Finals season is here.

Let’s get down to business and get organized.

1. Get rid of old food/snacks If you’re someone who tends to keep food in your room, this is a biggie. Make sure to go through whatever it is you use to store food and snacks and check the dates on everything. If it's old or expired, throw it out. Leftovers are usually only good for 2-4 days, so make sure to get rid of anything that’s older than that, too. If you find that you have more snacks than you can eat before the end of the semester, but they are still good, consider asking people in your dorm if they want to take them. Usually, finding takers for snacks isn’t too hard. You could also see if your school has any place to donate nonperishables for people in need. img source

2. Recycle old class materials During the course of the year, all of us accumulate tons of stuff from classes we are in, to classes from last semester. Notebooks, dried out highlighters, dead pens, broken pencils, countless papers, handouts, and syllabi. While you may need some of those things to get through to the end of the semester and for surviving finals, chances are you don’t need it all, especially those used up highlighters and pens that you’ve got sitting around and all the papers from classes you’ve already finished. Take the time to divide everything school related to essential and nonessential piles. Keep the essentials, but look into the best ways to get rid of the materials you no longer need. Papers and notebooks can often be recycled, and it’s always a good idea to see if you can resell your old textbooks. As for used up writing implements, trash ‘em. img source

3. Reorganize your desk Now that you’ve gotten rid of all those old school materials, chances are you’ve probably also cleaned up some space on your desk. img source

4. Make your bed (and change your sheets) Even though it’s a good practice to make your bed every day, let’s be real here: sometimes that just doesn’t happen. So, in the spirit of turning over a new leaf, change out your old sheets and make your bed. If you’ve got clean sheets ready to go, this shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes to do. In small college dorms, having a nice and neat bed can make all the difference in making your space look clean. img source

5. Weed out your clothes (and donate or resell what you don’t want to keep) Sometimes the clothes we bring to college in the fall aren’t the clothes we want to take home in the summer, and that could be for a number of reasons. But if the reason is that you’re no longer feeling particularly attached to that clothing item, it’s probably best to part ways with it and either donate it or resell it at a consignment shop so that someone else can use it. Make sure that the clothes you donate and resell are in good condition, but also take the time to go through your wardrobe and weed out what’s not worth wearing anymore while you do your spring cleaning. img source

6. Sweep or vacuum This one isn’t super exciting, either, but fear not! When you’re sweeping or vacuuming the floors of your dorm, put in your earbuds and blast your favorite upbeat tunes to make the time go by. Before you know it, you will have cleaned away all of those hidden dust bunnies and loose hairs that accumulated over the course of the semester. Behold, clean floors and a successfully spring-cleaned dorm room! One less thing to worry about during finals season! img source