Less Mess, More Yes

Enhancing Your Dorm Experience - Part 2

By Chris Higley of Sterilite Corporation

Welcome to Part Two of our two part mini-series aimed at improving your life in a dorm. This post concentrates on setting up and organizing your desk for a focused and productive boost.

Schools and their students know how a living environment can affect success. In fact, the University of Richmond’s Newsroom wrote about the impact on students’ concentration, creativity and academic success that comes from their environment. This environment includes dorm layout and décor. The university’s article explains what current and graduated students already know and what newcomers might expect: that students spend a large fraction of their time studying, sleeping and hanging out in their dorm rooms. This further supports how important it is to set up a dorm environment that suits your style. Focusing on how to make the elements of your room best fit into this environment can drastically help to improve your experience at school.

Whether you are studying for an exam or just hanging out watching Netflix, your desk is a key element in your dorm room. You may have found that it is one of the best places to be productive at school. Getting caught up with the busy nature of life can soon lead to leaving things all over your desk. Before you know it, it can get overwhelmingly covered in stuff that makes you not want to sit there. In addition to the inconvenience you experience from a messy desk, it can also be stressful to live under these conditions. We want to help lessen your stress and empower you to get your space working for you.

With all of the classes you’re taking, you will have notebooks, binders and folders piling up. I have been in other students’ dorm rooms and seen these sprawled out throughout their room, creating chaos and disorder. Sometimes, notebooks and binders are stacked underneath beds or on dressers, but most commonly, I see this stuff taking up the majority of space on everybody’s desk allowing no space for studying. A helpful strategy to overcome this mess is to organize these resources in a Sterilite File Box. As a bonus, you can add file tabs to more quickly find the resource you need. Some people may not need to utilize the file tabs and find that simply stacking notebooks, binders, and folders in the file box is enough. This keeps everything together in one confined and easy-to-move place.

The next mess that usually threatens to consume desk areas includes pens, pencils, highlighters (pro tip: super useful for note-taking), staplers... you get the idea. Sterilite’s Small Divided Box can keep all of that loose stuff easily visible and contained in one place. Clear containers are essential to keep track of your things and easily find what you need when you need it. Having these school supplies all over the surface of your desk can be extremely distracting. You want your desk to be a place of focus and productivity, not filled with clutter. To tame the beast that is your chaotic army of desktop supplies, you should designate each item a home on your desk and always put it back where it belongs after use.

From sticky notes to scissors to all of the disorder in between, Sterilite’s Small 3 Drawer Unit can take care of that. The drawers conveniently hold 8 ½” x 11” paper and you can also stack multiple units on top of each other for a customized storage solution! Take control of your space and let your own style guide your choice of what goes in what. For a more decorative option, check out our new Medium Weave 3 Drawer Unit. This classy option can affordably take your desk style up a notch and features three easy-to-open drawers.

With some help from Sterilite, I hope you can design your desk for success by cleaning up your space and bringing focus to your workstation. And remember, stay organized, study hard, and have fun this school year!

 

Enhancing Your Dorm Experience - Part 1

By Chris Higley of Sterilite Corporation

This is Part One of a two part mini-series aimed at improving your life in a dorm, mainly through utilizing storage effectively and stylishly. This particular quick read focuses on organizing and storing your stuff. Plus, it gives you above-and-beyond ideas to keep your room fresh and smelling nice. 

Settling into a dorm room includes setting up belongings to suit your personal style and creating a comfortable living environment. In the midst of classes and other activities, life can get hectic and things will get messy. 

I can tell you these things from firsthand experience as I’m heading into my senior year at Bentley University, a four-year university in Waltham, MA. By trudging through my own learning curve, I have picked up tricks and life hacks for making dorm life easier. Whether you are an incoming freshman or already have at least a year under your belt, these tips can make your transition to living at school easier. Without further ado, here are a few ways to attain a greater peace of mind at your school living space. 

Organizing Your Way into Less Stress and Easier Living
One way to make your life easier for each of the challenges that face any college student living on campus is to use storage containers to transport and keep your stuff organized. Creating an organized dorm room can also reduce stress and improve the feeling of the dorm room for you and your visitors. 

A Fresh Way to Keep Your Sporty Supplies

Many students at college tend to be active, whether they are involved in academic activities, clubs or intramural sports. Taking advantage of opportunities outside of the classroom is fun and healthy. A drawback can be athletic equipment spread out around a dorm room creating a sense of near-chaos that can cause extra stress. If you’re anything like me, you want to reduce stress where you can.

There is convenience and peace of mind that the typical storage boxes bring you; and then there’s the next level up. Sterilite’s 32 Quart Fresh Scent Storage Box, which can fit under even a low set bed, is able to neutralize odors and provides a light, fresh scent with a compartment for your favorite dryer sheets. This comes in handy especially when storing frequently worn athletic shoes or cleats, baseball mitts and so on. Moreover, the securing latch supports a seal-like quality helping to conceal any unwanted odors. 

Having a fresh smelling dorm room can do wonders for your comfort, peace of mind and general living quality. Also, because most schools discourage flame in the room and room sprays can be a hassle; Reed Diffusers are a low-maintenance, long-lasting and affordable way to enhance the aroma of your whole room.

Pro-Tip for Stylishly Organized Storage
To conceal under-bed storage when your comforter doesn’t quite reach the ground, you can use a stylish blanket or fitting tapestry to make the storage space beneath the bed less conspicuous while adding your personal touch on the room. 

Storage itself can also look stylish enough, with stacking drawers or crates. Sterilite File Crates, like the ones shown in the picture, are a fun way to store and display your stuff that shows off your trendy side. You can put water bottles, books, laundry detergent or even your soccer ball in each of these crates. Did I mention they are easy to stack? This allows you to set them up however you want and further personalize this cool room feature.

Another helpful way to store items, like clothes and shoes, is with the different stacking drawers. Some great ones to use are Sterilite’s 6 Quart Stacking Drawer, the 16 Quart Stacking Drawer and 27 Quart Stacking Drawer. Again, the simple stacking feature allows for a customized stack, however you want to set up the drawers. A stack of a few drawers can fit under your dorm room bed, depending of course on how high your bed is. The clear front of each drawer makes it easy to remember what stuff is where and to easily find what you need. When everything has its place and you know where all your stuff is, life in the dorm room gets a lot simpler and more relaxing. 

I hope these tips will help to enhance your dorm experience. Stay organized, study smart and have fun! Keep an eye out for the next issue of this helpful series that will pop up before the end of the summer!

Spice Up Your Side Dishes!

By Kevin Guimond of Sterilite Corporation

Looking to change up your summer party tradition with a new side dish? Look no further – this specialty pasta salad is sure to be the new party favorite! Check out the easy recipe below:

Ingredients:
Party Size (Serves 10)

• 2 pounds of tri color rotini
• (1) 16 ounce can of pitted small black olives
• 2 pints (1 quart) of grape tomatoes
• 1 pound of genoa salami, slightly thicker than sandwich slice
• 1 pound of sharp provolone, slightly thicker than sandwich slice
• 13 Ounce of Ken’s Italian dressing
• 13 Ounce of Ken’s balsamic dressing

Instructions:

1. Cook the pasta until slightly underdone (al dente). Strain using our colander and let cool
   
   
   
2. Slice the cheese and salami into thin strips (julienne)
3. Separate cut cheese and salami to avoid getting them stuck together
4. Rinse and cut the grape tomatoes in half the long way
5. Strain black olives 
   Sterilite’s 8 piece Covered Bowl Set is ideal for storing each of your ingredients once prepared.
   
   
   
6. Take all ingredients except dressing and place into a very large mixing bowl
7. Shake dressings up and add 13 ounces of each bottle to the mixture
8. Once added, stir all ingredients together so the dressing is evenly distributed
9. Add sea salt and pepper to taste

Once you have finished preparing this decadent pasta salad, our Ultra·Seal™ 8.1 Quart Bowl is the perfect size to serve and store. This pasta salad is sure to pair nicely with other foods at your summer cookouts!