Going to college is a big step in any young person’s life. This ‘big move’ requires some pre-planning to make sure that you are bringing the right amount of stuff with you to your dorm (assuming you live in a dorm and most first year 4 year college students do).

The university will provide you with a room which is commonly shared with other students and may have a connecting bathroom or it may use a ‘floor bathroom’ which is shared with other students. Some dorms may offer several housing options including ‘study dorms’, ‘athlete dorms’, ‘all male dorms’, ‘all female dorms’ or just mix everyone with each other. If you’re like most students at school you will be sharing a room with one other student.

Residence halls will provide you with a dorm bed and a desk and a closet. The beds are typically extra long twin sizes that measure 39 x 80 inches versus a normal twin that measures 39 x 75. The beds are typically institutional in nature so be sure to bring extra bedding to make the hard and stiff dorm mattress more like home. Typically many students enjoy adding a thick mattress topper like featherbeds and fiberbeds which are thick and mattress pads for protection and lighter comfort.

The desk provided by the university has a chair and will be your area for doing homework and of course plenty of Tweets and Facebook updates to your friends and family. Many students like to bring storage cubes to compliment the closet and occasional built in drawers. Stackable milk crate style bins are the most flexible and can be used for shoes, food and any other smaller item you wish to keep organized.

Some dorm packing essentials aside from your clothes and bath essentials include snacks of all kinds. Living in the dorms can be tough on your diet with way too many unhealthy choices like pizza and fried foods. So the key for a healthy dorm room is to have several kinds of snacks including nuts, dried fruits and cereal bars. Dried fruit snacks are a great choice because you don’t need to have a refrigerator and they can be tossed in your backpack for classroom munchies. Nuts are a great choice because they not only provide healthy fiber but also helpful brain nutrients.

Although most dorms provide a common kitchen area with microwave stations and sinks – you will want to try and bring your own mini fridge to keep leftovers and of course beverages nice and cold. Please note that most dorm fridge’s can be slightly on the louder than expected side so try and find one marketed as ultra quiet. You will also want to make note that the mini freezer on the fridges is small – so don’t stock up or bring frozen things. Short of ice – there will not be room for too much more so plan accordingly for your dorm room.

Dorms are notorious for being too cold or too warm – so make sure to bring bedding that is layered. You will want to have a lightweight dorm blanket plus a medium weight dorm comforter (down is great because it is physically light in weight – but keeps you naturally warm with your own body heat and of course breathes really well). You will also want to make sure to have multiple sets of twin xl sheets – we advise to have three sets – one on the bed, one in the hamper and one just in case.