21 Essentials You NEED To Buy For Your Dorm Room!
Going shopping for your dorm room but you are not sure what essentials to buy?
Essentials for a dorm room include meal prep containers, mattress topper, foldable drying rack, phone card holder, student planner, bathroom shower tote, floor fan, shower shoes, bluetooth speaker, travel mug, travel hair dryer, cute tapestry, plastic under bed storage containers, kettle, foldable laundry hamper, elasticised towel, mini sandwich toaster, extra long charging cable, hand held vacuum cleaner, starry string photo lights, space saving clothes hangers and many more.
Continue reading to find out all the dorm room essentials you need to buy and where to get them all for a reasonable price!
1. Glass Meal Prep Containers
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This might seem like an unusual dorm room essential at first but still let me convince you why meal prep containers are an absolute must have for college students living in dorms!
Have you ever wanted a snack late at night but you ended up not getting anything because the communal dining area/kitchen was such as long walk away?
Pretty much having meal prep containers with snacks stored in your room’s mini fridge is the perfect solution as then you can have food within arms reach. In addition to these containers being great for storing snacks, you can also prepare your lunch meals a few days ahead and have them stored in your fridge ready to go for the next day. This will allow you to have much more time to get ready in the morning without the stress of preparing your food!
While you could go for plastic meal prep containers, glass ones are even better as they are a higher quality, microwave safe and also let you reduce your plastic usage!
Read Also: How To Create An Awesome Meal Plan As A Student!
You Might Be Interested In: Printable Meal Planner & Shopping List
2. Mattress Topper
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The mattress in your dorm room has probably been around for longer than you! When you think about it like that it’s pretty disgusting not to forget to mention also lumpy and uncomfortable!
To ensure a good night’s sleep every night in your dorm room I highly recommend that you invest in a mattress topper. It doesn’t have to be anything too expensive but if you are going to splurge on anything for your dorm room, this would be it!
The mattress topper that I have suggested above is quite reasonably priced but you can also find ones much cheaper and also much more expensive! Just before buying make sure you are getting the right size as all dorm rooms have different sized beds!
3. Foldable Drying Rack
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Many people forget about the chores they have full responsibility over now while living at a dorm room, especially laundry. While your dorm room may have drying racks that can be shared, having your own personal one for your room is a good idea so you can make sure no one “borrows” your clothes from the communal drying rack. It is probably a good idea to split the cost of ones of these with your dorm room share mate.
4. Phone Card Holder
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Another slightly random dorm room essential is a phone card holder. Many colleges have a system where student ID cards are used for everything including payments and for meals. You don’t always want to be carrying a full wallet around campus, so one of these sticky phone card holders is a good idea as everyone always has their phone with them!
5. Student Planner
While this digital student planner for iPad is not technically a dorm room essential, it is definitely a student essential as you need to stay organised to keep on top of your grades!
For anyone who is an iPad or tablet user or anyone who wants to become a paperless student I highly recommend trying out ones of these over using a traditional paperback diary. Why?
Because not only will you be reducing your paper usage (very good for the environment!) but you will also be able to re-use this planner year in and year out as it is undated (meaning it is organised by months but not date is assigned to the days – you fill it the dates yourself!) and you will be able to have all your plans digitally across your devices (if you use iCloud or an equivalent online saving system) meaning you go plan on the go!
Not only that, this digital student planner has heaps of bonus pages that are perfect for students such as:
- Note taking pages
- Pomodoro study tracker template
- Birthday tracker
- Habit trackers
- Goal Planner
- Homework Tracker
- Exam Prep Tracker
- Grade Tracker
- + many more great pages!
6. Plastic Bathroom Shower Tote
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Most college accomodation has some sort of communal or shared bathroom or shower area. That is why a plastic bathroom shower tote come in handy as it will allow you to carry all your bathroom essentials to the shower in one go. You will never forget to bring your shampoo or favourite body scrub again! Also one of these shower totes will help you keep all of your bathroom items neatly organised and easy to access in comparison to multiple vanity bags.
7. A Fan (Especially If You Don’t Have Air Conditioning)
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In summer months a small dorm room can become quite hot and stuffy. That is why a small floor fan is a good idea to keep the air circulating in your room and too keep you and your friends cool!
8. Shower Shoes That You Can Also Wear Outside
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You have to wear shoes when using communal showers at your dorm, just basic hygiene. But what most people don’t think about is that you can buy trendy and stylish shower shoes that you can also wear outside and on other occasions such as slides! This is a good money saving tip and also space saving idea as it will reduce the number of shoes you have to store in your room!
9. Bluetooth Speaker
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A bluetooth speaker is pretty self explanatory for why it is a dorm room essential. Get one to liven up your dorm room with music or take it to your next party!
10. Travel Mug
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Some kind of a travel mug with a lid is a dorm room essential so you can always have your favourite drink on your bedside table and also to prevent spills! The Iron Flask travel mug that I recommended above have a really cool range with a variety of gradient colour schemes with a stylish matte finish. You should totally check them out!
11. Travel Hair Dryer
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A travel hair dryer is a really handy thing to have in your dorm room as it is super compact and lightweight, making it easy to pack. You can use it for your hair or you can use it to dry small pieces of laundry such as underwear and socks.
12. A Cute Tapestry
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I think a cute tapestry is literally in every list for dorm room essentials and the reason is that it can really transform your dorm room into a unique space that is truly yours! Obviously the amount of decorating that you can do in a dorm room is limited and there are restrictions on putting nails into walls and other things that can damage the walls however a tapestry is one thing that is pretty safe and easy to hang up!
13. Plastic Drawers For Underbed Storage
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The amount of wardrobe and cupboard space in a dorm room is very limited so making use every little bit of space possible is a very good idea. One such space is under your bed where roll out plastic containers can be used. In these you could store the clothes you are currently wearing e.g. your winter clothes if it is summer or you could store your shoes.
14. Kettle
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If you are a tea or coffee fan (or an instant cup noodle fan), your own personal kettle is a definitely dorm room essential for you! This means that you can make yourself cups of tea/instant coffee when you get up straight away in the morning without having the venture out of your cozy room!
15. Foldable Laundry Hamper With Handles
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A foldable laundry hamper that has handles makes it so much easier to do your laundry than just struggling with piles of clothes in your hands. It keeps all your dirty clothes together in one place so you know what you have to clean and what you don’t and will also hopefully encourage you to do your laundry at least few times a week.
16. An Elasticised Towel That Won’t Fall Down
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To avoid embarrassing situations while walking around the bathrooms, consider getting an elasticised towel that will stay it place (hopefully!)
17. Mini Sandwich Toaster
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Not only are mini sandwich toasters super cute but they can also make you really quick and easy meals for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The compact size is perfect for the limited space in your dorm room and is also much cheaper than a full size sandwich press!
18. Extra Long Charging Cable
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Unfortunately in dorm rooms there aren’t always plenty of power outlets in convenient places. So if you like to use your phone while it is charging, I would suggest that you get a long charging cable.
19. Hand Held Vacuum Cleaner
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A handheld vacuum cleaner is a nifty little appliance that you could get for your college dorm room to keep it spick and span! It’s also a really handy appliance for cleaning a car as well if you have one!
20. Starry String Photo Lights
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In addition to a wall tapestry, starry string photo lights are a really cute decor item to put in your room. You can put cute polaroid photos of you and your friends on these string lights or photos of your family which could be a good idea if you are feeling homesick. Another bonus to this dorm room essential is that it will give your room so extra light at night time, supplementing the often poor lighting found in dorm rooms!
21. Space Saving Clothes Hangers
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As mentioned above, the amount of storage space in a dorm room is unfortunately very limited. One way to make the most of your space is to use space saving clothes hangers like the ones pictured above. These hangers have 5 holes that you can place normal coat hangers into, to hang them vertically. They are a pretty cool invention.
Further Reading
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