The Dorm Room Items You Need to Survive Freshman Year

When you arrive at college, you’ll find yourself in an empty room with a bed, desk, closet space, and hopefully a friendly roommate.  It’s up to you to bring the dorm room items necessary to create a pleasant and peaceful place to study, sleep, and hang out with friends.  When the much anticipated college move-in day arrives, hopefully you’ll have all the college dorm room items you need to create a versatile, personalized, and comfortable space that’s fit to sleep, study, eat, hang out with friends, and even party.  To do this you’ll need to know what to bring with you and what to leave behind.

With the right college dorm room items and some imagination, you can transform a boring white room with bad florescent lighting into a cozy atmosphere, even on a small budget.

Personal Touches:  Bring posters, photographs, pictures, and other items to hang up around your room.  These take the boring edge off of your plain white walls.  Avoid pricey frames (you’d be surprised by how many dorm room items are susceptible to breaking) and anything requiring nailing and hammering into the wall.  Your school may not appreciate the damage.  Those simple decorations will remind you of friends and family back home and are a perfect way to decorate a smaller space.

Electronics:  You’ll spend a lot of time on your computer in college, so ensure you have a laptop or desktop that works.  A laptop is a better choice, as you can bring it with you to class to take notes, or to the library when your roommate is trying to sleep and you’re pulling an all-nighter.  Other great electronic dorm room items include a video game console, a TV, a DVD player, an alarm clock (so you’ll avoid missing class), and a mini fridge if allowed by your school.  The mini fringe is useful for keeping food and beverages cold when you’re grabbing a snack between classes.

Dorm Room Items:  One great way to decorate your dorm room is with a well-placed mirror.  College dorm rooms are small and sometimes come without a mirror—be sure to bring one so you’ll be able to do a once over before running out to class.  Smaller mirrors are also great college dorm room decorations—you can arrange them in a way that’ll make your room appear more spacious.  Dorm decorative lights are also very popular decorations, and useful alternative to florescent dorm lighting.  Another useful dorm room item is an area rug—laminate flooring becomes very cold in the winter months.  A rug can liven up a space and keep your feet warm.

Laundry:  Don’t forget laundry supplies—hangers, laundry bags that also serve as a hamper, detergent, and perhaps a drying rack for sweaters.  Bring at least two sets of sheets (Twin XL) and wash them frequently.  

Remember that you’ll be sharing your space with someone else and in some cases more then one roommate, so be courteous about the situation.  It’s a good idea to contact him or her before move-in day to avoid bringing two TV’s, two mini fridges, two Wii’s, and so on.  Knowing which dorm room items are necessary and which aren’t is easy when you’ve got a College Dorm Room Checklist.