title: Django not loading static CSS file
body: <p>I have looked around on this site as well as others and still have not found a solution that works for why django is not loading my css file</p>
  
  <p>my settings.py file:</p>
  
  <pre><code>STATIC_URL = '/static/'
  STATICFILES_DIR = [
      os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "static"),
  ]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>in my html file:</p>
  
  <pre><code>{% load static %}
  &lt;link rel="stylesheet" href="{% static '/css/my_style.css' %}"&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My file tree:</p>
  
  <pre><code>todo_app
      static
      todo_app
      todo_list
      db.sqlite3
      manage.py
  
  INSTALLED_APPS = [
      'django.contrib.admin',
      'django.contrib.auth',
      'django.contrib.contenttypes',
      'django.contrib.sessions',
      'django.contrib.messages',
      'django.contrib.staticfiles',
      'todo_list',
  ]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Any help would be greatly appreciated. I tried using the STATIC_ROOT as shown on a different thread but there was no change with that.    </p>