When beginning university dorm life, students are concerned with what they need to bring. But it can be just as important to know what not to bring! In a dorm room you will only have limited space, and you’ll be sharing that space with other students at that. In addition, dorms typically supply at least a small number of necessary items that you certainly don’t want to duplicate.
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What are some items that you specifically want to exclude from bringing to school?
Extra Furniture
As little as this sounds, it really is about all the furniture that you need. Since rooms are small to begin with, and can easily be overcrowded, the last thing that you want to do is bring in extra furniture that will use up precious floor space. Not only will extra furniture not be absolutely necessary, but it could make you a bad neighbor – or rather, a bad roommate.
In tight situations – such as a dorm room with multiple occupants – space will be more important than stuff. Keep that in mind, and avoid bringing extra furniture.
Extra Bedding
You’ll need a primary set of bedding, as well as a backup set for laundry purposes, but you don’t need anything more than that. Since storage space is limited – and bedding supplies don’t necessarily pack well – you never want to overdo it.
Also avoid bringing too many items that might crowd your bed. Since dorm rooms are notorious for limited living space and minimal furniture, you will spend much of your time in your bed. You don’t want to share that space with an overabundance of stuffed animals or a bunch of other things that you are simply storing on your bed for lack of space elsewhere.
Furniture in a university dorm room is an excellent example of the less is more principal.
Vacuum Cleaner
While you may need to bring in certain cleaning supplies in order to keep your room neat and tidy, you don’t need to bring in the heavy cleaning artillery – like a vacuum cleaner. Many dorm rooms don’t have carpeting anyway, so a vacuum cleaner will be a complete waste. And if you plan on using it to vacuum a throw rug, you could just as easily take the rug outside and beat it periodically (and the fresh air will do the rug good too).
If you do decide to bring a vacuum cleaner, make it a small handheld machine that you will use to clean small spaces. That way you’ll be able to pack it away easily, without taking up precious space.
There’s one more reason why you don’t want to bring a vacuum cleaner to your dorm room: bringing a vacuum cleaner could be a nonverbal tip-off to your roommates that you intend to be the designated room cleaner. You’ll have enough on your plate at school without taking on that responsibility.
Extra Kitchen Equipment
Kitchen equipment and supplies are a delicate balancing act. You want to bring the minimum that you need in order to do what you want to do and no more! Some simple dishes, bowls and utensils are about all you should need. And anything beyond a microwave oven or small refrigerator is essentially excess.
You shouldn’t bring common household kitchen equipment, such as a toaster, popcorn maker, coffee maker, or waffle iron. In addition to the fact that you’ll probably have little need for them, many dorms have prohibitions against them because the increased risk of fire hazards.
Elaborate Entertainment Equipment
Your laptop, an iPod, and maybe a DVD player are about all you should need as far as entertainment equipment is concerned. You shouldn’t need to bring in a 47 inch flat screen TV or a $1,000 sound system. While you may need entertainment, you’re not going to have as much free time as you might think.
Related: 8 Ways to Save Money on Entertainment for College Students
You also have to consider the noise and distraction that elaborate entertainment systems can bring to your dorm. There’s entertainment – and that should be on the quiet side – and then there’s distraction. You always want to keep that to a minimum.
One more thing in regard to elaborate entertainment equipment that we don’t like to think about, but should. You’ll be sharing a dorm room with other students, and there will likely be a flow of their friends in and out of your room. This raises the possibility of either theft or destruction of premium equipment, and that’s a risk that you do not need to take on.
Can you think of other things that you don’t need to bring to school?
Condoms and laptop are a must!
You better bring your A game and best social skills. This could be the most fun of your life if you have the slightest clue of what’s going on!