Take a minute to picture your bedroom/dorm room. Do you consider this to be your happy place? Can you relax easily when you’re there? Do you feel like it accurately shows your personality?

Your bedroom should not only be a place of rest and relaxation, it should also reflect your personality. No matter how much time you actually spend inside of it, your room can have a large impact on your overall mood and productivity. Therefore, the way that you decorate and maintain the organization of your room is very important.

I find that I am extremely influenced by the state of my room: messy/organized, empty/decorated, bright/dim, etc. For example, my room has to be relatively organized and clean before I can really focus on my homework. Also, when my room is decorated with things that I enjoy, it feels more like home to me and I find that I can relax at the end of a long day.

Overall, your room should be decorated according to your general aesthetic first, and then tailored to the season. My room aesthetic involves lots of pink, white furniture, fairy lights, plants, pastels, and rose gold. Then, I put up garlands and throw pillows that help to signify the season or holiday coming up.

If you’re interested in giving your room — at home or at college — a bit of a makeover, I have a few tips to get you inspired.

Wall of Lights

My roommate and I did this in our freshman dorm last year and we loved so much that we incorporated into our room this year, too! I even decided to construct it in my room at home because I had a bare wall that needed something on it.

It’s pretty simple to set up and not too expensive! All you need is a set of curtain lights and a bunch of tiny command hooks. If you want a more muted effect, you’ll want to add a sheer curtain, metal rod, and a few larger command hooks to your shopping list.

First, determine where you want your wall of lights. I recommend setting it up behind your bed (as a sort of faux headboard), along the side of your bed, or behind a chair or sofa to create a sweet reading nook. Then, mark (in pencil!) the spots on the wall that you want the lights to extend. This should be pretty high up if you want the full effect.

Next, determine how many bunches of lights there are on your string. Mark the spots on the wall between your two points where these bunches will fall, making sure that they are evenly-spaced. Once these spots are marked, you can begin to stick on your command hooks!

Now, you can start to drape your bundles of lights onto the command hooks. There can be a bit of give on the wire between the hooks, you won’t notice them much when they are super high up. Lastly, untie the bundles and let the lights drop! Do this one by one so they don’t get tangled.

If you want, you can add 3-4 big command hooks that span the wall so you can add a metal rod and a sheer curtain in front of the wall of lights. This gives the wall a beautiful delicate look. (Watch out for dust that accumulates at the bottom of the curtain! It builds up over time and can get pretty gross, speaking from experience.)

Photo Wall

Another fun wall decoration that will make your room totally unique and match your personality is a wall of photos.

Go on Pinterest and find a bunch of aesthetically pleasing pictures that match your mood. Throw in some pictures of you and your friends, maybe even some pictures you took on vacation. Next, print them out at a 24-hour photo shop like Target or CVS so they’re good quality.

Once you’ve collected all of the pictures you want on your wall, place them on your floor to figure out the formation you want them in. Make sure that the colors and images are spaced out and look nice.

Finally, start sticking the photos on the wall! You should use small Command stickies to hang these up, because they won’t rip off the wall paint or damage any surfaces.

Once all the photos are up and look the way you want them to, start taking lots of pics! I guarantee that it will look super Pinterest-worthy.

Small Decor

My favorite place to get inexpensive, adorable room decorations is the dollar section of Target. There are so many sweet items that you can pick up from this section to make your room look more put-together and home-y.

I recommend getting a bunch of small fake succulents to place around your room. Depending on their size, these can cost anywhere from $1 to $5. Plants and cacti can add an air of liveliness to any room, making it feel much happier and inviting. Buy 5-10 of these little guys and place them all around your room.

You can also get knick-knacks such as little wooden signs, ceramic animals, and makeup organizers. It really is the ~little things~ that turn a boring room into a sweet living space.

Organization

I have found that storage containers such as shelves, baskets, boxes, and bins are super helpful in keeping a room look more put-together… even when your life is chaotic.

I absolutely love mason jars because they are an adorable way to keep your small items together. For example, I keep my makeup brushes in a mason jar. I also bought a sweet clear jar with rose gold polka dots and a cork top to hold my collection of scrunchies.

If you’re in college and you don’t have a jewelry organizer, you can do what I did: Hang your jewelry with small wire command hooks onto your desk hutch or a wall. Doing this sounds weird at first, but it displays my necklaces so that they look like decoration when I’m not wearing them. Pro tip: You can do this with your scrunchies too to add a pop of color on your wall.

Minimalism

A big part of making sure that my room is habitable and clean is getting rid of clothing and items that I don’t use on a daily basis. (I plan to do another post soon on the KonMari method, so be watching out for that!)

At the end of every week (or more frequently if needed), do a quick cleanse of your room. Get rid of trash that’s lying around, such as empty water bottles and shopping bags. Wipe down open surfaces to minimize dust. Fold any clothes that are laying on your floor.

Simple acts like these will keep your room nice and tidy with low effort.

Whenever I feel stressed out or unmotivated, I love to clean my room. I do this because it makes me feel more productive and organized. Studying and relaxing becomes so much easier when you’re in a clean and habitable space.

If you try any of my organization and decoration tips in your rooms at home, let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear how you transform your room into your happy place.