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[quote]
Then I'll annoy my roommate and take pictures of her unpacking.
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<p>Creepy... :P</p>
<p>Adding to the list for other guitarists:</p>
<p>Guitar strings! God knows if your new town will have a guitar shop (it most likely will but who knows.)</p>
<p>I'm going to be shipping my car to the east coast so I'm going to pack a lot of my used bulky non-expensive stuff in the cavernous trunk, I also plan to use the trunk as additional long term storage space(for winter coats etc etc)</p>
<p>I'm not going to leave for school without these:</p>
<p>-iPod+the best pair of portable headphones I can afford </p>
<p>-multi-tool such as a Gerber or a Leatherman (knife, pliers, screwdriver, bottle opener file, all in one)...unlike a Swiss knife, these things actually last.</p>
<p>-a laundry bag (has 100 different uses, stows away easily unlike a laundry basket)</p>
<p>-personal hygiene kit (an absolute must have)</p>
<p>-flip-flops for the shower and for flip-lopping around </p>
<p>-trusty bong/vaporizer (shhh....don't tell mom)</p>
<p>-athletic tape (more useful then duct tape)</p>
<p>-a good, roomy back pack..</p>
<p>As far as clothes are concerned:
-lots of underwear+socks
-lots of tshirts
-track pants
-really comfortable running shoes</p>
<p>Takes some form of disinfectant to wipe down drawers, shelves etc. The towlets (packaged like baby wipes) are very handy. Take some liner paper for drawers and shelves -- sometimes they've been victims to mystery spills in the past -- and if that seems too grannyish for you, try gift wrap.</p>
<p>You'll need desk scissors for that, and you'll need them later anyway. And tape. And glue sticks. </p>
<p>It's also nice to take some gift wrap ( in school colors!!) because you will make friend quickly who will have birthdays. Take cards. Take stamps. You have old friends who will want snail mail in addition to email and IM contact.</p>
<p>Over the door items -- towel bars, hooks, ironing boards, shoe organizers, etc. are very handy. Try to find out how thick the doors are--these things come in different sizes.</p>
<p>-DUCT TAPE!</p>
<p>-While some people enjoy having permanent flatware, my roommate and I got silverware, bowls, cups, etc., and we found that we became far too lazy to consistently clean them! If you're going to buy stuff-- buy inexpensive stuff (1- it can break, disappear, get stolen, or, if you're lazy and not clean it, grow mold) and buy dishwashing soap. We prefer disposable utensils and plates! (But I am SO dependent on coffee mugs and those coffee thermoses & if you enjoy warm drinks, I recommend owning some).</p>
<p>-Velcro to hang up big posters. (Word to the wise: Unless you see a poster you know you can't live without, or is typical of a certain place, hold off on poster purchasing until you get to school. Most schools will have a MAJOR poster/art sale the first week, and if not, shipping posters to your dorm is cheap/easy).</p>
<p>-Plastic hooks that tape onto walls and stuff. OVER THE DOOR HOOKS AND HANGERS!!! These are amazing for things like: towels, coats, hoodies, umbrellas, purses, scarves... anything!</p>
<p>-If you're a girl with a lot of shoes and purses, I recommend a hanging shoe organizer for your closet door. All your shoes can be hung, and then you can hang purses off the heels. It's very handy. My first year I didn't have a wide enough closet door, so I bought a shoe rack, and it's great too.</p>
<p>-Closet organizers-- they create space. (My boyfriend also swears by pants hangers that are layered and for multiple pairs of pants). You're going to need to work with whatever space you have... things help.</p>
<p>-Some people, like my roommate, can't function without a bathrobe for the shower. I hate them and stopped using mine after a week.</p>
<p>-REALLY GOOD ALARM CLOCK!!</p>
<p>-Stuff to clean your room: If you have wooden floors, get yourself a Swiffer. You can easily hide it when you're not using it, and if you use the Swiffer wet wipes, your room smells amazing. If you have carpeting (and allergies), a vacuum may be a worthy investment. Also: Febreeze is great for any dorm drapes or just to protect against allergies.... ummm room air freshener is surprisingly handy.</p>
<p>-An iron/ironing board is unnecessary unless you're a big fan of pressed oxfords and pants. Chances are someone you know will have one. We had one, and we rarely used it. Instead, Downy Wrinkle Releasing spray is key.</p>
<p>-Stacking drawers = always useful. We had one with a hard top that my printer sat on, and the drawers were used for random storage. </p>
<p>-Book ends!!</p>
<p>-School supplies... it's so much cheaper/easier to stock up on school supplies at a Staples or like a Costco than at school. Get a lot of highlighters and a solid stapler.</p>
<p>-Lamps. My dorm had crappy overhead lighting, so we had an additional lamp in addition to some desk lamps. Sometimes a tap light or a lamp on its lowest setting can prove to be excellent (well... dorm room excellent) mood lighting.</p>
<p>-DVDs.</p>
<p>-As for printers, my school has free b&w printing, and I still have my own printer. I adore its convenience, and no one ever bothers me about it (however, for its scanning/copying purposes... that's when people want to use!). Sure, for huge documents I need to read for class (not turn in), I use Duke's printers.</p>
<p>-Bulliten boards, calendars, dry erase boards (and LOTS of markers).</p>
<p>-Something cute (Framed photos?) from back home-- great for memories, and it starts conversations.</p>
<p>-FILM, CAMERA or digicam!!!! Trust me.</p>
<p>-My roommate brought her own rolly 'executive' chair for her desk, and it was amazing. I liked to steal it. We had to store her official desk chair, but we had the space to do so. Extra seating is great anyway for entertaining... if your dorm room isn't big enough for a futon or something permanent, get fold away chairs that you can toss under your bed or something when no one is using them.</p>
<p>-Deck of cards. Poker is king--- so are drinking games.</p>
<p>Bump...What kind of school supplies did y'all find useful during your first year?</p>
<p>I haven't read through this entire thread, but I have a few words of advice: don't bring more than you need to. Space is very very limited in dorm rooms, so you don't want to have to deal with storing the jumbo-sized Listerine bottle or the 4 deodorants you bought "just in case." Buy those things as you need them. The few things I could not live without in my dorm room:</p>
<p>a good desk chair
duct tape
post-its
a bright floor lamp
speakers for laptop</p>
<p>Some "essentials": </p>
<p>1) Bring a large bowl for popcorn. We used ours ALL the time.
2) Butterfly chairs are really nice because they're insanely comfy and you can fold 'em up and stick 'em in a corner if you need the floor space.
3) You'll need a stapler (just get one of those tiny ones and keep it in your bag for last-minute problem set stapling), a calculator, scotch tape (and duct tape and masking tape... a variety of tape is nice), and a planner. I'd wait to buy that stuff 'til you get there... Your student store probably has a college-specific planner that includes campus-wide events and academic deadlines. Aside from that, you <em>really</em> don't need a vat of paperclips or anything else like that... Maybe you want a small half-ruler if you're in science/engineering and have to draw graphs a lot in your problem sets. Invest in a decent flash drive for all your portable computer storage, too, or get yourself a gmail account (PM me if you don't have one) for use as an online briefcase, since often, your college account has a size limit.
4) When you get there, stock up on the pharmaceutical essentials: Nyquil, Dayquil, Tylenol, Robitussin, cough drops, Pepto, Tums, etc., because when you wake up feeling like crap, you're not going to want to worry about having to bum a ride off your roommate to get to a CVS or Walgreens.
5) You'd be surprised at how incredibly nice it is to have a couch in your dorm room. Do what you can to see if you can make room for one (easier to do if you both loft your beds above your desks, if that's an option), and then see if you can't bum one off a senior who's moving out and doesn't want their old crappy one anymore. Just throw a cheap sheet over it, stick it across from either your desk or your roommate's desk, and you can watch movies on the computer (while munching off of popcorn from your large bowl).
6) You can cook <em>anything</em> with a microwave and a toaster oven. A small fridge is also nice. If you don't have this stuff yet, don't buy it 'til you get there. Again, see "bumming things off seniors who don't want theirs anymore" from above.
7) People have talked about water filters: Brita makes a delightfully slim filtering pitcher that fits fantastically in the door of a small dorm-sized fridge. I gotta say: water in dorms often tastes like gym sock. A Brita pitcher can improve your happiness by a large margin. If nothing else, save some water bottles and put tap water in those and keep them in your fridge, because cold gym-sock water tastes better than warm gym-sock water. I also recommend buying some Crystal Light or Kool-Aid, because that will also de-sock your water.
8) Buy lots of sturdy laundry bags when you get there. You can just do a big ol' Target or Wal-Mart run when you get there and get most of the stuff you need.
9) I really liked packing all my crud in those large Rubbermaid square bin things. When you get to college, stack 'em, flip 'em over, and you've got a combination footstool/coffee table.
10) Target sells these incredible 8 or 9 dollar torchiere lights that are durable, cheap, and you can buy two or three for your room. Dorm rooms are often lit by fluorescent lights, which can get really annoying after a while, and this'll fill your need for incandescence.</p>
<p>That's all I can think of for the time being... Someone mentioned guitars, though... I brought my guitar but then took it home second semester because it was big, bulky, and I got interested in doing other things so I didn't play all that much. If you have more than one guitar and simply must have a guitar, bring your favorite, but don't bring more than one because there's just not going to be room.</p>
<p>Stain remover...preferably one that you can apply then wait a week before washing. You don't want to have to drop everything that you're doing to go do a load of laundry when you spill/drop something on yourself...I wouldn't have any presentable clothes left without my trusty stain remover.</p>
<p>Out of curiousity, what kind of stain remover can you leave for a week? I would love to have that as I tend to be a klutz who hates to do laundry. It would be great to be able to leave the stain remover for a week before I have to throw in the load of laundry.</p>
<p>spray and wash makes a stain stick that is great because it doesn't take up space, less messy, and does work rather well</p>
<p>prophylactics...</p>
<p>*laptop
*printer
*paper (but you can steal paper from your computer labs, if you have them)
*tupperware (to steal food from the dining halls)
*a duffel bag (to steal plates and cups from the dining halls, its a good place to put tupperware too)
*duct tape and lots of posters
*lots of bars of soap
*more than 1 bottle of shampoo
*extension cords
*a cozy chair to relax in, or a futon
*fans
*umbrellas
*gotta have a mini fridge
*college-age bedsheets (sorry guys, we're too old to bring spongbob bedsheets to college)
*a holepuncher
*a stapler
*one of those basket thingies to carry bathroom stuff
* and of course Fabreeze for those days when you forget to do laundry</p>
<p>jessetfan: The Spray and Wash stick was indeed the one I was referring to. It says on the label that you can leave it on for up to a week, but I'm sure that I left it on some smaller, less noticeable stains for up to two weeks and it still got it out.</p>
<p>Another good tip for laundry. Shout makes Color Catcher sheets that allows you to wash colors and whites in the same load. I use them when I need something washed but don't have time to sit and wait for a washer to open up so I can do a load of colors too. They somehow attract the loose dyes, and I've never had a problem with washing reds and whites in the same load (as long as I remember to put in a sheet!)</p>