When it comes down to it, your college apartment or dorm simply needs to look cute if you want any bragging rights whatsoever. I mean yes, you want to live somewhere that feels like home, you want to impress your roommates and guests and you certainly want to improve the provided living quality in any way possible, but in reality, you can get crazy likes on a picture you post of a cute apartment. Unfortunately, accomplishing that is a lot easier said than done. There’s a whole process behind it.
Stage 1: The Pinterest Stage
Summer is young, going back to school seems crazy far away, and you are convinced that your apartment will be waaaaaaay better than your living arrangements last year. You start planning how to make your room the coolest, pinning every remotely cute idea you come across on the internet. Your excitement starts to build.
Stage 2: The “Being Cute is Expensive” Stage
Days keep passing and move-in day is at least on the horizon now. You start to think about cute decorations for your dorm and search the internet for tapestries, new pillows, new pictures, frames, new everything. Sadly, you reach the realization that new things are hella expensive and that you are, as they say, a broke college kid. So, just in case you win the lottery or something, you save everything to your cart, so that even though you didn’t buy it, it’s not really gone forever.
Stage 3: The “Where Does One Even go to Buy a Cutting Board?” Stage
Soon enough, reality sets in and you realize you’re heading back to big-girl world. Come September, you’re going to be making your own meals, needing your own dishes, cleaning everything, which means you’ll need actual stuff to do that – unfortunately, your mom won’t let you pack the kitchen to go. So, you start coordinating with your roommates and set off to buy boring, adult-y stuff.
Stage 4: The DIY Stage
Ya know, if Martha Stewart can do it, so can you. You’ve overcome the sad realization about how expensive the world is, so you decide if you can’t buy cute things, you’ll make them! Hundreds of tutorials later, and quite a mess in front of you, you realize that there is a reason why some people are professional decorators….and why some are not.
Stage 5: The “How the %!*# is Move-In a Week Away?" Stage
Crunch time! The essentials are what matter here, and you can’t forget school supplies, too. Go out, get your stuff, get home and pack. Time is of the essence.
Stage 6: The Car’s Maximum Weight Stage
“Yes, Dad. I really do need all of this at school.” “No, we can’t leave this behind.” “Dad!” “It will fit in the car, we’ll just move this here, turn this that way, and Mom can ride on the roof.”
Stage 7: The Having to Carry It in Stage
“Dad, why would you tell me to bring all this?!” “There are three flights of stairs, how am I supposed to carry all of this allllll the way up there?” “Ugh!”
And then, we all live happily ever after. The End.
