8 Dorm Room Necessities You Forgot To Buy

Starting college is stressful enough, let alone having to worry about buying everything for your dorm room. Here’s an easy list of dorm room necessities that you cannot forget to buy for college!

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College shopping season is here and now is the time to get everything you need! You already know about the basic stuff, clothes, desk supplies, decorative pillows.

BUT, I am sharing all those random dorm room necessities that you might not think to buy, but will definitely make your life a million times easier in college.

This post is all about dorm room necessities!

Before I start the list of all the best dorm room necessities, grab yourself a copy of my ALL-IN-ONE DORM ROOM PACKING LIST! This list has over 10 sections and over 200 items to make sure you have absolutely everything you need for your college dorm room. Add you info below and get the list right in your inbox.

Multipurpose bins

Having these will save your life, I promise. One of the hardest things to organize in a dorm room isn’t the clothes or shoes or desk supplies. All those items have designated places and are pretty straightforward to organize. It’s all the random items that make it impossible to organize. Stuff like medicine and cleaning supplies and extra toiletries.

For all of this stuff, your best bet to keeping it neat is using multipurpose bins. I’ve used these before and they work perfect for a dorm room. Buy yourself a decent amount of the same bin so everything is uniform in your room. Then, just figure out different categories of all the random stuff that needs a home.

Some typical categories would be medicine, cleaning, home (paper plates, plastic silverware, etc), food, toiletries, etc. Once everything’s in the bin, they usually fit really well on the top shelf of the closet or under the bed.

Microwavable mug & bowl combo

This bowl and mug combo is a must for quick meals in your dorm room. You can make anything from soup to mac n cheese, all in the same one bowl! This is perfect because you don’t need to deal with a bunch of different dishes since it’s all in one.

Over the door organizers

Any door space you can use is amazing! This is one of those spots that would otherwise be empty and wasted. So, buying some organizers to use instead helps to maximize your dorm room space.

The possibilities are endless for over the door organizers. You can use them for shoes, jewelry, purses, random items, undergarments, and whatever else needs a home!

Shoe storage

Let me tell you one thing: you need a plan for your shoes. Shoes are the type of thing that need a specific organizer or else they are going to be all over the place. You will most likely have a lot of them. So, you are better off investing in a good shoe storage solution BEFORE the messes get the best of you.

For both of my sister’s dorm rooms, they’ve loved these ottomans with secret shoe storage. From the outside, it looks and acts like an ottoman. But, when you pull the lid off, it’s a shoe organizer that’s able to hold about 15 pairs of shoes. Not only does it keep your shoes contained and organized, but it gives you some extra seating too!

If you don’t have the space for something like this, an over the door shoe organizer is another great option. These hold a bunch of shoes too and take up basically no extra space!

Shower caddy

Invest in a quality shower caddy. You can thank me later.

If you have a bathroom down the hall, you need something to hold all your stuff when you go back and forth. Having a durable shower caddy will be extremely helpful to hold your shower essentials and not fall apart on you!

under-bed storage bins

Of all the dorm room necessities, this is by far the most helpful. I know that everybody already knows they need under-the-bed storage bins for college. BUT, you might not know which are the best ones to buy.

The trick with the under-the-bed storage is to really maximize every inch of that space. A lot of times, storage bins are too small and you end up wasting so much space! These are great because you will be able to access everything easily from the front, but also have space behind them for even more storage.

File folder

A good file folder is so important for all of your important documents. Stuff like copies of your birth certificate and social security card, as well as financial aid or medical documents can all be organized in one folder. With dividers and some labels, it can all be nice and neat!

With this, you have all of your important documents in one space and are able to get to it easily if you need to. They also sell ones that have built in locks if you want more privacy with these documents.

Extension cords

You’ve probably heard this before but I’ll add it to the list anyway because it’s so important. You NEED a few extension cords for your dorm room. I would suggest buying two: one for by the bed and one for by the desk. Not only do they make it easier to reach the outlets, but you are able to plug in so many more items.

There’s EIGHT random dorm room necessities that are going to make your life ten times easier!

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Now that you have all of your dorm room necessities, get all the best tips to organize it all! Click here for the best dorm room organization secrets.

This post was all about dorm room necessities!

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