7 Dorm Room Essentials to Buy

By Andreas Fanos on September 3, 2018

Choosing to go to college is already a big decision, but more so is making the decision to live in a dorm room. One of my favorite elements about college was having my own room to myself where I could do whatever I wanted. It always felt to me like it was my own apartment. It is your home away from home and you want to be as comfortable as possible. What is important is to not forget these seven essential items in my opinion that I absolutely needed when I lived on campus for four and a half years.

1. Desk Lamp

This is the top item that I always carried around with me and made sure to not forget for move-in day. I would have felt so lost without it because in my room there would not be enough light and because I would stay up late and my roommate would go to sleep I would leave this light shining on my desk so I could do homework or browse the web. Even with the other lights on, I still used the desk lamp as it looked even cooler with it on and I would also place a hat on it to light up a specific area. I would take the hat on and off every hour or so in case of overheating. Many places sell this small lamp as I even bought it from a friend of mine at school and it turned out to be a lifesaver.

Photo taken by me via Instagram

2. Mini Fridge

This was another necessity that was needed at school to obviously put drinks away and store meals since the food at college can get boring, and on a side note, not every college has great food either. The freshman 15 is also very real. A lot of times I would go home for the weekend and store food away to eat and have cold drinks because I hate drinking warm water or any other beverage warm.

3. Microwave 

This is an obvious one as you need to be able to warm up leftovers from home or food taken from the school cafeteria. It is also used to heat up tea. I personally don’t know what I would do without one as I needed it to heat up a lot of leftovers, along with helping out my friends on my floor who didn’t have one!

4. Printer and Laptop 

If you’re a night owl like I am, you will certainly need a printer as it makes life a lot easier than traveling to the library on campus to go print out assignments, especially late at night. I learned after my freshman year that there was a cap on the number of pages I could print in a semester at 100, so I decided to get a printer after that and was very pleased with it since I would run out of pages being a creative writing major halfway through the semester or less. Many other majors require a lot of writing, so you could very well need a printer. I noticed that having a printer really saved me a lot of time from walking to the library and back, and if you are on a huge campus where everything is so far away, then it is even more necessary.

Having a laptop is an obvious one because you need the laptop to print homework, study guides, or reading materials. You also need it to send emails to professors and submit assignments. A laptop is also essential to watch movies or browse the web to watch funny YouTube videos or do online work.

5. Bluetooth Speaker

What would we do without music in our lives? A speaker brightens up the room and it is nice to be playing music when having some friends over in the room or throwing a small party. Even when alone in my dorm I would use my speaker to blast music because it is life to me. Having some downtime and playing some music in the free time I had left was relaxing and it even helped when I had to do homework or study. I hear from some friends in college that Jazz really helps them focus on the goals at hand and in studying or doing work.

6. Extension Cords/Power Strip

What more is there to say for this one? Extension cords help power the objects in the room to charge your laptop, phone, printer, and other technology. Without it, a lot of the elements in the room would not even work. A power strip is also more helpful because it is safer and has more outlets for it.

7. Posters

Posters help brighten up the room and give it some personality. A lot of the time I would hang up pictures of my favorite players in the NBA or cool art around. Nobody really wants to sit and stare at empty white walls all day, so posters help out a lot and absorb some of the noise from neighbors, which I wished it actually did or help the noise not radiate out of the room. There is also a lot of variety as you can hang up whatever you want whether it is of models, celebrities, athletes, family or friends, and more.

P.S.: Also make sure to bring some extra laundry detergent or my favorite: Tide Pods. These seven essential items will surely help make your move-in day a lot easier and make you feel right at home.

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