College is a time of growth, both in and out of the classroom. From art history to the best way to cure a hangover, those four years pack in a lot of lessons that you can carry with you long after you've been handed a diploma. But some things, like beer pong, Solo cups, and sad dining-hall food, are best left behind.You don't have to sleep in a twin XL bed anymore, so there's no reason that your apartment should look like you do. It's time to say thanks for the memories and let go. And, we're here to tell you how.
This month, we're asking you to toss out everything you thought you knew about spring cleaning and give every corner of your life a refresh. The inspiration for a happier, clutter-free you is right this way.
A friend who was an international student once told me that, for an event freshman year, she was told to wear jeans and a T-shirt. She didn't own a T-shirt. By sophomore year, she had a drawer full of 'em. Whether it's for volunteer days, sorority functions, or football games, free tees are an inevitable part of the college experience. While it's fine to keep a few around for the gym, make Marie Kondo proud and toss the rest right now.
Flasks tend to conjure up two images: cowboys or English gentry taking nips of whiskey, or college students using them to adulterate soda illicitly at concerts. Chances are, you're none of these things, and the time has come to part with your purse-friendly booze container.
One of the best things about being out of college? No more 10-page papers in 12-point font. One of the best parts about having an office job? Access to a printer for those rare occasions when you need a hard copy of something. Either of these facts renders that inkjet gathering dust under your bed useless.
Thanks to Spotify and Netflix, your mix CDs and Friends DVDs have become less a source of entertainment and more a plastic memorial to outdated technologies. Donate them to your favorite second-hand store and thank your Roku for your newly discovered shelf space.
A body pillow was great when your bed had to play double duty as a couch, table, and pretty much every other piece of furniture your life lacked. But once you've left the dorm and are no longer sharing your sleeping space with a mini-fridge, it's time to bid the body pillow adieu. Like wearing sweatpants 24/7, it might be comfy, but it's a slovenly luxury of the past now.
Like your dorm-room bed, a coffee mug was a lot of things in college: a bowl, a pencil holder, an appropriate thing to serve wine out of. So who cared if they were a mishmash of hand-me-downs and giveaways, and probably chipped, to boot? Thank your mugs for all they've done for you and send them to that great dishwasher in the sky (via your recycling) and buy a set of matching cups. New level of adulthood achieved.
Chances are, your obnoxiously colored backpack is stuffed in a corner somewhere, neglected now that you no longer have to lug your laptop and Econ 001 textbook everywhere. If you're still using your backpack, I salute you. It's way better for your posture than a giant purse stuffed with all your gym or work essentials. But still, it's time to upgrade to a more adult version of the bag and move on.
Whether your desk light illuminated many an all-night cram session or mostly decorated your gently used desk area, it's time to upgrade to a table lamp that will make your space feel a little bit more homey and a lot less dorm-y. You are a grown-ass woman, and you deserve a lighting situation that reflects this.
Old, mismatched towels make a lot of sense when you're 18 and still figuring out the care and keeping of your linens (and you pilfered them from your parents' castoffs anyway). But, years later, those elderly towels have only gotten grosser. And now, you actually take care of your nice stuff! Celebrate your mastery of laundry with a set of matching towels and bid those weird bleach stains goodbye.
Chic decor, 50-cent hot dogs: Ikea has it all — but not all of it is worth keeping. While a set of knives for $5.99 may have once seemed amazing, after a few uses they become as ineffective as butter knives (not to mention dull knives actually cause more accidents than sharp ones). Once you've graduated from college (and expanded your kitchen repertoire beyond instant ramen) upgrade your kitchen equipment to something that costs a little bit more than a family pack of Cup o' Noodles.
When you finally got enough space for an extra chair in your dorm, chances are you got something shaped like a bowl that made proper spine alignment nearly impossible. While they match nicely with posters of Marilyn Monroe or Bob Marley, they don't go as well with actual arm chairs or sofas. Plus, owning furniture you don't get stuck in for hours at a time is an important hallmark of adulthood.
Your laptop somehow survived all four years of undergrad, from beer spills to those brief times you left it in the care of a stranger at the library while you ran to the bathroom. But these days, it's little more than a hunk of plastic that hasn't powered on in ages. It's time to honor its service and dispose of it properly by finally transferring all the files you want to save to an external hard drive and recycling it responsibly.
Cheap flip-flops were great protection from the communal showers of yore. But, in the real world, you no longer need footwear to get clean. (Hooray!) These plastic remnants of your dorm days are now just shoes that are bad for your feet and knees and defy certain standards of put-togetherness. Unless you live on a beach, toss and replace them with sandals that offer more style and support.
Decorating with string lights can make your space look super cozy— but it's time to do away with the cheap Christmas version and upgrade to some nicer ones. You'll go from CVS clearance sale on December 26 to Instagram-worthy abode instantly.
You can still organize in bins. But, it may be time to consider upgrading to ones that aren't designed for industrial food transportation. And for our money, a pretty basket is the much cuter way to go.
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