Being a freshman is hard enough without the added struggle of trying to figure out what to buy for a dorm room. This guide will walk residents through what items are essential to survival in the dorms, and which items are definitely not worth bringing, if residents haven’t already bought them. 

To bring…

There are a few items that are absolutely essential for dorm living. First up, shower shoes. Speaking firsthand, the showers in the dorms can be gross, especially if you have communal bathrooms. Nobody wants to get athlete’s foot. Investing in good shower shoes — especially those with holes in the bottom — is going to be very important in ensuring that nothing gross comes in contact with students’ bare feet. 

Going along with shower shoes, the floors in the dorm buildings can also be gross, which is why slippers or slides are necessary. Students need to have something that they can easily slide on to go to the bathroom, walk to the vending machine or leave the building when the fire alarm will inevitably go off. 

The next thing students should bring is often overlooked, and that is a full-size trash can.

Students are adults, not toddlers. A small trash can will not be enough to accommodate all the trash that accumulates in a college dorm room. Unless residents want to spend an unnecessary amount of time taking trash out, get a full size trash can to put in the room. 

Next up is a laundry basket with straps or wheels. The laundry rooms in the dorms are on the first floor, and many dorms have as many as six or seven floors. Even though there is an elevator, it is extremely helpful to have wheels on a laundry basket or backpack straps to make carrying laundry down to the laundry room much easier. 

Moving on to sleeping in the dorms, students need a mattress topper. The beds provided by the school are not comfortable at all. Some sort of topper to put over the mattress will make it less firm. A lot of time will be spent in bed, so it’s really important that this spot is somewhere residents can actually fall asleep. Being well-rested and ready to succeed in college requires comfort and sleep, so skipping out on a mattress topper is not a good idea. 

A whiteboard may not seem like an essential item, but socially it definitely is. Making friends in the dorms will be much easier if there is a place for people to write their contact information or certain messages. Having a whiteboard on the outside of the door is a great way to make friends with the people on the same floor, or communicate with roommates with different schedules. 

A kitchen appliance that is great to have is a kettle. People tend to only think of a kettle as a tool for heating water for drinks, but it can be used for so much more. Students can use the hot water to make ramen, oatmeal, soup, instant mashed potatoes and so much more. 

Lastly, and arguably the most important item, is a first aid kit. College students are notorious for carrying around various illnesses. It is probable that residents will get sick many times during the first year in college, especially living in the dorms. This is why having a first aid kit with things like cough medicine, cough drops, bandages, allergy medicine, etc. is going to be essential to making it through the year, especially if one is unable to make it off campus to purchase the medicine they need at that moment.

This definitely seems like a lot of items, but it is important to remember that a majority of these can be reused throughout college, not just this year. Investing in these items early on will make next year’s move much less expensive. What can students do if they can’t afford these items? At the end of each school year, the Office of Sustainability normally hosts a donation drive called ‘Don’t Throw it Away’, where students can donate their gently used dorm or household items for students that cannot afford to purchase them for the upcoming school year. Students can contact the office of sustainability at sustainability@appstate.edu in order to inquire about receiving some of these items. In addition to this, Goodwill and other thrift stores are a great option to get some of these items for a lower price point. Lastly, reaching out to friends or family members that previously lived in the dorms to see if they have any leftover items could be helpful as well. 

Not to bring…

Now that all the essentials have been discussed, it is time to go over what items students definitely do not need to bring. Anything that is a waste of time, space or money is not worth bringing. 

First up is a drying rack. Space is one of the most important things in a dorm room, and the amount of space students have is limited. A drying rack will just take up space in the room, so unless it can be folded up so as to not take up any space, do not bring it. While on the topic of space, students should only bring the clothes that they need to wear for that season. It is likely residents will go home multiple times throughout the semester, and clothing can be swapped out as the seasons change. If students bring all their clothes, there will likely not be closet space for anything else. 

Another thing that is a waste of money is a printer. Students can print for only 10 cents a page in the library, so it is not worth having a printer in the room. Printers also take up so much space in the room that could be used for other items. Unless students know that they are going to be printing an obscene amount of papers, skip the printer. 

Back to the concept of saving space, this applies to refrigerator space in addition to room space. A Brita pitcher takes up a lot of space in the fridge and makes it difficult for residents to store leftover food and groceries. If set on having a Brita, opt for the Brita water bottle instead of the pitcher. Students can fill up their water bottles at the filling station which is normally on every floor, so having a water bottle with the filter already on it saves time and space in the fridge. In addition, the refillable stations in the dorm buildings are already filtered, so residents do not have to worry about that issue while in the building. 

The final tip for what not to bring that will save students a lot of energy is duplicates of items. Communication with roommates is the single most important thing students can do to set