c/o Sophie Griffin, Arts & Culture Editor

Welcome to Ask The Argus, a column brought to you by the Features section! Each week, we provide you with the hottest advice from your wonderful, trusty, seasoned editors. Are you having trouble making friends? Is your relationship falling apart? Regretting your choice of major? Struggling with time management? Should you try and adopt a feral black squirrel? Don’t fret: We’ve been there and are here to help. 

What are some tips for maintaining the cleanliness of my room? I feel like I’m falling behind and letting things get gross without a parent there to remind me to keep it tidy.

Everyone struggles at first when they gain responsibility for things that they are used to having their parents handle! With roommates, it’s important to maintain a room not just for yourself but out of respect for others too, which can be stressful. We’d recommend making a list of all the things that should be regularly done for the upkeep of your room. Mapping out all these things and how often you should do them can make it a lot easier to manage, rather than having to do hours of deep cleaning all at once. After you’ve made a list, the calendar or reminders app is a wonderful tool to help you keep on top of it. Setting a reminder once a week to change your sheets and towels (yes, Google does recommend that you change them that often) is helpful so that you can know a specific day to be on top of it. If there are things like vacuuming or general tidying that can be shared between you and your roommate(s), making a schedule ensures that everyone is putting in the effort to maintain the room’s neatness. A clean room is a clean mind, so if it helps you, scheduling these tasks before the week starts on a Sunday or before your busiest day can make it so much easier to stay focused. Finally, we’d really recommend that if you clean nothing else, that at least you clean your water bottle once a week. We are begging you. If you don’t believe us, look up biofilm at your own risk. If you clean it out with soap and hot water once a week, your body will thank you. 

Are you one of those Olin girls or a SciLi gal?

This is a very hotly debated topic here at Wesleyan! We think the answer depends on what type of environment helps you work best. It’s easy to think that SciLi is for STEM students and Olin is for humanities students, but that is definitely not the case. Of course, each library’s books may cater more to those areas of study, but you are more than welcome to either as a study space, no matter your major. 

SciLi offers a good mix between social and quiet spaces. The first floor usually is good for collaborating or talking, and has tables, desks, and luscious, cushy seats that are perfect for reading. It’s a great space for easy homework or quietly working on a group project. If you like the ambient noise of a café or music with lyrics while you study, the first floor of SciLi is a great space for you. The second floor and basement of the library are mostly filled with books and other resources, but also house tables and desks for you to work at. Since they are emptier, those two floors often are much quieter and are better for when you need to crack down on an essay or read without any distractions. 

Olin is probably the more daunting of the two libraries. With a massive four floors of spaces to explore and use, it can feel like an endless maze. However, the long list of spaces that Olin provides means you have even more of a chance of finding a place where you can study best. Olin is a much quieter library space, so for focused individual work, it is perfect. The big reading room on the first floor boasts the beautiful windows and facade of what used to be the outside of Olin before an extension was added on, and it is a very lovely space to work in. It is completely silent, which is helpful for some people and anxiety-inducing for others. If the big room isn’t right for you, there are many other alcoves in the stacks or other rooms that may be of more interest to you!

Between the two, finding whichever space distracts you less is probably key to picking your preferred library. If you get distracted hearing other people speak and being able to watch others at their tables, maybe the first floor of SciLi isn’t for you, and choosing Olin or another floor might work better. If you get easily distracted by people watching out the windows or staring at the beautiful architecture of Olin, perhaps SciLi’s simpler layout will help you keep your eyes on your work. Of course, there is also no pressure to have a favorite space to go to—different types of work require different types of spaces, so if something works for you one day and doesn’t for another, that is completely okay. 

To submit a question to Ask The Argus, click here.