If You Don't Want Your Dorm To Feel Like A Prison Cell, Here Are The 10 Things You'll Need

Moving into a dorm room can be overwhelming and a shock. When you walk into your dorm room, you see a bland, empty, and sad room. Since this will be your safe-space for the year, you want to make sure you have the necessities to be comfortable. As a freshman myself, I can understand the confusion on what is actually necessary for your first time away from home. The things you need to move in are unclear and not always clear, and packing lists lack in detail. From experience, here are 10 things a freshman can easily forget if they are moving in, but are essentials.

1. Pictures

Since it will be your first time far away from home, you want to make sure you have pictures of your friends and family hung up all around your room. This is a nice way to have a connection with home while you are far from those people.

2. Extension cords 

Living in a dorm, the plugs can be very far away from the convenient places. Every plug will need an extension cord to make sure that your chargers and lamps can plug into the right places.

3. Extra drawers

The amount of storage in every typical dorm room is not enough for a person to hold their clothes. Putting drawers under your bed will make much more room for storage. Pro tip: if you lift your bed up on risers you can double the number of drawers under your bed.

4. Snack clips 

If you buy bags of chips or popcorn, you want to buy bag clips to make sure you can finish them later without them going stale.

5. Planner

Although this isn't a room essential, this is very useful for all students. Work can pile on more than it did in high school, and making sure that you keep organized is the way to keep on top of it. Having a planner makes you keep track of when assignments are coming up.

6. Comfy slippers 

When you want to run to the bathroom or to a friends room, you aren't going to want to tie shoes or put on boots. Having a pair of slippers to be able to slip on when you're in a rush is a great way to quickly get out.

7. An Amazon Prime account

Like any college student, you will be randomly told that you have a themed party coming up in the next few days. If you want to dress up well, you can amazon prime anything to your dorm to make sure it comes in time. Quick delivery time is the key to making sure you have what you need.

8. Reusable water bottle

Buying plastic water bottles in bulk can get extremely expensive, so having a reusable water bottle to bring to different water fountains around campus can help avoid this splurge of money. Also, it's better for the environment!

9. Blackout shades

This is the best way to make sure that you can get in naps during your hours of choice. If you don't want to buy blackout shades, a sleep mask is a simple alternative to make sure you get your shut-eye.

10. Fans

Some dorms have air condition, but if they don't it can get very hot in the summer. Keeping fans in your room can make sure that it can be tolerable. If they do have AC, you still want air circulation in your cluttered area. Even having a small fan to make sure that the air can move around can help your health.