by trees like most of the windows in my building, so it gets a lot of natural light throughout the day. The windows don’t get very dirty. I just spray them and wipe the dust off the windowsill.
Spray And Dust All Surfaces – I used to wipe down my desk and dresser before wiping down the windows, which I realized was counterproductive because I have to stand on them in order to clean the windows, so I changed up that part of my routine pretty quickly.
Put Everything Back – After dusting off all the surfaces, I take everything off my bed and put them back on my desk. I usually wipe down my bedframe, too, after putting everything away.
Vacuum Floors – I vacuum my dorm semiregularly because I have asthma and the accumulated dust bothers my allergies. I don’t usually vacuum super thoroughly on those days, so it only takes a minute. Whenever I deep clean my room, I make sure to vacuum every corner. I vacuum the closet, under my bed, under my desk…everything. This makes a huge difference in terms of how clean the room feels.
That’s pretty much it. I try to do this once a week so that my dorm doesn’t get too dirty and I don’t have to worry about cleaning much for the rest of the week. This only takes about 15-minutes.
Bathrooms – Custodians come in once a week to clean the bathrooms, so my suitemates and I don’t have to worry about cleaning it. I do vacuum the hallway between our rooms pretty frequently because there is hair everywhere, but that comes with living with three girls.
//Every Weekend
Laundry (Fridays) – I do my laundry as soon as I get home on Fridays. (I go to my parents’ house every weekend because my job is in that area and to visit my brother, who has autism). My mom or I just dump the contents of my duffle bag into the washing machine and are done with it. My grandma usually puts the clothes in the dryer because her room is right next to the laundry room, so I don’t have to worry about that.
Organize Clothes (Sundays) – When I get back to the dorm on Sundays, I unpack everything. I usually switch out my clothes on weekends because the weather is changing and it’s easier to not keep so much stuff in my dorm. I hang all my shirts on hangers and put all my gym clothes in the drawers. In the process, I organize my clothes and make sure everything is folded instead of dumped inside my dresser or closet floor (things I have a tendency to do).
Wipe Down Refridgerator And Microwave (Every Other Sunday) – My mom also sends food with me every Sunday because I don’t have a meal plan and she doesn’t want me to cook when I should be studying. Since I clear out the fridge every Sunday anyway, I also wipe it down every other week. This is a long and tedious task that needs to get done, which is why I do it on Sundays. I don’t have any immediate tasks or classes when I get to the dorm, which makes it the perfect day to do it. I also clean the microwave on Sundays, too. I put a slice of lemon in a bowl of water and heat it in the microwave for a few minutes before cleaning it because it helps with wiping off the oil. Some people use vinegar instead of a lemon slice for this, as well, but I don’t have any vinegar. I’ll use that eventually.
//Monthly
Wash Sheets & Blankets – bringing my sheets and blankets back to my house is a nuisance to do regularly, which is why I bring everything home once a month. I have extra sheets and blankets so I switch them every two weeks for clean ones.
Clean Air Conditioner – When I first deep cleaned the room in August, the air conditioner was so dirty. It left black marks all over my cleaning rags. I don’t even know how it was possible for it to get that dirty. I wipe down the air conditioner every week when I dust all the surfaces but I try to clean the crevices where the air comes out, once a month.
Take Out The Trash – I throw away perishables in the trash can in the hallway so that they don’t smell up the room and also walk to the recycling bin whenever I have things to recycle, so my trash can doesn’t fill up that fast. I can get away with taking it to the dumpster once a month.
//Cleaning Supplies I Use
Because I have asthma, I can’t use most cleaning sprays. My mom would always kick me out of the bathroom whenever she cleaned because of the smell.
I knew that I needed to find a natural cleaner that wouldn’t bother my asthma, but most natural cleaners are super expensive or aren’t very effective.
(I would like to preface this by saying that this post isn’t sponsored)
I recently heard about Brandless, a company that sells clean, all natural, cruelty-free products for lower prices because it’s very expensive to buy or make those things on your own. Brandless sells food, cleaning products, lotions, etc. Everything on the site is $3, which seems unreal, but the company can afford this by eliminating the brand tax (hence the name). The price of a lot of things we buy in stores is largely due to things like distribution costs, settlement costs, retail shelving, etc. Brandless eliminates the middleman, which lowers the cost of all of its products.
This is a super new age-y idea and I won’t go into the economics of it. My point is that it’s an inexpensive way to get nontoxic cleaning supplies. You can read more about Brandless here if you want to know more about it. Their products are hypoallergenic, non-toxic, non-GMO, ethically made, and a whole bunch of other save environmental things. (They have tree-free toilet paper! I didn’t even know that was a thing!) I haven’t tried their food, but I have used a lot of their skin-care products and can vouch that they are really good quality.
Back to the point. The cleaner that I use is the Multi-Surface Cleaner in the Summer Breeze Scent. They have other cleaners specifically for granite countertops or windows, but I don’t need any of that. I’m a college student and can live with my cheap $3 multi-surface cleaner.
It works great. The bottle is big, the sprayer works, the cleaning solution smells good and doesn’t bother my asthma, so I can actually stay in my room after I clean it (unlike with other brand name surface cleaners). I would definitely buy this again.
I wouldn’t classify myself as a neat freak, but moving out has made keeping my space clean a bigger priority. This post may seem long, but it really doesn’t take much time to clean your room as long as you do little things to keep it clean throughout the week. I spend a lot of time studying and doing homework, so it’s nice to come home to a clean space.
I hope this post helps, and I’ll see you next time.
Related – What It’s Like To Move Out For College
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What is your cleaning routine like? What do you do every day to keep your room relatively neat?
