Last year as a freshman, my daughter lived in a crowded one room quad. My husband bought her a footlocker so that she had a place to lock anything valuable and she stored her heavy winter coats and things in there in the off season, and lighter out of season clothes in there during the coldest season. She brought two duffles (one rolling for when she had to travel at the end of the year by herself) for her bedding and the rest of her clothes. She had three plastic bins for the rest of her stuff (lamp, toiletries, shoes, boots, school supplies, books, musical instruments and sporting equipment, etc.). She had half of the underbed space and it fit the footlocker and two bins. The other bin sat atop her “closet” (a very small armoire type thing). She literallly had a top bunk and a corner where her desk and dresser were pushed together for some surface space. When one tote was empty during the year, she just slipped it over another tote and it didn’t take up extra space.
This year she is in a single and we added another plastic bin for the pots and pans that she is sharing with her roommates in an apartment style dorm this year. She also brought a couple boxes of foods that no doubt will be consumed and not be returned home. Her totes and luggage easily fit under her bed.
We live overseas so have no chance to change out clothes seasonally over the year, since it is silly for us to ship it back and forth. The plastic bins have to stay with her too. Her roommates parents were kind enough to store her things all summer and her bins and footlocker kept her things easy to stack in their basement (so they said) and consolidated.
Does she have too much stuff, maybe. But it works for her.