Out-of-State 101: Dorm Shopping

By Taylor Snow on August 3, 2018

Dorm shopping is the favorite of many incoming freshmen, and for good reason. Moving to a dorm is basically moving out and freeing yourself as an adult to make your own decisions about your life and the way you live it. With that said, you’ll have to fit basically an entire house into a teeny-tiny living space, maybe even half a bedroom if you’re someone unfortunately stuck with the smallest dorm in existence. Being an out-of-state student adds another layer to this complexity and ingenuity, as you have to figure out how you’ll transport all your new living items from very far away if you’re like me. By no means did I get this perfectly this year, but freshman year is all about learning experiences. This is what I’ll do differently next year:

via Pixabay.com

Steal lists. Most of us have no idea where to even start with dorm shopping, but the internet is our best friend. Lists are never scarce on websites like Pinterest, and as you look at many of them, you can get a good feel for what you’ll really need in college. Additionally, the lists titled something along the lines of “Basics” or “What I REALLY Used in College” will likely be the bare-bones necessities lists, if that’s what you’re looking for. Check out my own shopping list.

Buy bedding first. The first thing you’re going to want to do after you spend more than 20 hours in a moving car is sleep in a real bed. Bedding is also probably going to be the biggest expense, and you want to purchase it early on in the summer if you can to ensure that you’ll have it before move-in, especially if you buy on Amazon and have it shipped. My dorm hall has full XL-sized mattresses, and bedding for this was even harder to find than Twin XL items.

Because of this, I bought all Queen sized-bedding, but I also bought clips to hold the fitted sheet to the right size. I did this for two reasons, the first being that my bed at home is Queen-sized, so I can use the sheets when I’m back at home (which will be two or three times a year) and because Full XL bed sheets with a decent thread count are impossible to find.

Think about what’s immediately necessary and what might break on the trip. Personally, I’m not going to stick a brand-new $150 printer in my trunk and pray for the best. Check stores local to your new city and see what kind of small appliances or fragile and expensive items you can wait to purchase when you get there (I also recommend arriving early to do this shopping if at all possible). This goes for things like toilet paper and soap as well. If you know you’re going to need it from day one, go ahead and purchase it, but pack it somewhere you know it’ll be safe.

Order online. Most stores that have a website will have a much larger selection of products, colors, etc. than they will in store. If they have free and/or two-day shipping, it’s definitely worth the gas and time you save going to a physical store and hunting the items down yourself. Amazon has to be by far my favorite online shopping website– the selection of products from so many sellers and the low prices honestly can’t be beaten.

However, be aware that if you make large purchases online, they will most likely not all come in one delivery of a couple of large boxes. I made this mistake when I ordered most of my items from the Walmart and Amazon websites and ended up having deliveries every day (and even six deliveries in one day). I’m sure the neighbors and the postman have very strong opinions about me.

via Pexels.com

Chill out on the decorations. If You’ve only ever visited your campus one time, as in my case, you won’t truly have a great feel for how much space is going to be in the dorm. Buy the basics and necessities first, and figure out how to make your room Tumblr-worthy after you know exactly how much space you’re working with.

Keep a ledger of what you’re buying and how much you’re spending. This is just a helpful tip if, like me, you’re working a minimum wage job all summer to afford this stuff and aren’t paying for any of it with your parent’s money.

Look at the department store discount sections. There are so many useful things to be discovered here. For example, in the last chance section of Macy’s (70-80%) I found a personal coffee pot and a 30-piece Pyrex dish set.

If you already have it, DO NOT BUY A NEW ONE. This one is pretty self-explanatory. If you already have one to take with you, why buy a new one?

That’s it for this article! You can also read this on Tumblr or watch the video version on YouTube. Thanks for reading and I’ll write again soon!

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format