Everyone always says how liberating it is to live away from home — but does anyone ever talk about how hard it can be? Chances are, when you start living by yourself you will be living in your own filth sustaining yourself off of bags of hot cheetos. It’s not a pretty visual, but it’s true.

It’s hard to stay clean and organized when left to your own voilitions with no one around to tell you to do your laundry. We’re telling you right now that you don’t need to be that person — please, don’t be that person. There are ways to keep your suite clean that won’t require hours upon hours of effort.

If you take 15 minutes of your day to do these things, you will be able to maintain a clean suite that doesn’t smell like things are dying, a suite your friends may actually want to visit! Take a few minutes out of the day to execute our tips, and you’ll save yourself hours worth of cleaning when you realize you can’t even find your stash of 3 month year old Halloween candy.

1: Wash Dishes As You Use Them

Chances are, if you are only cooking for one (maybe two if your friend trusts you to not poison them), you’re not dealing with a whole lot of dishes. Take those two plates, two sets of cutlery ad one pot and just wash it instantly. The more casual you are about lazily leaving a couple dishes in the sink, the quicker they become a mountain that you avoid like the plague.

Clean your dishes as you use them, and you’ll find that you’ll spend less time doing dishes overall, and you’ll have ample room in your kitchen to actually cook and eat comfortably.

2: Do Your Damn Laundry

We know that it’s kind of the university way to bring laundry home to your parents, but seriously — just do your damn laundry. No one wants to see your dirty clothing all over the floor. Keeping your clothing clean is a good step towards a tidy suite. Leave enough pairs of dirty socks lying around, and your roommates won’t even want to spend time in the suite.

3: Do a Purge Of Unneeded Papers

Do you really need that notebook for that class from a year and a half ago? Old assignment sheets, forms and other papers you no longer need tend to collect in your suite and they just add to the clutter.

4: Storage Bins

Out of season items, nostalgic photos and cards, special items you don’t reach for everyday, they don’t need to be front and center in your apartment. Utilize storage boxes to store the items you don’t use on a daily basis. Stick them in your closet, under your bed, or even use stackable bins like these from Walmart to keep in a corner to store cards, papers, keepsakes and more! You can always use deeper storage bins to put clothing you won’t use for another season or two.

5: Don’t Keep Wires and Gadgets That You Don’t Need

The fact is, you don’t need those old SD cards — and orphan chargers or broken cords are taking up more space. If you’re not using them now, just get rid of them!

6: Dust Often

Dust is very easy for the eye to see, and is generally really gross. It doesn’t take much effort to swiffer a different room in your suite every day — especially since you likely just have a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living area. Take turns with your roommates and you will always have a dust-free suite.

7: Have a Chores Calendar

Bathrooms need to get cleaned, kitchen counters need to get wiped down, fridges need to be emptied -- and everyone needs to do their part. By developing a calendar, everyone can pitch in and do a little bit to keep your suite spick and span. If you want to get trendy, you can download an app like TimeTree that allows you to create a shared calendar! It can be hard on one person to maintain the cleanliness of a shared space, so split up the responsibilities.

8: Eat In The Kitchen

We’re not saying never eat dinner in front of the TV or have a snack in bed -- we’re not evil. We are, however, saying it’s best to eat primarily in the kitchen to prevent those nasty crumbs from falling all over every surface of your suite. If you are eating outside the kitchen, pick mess-free items or use a tray of some sort to keep things clean, or at least something that will make for an easy clean up.