The Best Food Storage For Dorm Room Ideas

Dorm rooms are well known for having little space available. One of the leading causes of this frustration is food storage. Therefore, you’ll want to know, what is the best food storage for a dorm room?

The best food storage for a dorm room is to make use of items like a mini fridge, over the door shoe hangers, shelves, clip-on baskets, plastic drawers and containers. With items like these, you will be able to store food for about a week or more in your minimal dorm room space.

There’s not much space in a dorm room making food storage one of the biggest frustrations in a college student’s life. Therefore, let’s have a look at a few of the best food storage solutions for a dorm room.

Mini-Fridge

The first and most crucial product you will need when it comes to food storage in your dorm room is a mini-fridge. Mini fridges are completely underrated products. Owning one of these appliances in your dorm room will make a huge difference when it comes to storing food.

When you have a mini-fridge, you can start keeping food items you would typically be unable to keep, like lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, olives and carrots. This will allow you to make yourself a salad and something fresh as opposed to ramen noodles for lunch every day.

You will also be able to store things like milk. This means you will not have to buy your coffee every day because you make it at home. Buying an inexpensive coffee maker will save you money in the long run.

You will also be able to keep cheese and butter. This means you can now have sandwiches or make some macaroni and cheese whenever you feel like it.

You could even take your mini-fridge food storage up a level by using fridge organizing containers. These allow you to safely stack food items on top of each other without squishing or damaging any of the food items.

With the addition of a min-fridge, you can keep fruit and other softer food items that need to be refrigerated in your dorm room.

If you pick the right mini-fridge with a freezer compartment at the top, you’ll be able to keep essential frozen products. Imagine having ice cream whenever you want or some great frozen dinners to heat up in the microwave.

If you’re given the opportunity to have a mini-fridge in your dorm room, grab onto it with both hands. It makes a huge difference when it comes to your dorm room’s food storage and will save you money on food costs.

Disclaimer: Some of links in this article are affiliate links which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

To save even more money, you can buy an affordable mini-refrigerator on Amazon and have it delivered directly to your room. Check out what’s available by clicking here, mini fridges.

Over The Door Shoe Holder

You may have never thought about an over the door shoe holder being useful for anything other than, well, shoes – and that is completely fair! However, over the door shoe holders are a secret weapon for dorm room food storage that no one knows about!

All of the individual pockets are storage units. You’ll have lots of compartments to keep individual food items in.

For example, you can store any of the following items in the compartments:

Ramen noodles
Chips
Soda cans
Ketchup
Snack packs
Small cereal boxes
Soup cans
In addition, any food items you would generally store on a cabinet shelf can be placed in an over the door shoe holder.

You’ll be able to store things like your drinking glasses and some utensils in some of these pockets if you have the spare space for them.

These shoe holders can hang over the door of your closet on the inside or the outside. You can hang one on the inside over your dorm room’s door. As long as it’s kept out of direct sunlight, either of these options will be fine.

If you don’t want to keep it over a door, you have the option of nailing it to the wall. In addition, it can be hung in a closet from the bar.

When you order your mini-fridge, add one of these storage savers to your checkout cart. They also sell them on Amazon right here, over the door shoe holders.

Shelves Or Shelving Caddy

Having a few shelves hung on your wall to store food items is a massive help for a dorm room. They’re great for storing lighter weight items like big chip bags or light boxes.

Food storage shelves can be put up somewhere out of the way. They can be hung in the corner of your room or a section of a wall that doesn’t get used frequently.

This is convenient because they’ll be out of your way and not an inconvenience to squeeze past ten times a day. They will still be easily accessible when you need any food item from them.

Shelves are good dorm food storage tools for light weight food items that do not need to be kept cold like the following:

Cereal boxes
Coffee
Mac and cheese boxes
Chip or corn chip bags
Snacks
Peanut containers
Cookies

Portable shelving units or shelving caddies are helpful in the same way¹. However, you can easily move them around when needed, making rearranging your dorm room much easier.

Shelving caddies are especially helpful for storing necessary items where they need to be, like paper towels. Keep them next to where you make your food (and your mess).

You can even use a shelving unit or shelving caddy to store your snacks and keep them next to your desk or couch. Stocking up on potato chips, cookies, chocolates and water to keep close by while you are studying is super helpful.

If you’re a healthy college student, it’s also a great place to store a fruit bowl, protein powder or supplements. Check out some portable shelving units here on Amazon, portable shelving.

Clip-On Baskets

These baskets are typically made out of metal but can also be plastic. They are made to clip onto the edge of a shelf².

Adding them to the bottom shelf, if there’s room underneath, is the perfect spot. The clip-on baskets add more storage to your existing shelving which wouldn’t be available otherwise.

Anything that can fit in there can be stored like apples, spices or small cereal boxes. Just be careful not to add too much weight to the shelves which have weight limits.

When you purchase a shelf, always be aware of the advertised weight limit. Check out some of the clip-on baskets right here on Amazon, clip-on baskets.

Plastic Food Storage Containers Under Your Bed Or Couch

For extra food storage in your dorm room, if and when it may be needed, you can keep large plastic containers under your bed, couch or end table³.

When you need the extra storage space, simply fill these plastic containers with your food items and tuck them back underneath until they’re needed.

It’s important to remember, only store food items you would normally keep in a cabinet in these containers. They’re not good for food items like bread or milk that are perishable and will most likely go bad if stored in these conditions.

For non-perishable food items, storing food containers under your furniture is a great solution when it comes to dorm room food storage. They can even be used instead of shelves if you don’t have the room for shelves or a shelving caddy.

In addition, they can be placed on top of furniture or counter space. Check out some food storage containers on Amazon.

Plastic Drawers

A plastic drawer unit is a great option when it comes to food storage in your dorm room. However, because they can often be fairly bulky, most people avoid them.

If you have the space for them or an empty corner out of the way, using a plastic drawer unit is an excellent way to store your food.

They’re especially handy when storing dry items like cereals or bags. Unlike the shelving, heavier items can be stored in these drawers like juice bottles before being opened. They’re perfect for items you will use every day or not.

In addition, plastic drawers are good for items that should kept out of the way to ensure they don’t get knocked over, spilled or broken. Many of them are on wheels and can be moved around.

They come in different sizes and shapes to fit the exact space you’re looking to fill. Amazon has every size and shape you’d need, check them out here, plastic drawers.

Above Kitchen Cabinets

If your dorm room has some kitchen cabinets installed on the wall there may be space above them. Often this space is unused. If your room has any cabinets on the wall with space between the top of them and the ceiling, it’s a great spot to store light weight items.

If you have any questions about this article don’t hesitate to comment below or email us. You can find an email on our contact page.