It can be a really exciting time when you are moving into your new college room at the beginning of the school year! You may have so many ideas on how to decorate and arrange furniture you do not know where to begin! Here are some helpful tips on how to make your college room a special space without breaking the bank. These tips are especially useful for students who are starting from scratch, but also beneficial for students who want to try a new look or add to what they already have in their room. I used this timeline and planning strategy when decorating a college room that is shown to visitors everyday who looking at the college I attend: Southern Wesleyan University. Many of the tips and guidelines are specific to SWU students, but are typical for many college residence halls!
Before we dive in to the details of planning for your perfect college room, remember to communicate with your roommate(s) about all the ideas you have and make sure they are on the same page as you are! It is so much easier to plan when you and your roommate are thinking in the same direction! Ok, let’s get started!
Create a Budget
It could not be more important to know how much money you have to put towards your new college room! You do not need to spend a fortune, but you will need to be prepared to purchase a few items to add to your new space. Once you start shopping, having a budget helps you to stay on track and not guess how much money you should keep spending while purchasing items. For the new SWU show room, we created a budget of $350. This budget would cover all the items we wanted (we price checked many of them first) for the two-person room we would be decorating.
Pick Your Theme
What colors do you want your room to be? Do you want patterns? These are questions you can answer now that will help you decide a theme for your room! Picking a theme also helps you stay focused when your shopping. For example, we chose White and Royal Blue as our color theme for the show room, and as we shopped it was easier to not purchase items that were not with our theme (like a very cute mint green pillow, or the pink desk supplies).
Know How Much Space You Have
Sometimes, it is not possible to know how much space you will have for your college room (and remember that space is normally for two people: you AND your roommate). So, when you cannot see your space before moving in, remember: college rooms are generally small. I’m not saying your room will be closet sized, but I am saying that this space will not be huge, and it is meant to be SHARED. Another good way to prepare for how much space you will have is to know what furniture will already be in the rooms such as beds, dresses, desks, etc. You can usually find out this information on a college's website. SWU offers room measurements of most rooms on campus.
How to Stick to Your Shopping List
The important thing to remember for this step is you actually need to make a shopping list in order for this to work. A funny example of how your shopping trip could go wrong if you do not have a list is when three girls going shopping together… for someone else… with another persons money!
When shopping for Southern Wesleyan’s West Residence Hall show room, I went with two other summer work study friends: Madison and Chasity. Together we drove to Hobby Lobby—one of the greatest stores of all time—and shopped for the new room using one of the admissions office credit cards. Hobby Lobby + 3 college girls = endless possibilities!
Move-In Ready
Once you’ve purchased most of your items ahead of time, you are ready to pack up your car, but are you move-in ready? Whether you are headed to move in today or next week, you need to make sure that everything you need to packed already! It can be confusing during all of the packing to remember what you packed and where you put it, so my suggestion to you is to make a list of everything you want to take AND make a list of where you packed it. Did you put your pillows in your car or your mom's? Did you put your school supplies in your backpack or a bag? Where are your towels? You do not want to forget anything when it is time to get on the road to college!
Doing these easy tasks will make move-in day smoother and a more exciting experience for you, your family, and your roommate!
Time to Decorate
Picture this: you're in your new room. Your furniture is arranged the way you want (you actually remembered to do this!). Your family has unloaded all of your room items and you cannot wait to decorate. BUT WAIT! There may be some things your RA or Residence Director may need you to know before you can begin making that room your own!
For Southern Wesleyan Students:
- You cannot nail anything into the walls, so if you plan on hanging anything you MUST use command strips ($3 at Walmart for a pack) or sticky putty instead. That means you need to be aware of how heavy your items are that you want to hang.
- You cannot burn candles. Wall inserts, wax warmers, and diffusers only.
- Mini-fridges and microwaves are acceptable! No hot plates though (like toaster ovens).
After knowing what you can/cannot bring and HOW you can decorate your space, you are ready to start putting your room together!
Final Touches
After decorating you need to take one last look around the room to see if you forget anything or need to grab something else. When we were in the show room decorating, we noticed that we did not have a light bulb for our floor lamp and realized that we need scissors to cut a few tags off of a few items. You may realize you need another storage unit that you can pick up from Walmart for only a few dollars. Things like this are important to notice before classes start and you get too busy to run to the store. On that note, remember that you are not in this alone– you will have fellow students and family helping you to move in, so do not feel overwhelmed when you forget something—someone will be happy to help you!
Your New Home
Here are some examples of what everything looked like when we were done!
Remember: You Can’t Bring Everything!
You are going to want to bring all your clothes (“just in case,” you say), but trust me when I tell you that YOU DON”T NEED EVERYTHING. It certainly will make your room feel crowded if you try to bring too much. It’s okay to leave things at home (including seasonal clothing).
SHOULD BRING:
- School Supplies (for your desk/backpack)
- A plastic shelf (from Walmart- very useful)
- Sheets/comforter/pillows/extra blankets
- A lamp (very useful for long nights)
- Books (read or decorate!)
- Spare chargers
- Fun Posters (for your walls)
- Plants (plastic ones from hobby lobby- super cute= $5)
- Towels/ Bathroom Supplies
- Comfortable/Business Shoes (both are good to have if needed)
- A set of nice clothes (formal dinners, job interviews, or formals at school)
- Laptop computer (for your room and class)
- Pictures of friends and family!
SHOULD NOT BRING:
- You should not bring every piece of clothing you have. Keep these items at home:
- Most of your winter clothes (as necessary)
- Swimsuits (you should only need one if any)
- Kitchenware (unless you have access to a kitchen)
- “Double” everything — this means you need to check with your roommate to see what they are bringing so you do not end up with two rugs, two fridges, two microwaves, two TV’s, etc.
- High school t-shirts; it's college! Load up on SWU gear!
I hope this blog post was helpful for you! Good luck in college!
