Sending girls off to college can be pretty stressful…preparing for dorm living, rush and the rush wardrobe for freshmen…preparing for apartment living on a shoestring for the others.  We have both experienced it all…and have lived to tell about it!  

Bama-belle recently moved into a “vintage” house near campus in Tuscaloosa.  Here are a couple of hacks we feel turned out pretty well…

Inexpensive bamboo shades from Home Depot can warm up a window and disguise the plastic blinds favored by college-town landlords.

And while you’re at Home Depot, grab several paint drop-cloths…the flax kind.  They make excellent curtains!!  Here, we added grommets (ordered on Amazon  along with a grommet setter) to spruce them up a bit.  And no hemming required!  Just fold the top edge over to create the length needed (you need the thickness for the grommet anyway).  Add an inexpensive drapery rod.  Voila!

Mirrors expand the space…and can be found in all shapes, sizes, and price ranges

Talk to the other moms/parents.  In this particular case, we all combined our neutral extra furniture, lamps and pillows.  The girls decided they wanted several shades of blue as accent colors.  We picked up pillows and other tchotchkes to add those pops.

Here are some other items that became life-savers in small spaces…

For extra bathroom storage:

Use that space over the toilet.  Get one Here

To keep the tissue handy…

Hook it right on the tank. Get it here

For extra bedroom/closet storage…

We put this in a cubby in the room and disguised it with curtains.  Get it Here

We would love to hear your tips for next year!!

a&a