Updated 2024
Although most schools offer dorm room ideas and guidelines on what to do and bring to your College dorm, there are some universal tips we have only learned from experience.
Here are 7 don’ts (and do’s) for your dorm that no one thinks about but you definitely should. You won’t find them on any College website but they may save you from a dorm room disaster.
THAT’S NOT ALL, we’ll also be including tons of inspirational ideas on what TO DO to your dorm including must have College essentials, best Amazon finds, dorm room hacks, and how to get all of the trendy aesthetics like:
- the TikTok Mood Room
- Vine Room
- Boho
- College Dorm Room Ideas for Guys
- lighting effects for every budget
- and the best kitchen ideas!
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1. DON’T Loft Your Bed IF…
Many students love loft beds because they are raised allowing you to have a whole other space under your bed you can use for an office, kitchen, living room, or just extra storage.
GET THIS DORM LOOK
While loft beds may come standard in some dorms (check with your school), others give you the option of renting one for an additional fee per semester (usually $100-$150).
You can also purchase bed risers like these to create extra room and storage under your standard bed.
While risers and lofting beds are all the rage online for dorm room design and decor, before you jump to get one, there are SERIOUS factors you need to consider:
- ARE YOU GOING TO COLLEGE IN EARTHQUAKE COUNTRY?
When an earthquake hits you could get seriously hurt jumping or falling out of bed especially if you’re not used to them.
Take it from L.A. natives, earthquakes usually strike in the middle of the night or early morning when everyone is asleep.
When you awaken abruptly to violent shaking you have no time to think and your first instinct is usually to get up and run.
You may forget you’re in a high loft bed and fall out of it, if you do remember and use the ladder, you could slip and fall from the shaking and adrenaline.
Even if you ride out the earthquake in bed you may be shaken out of it or worse, it could collapse.
- WHAT HAPPENS IF OR WHEN YOU GET SICK?
If God forbid you wake up :
- vomiting,
- get an ankle sprain,
- have the flu,
- or the runs,
would you really want to climb down the ladder to go to the bathroom? Is that even possible?
If you still want a lofted bed have in mind an alternative temporary sleeping arrangement such as a couch/futon, blow up mattress, or fold up cot in the event of illness, earthquake, or injury.
- IF YOU’RE PETITE, even the lowest bed raisers can impact your ability to get in and out of bed.
We had small 6 inch bed raisers for a year and once we stopped using them, we were so much happier but a step stool may be all you need.
2. DON’T Transport Furniture To Your Freshman Dorm…
Although it’s tempting to bring free hand me down or second hand furniture, It’s no longer worth the hassle, moving costs, or risk of injury to transport it to your new dorm room.
There are now soo many CHEAP (starting at $17), multifunctional, compact, and light weight furniture options (like the ones above) you can order online and have shipped right to your dorm. They come in multiple sizes, heights, colors, and styles to fit any boys or girls dorm room or lofted bed, and come with options like built in USB ports, outlets, and mood lights. They can store everything from TVs, clothes, and even refrigerators/microwaves. Best of all they can easily be disassembled and reused, or thrown away.
Some even come preassembled, while others require light assembly.
You don’t have to compromise style or aesthetic and this furniture will work for both boys and girls and in even the fanciest of dorms (Hello Ole Miss!).
Be sure to check with student housing on what furniture will be included in your dorm room (desk, chest of drawers, bed etc) before purchasing furniture online. Make sure to check dimensions (height, width, depth) of furniture before purchasing, and whether your dorm room permits electrical strips/surge protectors.
CLICK HERE FOR OTHER NIGHTSTANDS YOU’LL LOVE
COLLAPSIBLE NIGHTSTANDS AND DRESSERS:
COMPACT VANITY DESK WITH HIDDEN STOOL
WHY WE LOVE IT: This multifunctional vanity is compact, has a lighted mirror inside, a pull out seat with hidden storage, and plenty of compartments to store make up, parfume, skincare, and even your lap top. It closes up to save space and keep your valuables out of sight. It can also double as a desk. We have it in our small bedrooms and LOVE it.
3. DON’T Decorate Dorm Room Walls With Heavy Shelves and Framed Photos, Use Trendy Light Weight Poster Prints, Lights, Contact Paper, Instead.
Heavy framed photos, wall hangings, nick knacks, or bookcases over your bed require you to punch holes in the wall to hang and could fall and injure you.
Use command hooks or tape to safely hang lights, pictures, frames and decorations, they come in all sizes and many can hold as much as 7 lbs.
If you’re accident prone or your dorm is in earthquake country, be sure to purchase Quakehold Museum Putty to safely secure nick knacks to shelves and walls.
It works, is cheap, reuseable, and comes in putty, gel, or wax.
You don’t have to fear waking up to a book or picture frame hitting your head especially when you have so many cuter options for wall decor!
You can opt for trendy posters or prints above your bed instead!
They will not only be safer but cuter and so much easier to hang up (use double stick or regular scotch tape).
Put up a wall of flowers with a light weight neon light for picture worthy dorm room wall decor and aesthetic (as pictured above)!
Make a cozy VSCO masterpiece dorm with lights, post cards, and wall stickers Pictured below!
A lot of cute neon light signs like the Thunderbolt and Cloud above can be found for cheap.
Neon lights will give a calming and cozy effect to your first dorm apartment.
The colorful lights lining the ceiling (above) are remote controlled and can be synced up to music.
Use a Star Projector to project a star lit galaxy onto your walls and ceiling instantly without any effort or mess. This Star Projector, wildly popular on tik tok, is cheap, comes with blue tooth speakers and can be synced to music.
Make a photo wall of all of your loved ones pictures to gaze at when you get home sick.
Try light boho macrome wall hangings and even flowers!
Beg Grandma to make you this stylish yet useful Boho wall hanging.
SOURCE : Pinterest.com
4. DON’T HANG VINES OR LIGHTS IF YOU’RE AFRAID OF BUGS…
Trendy vines and lights may be an insanely cute and cozy dorm room decor idea but you may want to rethink them if you are afraid of bugs.
Many dorms have bug infestations. When you have thousands of students travelling from all over the world, bugs often hitch a ride in boxes and suitcases.
Untidy students may leave food and garbage around especially during finals or flu season making the problem even worse.
Vines and lights give bugs like spiders and roaches a nice place to crawl and hide that’s close to your head, and the instability of vines make it easy for bugs to fall on you…YES it’s happened to us!
If just reading this is getting you creeped out then skip the decoration altogether OR consider doing some of the following:
- jiggle the vines/lights every week or so since bugs love to make their home in undisturbed areas
- consider placing decorations on another wall away from your bed, desk, and ESPECIALLY windows (bugs love them)
- regularly dust and clean the vines and your dorm
- cover food and take out trash frequently
EVERYONE should invest in these items to keep bugs at bay:
- a vacuum to suck up food, dust, and bugs
- Tupperware food storage containers
- a mattress protector
- bug spray (like Raid etc) and/or bug repellent for fake plants
5. DON’T Leave Your Belongings Unsecured and in Plain View…
Call us paranoid “Big City” girls, but lets face it, most Colleges are in big cities.
It’s not uncommon for students in dorm halls to leave their dorm room doors open especially when they’re trying to connect with fellow students and make friends.
No matter how nice everyone seems, there’s always a risk of theft. Not just from fellow students but personnel and guests.
Don’t store valuables in plain view on top of desks, dressers, counters, or beds. Leaving your ipad or laptop on top of your desk will make it an easy target for a thief to quickly swipe.
You can use a small safe, locking furniture, or a secretary desk (some even come with a lock), so valuables will be out of sight.
Secretary desks have a closing door making it easy to not only clean up in a pinch, but hide away your valuable electronics, and jewelry when you have guests. They’re compact and can also make a great nightstand between two beds.
At the very least store your valuables and electronics in a drawer or someplace out of sight.
…And please do away with the open jewelry displays, even if your jewelry is from Forever 21, it’ll still attract potential thieves.
The over the door vanity pictured above is the ultimate space saver secured with a lock and key! It can hold a TON of stuff including nail polish, make up, skincare, hair accessories, jewelry and even electronics or medication! You can hang it over the door of your dorm room or secure it to the wall of a small bedroom. You can find it here on amazon.
6. DON’T Rely Solely on Paper Plates, Cups, and Utensils…
You can run through paper plates and cups pretty fast and accumulate trash quickly. Not to mention you’ll keep having to run to the store.
A steel water bottle or tumbler can preserve your hot or cold beverage for longer, is portable, reusable, indestructible, all while allowing you to store water in your tiny fridge.
Also be sure to bring atleast one reuseable bowl or plate and set of utensils or chop sticks. You can get these at most dollar stores.
Reserve your paper plates, cups, and utensils for times when you’re sick, lazy, or midterm cramming.
7. DON’T Leave Your Printer At Home…
When you look on most College websites they suggest not bringing your own printer because there are a lot of accessible printers you can use for free on campus.
While we do agree you should take advantage of the free prints your college offers, we still think you should bring along a printer for emergencies.
For instance, printers get super busy around midterms and finals so there may be a wait to use the printers.
If you want to make a last minute change to your paper or you pushed your assignment to the last minute, you may not have time to spare.
Also what if you’re sick and want to do some work in bed and print out your assignment so someone else can drop it off to your instructor? It’ll be more convenient.
If you reserve your personal printer for these instances you may be able to get by with only one cartridge a semester, a year, or more.
8. DON’T Rule Out Bringing A Pot Or Pan
Will you want a break from the typical, often unhealthy microwaveables?
We’re sure Mom won’t mind if you take one of her frying pans just make sure it’s PFOA free and non stick so you don’t need butter or oil. We have the GreenPan Studio Cookware/frying pans pictured above. They’re the safest pans on the market, long lasting, non stick, and oven safe for up to 600 degrees. They’re also light weight and super easy to clean.
For a short list of other safe appliances that would be useful for your dorm click here.
9. DON’T Forget Your College Dorm Room Essentials
COPY THIS EXACT DORM ROOM KITCHEN LOOK:
Have you decided on a dorm room kitchen?
Don’t be fooled by those mini refrigerators, they can store a ton of food saving you a ton of money.
Does your dorm room have a bright window? Will you need shutters or black out curtains to block out the light and outside noise? We have them in our bedrooms and we sleep so much better!
This may not seem like a necessity but it is to women: Do you have a full length mirror?
What about an iron, t.v., fan, or microwave?
Do you have band aids, medicine, a thermometer, and heating pad? You could raid the nurses station at college but you may want to have a small stash of your own.
How about a robe and slippers for after you shower or to avoid walking on the dirty floors?
Think of the must haves you’ll need to survive and thrive everyday.
To help you with this, Amazon Prime is offering college students a 6 month free trial with no purchase necessary and a steep discount on their monthly service there after. You not only get two day or less shipping for free, but access to thousands of movies and t.v. shows as well as music.
10. Don’t Freak Out If You Forget Something
Don’t be scared to ask a fellow dormie if you can borrow whatever it is you forgot. It’s a great way to make friends and you can even offer to lend them something in return.
With Amazon Prime whatever you need can be shipped to you within 2 days (sometimes same day)
Be sure to keep a list of the things you forgot to bring but needed so you’ll remember to bring them next semester.
We hope these dorm room ideas and tips enhance your college experience! They’re definitely great things to consider while you’re planning the big move.
If you have any questions or additions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below or contact us.
Love,
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