Essentials For Your Dorm

Essentials For Your Dorm

The Essentials for your dorm or your child's dorm are the things that will make your life a little easier as you head off to start your new life in your college dorm. This is just a list of essential items for you dorm that can help that transition. It is by no means fully complete as everyone's needs are different.

Your College Dorm

Your College Dorm will almost resemble a cell in a jail when you arrive. One of the first things you will notice is that it is very drab and the same as everyone els's. Then you will notice how small it is. It will be smaller than your bedroom at home and you will be sharing it with someone else. Who is also not used to sharing a bedroom.

Plan ahead so you don't duplicate.

 Your college will contact you before the fall semester starts and give you, your roommates information. Contact them and talk to them and get to know them after all this is the person you will be living with for the next nine months at least. If you get along, hopefully you might live with them for four years or more. So get used to this idea and try to go into it with the idea that you can get along with this person unless you just can't. So when you are talking to them find out what they plan to bring to the dorm because if they are planning on bringing a bike rack that holds two bikes then great you don't have to. Likewise if you are bringing your PlayStation 3 to stream movies and video on then they don't have to bring theirs. You get the idea. Otherwise you will both bring everything and then nothing will fit in your room.

Things You Need For Your Dorm

The Dorm Essential List

1. PlayStation 3 or XBox 360 - You can use these to play games as well as watch T.V. and stream movies on and watch Netflix and HULU.

2. Bike Rack- This is self explanatory if you own a bike you need a bike rack for your dorm room one of the ones that lean against the wall is great. Try to get one that will accommodate two bikes. That way there is room for your roommates bike as well as yours. It's all about sharing.

3. Coffee Pot and a Hot Pot- You can use the Hot pot to heat soups and noodles basically any type of instant food that needs to be cooked in water. It's for when you just can't take the cafeteria one more time this week.

4. Bed Risers- These are plastic or wooden blocks that you put under the legs of your bed so that you can store things in bins and put the bins under your bed. They work really great since most dorms lack storage and closets in a lot of cases.

5. Small Microwave Toaster Oven- Once again for those times you don't feel like going to the cafeteria.

6. Plate, Bowl, Forks, Spoons, Knives

7. A Dry Erase Board to put on your front door- even in these times of text messaging people will still walk by your door and leave a message.

8. Drying Rack and Laundry Basket or bag

9. Printer and ink cartridges- whichever roommate has the best printer should bring theirs. Make it a laser printer they are very cheap now and you will save the money in ink cartridges. You can buy a laser print cartridge for $100.00 and it will print about 3,500 pages or so.

10. Laundry Marking Pen and rolls of Quarters to do Laundry

I can't stress enough that you need to talk to your roommate about what you are bringing so you don't duplicate your efforts. For one it costs a lot of money to outfit a dorm. Some of this stuff you will have but a lot you will have to buy, so it's better to plan ahead so you don't have two of something.

Make Your Dorm Yours

As I said above your dorm will have a littel bit of an institutional feel to it at first so bring a carpet or some posters that you like or things like that so it will make it feel like home to you. Because for the next few months it will be home. It won't feel like it on the first day but it will in a week I promise.
 dorm room - closet & door, a photo by jessycat_techie on Flickr.