It’s that time of year again, and people keep asking me what should they bring to college when they first move into a dorm. Mostly you want to maximize your personal space in a small room you’ll be sharing with another person. I’ve compiled the basics into one handy list:

1. Your roommate will probably be irritating. Anything you can buy that will help you maintain some privacy and personal space is a good idea.
2. Your roommate will also probably be an idiot who leaves the door unlocked. People will steal anything not bolted to the ground in about 10 minutes. Don’t bring any valuables you don’t have to, and make sure you can lock up what you do bring. A campus security officer advised us if you bring a bike get two different kinds of locks. There’s two major types, and they both require different tools to break. Most bike thieves will only carry one set of tools.
3. Your first instinct will be to buy as much wall storage stuff as possible. Don’t do this. Your room is a small place and you have to share it with someone else. Having shoe racks and pockets all over the wall just makes clutter, i.e. stress which you don’t need in your room. You want a relaxing space where you can get some work done if you have to. (Do utilize over or under the bed storage as this goes largely wasted in most dorms)
4. Consider investing in some decent bedding, as your bed is going to be very uncomfortable. I don’t mean 300 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, I mean a nice plush comforter and a good mattress pad. Those egg-crate foam things are a pretty inexpensive solution. You also want to make sure whatever bedding you buy is as easy to wash as possible.
5. Don’t bring all your music with you. To start with, it’s extremely heavy to move and takes up a lot of space. Then people will steal it. I left college with a lot of mysteriously empty cd cases. Rip your cd/records to your computer, mp3 player, or even cd-rs if you can. If you have records, the wear and tear of moving them around a lot will decrease the value significantly.
6. Same goes for clothes. Bring fewer shirts and pants, bring more socks and underwear. Bring Febreeze because eventually you’ll forget to do laundry.
7. Your roommate is also going to eat all the food you buy. If you bring a mini fridge (only recommended if you’re not provided with one), it’s not too hard to put a lock on it. If you’ve got snacks, keep them in a locked drawer or box.
8. Get some noise canceling headphones. They don’t have to be expensive, but you might end up with a roommate who wants to blast Come on Eileen on repeat for 3 days straight. You can put these on without any music when you need to sleep.
9. Get the most storage you possibly can for your computer. Digital storage means no paper or cds lying about. Make sure you’ve got your computer scheduled for regular backups.
10. Your roommate will probably also use your dishes and not wash them. Make sure you have dishes only in limited quantities, and make them as cheap as possible so they’re reusable, but you can throw them away if you find it under your roommate’s bed with spores.
11. Lastly, limit your toiletries to everything you can fit in a small waterproof tote. If you have your own bathroom and leave your stuff in it, your roommates will use it. If you have to walk to showers outside your own room you’re not going to want to carry much.

Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 12:19 pm | Leave A Comment | Comments Feed
Filed under: Culture