As you start planning to share a room with a roommate (or more than 1), agree on a list of items that you will share. This is a list of things you will only need one of in your dorm room.
Once you have that list of shared dorm items, I recommend splitting it into roughly equal cost shares. At the end of your time together, each student takes home what they brought (or decides to sell, donate, or discard). If you buy these items together and split the cost down the middle, you’ll have a difficult time splitting up the items at the end of the school year.
You don’t need all of these, but if you decide you want them, you likely only need 1, unless, for example, the school allows 2 mini fridges (this is unusual).
Please check your school & dorm rules – some of the items may not be allowed or as with fridges and microwaves, may only be used in your dorm room if rented through the school.
Some schools do not allow outside furniture or rugs, or require electrical items to be UL-Certified or require curtains to be flame-retardant. Rules vary greatly, so please double-check yours!
Recommendations for each of these items can be found in our Dorm Essentials Guide.
Save space and avoid duplicate purchases by coordinating shared cleaning and cooking supplies with your roommate(s). Here are some items worth sharing:
Set up a simple system for restocking shared items to keep your space functional and clean.
If you have the luxury of a private shared bathroom, you can share the following items. For one of my boys, he shared his dorm room with 1 roommate, and they shared a private bath with the 2 students on the other side of the bathroom. In this case, we coordinated shared room items with his roommate and shared bathroom items with all 4 roommates.
Planning ahead for shared dorm items will make shopping less stressful and allow you to look for sales in late spring and early summer, before dorm items become more expensive and harder to find.
Our Dorm FAQs Article covers all of the questions frequently asked in our Dorm Shopping Recommendations & Deal Alerts Facebook group. The Facebook group is also a great source for prior years’ move-in pictures for decor and organizational ideas.
Our complete Dorm Shopping Guide is available here.
Important Tips and tools for dorm and campus safety.
Still have questions? Please comment below, or come ask us in the Dorm Shopping Recommendations & Deal Alerts Facebook group. So much great info in the group along with hundreds, maybe thousands, of move-in pictures from previous years to give you ideas and inspiration.
=> Please share this article with your dorm-bound friends and their parents. I would love for everyone to understand this topic before they start dorm shopping!
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