When your student heads off into the wonderful world of college, they’ll have to deal with a lot of situations that they hadn’t really been introduced to before. Take dorm rooms, for instance. The image of the quintessential dorm room isn’t a very nice one. You may start to wonder if they went to a construction company and asked for the smallest and most boring rooms they could imagine.
Luckily we have some great ideas to drastically improve your dormsperience. We’ll lay out all the dorm room essentials so that on move-in day all you’ll need to worry about is carrying in your furniture.
Beds and Bedding
The dorm room is first and foremost a place for sleeping. Most American college or university dorm rooms will come with a bed and mattress included. Because of space limitations, these beds are usually either Twin or Twin XL sized. The mattress provided to you will most likely have been used by the student living there before you. Even though they are probably cleaned out thoroughly before the next student comes in, many would probably err on the side of caution and buy their own mattresses.
You can find many affordable mattresses here.
12″ Ventura Cooling Airflow Gel Memory Foam Mattress
The bed itself will not come with any sheets or bedding, which is definitely a good thing. Sharing sheets can lead to lice or bedbug infestations, so you should always buy new sheets. New college, new sheets, new you, right? If you or your student is temperature sensitive, it might be nice to get them bedding for both the warmer and the colder months. Pick the bedding not only based on its functionality, but also on its desirability. Dorm rooms can seem bland, but the right kind of bedsheets will give it an aesthetic boost.
Desks
Many dorm rooms come with a desk included as well. They won’t be top of the line desks, but some schools make their removal against the rules. Before searching for a new desk, make sure to look for the school’s housing services department website and search for any rules regarding desk removal. If you don’t find that information anywhere, make sure to call them and talk to a representative.
If you are given the green light, take a look again at the dimensions of the dorm, and factoring in the number of students sharing the room, decide on the maximum area you can afford to use. If you don’t yet know the room’s dimensions, you can likely find this information on the housing services’ website as well.
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This Porto Corner Desk can make a big difference in smaller rooms.
Storage
In small dorm room settings, taking storage space into account is extremely important. At the very least you’ll need to factor in storage space for books, school supplies, and clothes. Depending on the university, your dorm room may already have a dresser, armoire, or closet included. As always, make sure to check.
If you think that the storage furniture provided is just not enough for the amount of stuff that you or your student will have, then you should consider the addition of another storage item like a cabinet or a dresser. All of these recommendations are based off of the understanding that you have the space and permission to do so.
Decorations
Decorations are what can help you exit the infinite loop of dorm room boredom. The housing program for your school may not let you permanently place things on your wall with tacks. They leave puncture marks that will need to be removed when your stay is over. In some cases, the wall is made of something that simply can’t be punctured, like brick or stone. In either case, you can always consider getting a few wall posters that can be placed with tape or sticky putty. These will light up your room with your very own style without breaking any of the rules.
What You Can’t Bring
Additional decorations like lava lamps or large vases may be banned by the school because of the possible hazards they can cause. Large fish tanks as well as any other pets and pet items are usually not allowed, except in the case of a service animal. Small fish tanks may be allowed in some school dorms.
Keeping all of these options in mind when you start preparing for college life will make living in dorms an easy and happy experience.
All of this may seem overwhelming and expensive, but take a look at our clearance section, which is updated daily! You’ll find a ton of deals that fit within a college budget.