Crafty Mama

As a Mama who sent her two ‘baby’ birds off to college last Fall, I want to share the successes and pitfalls of packing for and surviving dorm life. Please note that I do earn commissions from links below.

Post-High School Graduation your life is busy! Parties, vacations, jobs and social obligations can take up a ton of the Summer and before you know it, POOF! It is move in day! Let me help you with suggesting some of the things my kids found useless as well as the things they could not have done without!

First of all, don’t bother with bulky plastic containers…they are hard to fit in the car and storing them is a bother. Use extra heavy duty moving bags instead! These large bags are collapsable for storage and can fit an astounding amount of stuff in them. What I like about these particular bags is that they have a spot for a label. On move-in day, you will see every kid having similar bags. Label your bags with your student’s name, dorm and room number!

The most important part of your student’s dorm room will be their bed. This serves as not only where they sleep, but where they study, watch a movie with friends, eat pizza and generally live for the next 2 semesters. Make it cozy! I highly recommend a mixture of some new items as well as a few reassuring items from home (a favorite throw blanket or stuffie can really help in those moments of homesickness). A small bedside storage organizer really helps with all the stuff you usually put on a bedside table! This bedside caddy was great for my kids because it held a water bottle AND a box of tissues! They ran their charger cords right to the caddy and put their phones in nightly. Most dorm rooms won’t have space for a bedside table, so a caddy can help keep clutter to a minimum. Kenna’s room, below, shows her under bed storage and some touches from home.

Dorm mattresses are notoriously thin and uncomfortable. I cannot recommend getting a foam topper enough! This topper is a favorite of mine. I like that the pillow top cover is removable and washable and that the fabric promotes cool sleeping. My son is a very hot sleeper and this really helped with temperature control! You don’t need to spend a fortune on this item, they are all relatively similar. Don’t forget some bed sheet straps! This set includes both long straps as well as corner straps allowing you to secure the mattress pad with the long straps and the fitted sheet with the corner ones. As I mentioned above, the bed is also a couch, gathering spot and focal point of the room. Believe me, the mattress toppers and sheets will slip out of place in a heartbeat!

Speaking of sheets, be sure to get TWIN XL size everything! College dorm beds are a unique size and standard twin bedding will not fit. My college kids liked these cooling sheets , because again, a dorm room can get stuffy and hot! Two sets of sheets is perfect so that one can be in the laundry and the other can be on the bed. (I know…Laundry 😂) One mom told me she hid a $20 bill under her son’s fitted sheet at move in. When they were moving him out, she found the $20…just proving that they really don’t do laundry!

Speaking of laundry, be sure to review stain removal tricks and general laundry skills with your student before they leave. I can’t tell you how many students asked my daughter for help in the laundry room! Laundry can take up a lot of room in any home, but in a small space like a dorm room that is even more so. Most dorms have laundry facilities on a particular floor or even a separate building, so travelling with laundry is just a fact of life in college. To make it easier, my kids found that a backpack laundry bag was essential. This bag stands up as a hamper, but carries like a backpack and has mesh pockets for supplies. This eliminates the need for a laundry basket! Whatever you do, don’t send bulky liquid detergent with your student! Arm & Hammer Power Sheets laundry detergent is compact, powerful, better for the environment and won’t spill! I use these at home as well and have said ‘good bye’ to giant liquid detergent containers forever. I also recommend Arm & Hammer Odor Blasters scent booster. This lasts longer than other scent boosters as the granules are smaller and you don’t need as many. **Tip: Put some granules in a sheer organza drawstring bag and hide amongst your sheets and towels to keep them smelling fresh!**

Now, depending on the dorm, the bed may be able to be lofted a bit. Most schools will have ‘lofting kits’ available to raise the bed up and allow for storage underneath. This is essential! Storage is at a minimum, and if your student is anything like my daughter, every drawer was filled! Adding drawer storage under the bed helped immensely. These drawers fit perfectly under the lofted bed and we even travelled with them completely packed! Just remove the drawers from the frame before lifting the whole thing. We simply put the frame in the back of the car, popped the drawers in and drove to school. Then when moving in, we removed the drawers and carried them separately from the frame.

Another great under-the-bed trick is shoe storage. Most dorm room doors have pneumatic hinges on them preventing any ‘over the door’ storage. We found that this shoe rack fit nicely and kept boots, sneakers and shoes tucked away. If you do loft the bed, I recommend getting a storage ottoman (as you can see under Owen’s feet in the photo above) to act as a step onto the bed. You can get a fancy one to suit the style of the room, or like Owen, one with security storage for documents in case of fire. But be sure to get a step of some kind, or your student will be taking a running jump every time they get into bed!

Now this may be controversial…because I am a Crafty Mama and love to make everything look pretty. But don’t bother with the long bed skirt you see in so many social media posts! My daughter’s room mate had this skirt and it was cumbersome and pretty useless. Unless your college has the exact right height lofting bed, it will either be too long or too short.

What WAS useful in the room (surprisingly to me) was an air purifier! I had not thought of this, but my daughter’s room mate did and WOW it made a difference! The dust and pollen and all manner of things flying around a dorm room were not an issue for them. My daughter stayed healthy all semester and when they cleaned the filter they were really grossed out at what was in their air! I recommend an air purifier with a HEPA filter, and this one even has smart Alexa Wifi control.

If you do not already have a fan for your college kid to pack with them, I highly recommend the viral Woozoo fan. Yes, I know, I don’t usually like to follow trends just for the sake of being trendy, but this fan is WORTH IT. Quiet, multiple direction oscillating and powerful…all needed in a stuffy dorm room!

My last area for recommendations is the shower. Of course, you know to send your student with flip flops to wear in the dorm shower, and you know they will need a shower caddy. But what kind? Well, we found that mesh is the best. This shower caddy held everything they needed, and dried completely between showers. No mold here! But where do they dry the caddy, you ask? Get a dish drying mat so that your student can put their shower caddy and flip flops on it post-shower and not wind up with a puddle in their room. This mat is ideal as it is machine washable, but also has a little loop so that in between times of use it can be hung on a command hook out of the way. The drying mat was essential for not just shower caddy, but dishes as well!

I could go on and on, but the essentials I have listed above really were worth every penny and helped my 2 college kids have a fantastic first year away from home. Enjoy every minute and remember you are LAUNCHING your baby bird, not losing them!