If your dorm lacks A/C, I’d recommend a Vornado fan. They are fairly compact and do a good job circulating the air.
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How do I know? Back in the Stone Age, there was a fire on a floor where I was an RA. It spread like wildfire because doors (and windows) were open. Doors closed automatically if there is no door stop. For a good reason. I routinely had to tell students to remove their door stops. This fire was in the middle of the night…so I was sleeping when some students propped their doors open.
Also, recommendations are for doors to be locked when you are not in the room…even just in the bathroom or next door. Some students prop open doors so they don’t have to bother with key fobs or keys. Believe me when I say…things get stolen this way.
I would not encourage my student to prop their door open for any reason.
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100% this!
When my D was a freshman, two men snuck into their dorm, and stole a bunch of phones and laptops out of unlocked rooms. I think they hit two floors and over three dozen rooms were unlocked. If they walked into an unlocked room and someone was in there, they said “sorry, I was looking for my friend” and moved on.
My D and her roommates always locked the door, even going directly across the hall to the bathroom, so their room was bypassed, but it was a tough lesson for a lot of students. And scary for us parents to hear about!
There was a school wide meeting after that for not holding outside doors for people you didn’t know.
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Also, don’t forget somewhere to hang wet clothes and towels. You can either use a foldable drying rack that can slide behind something or under the bed, or get some over the door hooks. Sometimes there hasn’t been a door to hang the hooks from, but we’ve been able to rig something up either on the edge of a closet or the end of a bunk bed using zip ties.
DS also swears by a door mat to keep his floor clean. We have a very long mud season in New England.
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I have a few things on my mental shopping list for when our kid heads off to college.
- bed organizer caddy thing - attaches to the bed frame and hangs off the side of the bed. You can put your cell phone and other odds & ends in it.
- a book safe. Looks like a dictionary, but you open it up and it has a combination lock. Good for storing your passport, birth certificate, other stuff that you wouldn’t want to walk away. The odds are low that somebody will want to steal a dictionary.
- fridge caddy organizer - fits over the top of a dorm fridge. has pockets to store stuff in on either side that hangs down on both sides of the fridge.
- mounting putty and command strips and hooks
- some sort of room deodorizer product - could be a wax melt thing, could be just a Glade plug in thing. If using a wax melt thingy, maybe use one that has a timer on it so student doesn’t forget and leaves it on forever.
- shower caddy, of course
- over-the-door hooks/hangers
- a small LED flashlight
- an oscillating desk fan that you can turn in all sorts of directions
- Brita water pitcher w/1 of the 6-month filters
- sleep headband/eyemask/ear cover thingy - our kid has slept w/white noise since…forever. This would be a handy solution in case you end up with a roommate who hates white noise.
- a desk lamp that also has a built-in USB charging port & spot to put pens, pencils, etc.
- not necessary, but my parents bought me something like this when I went off to college and everybody and their brother borrowed it all year long during freshman year in the dorms - it’s about $21 on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078BPNK5Y/?coliid=I21LTVLOKRPL77&colid=1Q4IMQD0Z33K8&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
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Most schools do not allow wax melts (as it’s considered a heating element). It’s also my worst nightmare as S23 is highly allergic to lavender and has had issues with lavender EOs when dispersed.
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My girls really liked their bed shelf and a cube shaped extension cord. The shelf (we got the original Shelfie off amazon) clamps on to the bed frame so it works no matter which height you out the bed. The cord is heavy at the plug in part so it stays in place up on the shelf even if nothing is plugged in. Their normal phone and computed cords would slide off if they unplugged them.
whoa - don’t know why the links are so long, hope they work.
The shelf is on sale right now -
The extension cord was something like this -
The ones I’ve been looking at melt the wax with an incandescent light bulb.
Oh…those are cool!
My opinion is that freshman “must haves” are way fewer than people think. Here are some that my kid did NOT get, and has not missed: mattress topper, mini-fridge, microwave, flip flops, shower caddy, shelving unit, air freshener, water purifier pitcher, fan. He doesn’t even have a laundry bag! (Uses a blue Ikea bag instead.)
Since we live far from his college, our plan was to buy these items at local stores when we dropped him off. But the stores were out, and he figured he would buy them once they were restocked. But then he found he didn’t need these things after all, and never bought them.
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D20 has taken less and less stuff with her every single year. She’s studying abroad this entire year; she took 1 checked bag, 1 carry on and 1 personal item and she has had more than she’s needed.
D20 is planning on taking the same amount of stuff she took overseas for her senior year back at her home school. Plus bedding. So basically 4 bags total of stuff (and none of them big bags).
I will say that we did spring for a mattress topper - she’s never regretted it.
But less is definitely more when it comes to packing for the dorms.
Also, no need to air fresheners. Cleaning your room and doing your laundry will keep a room pleasant. Open your windows to get fresh air. And if you aren’t doing that, all an air freshener is going to do is add to the miasma.
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Three of my kids lived in dorms with no a/c freshman year, so fans were definitely a must for fall and spring. Two had a/c, but the windows didn’t open.
D20 lived in a non a/c dorm her first year, it was an eye opening experience for her. She and her roommate planned on who would bring what; her roommate brought a big box fan which they placed in front of their window for maximum ventilation/air movement.
Before buying lots of stuff, remember there will be at least one other person in the room your child is going to live in - coordination can be very helpful (and cost saving).
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