Guest Bwoggers and Barnard first-years Elena Christenfeld, Yuki Adams, and Sylvia Riordan have been living it up in a forced triple (aka a double that three people are shoved into). They offer suggestions of how you too can make the most of a cramped situation.

Problem: Zero floor space?

Solution: Remove a desk. Since you barely get work done in the library, getting work done in a forced triple is simply out of the question. Remove a desk and suddenly you have a whole extra desk worth of space and that made ALL the difference. 

Problem: No storage space? 

Solution: We all know that being in a forced triple means you have less than half the luxurious closet space normally available in housing. However, you can make a couple of key changes to maximize storage. First of all, yes we did just talk about how precious that floor space is, but it is also untapped potential closet/laundry space. Second, our pro tip: build a somewhat dubious, but deeply necessary shelf-fridge-shelf. (see reference image)

(*Pro pro tip: to reach the one-pound container of white cheddar dust (another necessity) on that very top shelf: grabbers!!)

Problem: You don’t want to stare intimately into each other’s eyes at night

Solution: Take the shelves off your desks and create a fun storage barrier between your beds so you don’t make accidental eye contact at 2 am. 

How? Stack two of the desk shelves on top of each other. Tell everyone who visits your room that they cannot lean on the shelf. Disclaimer: this one we did learn from experience (a shelf falling type of experience).

Problem: Hair-dust balls

Solution: Buy a Swiffer. It’s three girls, one room and every season is shedding season. 

Problem: One of the beds is better than the others 

Solution: One of the beds might not-so-mysteriously be lacking a small bulletin board, and be missing an outlet. Make sure to check before choosing on move-in day. 

Problem: Too few outlets for too many people

Solution: Power strips!! How else would you plug in a minifridge, a Nespresso machine, three laptops, three phones, with only FOUR outlets?

Problem: Your bitterness towards other people’s big rooms

Fix: Internalize that shit.

All in all, being in a forced triple may have its negatives but at the end of the day, you learn to love each other and have great communication since you do live in such close proximity every single day! And maybe you’ll even want to live together next year too. Or maybe not. But we do!

Storage space? We hardly know her! via Bwog Staff