Living in a dorm can be a lot of fun, but it can also be rather difficult. With compressed space that is shared with others, there is very little room that you can call your own. Because space is at a premium, you’re going to want to take advantage of what these pretty awesome products can do to help you make dorm life more manageable.
Bedside Storage Book and Remote Caddy
A bookshelf in the typical dorm room just isn’t feasible. At best, you’re stacking all of your school books on top of your computer desk, right? At worst, they’re in piles around your bed, your closet, and maybe even under the sink! With the mattress book and remote caddy, you can store a lot of your essentials right by your bed. It anchors between your bed and holds a box of tissues, your phone or remote, plus has small pockets for your MP3 player or your glasses. Will it hold everything? No… but it will hold a lot!
My first day in the dorm was a learning experience when it came to managing the bathroom. After getting ready for a shower, I’d discovered that I had no shampoo or soap with me. Draped in a towel, I ran back to my room that I’d discovered was now locked because I’d left the keys inside. If I’d had this shower caddy, I wouldn’t have had to worry about anything except making sure it was stocked. It has plenty of room for all your bathroom essentials and stores compactly on a shelf. It’s a definite bargain!
I don’t care who you are or what you’ve done. If you’ve never lived in a dorm, then you don’t know what is going to happen to you. I thought I knew everything about living in the dorm until my roommate tried to climb into bed with me in the middle of the night. You see, he was a sleepwalker. Some days you’d find him using the urinal as a pillow. Sometimes he’d wander around campus naked in the middle of the night. There are 107 other issues that you might encounter with dorm life and this book by Harlan Cohen will let you prepare for a roommate like mine.
Don’t rely on duct tape, scotch tape, or any of that weird putty nonsense when it comes to the posters that you need in your dorm room. They don’t work because most walls have a mysteriously greasy substance on them – you know, the kind of thing that turns a white wall slightly yellow over time. You’ve seen it! Now cover it up with an awesome poster and this damage-free adhesive. It works on every type of wall in your dorm and you won’t have to worry about the poster falling, sagging, or the adhesive causing damage that you’ll have to pay for later.
If you bring any valuables whatsoever into your dorm room, then they’re going to be at risk. The doors might be locked, but who knows what your roommates or their friends are doing with your stuff when you’re not there! With this portable locking safe, you can add a measure of protection to those expensive items that are easy to steal. It fits under your bed and a steel cable helps to secure the safe so the whole thing can’t be stolen. It holds 50 pounds worth of stuff, which means if nothing else, you can hide your sandwich from your roommate when you’ve got to step out for a moment.
GOGroove USB Light-up Speakers
The 486 was the latest in computer innovations when I went to college and USB speakers weren’t even in the consideration. I packed a full sound system with me so I could play Doom and Descent and rattle the windows of my dorm. If these speakers were available then, however, I would have used them instead. They’re a 6 watt USB powered speaker system that is small enough to be portable for your laptop, yet loud enough that they work for filling up your dorm with awesome music or earth-shattering sound effects from your favorite RPG. It’ll even work with your iPhone!
You might be covered with your parent’s health insurance or by a government health program, but none of that matters at 2am when you manage to tear open a finger as you’re trying to study, eat dinner, and watch TV all at the same time. Good luck finding the dorm nursing staff at that time of night! That’s why having this first aid kit should be included with any dorm essentials kid. It’s designed by pharmacists and has color-coded information to guide you with a proper course of treatment. It’s also got 2 packs of sport beans to help with hangovers that we won’t tell anyone about.
What do you do when the cafeteria is closed and you want to make something that isn’t akin to a TV dinner in your microwave? Or what do you do if you don’t even have a microwave? You could brave the student lounge OR you could boil your own water with this Hot Pot that will let you quickly make some Ramen. Want fresh coffee or tea? You can do that with this as well. You can even throw in a can of Campbell’s Chunky Soup if you need a fast meal thanks to the nonstick interior. It cooks fast, doesn’t take up a lot of space, and is a lot safer than those portable stovetops you can sometimes find. This is a definite buy!
With these dorm essentials, you might not be able to get a professor off of your back, but you can make your home life a bit easier. Do you use other products to maximize your space? Share what you use below!
