When my cousin moved into her dorm room, it was the funniest day of her life; well, at least one of them. She had so many things that she just couldn’t leave home, after all, it was a must to have at college.
We helped her unpack, take everything to her dorm room, went to the store and filled her room up with the necessities (potato chips, mac and cheese, soda, coffee, tea etc.) and left to go back home.
At 10 o’clock the next morning, the phone rings, it’s Melanie and she is crying and really upset; “My roommate just got here and her family moved all of her stuff in and we haven’t enough room to put anything. We had to climb over boxes just to find the telephone. You have to come quick, we can’t even find the food!". So, I made a few phone calls to some friends and wrote a list of odd stuff that we would need and we met at my house, filled up the trunk of the car and away we went; To save Melanie and her room mate.
The look on their faces when we walked in the door was just priceless. Here they were, sitting on the floor with tons of boxes all around them; there were boxes on the bed, stacked in the corner and covering the floor from wall to wall. Melanie was sitting there with her head in her hands saying, “What are we going to do, What are we going to do?" This is a memory that will be etched in all of our minds for years to come.
They took one look at us standing in the door and they both burst out crying. We of course felt sorry for them and automatically started laughing so hard that tears came down every ones faces. Sorry Melanie, but this was hilarious, especially after spending weeks with you going over everything that you absolutely needed and couldn’t live without and now there isn’t any room--Priceless--just Priceless!
Okay ‘friends to’ the rescue.
Make the beds first and throw the boxes out--NO, don’t throw the boxes out, we might be able to use them.
Let’s make the beds and that will get rid of the boxes with the sheets and the pillows that are hiding on the closet floor.
Now, put the microwave on the little cart and all of the food on the shelf. That gets rid of two more boxes and empties the top of the dresser. Put the T.V. or the radio on top of the dresser and a candle to make it look homey.
Set up the two computers on the desk, we decided to keep both of the computers here just incase we both get heavy assignments at the same time. If we find out that it is too much, one computer will go home and we will take turns going to the computer lab.
Okay, we need a plastic three drawer cabinet on wheels. This is where ‘friends to the rescue came in. We just happened to have one in the trunk of the car. Put all of the pens, pencils, computer paper, notebooks etc. in these three drawers. Now throw a tablecloth over it, add a lamp to the top and we have an end table.
Hang the clothes that we are going to use for now in the closet. All of the rest of the clothes can be hidden under the beds in boxes.
Take the boxes that we emptied , throw any extra’s in there for storage and put two of them together in front of the bottom bunk, throw a table cloth over them or a double sheet folled in half and use it for a coffee table.
There now we have a living room, a bedroom and a study room all in one.
Jan Hayner is a Professional Organizer that has a website called Easy Home Organizing at http://www.organizingyourlifetheeasyway.com She has tips, ideas and shortcuts for men, women, children and senior citizens, free printable lists and monthly newsletter. |
