<p>I'm an incoming freshman this fall, and I'm wondering what I should move in with. What are some things current students realized are completely essential to basic living at Cal? A fridge? Microwave? I'd like to know what people bring to Berkeley to make their lives easier. Thanks!</p>
<p>We had a fridge and microwave and to be honest I used them once. Mostly, the fridge was turned off and used to store other stuff. </p>
<p>Some basic stuff I didn't have that I later bought and found essential was something to hold my wet washcloth (believe me, if they don't dry out right, they stink!), fabreeze (helps if roommate has stinky perfume or smells), laundry stuff (and learn how to wash clothes and bed stuff before moving in -- my roommate didn't know it needs to be done more than once a month!), and a quiet fan. It can get stuffy in the room, especially at end of summer. Hangers and an extra pillow are also useful.</p>
<p>Hey, adding to this thread,</p>
<p>does anyone want to write about what NOT to bring? Did any of you bring stuff you found was definitely not useful?</p>
<p>Plates and utensils from home. You can just take them from the DC and bring them back when you're done.</p>
<p>-Decent speakers and headphones for music listening (unless you're not too into listening to music).
-Coordinate the purchase of a refrigerator with your roommate(s) (my roommate and I didn't get one until late last semester, but it's become incredibly useful for storing stuff from sodas & left-overs to beer)
-Actual door-stops are always useful (I bummed one from a floormate), but a lot of people fashion their own door-stops out of DC forks, trash-cans, or ties/rope (tied the door-knob to something in the closet)
-Bring the stuff that entertains you the most from home (within reason, of course), and consider bringing stuff that you think others will enjoy as well (multi-player video games everyone can enjoy (Mario Kart?), board games that everyone likes (Monopoly?), etc.)
-A fan is great for the second half of the Spring semester and the first half of the Fall semester.
-Coordinating bringing a TV and printer with your roommate(s).
-Sheets/pillows (dorms beds come naked), and your favorite poster and wall adornments. An extra set of sheets/bedding might be useful if you find you'll have people crash in your dorm often or if something spills on your sheets.
-A desk lamp might also be useful if your schedule will call for you staying up much later than your roommate.
-Plates and utensils can be obtained from the DC if you forget to bring them from home.</p>
<p>That's all I can think of right now...</p>
<p>Would you recommend buying a refrigerator.. or just renting one from berkeley? You can rent can't you??</p>
<p>Definitely buy. The whole renting thing is just ridiculous. They actually tell you that you're not allowed to buy a refrigerator and put it in your room, unless of course you rent it from the University for a year or so. However, the cost of renting it for just a year is so expensive that you could just BUY your own and actually be able to KEEP it at the end of the year. It's not like they do door-to-door inspections to make sure that your fridge was rented from them and not bought elsewhere. If you look for a good deal you can save a good deal on the fridge compared to renting it (and you get to keep it!).</p>
<p>Renting the microwave + fridge from Berkeley will be $175. (Micro</a> 101 Solutions, Inc. :: UCB Order Page)</p>
<p>My roommate bought a fridge from Costco for $100 and I purchased a $35 microwave from Fry's Electronics. These appliances weren't even on sale... seriously consider buying instead of renting.</p>
<p>*Definitely bring long Ethernet cables. The ethernet jacks are in weird places of the room... far away from the desks. Unless you want cables streaming through the center of your room buy a 25' cable</p>
<p>Ohh alright ill avoid renting lol.. but how am i going to transport my fridge... >< i live too far.. = = blahh . </p>
<p>Dorm rooms don't have wireless internet???)(I)# ok ill be sure to get ethernet cables too.</p>
<p>do we need an iron???</p>
<p>If you want to use an iron, bring an iron.</p>
<p>All dorm rooms have wired internet access, but I believe in some dorm study lounges you can pick up Air-Bears (not quite so well in our study lounge). If you move the desks like I believe most people do (up against the windows, side-by-side, for doubles), the ethernet jacks will be RIGHT behind your desks, and shouldn't be farther than 2-3 feet away from your computer at that point.</p>
<p>Remember to do the same for the TV cable, as it's in an even more awkward location!</p>
<p>"ethernet jacks will be RIGHT behind your desks"</p>
<p>Not if you live in Unit 3... someone thought it was a good idea to put the jacks on the wall opposite the windows by a closet door. Terrible idea!</p>
<p>Ethernet tends to be faster than wireless. With ethernet you also don't have to authenticate every 2 hours whereas for wireless you do. My roommate used a router for some time, but the speeds are variable, so he decided to switch back to ethernet.</p>
<p>you don't need to buy a doorstop, just jack a fork from the DC, bend it, and it wedges into the carpet perfectly!</p>
<p>I don't know about you guys, but our suite vacuum hit the dust first week, and so maybe a small hand held vacuum might be a good idea.</p>
<p>A sleeping bag can also be really useful.</p>
<p>It is true that a fork can also work (a couple people on my floor use that) :)</p>
<p>Some sort of vacuum cleaner is highly recommended as the vacuum for our building is terrible and doesn't even have the extensions to get into corners and along the edges of stuff. Dorm floors can get dirty incredibly fast if you don't have a vacuum :(</p>
<p>Seriously, these responses help so much. I hadn't considered a few of these. </p>
<p>It'd be great if you guys keep posting more suggestions. Thanks again :)</p>
<p>Remember to communicate with your roommate(s) regarding "personal" time with your girl/boy friend when it comes up. i.e. putting a sock on the doorknob.</p>
<p>hi, i'm icconnu's future roommate at cal</p>
<p>thanks a lot for the advice :D</p>
<p>How about ethernet cables?</p>
<p>What size is the best? and what kind? I'm really ignorant about them and I would really appreciate anyone's explanations.. Isn't there supposed to be wifi in the dorms?</p>
<p>I'll be in stern probably so...</p>
<p>just want to bump this thread up so that people can add stuff to it....I've already started to randomly buy stuff one by one</p>