Sadly, the above and below are not a staged photos. It it is what the only available surface in my daughter’s dorm room looks like on any given day for the last 3 weeks. As you’ve seen, her dorm room is tiny. It has room for 2 beds, 2 chests, 2 desks, and one dresser. This furniture along with the doors to the hall and toilet pretty much consume all floor space. Thus the desk becomes a storage spot for everything as it is the only available surface. As a result, we have gone vertical for storage, up high and down low.

To store some of the kitchen items we went with under bed storage chest, making the most of the space under the bed, to see the post on increasing dorm room storage click here.

To store academic supplies we also went vertical, this time up. As I was pondering whether to build a hutch for my daughter’s desk, I came upon the perfect one online.

I decided to take a chance on the item as the reviews were mixed. It arrived promptly and was a breeze to put together. It took my husband 15 minutes and just a screwdriver to assemble. The laminate surface is nice and consistent. As a bonus it blends well with the desk, although I am pretty sure no one but me would notice.

I also added an under cabinet light.  It came with its own 3M stickers. It also came with screws if you prefer. It is motion activated, but despite my hesitation seems to work well. It might obviate the need for a desk light, freeing up more precious space.

Now the books no longer sit on the floor, the printer has a safe place to reside, and basic office supplies have an accessible space in which to sit. Glamorous, maybe not, but functional, definitely. The room is starting to grow on me.  Maybe I’ll look for a bulletin board to fill in the space between the hutch and the desk for next time.

Items to make the most use of the limited storage space you have.

Below are the items we used to increase the desk’s usability , if you are interested in a particular item, there is an embedded link in each picture below to make it convenient for you to click on the item and get in time for your next move in.