16 Frugal DIY Tips and Tricks To Spruce Up Your College Room

By Megan Krout

Dorms aren’t the best (or largest) spaces to decorate and make feel ‘like home’, but there are a lot of cheap products you can use to make your dorm the envy of everyone in your hall. From organization to health and beauty products, college students need the best for the lowest price. Most of these tricks only cost a few dollars and will even save you money in the long-run. Who can complain about that?

1. The Bobby Pin Struggle

Fellow ladies, we all know the struggle of the bobby pins. They just manage to keep disappearing no matter what you do or where you store them. Here’s a cool trick: use a magnetic strip.

You can buy a roll or strip of self-adhesive magnetic ‘tape’ and just stick it to your wall or dresser (or wherever else you want). Throw your bobby pins on it (or other metal objects you keep losing) and ta-da! Your bobby pins cannot escape you now.

2. Shower Racks: Not Just for Your Shower

I came up with this one myself because my dorm had no shelves ANYWHERE. I couldn’t hang any shelves, there was no room for me to buy one and the dresser was useless. What’s a girl to do? Improvise. I bought a few cheap shower racks/caddies at Walmart and a few Command Hooks (make sure to get the ones that can hold a few pounds, or use more than one) and hung it on the wall. I currently have two: one by my bed with lotions, cough drops, sleep aids etc and another larger one on my dresser with all my hair products. I hang my hair-ties and hair bands from the little hooks at the bottom. This has de-cluttered my dresser and basically my life. My boyfriend copied me but uses his for all his winter hats, gloves and scarves. (turns out someone else had the same idea!)

3. Hanging Stuff: Shove Everything in a Box

If you’re allowed to hang things (i.e bang some nails into your wall or somewhere in your room. Or use Command Hooks, I suppose), start hanging. You can basically store ANYTHING in a basket hung on the wall and make it look decorative. Buy a few dollar store baskets (wicker, plastic, cloth, whatever you want) and hang those suckers on the wall with nails. Or command hooks/adhesive strips. Put your miscellaneous stuff in there, food, binders, decor, you name it. It’s a super cute and classy way to organize and de-clutter your dorm for under $10. (for the second one pictured above, string rope through each of the baskets and hang it from the rope)

4. Organize Drawers

For your desk drawers, de-clutter them with a few dollar store trays! I actually got some that were made for office supplies at the dollar bin in Target. You can organize all your pens, pencils, notecards etc. in these little trays. You can even buy a cutlery organizer and use that instead. For your clothes drawers, I highly recommend getting one of these. Even if you just shove your clothes in these compartments, it organizes it. There’s no way to not be organized if you have one of these in your drawer. It actually saves you room, believe it or not.

5. Under-the-Desk Cord Basket

Keep all those cords plugged into your power strip by simply hanging a dollar store basket under your desk (or bed or wherever you want). It keeps the cords off the floor, out of sight, and easy to find when you need it. An alternative to the basket that I use is Velcro adhesive strips (or regular adhesive strips if you like). I attached them to the back of my power strip and stuck it to the wall next to my bed for easy access. This way, I can find all of my cords when I need them as well as be able to plug things in without digging under my bed for the power strip.

6. Hide All That Crap in Your Closet

My closet isn’t horrible. It’s messy, but not a disaster zone. But it isn’t really appealing to look at. Solution? A shower curtain. Boom. No one needs to know how much junk I have or how many sweaters I’m hoarding. You can even pick a curtain that has a design you like. Mine has a city skyline on it. All you need is a few dollars to buy a shower rod (tension rod) and a curtain. You could use a regular window-curtain but they tend to run a bit more expensive.

7. Tiny Jewelry: Stop Losing It

I am constantly losing earrings no matter where I put them. I’m too cheap to buy an actual earring holder or board but here’s a cool way to fix that: buy a dollar store organizer tray. They have ones with multiple compartments. Just stick those suckers in there. Another cool way to organize small jewelry is with pill boxes. Each compartment closes, making them great for traveling, too. Even an ice cube tray will do.
Want a more aesthetically pleasing version? Get a cool picture frame and take out all of the glass and stuff. Take some lace (or lacy ribbon) and hang it in the frame. You can hang your earrings on the lace and even put your necklaces on it.

8. Closet Doubler

I wanted to make room for more clothes in my shoebox sized closet but couldn’t figure out how. Suddenly it hit me. Put a hanger on another hanger. It sounds dumb, I know, but just read on. Take soda tabs (or buy small keychain rings in bulk) and stick the top of the hanger through the hole. Next, take the second hanger and put it in the second soda tab hole. This little ‘hack’ changed my life.

9. Cord Organizers

You know those little plastic made-by-the-devil things you use to close a bag of bread? Those can actually be used for something other than irritating you after you make toast. Put them on different cords and write what the cord goes to. This way, you know what you’re unplugging next time you desperately search for an open outlet.

Another cool and super cheap way to organize cords (especially your chargers) is with those jumbo binder clips. Just clip those suckers to the edge of your desk or table and stick your cords through the metal clip part. It holds the ends of your chargers and you can just grab them and go.

10. DIY Dry Erase Board: Your Style

Every dorm needs a dry erase board. But those plain, ugly white ones are so bland. And surprisingly expensive. Make your own! Go to the dollar store and buy a picture frame of any size, shape or color you want! Then just use scrapbook paper and place it back in the frame. Now you have a super stylish dry erase board.

11. Picture Frames For Everything Except Pictures

You can buy multi-picture frames at nearly any store for under $10 dollars and I promise you won’t regret it. Make sure it holds at least 7 pictures. Put some cute scrapbook paper in the frames and write/use stickers to label all seven days of the week. BOOM. You’ve got yourself a really cool dry erase weekly calendar.

12. Hang Cheap Stuff and Look Classy

The dollar store is college student heaven. Buy some rope/sturdy string and hang baskets, buckets, cups and so much more. Here’s a cute example of hanging cute little dollar store buckets to hold all your ‘getting ready’ items by your mirror.

13. Scarf Savvy Storage

If you’re like me and you are a compulsive scarf buyer, it’s hard to find a good way to store them without just shoving them somewhere. This genius idea just requires you to get some shower rod rings (at the dollar store, of course) and put them on your hanger. Slip a scarf through a ring and bam. Organized scarves you can hang like a shirt.

14. Add Some Color

If those bland white walls of your dorm are giving your cabin fever, just take some fabric you like (Joanns Fabrics offers a student discount!) or even an old bed sheet and hang it on your wall like a beautiful tapestry.

15. Hanging Pictures: No Need for Frames

I’ve been hanging my pictures on really cheap string lights (thanks, Amazon) with really tiny clothespins. It’s a cool and simple way to add light and style to your room for cheap. You can also use string, fishing line and wire to string around your room and hang pictures off of. You can build cute picture hanging frames by stringing ribbon in empty picture frames or using a wire frame to pin pictures to.

16. Charging Station Box

This idea is a fantastic way to keep all of those charging cords in one simple place (and look good, too). Keep the power strip in a box where no one will see it. A DIY tutorial is here.

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