<p>What are some things that regardless of your living learning community that all dorm rooms need?</p>
<p>a rug, because the winters in Oxford can be freezing, and it's no fun to jump out of bed onto an ice cold floor.</p>
<p>storage boxes for under beds</p>
<p>I have only been in the dorms that were used for orientation, so current students, please correct me if these things don't apply to all dorms.</p>
<ol>
<li> There were no full length mirrors in the room or bathroom.<br></li>
<li> Beds were too low to the ground for underbed storage, so bed lifters are needed (I bought 5" ones from Bed, Bath, and Beyond for my D. I think they might have 7", too, but didn't have any when I was shopping.)</li>
<li> For dorms with communal showers: a plastic bucket or bath tote to hold supplies and/or clothes that can sit on the (wet) floor. There were no shelves or benches to set things on in the shower stalls - just a couple hooks, and the floors were too wet to put clothes on.</li>
<li> There are desk lamps, but depending upon how the room is arranged, they didn't reach the beds. (The rooms were arranged very strangely, though - like a hospital room. I think if the beds were each up against a wall, with the desk at the end, then the desk lamp would reach the bed.)</li>
<li> Also dependent upon the room arrangement, you might want an extension cord.</li>
<li> There were no wastebaskets in the rooms.</li>
</ol>
<p>You can rearrange the rooms when you move in (actually, I don't know anyone who kept the original arrangement), and there are trash cans and recycle bins in every dorm room. Also, my bed is high enough for underbed storage boxes-- I bought mine at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.</p>
<p>I would definitely recommend bringing at least 2 power strips. My room has 8 outlets, but we need more like 15. A small fan is nice, especially during the winter when the heat can get cranked up a little too high.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the ideas ~ keep them coming. I had completely forgotten about bed risers. Noted these and extra power strips. I cannot recall if the closet doors are pocket doors (sliding) or pull open doors to hang a full length mirror and/or the over the door with tons of pockets hanging gadget. </p>
<p>Now what kinds of things are needed for decorating the dorm room for that homey feeling? What is the best way to hang things on the walls that causes the least amount of damamge to the walls =)</p>
<p>From what I can remember from freshman year living in dorms, the beds were high enough off the ground that you could buy one of those long but slim sliding storage containers. Our closets were the sliding ones where one side had a couple of drawers on the bottom and the other side had nothing which was ideal if one had suits/dresses. As far as decorating, I believe you had to use sticky tape since they were so concerned with possible damage to the walls. Being a guy, my roommate and I just had posters all over, but girls definitely seemed to go all out with posters, flowery-kind-of-stuff, etc.</p>
<p>At orientation, our rooms had closets with sliding doors. We are hoping that the roommate will be okay with D hanging the mirror over the door that goes to the hall. If not, we'll figure out some way to hang it in the wall or on the closet door. Worst case, she just leans it against the wall.</p>