Make Your Child’s Dorm Room a Home with these 10 Essentials

August 5th, 2010 Emily Young No Comments »

As a parent, this may be a little hard to hear, but your child’s freshman year of college is going to be all about the dormitory. Forget classes and tuition, their first taste of freedom inside the dorms will be the thing they look most forward to and remember most about their freshman year of college.

So with the 2010 academic year quickly approaching, I’ve put a list together of some things to bring if you want them sitting pretty or just getting by in that 12’ X 19’ box:

Futon

Unless you know their room will come equipped with a couch, a futon is the perfect furniture investment because of its dual use as a bed and a couch. If you want to help your kid’s room be the place where all the buddies will inevitably crash, as well as have a piece of furniture that’s practical and easy to move, a futon will set you back $200 on average.

Hangers

These are a must. I don’t think I need to tell you how wrinkled and disgusting clothing can get when it’s living in a probably crowded and potentially messy dorm room. Hangers are cheap and easy, so do your child a favor and have them hang up their stuff. The roommate will also be thankful for this.

Mini Fridge

Even though you’ll most likely be paying for a meal plan that’ll grant them the rights to more food than is nutritionally necessary, the mini fridge can still come in handy cooling drinks and keeping food like pizza good until it’s gone. It’s also a great place to show personality as a hanger of magnets and other personalized messages. Nobody wants a boring fridge.

Microwave

In some cases, the microwave is more essential than the fridge. All I can say is popcorn, popcorn, popcorn.

Desk Lamp

This is an all-nighter’s best friend. And it goes well with caffeine.

TV/DVD Player/DVDs

For rainy days and sleepless nights, for football games and March madness, the TV will of course be the geographic center of the dorm room as all the seating space will be situated around it.

Shower Shoes and Robe

Whether they have their own bathroom, share one with suitemates, or must journey down to the communal showers to get clean, make sure your co-ed wears shower shoes – you have no idea what they might be avoiding. A robe will also be nice for those 3 AM walks to the communal bathrooms.

Supplies

This one is meant to be extremely general. Cleaning supplies, bathroom supplies, hardware tools, basically all the things your college student wouldn’t even come close to when he lived at home will become things with which he must now acquaint himself.

Headphones

This is more for roommates and people living on the same floor than for your kid, unless they have some real high-end headphones. Because you can’t blast music all through the night in a dormitory, even when they’re trying to kick out that last assignment, headphones can keep a student awake while keeping roommates asleep.

Earplugs

Just because your child won’t blast your music late into the night doesn’t mean that those kids down the hall from them won’t.  Having a roommate also makes it difficult to find sleep when they’ll desperately need it. Earplugs are a simple and easy way to block out the distractions and, in some sad cases, the alarm clock.

Basic planning

It’s always a good idea for your student to plan ahead. Sometimes the dorm will not allow appliances like microwaves, hot plates or any other heating appliance that don’t automatically shut off. He should also get in contact with his future roommate (if he don’t already know him) and discuss who will be bringing what.

Also, encourage your kid to bring things that are cheap. I promise you that their stuff will not make it out of the college experience the way it came in.

Getting your child ready for a life away from home can be stressful and teaching them how to manage their lives can just be downright impossible. For more tips and tools to help you relieve some stress and handle your own home, money and credit – including the most affordable credit monitoring on the web and complete identity theft protection – visit /a>.

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