Spring Cleaning for Students: How to Declutter Your Space, Mind and Study Notes

With the days becoming longer and the temperature getting (if only slightly!) warmer, it can only mean one thing – Spring is around the corner. 

To mark the much-welcomed Spring Equinox (around March 20), we’re sharing our best spring cleaning tips for students, including how to make your student house sparkle again and the best way to organise uni notes and files.

How to spring clean your student accommodation

With winter bringing on full hibernation mode, it’s likely your student digs have become a little, well, like a place you’d hibernate in. So, grab that multi-surface spray and get wiping down those surfaces with these spring cleaning tips.

Cleaning your bedroom

• Crack open your window: We’ll forgive you for keeping it closed over winter, but now is the time to open your window and let in some much-needed fresh air and get rid of any unwanted moisture.
• Put everything away: Clear up all those bits and bobs that have suddenly found a home on the floor by stashing them away in drawers or organisers. There are more student organisation tips in the next section.
• Wipe down and dust off: Grab a surface spray and duster from the ALDI cleaning aisle and clean down all your surfaces. We’re talking desk, bedside table, cabinets and drawers, and even the top of the wardrobe…
• Strip the bed: There’s nothing like the feeling of fresh sheets, especially after a hard day of spring cleaning. Strip the bed, grab your bathroom towels and chuck a load of washing on. And yes, that includes your hibernation blanket.
• Take the bin out: A bedroom bin can really accumulate. Reduce nasty smells and trip hazards by grabbing a black bin bag and taking your bin out. It’s also worth giving it a quick wipe down if there was anything sticky inside.

Organisation hacks

• Divide your space into specific zones: Keeping activities separate can help your brain switch between “study” and “chill” mode. We’d recommend a study zone, a rest zone, and a storage zone.
• Keep your desk for daily essentials: We’ve all heard the phrase, a tidy space is a tidy mind. Well, nothing is truer for a student desk. Limit your desk surface to your laptop, notebook, pen holder, water bottle, and charging zone.
• Take advantage of vertical space: With a room likely on the smaller side, it’s easier to go up, not out. Consider over-the-door hooks, wall shelves, and stackable organisers. If your bed is high enough, under-bed storage is also an easy win.

Cleaning a student kitchen

• Have a big clear out: Sift through your fridge and kitchen cupboards and chuck out anything past its use-by date. Fruit, vegetables and bread will have best-before dates, while meat and fish will have a strict use-by date.
• Clean your microwave: Prone to splatters and bacterial growth, regularly cleaning your microwave is an important student kitchen hygiene hack. Heating a shallow dish filled with lemon slices for 2 minutes will also help with any unwanted smells.
• Scrape your food off: Leaving leftovers on your plate to fester can encourage bacteria to grow. Always scrape clean your plate, putting leftovers in your brown food waste caddy to be recycled, and never put food down your sink.
• Scrub off the grease: Grease can quickly build up on your hob, oven, and microwave, so regularly wiping these down can save scrubbing later. If you’ve got a grease-prone air fryer in the house, make sure you’re also always using it safely.
• Start “cleaning as you go”: The easiest way to keep a student kitchen clean is to “clean it as you go.” Whenever you’re cooking, wipe down surfaces and rinse utensils as you go. This is much easier than facing a mountain of washing up after.

How to tidy your study notes

After you’ve started decluttering your bedroom and study space, it’s also worth tidying up your notes. Organised notes can not only improve study productivity, but also make it easy to revise for end-of-year exams.

• Decide how to organise

  There are two main ways to organise study notes: by subject or by date and time. If you prefer to box off your modules, consider organising by subject, for example:

  • Module/subject
  • Topic
  • Subtopic

  If you’re juggling multiple deadlines, consider organising your notes by deadline. For example:

  • High priority (less than two weeks)
  • Medium priority (less than one month)
  • Low priority (in over a month)

• Use headings and bullet points

  Long blocks of text can be particularly off-putting to revise from. By breaking content up into headings and subheadings, you can not only organise your notes better, but see topic clusters at a glance. Bullet points and numbered lists are also a great way to summarise topics and create bite-sized revision chunks.

• Separate learning notes from revision notes

  Lecture and seminar notes are usually too detailed and long-winded to revise from. Instead, use these notes to create separate revision notes with condensed content, key examples and diagrams, and an additional summary sheet per topic. These revision notes are designed for quick review, not to mention going over information again can further cement it in your brain.

• Get colour coding

  Grabbing those highlighters can help your brain sort through information, especially when you use the same colour system for all your uni exams. You could break up your notes by:

  • Definitions
  • Key dates
  • Examples
  • Main ideas
  • Topics from past papers

• Use a different organisation model for dissertation notes

  Dissertation notes need a different system from normal uni notes. After all, you’re having to manage sources, ideas, feedback, drafts and of course, the looming dissertation stress! We recommend organising your notes in five key sections: literature notes, ideas, methodology, drafts and supervisor feedback. Remember to always use a reference manager to keep hold of your references.

How to spring clean your mind

And of course, spring cleaning isn’t just physical! By giving your mind a declutter, you can improve your student well-being and set yourself up for the final semester.

• Close open loops: Pick five unfinished things hanging around in your brain to complete. This could be sending that pesky email, replying to that message, or returning that missed call.
• Reduce mental stimulation: If it feels like your mind is always racing, try to reduce stimulation like doom scrolling, news intake and background noise like screens and TV.
• Add a daily reset ritual: This could be a brain dump, a short meditation or just a quick mental plan of everything you want to achieve tomorrow. Doing this consistently can help you reset your focus.
• Tidy your space: Your brain mirrors your physical environment. Use the previous cleaning tips to declutter your desk, bedroom floor and study zone. It can also help to declutter your phone notifications and emails.
• Work out when you feel heavy: If your mind feels more than busy, consider journaling honestly (not aesthetically), sleeping properly for three nights, or reaching out to someone safe like a friend or therapist.

As a university student, clutter builds up in the background. By having a good spring clean and clear-out, you can reset for the coming months. And don’t forget, the uni summer is just around the corner…