Dorm Room Move-In Essentials

By Timothy Hayes on July 6, 2015

Welcome to college. You’re done with the drudgery of high school and off to the school of your choice to pursue your degree and break out into the world.

Freshman year is an exciting, but also difficult, time. There are so many things to worry about. You’ll have to schedule orientation, meet with a counselor, get a class schedule done, finalize housing, and finally move in. That last one may bring more fear and worry than any others. You’ll be away from home, sometimes a jet ride or hours-long drive from your parents in a strange city with no friends living on your own. You need to be prepared. Hopefully, this can help you a bit.

When you get your dorm selected, contracts completed, and all the necessary preliminary material done, your university will likely send you a move-in checklist. Before you try to use any other resource, use that one. It’s made up of years of experience and lots of input from everyone who’s been in the dorm before you. Experience is the best teacher — the students and faculty who build those lists have been there and done that.

Now that you’ve got the basics that you’re going to need, I’d recommend something very important. Look at the local weather. This goes especially for someone travelling to another state like California to Massachusetts. If you don’t know what to expect, the shock of packing wrong can be miserable.

The National Weather Service can usually provide typical weather data for a specific area. This way you can see past trends in weather and prepare for it before you move in. That might mean an extra blanket or sweater if you’re moving to somewhere like Michigan (though one must wonder why you would) or shorts clear through October in California.

You don’t want to end up like this guy (image credited to the Boston Globe)

Next you want to make sure you’ve got a repair kit for everything, including you. You’re bound to break something this coming school year whether it’s a chair leg, your phone, or a heart so make sure you’ve got the necessary essentials for taking care of any of those.

Starting out with physical repairs, make sure you’ve got glue. Something like Gorilla Glue or E-6000 should do the trick. Both of these glues take some time to dry but are worth it in the end. Duct tape is an absolute must. If you can’t fix something with duct tape it’s not worth having in your life. Next is your personal repair kit. This should include a sewing kit, knowledge of how to use it, chocolate, a first aid kit, huggable stuffed animals or similar materials, and anything you need when you’ll be crushed by school and/or heartbreak.

(image courtesy of www.taproot.com)

Here’s something that no one will ever remind you to bring to school but you will need like nothing else: quarters. Quarters are gold to college students. They have infinite utility and value well beyond their promised 25 cents. These magical creatures power your washer, your dryer, get you a pop, and cover the tax on your off-campus purchases. Come with a bag of them. Something on the order of $20 worth should do. I kid you not. You will be amazed at how quickly quarters will disappear and just when you need them most.

Bring all the school supplies you’ll need with you before school starts. Buy them early and often over summer in your home town. School supplies in a college town are ridiculously overpriced. Buying them at home will help with that, but if you wait until just before school, you’ll get caught in the back-to-school “sales.” Stores actually hike prices temporarily and then drop them by some seemingly great percentage and pull in a bunch of people who don’t know any better.

So getting to an office or school supply store before those “sales” can help you get more for your money. The best time to shop for them is usually right after school lets out for the summer. That way the stores still have stock but they don’t need all of it so you can find bargains everywhere.

Over the next few weeks or months, pay attention to things you use often. If that thing is not ready to leave with you, you’ve leaving behind a very important item. That might be your camera, a book, or just a tool. The frequency with which you use an object is directly related to its utility. If you find yourself constantly using a certain bag or gadget, bring that with you. The simplest of things that you use daily can make the difference between functioning and falling behind.

Image via Siena College on flickr.com

Hopefully you freshmen have a wonderful, safe first year. Good luck to all of you.

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format