College Dorm Room Essentials on a Budget ~ Our 10 Best Tips After Setting Up Our Two Students
Can you actually assemble all the best college dorm room essentials on a budget? Yes! After helping our two college kids prepare over these last two years we have experience and tips. Our suggestions will try and balance all the practicalities of dorm living AND bring personality, functionality and a sense of home, too.
Moving into a Dorm Room means getting a lot of Back to School stuff you didn’t think you’d need or maybe even considered at all. It also carries with it higher stress and stakes than elementary and high school B2S usually did (Unless you were moving into Hogwarts).
For the better part of the last 12+ years, back to school has meant binders and backpacks, paper and pens and clothing. It wasn’t cheap, but it was predictable and if something was forgotten, it could be picked up immediately after the first day.
Enter Dorm room living.
There is a good chance that all of the above stuff I just listed will still be needed, however there will also be a whole other room or two that you will now be outfitting. And as a parent, if you or your kid forgets something, you may not know about it until you are already far away from home.
What other complexities does dorm B2S bring?
- You probably will be moving everything in one vehicle – that vehicle will also have to seat a human or two, so packing smartly as well as choosing collapsible/flat-pack things is important
- The dorm room isn’t yours forever! You will need to return it unscathed after the school year, so forget making holes in the walls, painting it or, in some cases, even adding LED lights or other personality to the space.
- You will likely have a tight window to move in. There are dozens/hundreds/thousands of families all doing the same moving that you will be doing in a tiny window of time. Schools are very good at coordinating this, but know that you will likely only get an hour or less in the move-in window to unload your car and get stuff inside.
- Oh, and you are on a budget. We very much expected school to be expensive. We knew regular back to school was costly, but for whatever reason, we didn’t consider that Dorm Back to School to be exponentially more so. Maybe sticker shock after Tuition and Residence fees made us cost-blind to all the other dollars and cents…
So yes, Dorm Move-In is a perfect storm of Back to School, Moving Day and Extreme Home Makeover: Don’t-Mess-Stuff-Up-Too-Much Edition. We’ve done it in back-to-back years now and are here to share all the mistakes, tips and must-haves that we’ve learned about along the way.
We caution against many of the IG/TikTok hacks out there. Every school has their own rules for what you can do with your space, but in general, expect most of them to be along the lines of “No, you can’t do that”:
- You can’t put holes in the walls to hang things.
- You can’t bring extra chairs or furniture pieces.
- You often can’t bring appliances like coffemakers, etc.
The real world also has evacuation safety, fire code and general roommate relationship maintenance to keep in mind too.
So, what should the typical Dorm dweller expect?
- A room with a bed, desk and closet space, plus an institutional overhead light
- A bathroom with a sink, toilet and shower – all to yourself, if you’re lucky, otherwise…
- Maybe having to share the above with one or more other people
Enough preamble – let’s get to the list of awesome stuff!
College Dorm Room Essentials on a Budget ~ Our 10 Best Tips After Setting Up Two
Dorm Rooms are Noisy – Noise Cancelling Items Can Protect Roommate Relationships
- Noise Cancelling Headphones
- Just like good fences make good neighbours, good headphones help reduce roommate conflict both in keeping your noise to yourself AND blocking out what comes from the other person/people in your space.
- These are affordable and our sound sensitive son used them with success
- Noise Cancelling Ear Plugs
- There is a good chance that roommates will be on different sleep/study schedules and having a pair of earplugs can facilitate this when there’s a party going on elsewhere in the dorm too.
- Our daughter and Robin use these to sleep every night.
Good Sleep is Essential for Success and Happiness
- Good Quality Pillows can make most beds comfy.
- Our daughter raves about these ones.
- Queen Size Sheets fit Twin XL beds and are more useful after dorm
- <old, grizzled prospector voice> Kids are tall these days! Many residences are providing longer Twin XL beds to accommodate this.
- If you don’t have any other Twin XL beds in your life, just get a Queen set.
- Our son has these and they are so soft and very affordable.
- Sunrise Alarm Clock
- Who knows what direction your windows will face and when all your classes will be. Get an alarm clock that wakes you up gradually and start your day on the right foot.
- Added bonus – many of these style clocks also have white-noise options to help with roommate noise/sleep issues.
- Our daughter has this one and she swears by it.
Storage is Essential – Make Sure it’s Portable
Storage. Your student will move with a bunch of stuff and then acquire more over the year, so storage and a system to keep on top of things like laundry, books, tech cables etc etc is one of the best gifts you can set them up with.
- Collapsible Cube Storage
- Adaptable to the space in your car when flat and dorm room when assembled.
- These are great – we will be able to reuse them for many years!
- Collapsible Fabric Bins
- Collapsibe fabric bins fit perfectly in the cubes above, or anywhere to help keep things in order in the often open-concept dorm storage/closets. Great for storing socks, underwear, etc
- These bins look great too!
- Hangers
- what everyone forgets! These take up very little space – Seriously, there is a run on these things at every Dollar Store and Walmart within 10 minutes of a school residence on move in weekend.
- We like these a lot – they’re affordable and slim so they take up little room to pack or in the closet
- Folding table for bedside
- We have yet to have a dorm room that has a bedside table! So bringing a collapsible one is super helpful.
- It’s little stuff like this that help make a dorm more practical and keep bedside stuff, like the clock and ear plugs, at the ready for sleep!
- These are nice looking and affordable and could be used for years to come!
Decorating is Important – but don’t lose your deposit
The room will look like a sad bachelor box. Lighting options – minimal. Paint colour – Industrial drab. Personality – bland/nonexistent. Your student’s room should be welcoming, cozy and reflect them – especially when living away from home and meeting all new friends for perhaps the first time ever.
- String Lights – with clips for photos and art
- String lights make instant ambiance and these copper ones have little clips for adding even more personality to their room.
- Our daughter absolutely loved these.
- Command Decorating Clips and Strips
- The gold standard in hanging stuff up and leaving no evidence behind. Quick to install, spotless to remove on move out and strong enough to hold pretty much anything (seriously, we have hung large, framed art from these)
- These clips are great for lights.
- Mounting Putty for Posters
- Putty is great to protect the walls when you hang up posters. Just make sure it’s NOT BLUE. This was a rookie mistake and yes, there are all sorts of hacks to remove the blue stains that the blue putty can leave behind, but wouldn’t it be nice to not have to do that?
- Neutral, primer-colour putty like this one is your best bet
Cozy Lighting Feels like Home – and Dorm Lighting is Terrible
Dorm room lighting is awful. It’s usually a single ceiling fixture that’s either way too bright or way to dim. It makes the room feel sterile and decidedly not homey. Good lighting makes so much difference to how you feel – make sure you have warm cozy lights!
- Clip on Light for Headboard
- Late night cramming or just bedtime reading is made better with a simple light on the bed.
- Make sure it has warm light – it’s more calming.
- Maybe even encourages less phone blue light too!
- This one is affordable and cute.
- Desk Lamp
- Self explanatory, as above.
- This one has a clamp option and is cute and classic.
- Don’t forget warm light bulbs!
Tech Support
Power! More POWER! Lots of Dorms out there were built before every single thing we owned needed to plug in or recharge. The more power bars with cords and outlet muti-taps, the better.
- Surge Protector Power Bar with USB plugs & long cord.
- The power outlets will likely be in good spots, but what if they aren’t? And what if there aren’t enough? (Spoiler – there won’t be).
- We have a few of these and they’re fantastic.
- Multi Plug Outlet Splitter
- Even if the outlet is in the right spot, having something like this can mean reducing the number of USB charging cable cubes you need or give you access to side-facing outlets for narrow spaces.
- You can’t go wrong with this one.
- Network Cable.
- There is a good chance there is Wi-Fi in the dorms and every device is Wi-Fi now, right? Sure, but ask any serious connectivity person about reliability and nothing beats a hard wire.
- Bring a couple lengths and you will never have to worry about dropping a signal during a big term paper.
- Big Monitor with multiple HDMI ports
- Hear me out – monitors like this can do triple duty as a computer/laptop display for multi-window work, a gaming screen for connecting consoles AND a movie/tv show screen for binge watching and relaxing when the work is done.
- This one is a good price and well reviewed.
Personal Safety
- Personal Safety Alarm
- We got this one for our daughter when we realized she’d be walking at night alone.
- Campuses are generally well lit, patrolled and have security call boxes, but you’ll sleep even better as a parent if you have gone the extra, extra safety mile.
Safe Cooking Equipment
Not all dorms allow cooking or small appliances – so be sure to check the rules. Our kids had a kitchenette that they shared with a roommate – so our packing list was LONG to equip a kitchen. This seems pretty rare – so we won’t share the whole list, just these helpful items.
- Electric Kettle – with auto shutoff
- School often runs on caffeine and ramen. Having a kettle means quick, cheap meals and drinks (including healthier options like oatmeal and tea) are always available.
- Our son used this one and really liked it.
- Portable Induction Cooktop
- if you are allowed a cooking option, one of these is the fastest, safest and most flexible thing you can get. Pan and pot cooked meals, unlocked!
- Our kids had great success with this one.
- Affordable Induction Cooking Pots
- Don’t forget induction burners need particular pots to work.
- Our son used this affordable set and the quality was really good.
Medications
This might be the first time your child is away from home and has to manage their own illnesses. It’s so tough! You can make it a bit easier on everyone by making sure you leave them with the basic medications they could need. Here’s our list:
- Ibuprophen (Advil)
- Acetominophen (Tylenol)
- Benadryl
- Immodium
- Gaviscon and/or Tums
- Cold Medicine
- Sore Throat Lozenges and/or cough drops
Easy Cleaning Supplies
- They will likely have to clean over the next year – ha! You hope they do anyway. Increase the chances that they do by supplying them with the easiest supplies to get the job done. We suggest:
- Swiffer Dusters
- Toilet Wand and Refills
- Cleaning wipes
If your student does have a roommate, hopefully the school provides a way to get in touch with them ahead of time so you can plan to pool resources for the bathroom. Arriving day one with four toilet brushes but no bath mat or shower curtain is not a good start.
Have we missed anything? Let us know if you have a Dorm must have!
More Back to School tips and tricks:
Robin and Ed are a DIY-loving couple with over 25 years of design and build experience. Also, Robin is a Nutritionist and former Registered Dietitian and Ed is an award-winning Business Educator. We share strategies for living a rich life on a DIY budget: creative money-savvy ideas for a stylish home, healthy meals and family fun. Our work has been published in the pages of Do It Yourself, Farmhouse Style and Better Homes & Gardens magazines.
