5 Hostel Life Hacks

Hostels are the ideal choice of accommodation when you move to a new city to study or begin a new job, but when it comes to settling in this new way of living, you may feel a little bit out of your depth. At LHA London, we believe that the key to adjusting to hostel life is to embrace it fully by applying a few vital life hacks that will brighten the transition. This way, you can focus your attention on starting your new adventure.

Save space by storing your belongings smarter

You may have heard the phrase ‘pack smarter, not lighter,’ and this applies to hostel life too.

When you’re living in a hostel, you may not have the same amount of space as you would in a flat, and a lot of the space will be shared. But, this doesn’t mean you need to compromise on the comforts you bring with you.

By using smart storage solutions, you can keep everything of importance within reach. These are our top hacks for packing your belongings into the more compact accommodation that hostels provide:

1. Roll clothes in drawers: Rolling your clothes compacts them more than folding, meaning you can keep more in your drawers.
2. Add drinks can rings to hangers: When you have canned drinks, keep the rings. You can hook these over the hooks of hangers and add a second hanger through the ring. This way, you can make the most of your wardrobe space.
3. Use vertical space: The backs of room and cupboard doors, walls and sides of desks can all be used to hang baskets and hooks for additional storage.
4. Invest in hanging organisers: These can be attached to the hanger rails to store folded clothes, or boxes of bits and bobs that you don’t have surface space for.
5. Create an open display: By nicely folding jumpers, placing nicknacks in baskets on shelves and keeping books in stacks, you can store items in an organised, but aesthetically pleasing way.
6. Rotate your clothes seasonally: The chances are, you don’t wear all of your clothes all year round. So, box up your summer clothes in winter and your winter clothes in summer and leave them under your bed until you need them again. This will remove clutter in your wardrobe and drawers.
7. Wall storage: Some hostels may be okay with you attaching removables to the walls like vertical jewellery hangers and photograph strings.
8. Hanging baskets never go amiss: Baskets can be hung from anywhere: Desks, bedside tables, the backs of doors. This can be perfect for washing, blankets and other miscellaneous items.
9. Go back to basics: Living the hostel life can encourage you to minimise the number of belongings you need access to, decluttering your life and focussing on your most important material items.

Make use of common areas

When you first move to a hostel, the common areas can seem a tad daunting, but they are a fantastic space in which to socialise. If you are just starting your first year at university, or you’re a young person who has moved to London by yourself, then hostels are an excellent place to make social connections.

When you spend time in common areas like the common room, study room and dining space, you will also get to know the people that you share a building with, which can make hostel life feel more comfortable for you.

We recommend planning meal times together, having study dates or even joint gym sessions with the people you meet. You may find this helps you feel less lonely in the big city, and find people who are experiencing similar life changes to you.

Bring a little piece of home with you

Moving away from home, especially to shared accommodation like a hostel, is a big deal. It is a time filled with excitement, promise and new adventures, but it can also invoke a feeling of unfamiliarity and homesickness.

That’s why one of our most beloved hostel hacks is making sure you have a little piece of home with you. This could be as simple as a candle that your parents frequently burn, or photographs that remind you of your friends and family. Anything that generates that feeling of home comfort.

The things that remind us of our families are unique to our circumstances, but some of the best ideas we’ve heard for keeping home on your person are:

• Keeping a packet of spices from your favourite home cooked cuisine
• Packing a cookbook that your family frequently uses
• Having a keyring with imagery of your home on it
• Bringing your favourite soft toys
• Wearing meaningful jewellery
• Packing one or two comfort books/ films that you watch with family
• Drinking out of your favourite mug
• Setting up your nightlight/lamp from home on your bedside table to recreate a familiar atmosphere

Create clear boundaries

Whilst making friends is one of the best things about moving to a new city, setting clear boundaries with your new roommate and friends is key to keeping your new life stress-free.

Make sure you determine what you’re comfortable with from the moment you arrive, and be understanding of their boundaries too.

Try opening conversations by deciding:

• Which areas of your shared space are private
• Designated cleaning duties and times
• Noise levels that you both are comfortable with
• When you both need to sleep, and have time alone
• Policies on guests in your room
• How to best communicate when something is bothering either of you about your living situation
• How your beliefs and cultures can be respected in the shared space
• Whether you need a privacy curtain/screen
• When it might be best to socialise and get to know each other a little bit better

Remember to stay positive and recognise that your relationship may change over time, and you will be constantly learning about each other throughout your time together. You may have forgotten to address an issue initially, or something may arise that you weren’t expecting.

As long as you practise open communication and respect each other’s boundaries, you should get along just fine. You never know, you may even find a friend for life.

Grow your own snacks

This little hostel hack might seem a tiny bit niche, and different hostels will have their own rules surrounding it, but if you are able to grow your own snacks then you could be in with a chance of saving money.

Having your own herbs, spices and sprouts growing in your room means you won’t have to fork out to buy the more expensive seasoning for your meals. This can also turn into a nice, practical hobby that can take your mind off studying or working in the evenings.

You may even find you grow to enjoy the feeling of coming home to tend to your plants.

Just make sure this is within your hostel’s guidelines before you get excited and start purchasing propagation stations and chilli seeds.

At LHA London, our hostels cover all major points on London’s map and cover your bills too, so you don’t need to worry about any additional costs while you focus on building the life you want.

For more information about how our charity can help you get set up in the big city, take a look at our available accommodation and don’t forget to check out our offer to discover what we can offer you.

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