7 Things You Can Do Right Now to Spruce Up Your Dorm Room
Heading to college for the first time this fall? If you are about to move into a dorm room, know that it is an environment that will make socializing easy, but that it also a place that will be very sterile at first glance.
Want to personalize your new space? In this article, we’ll share seven tips that will help you make your dorm room reflect the person you are.
1) Buy a mini-fridge
Nothing is worse than warm beverages. NOTHING. As such, the very first thing you’ll want to do after moving in is to get a mini-fridge.
This will help keep any liquids ice-cold, and it will keep leftover pizza and other takeout foods in consumable shape for days after stowing it away.
2) Get a microwave
Mini-fridges might be great for keeping foods fresh for days at a time, but they aren’t too palatable when they are ice cold.
Solve this problem by having a microwave in your dorm room. Not only will they warm up the chilled pizza you have had in your fridge for three days, they will allow you to prepare ramen and other noodles as well.
3) Get a floor lamp/put up string lights
Let’s face it: the overhead florescent lights in your room suck, as they give your space the ambiance of a jail cell.
If you want to make your room a pleasant place where people want to be, you’ll want to fix the lighting situation by acquiring lamps and string lights that provide indirect light that is softer in nature.
Hit up Christmas stores in the off-season (July), and in January of your freshmen year, scoop up more indoor string lights by shopping at clearance sales.
As for your floor lamp, grab one for $10-20 at Wal-Mart or Target in the weeks before moving in, and you’ll have a pleasant place where fellow dorm mates will want to gather.
4) Put up posters on your walls
Speaking of jail cell ambiance, leaving your dorm walls blank is the best way to give visitors the impression they have just entered a detention facility.
Fix this ASAP by getting some posters to cover up the blank spaces – these can be found at an on-campus poster sale (these usually occur early on in the fall semester), or at anytime in department stores like Target or Wal-Mart or online at e-commerce sites like AllPosters.com or Amazon.
From pop culture references to abstract works that could be put into a frame if you wanted to do so, there are plenty of options that will beautify your walls and attract compliments from visitors.
5) Get a couch
Speaking of visitors – if you want visitors to your room, you’ll need a place for them to sit. The best way to do this is to get a couch.
Getting a couch is the best way to do this. You don’t need to get a new one, as that can be quite expensive, but you should inspect used ones thoroughly for signs of defects.
After getting your new piece of furniture, accessorize it by getting some throw pillows – if you have successfully pledged a sorority, there is plenty of sorority merchandise websites that can help you with this task.
6) Organize your school supplies
While your room can serve as a great gathering point for newly-made friends, it will also serve as the venue where you will complete many projects, homework assignments, and essays during the school year.
When the time comes to get stuff done, you’ll be thanking yourself for setting up your workspace for success in advance.
You can achieve this by creating places for pens, pencils, printer paper, and by organizing your books in a way that allows you to easily find what you are looking for in a timely fashion.
7) Buy some plants
The air can get stale inside your dorm room, especially in the winter, when you close up your window to keep your space from getting too cold.
You can ameliorate this situation by getting some plants. Water and feed them regularly, and they will supply a steady stream of oxygen that will make your room an energizing place to be.