Dodging broken glass, sweeping cigarette butts with the soles of your shoes and walking through a construction site. This seems like a daily routine for a student attending Fordham University in New York City, not a Guilford College student. But as the second half of this semester, those living on Guilford’s campus, especially the Student Apartments, encounter these obstacles daily. Construction surrounding the Student Apartments is increasing, adding noise and mess that the Guilford community is not accustomed to. Meanwhile, many students’ rooms and apartments tend to pile up with trash this time of year.

During this high-pressure end of the semester, students should take advantage of everything that helps maintain their sanity. Keeping ones space clean is not only an attempt to preserve the environmentally sound atmosphere that students appreciate, it will also be a positive impact on mental clarity. Maintaining cleanliness of both the inside and outside of ones living space will provide for a more comfortable atmosphere and lighten stress loads during this chaotic time of year.

How Campus Life can (or cannot) help
Thinking that Campus Life could help students who want to keep their living space clean, I went to Kris Gray, Residential Living Coordinator. She informed me that Campus Life currently has no supplies for students.

Gray said that she is meeting with Aaron Fetrow, Associate Dean for Residence Life to discuss a plan to help maintain a cleaner space for the Student Apartments.

How your RA can help
While Campus Life may not be the best resource, your RA is probably willing to help.

Sophomore Roslyn Phillips, an RA in the Student Apartments, recently went door to door asking residents if they could clean up their porches. She hoped this would encourage a trend throughout the apartment buildings. Some people helped, but Phillips said, “Most of the porches are still very dirty. I have gotten a few complaints about how nasty the area looks, so I thought maybe if I could take initiative, than others might follow.”

Phillips is hoping to encourage a cleaner space with supplies and events:

* Students can be supplied with trash bags and gloves from RA’s.
* Phillips suggests that this could be a hall event. Students could “Pick up trash and eat pizza.”
* Phillips and other RAs also eager listen to other ideas on how to “keep our living area a little bit more tolerable.”

How you can help yourself
While your porches may remain dirty is easy and cheap to maintain the inside of your living space. According to about.com, lemons, vinegar and baking soda can all be used as cleaning products in your home. These products are easy to find, and will not upset your environmentally conscious roommate.

* Vinegar: 1 part vinegar and 1 part water: Put this solution in a spray bottle and it can be used to clean, disinfect and deodorize most surfaces.
This mixture can be used anywhere in your bathroom, especially to clean soap scum. It will also clean kitchen appliances.

* Lemon juice: Use it to dissolve soap scum and hard water deposits.
Mix lemon juice with vinegar or baking soda to scrub dishes, surfaces and stains. Put a lemon peel in the disposal to freshen your kitchen.

* Baking soda: Use it to scrub surfaces. Leave it in the box and use it as a deodorizer in your refrigerator.

With much of Guilford under construction, it is important that students be able to preserve their current space. By valuing the space we currently have students can also influence Campus Life to further respect the space that we take pleasure in by not turning it all into a construction site. These simple methods listed above can improve students living areas, which will ultimately provide for a pleasant and stress free environment.