Everyone knows this famous line: “Clean your room!” It was most likely yelled at you by your mom and you most likely responded to it by rolling your eyes and finding somewhere in your room (e.g. under the bed or in your closet) to shove all your stuff so it would be out of sight. But did you ever stop to wonder if there was a good reason your mom took your room being clean so seriously? Well, as much as we sometimes don’t like to admit it, mother knows best.
We have all known the feeling of stress and annoyance at seeing our room as a complete and total disaster at one point or another. Sometimes we feel like we have too much going on to try to stay organized, especially in college. You feel like you’re in a constant rush to get ready for a class or event so you tear apart everything you own and run out the door just to come back to the chaos you created that morning but too exhausted to do anything about it.
And this is why I’m here to remind you in the beginning of the school year: give yourself the extra time every morning to stay organized.
Take it from someone who knows after living amongst a pigsty for her first two years of college. Going back to a messy room after a long day of working yourself to the brink of insanity is never a good feeling. The fact that my room was completely disorganized would haunt me at the end of the day. After sitting in the library for hours I wouldn’t want to go back and see my clothes all over the floor and fight the daily battle with my things as I tried to find a path to my bed.
But this year I’m saying no more and you should too.
Staying organized will relieve so much of your college stress. Having a little place to go back to that feels welcoming and kind of like your new home will save you so many discouraging thoughts when school starts getting tough. Take the extra time to pick up that shirt you tossed to the ground that you deemed unworthy of being worn that day, and take the extra five minutes to make your bed. You will be glad that you did.
As you look around your new apartment or dorm room that you spent so much time setting up and decorating, just remind yourself that you want it to stay that way. Keep it looking as perfect as it did in all those pictures of it that you took and proudly posted all over your social media. Don’t let yourself get lazy. I promise you will love being in that habit and it will be one less thing to stress and worry about in your already stressful college life.