One of the most challenging feats a college student can undertake is transforming their dorm room into a cozy living space. Cramming your life into a tiny living area takes organization and talent.

No matter how daunting the task appears, it’s achievable.

Here are a few affordable ideas on how to organize and personalize your college dorm room.Almost every college student brings in this staple item on move-in day: a plastic storage drawer. A plastic storage drawer is useful because it is compact and portable, but a lot of plastic storage bins can easily overwhelm a dorm room.

To avoid crowding your dorm room with plastic containers, try lofting your bed. Lofting your bed allows a little extra storage space to stow away those plastic containers.

Some college students even decorate the plastic containers by decoupaging the inside of the container with fabric. This helps add a unique touch to the room and personalize the living space.

One essential piece of dorm room furniture, which many incoming freshman overlook, is a desk hutch. A desk hutch is something you can use all four years at college and is a great way to organize your desk place. Furniture stores like IKEA, P.B. Teen or Staples most likely carry a hutch that can fit over your desk.

Feeling the need to be crafty? Try channeling those crafty inspiration juices into creating a picture frame chalkboard. A picture frame chalkboard is useful to write down funny messages or quick assignment reminders. This is one of the easiest homemade crafts for a dorm room. All you need is a glass picture frame, paint, a paintbrush, chalk and a can of chalkboard spray paint.

Take the glass out of the picture frame and paint the frame the color of your choice. While the paint is drying on your frame, take the can of chalkboard spray paint and spray the glass from the picture frame. After both the picture frame and glass are done drying, place the glass back into the frame, and it’s finished!

Write fun messages for your friends to see or homework reminders on your picture frame chalkboard.

Decorating your dorm room with accessories or jewelry is also a good way to personalize your space. Draping necklaces on a small mannequin not only organizes your jewelry, but it also gives off a subtle French vibe.

Another option to showcase jewelry is on your own homemade wall-mounted coat rack. Just buy a plank of wood, sand it and then stain it. Browse the isles of Lowe’s to gather a collection of eclectic knobs. Using a screwdriver, screw in the cabinet knobs into the plank and it’s finished.

Searching for more ideas? Try browsing a local thrift store or scrolling through Pinterest to get more inspiration.