Join 135K+ Parents for Dorm Tips, College Life & Community!
Join 135K Parents for Dorm Tips & Community
If you are reading this, your student has likely already made their college decision or is anxiously awaiting acceptances so they can find their new home for the next four (or more) years. It’s an exciting time, and now is the best time to start learning and planning for that move to college. The more you understand in advance, the less overwhelming AND expensive the dorm shopping process will be for you.
Dorm IQ is an exclusive educational series born from the FAQ’s from the Dorm Shopping Recommendations & Deal Alerts Facebook group. This is a free learning series answering those repeated questions in detail to help parents and students prepare for dorm life and dorm shopping while saving money and headaches along the way.
With 4 years of research, hands-on product testing, trend watching, price watching, and asking manufacturers endless questions, we’ve condensed our learnings and experiences into the Dorm IQ series.
Another helpful input is the very active Dorm Shopping Facebook Group where members have been an incredible source of product feedback, design inspiration, and valuable insight into the vastly different rules and regulations at colleges nationwide.
The objectives of this series are to:
You can find all of our Dorm IQ topics linked below, and you can easily navigate with the arrows at the bottom of each topic.
Be sure to bookmark this page so you can easily refer back to it as you continue through the topics.
Just reading the next few paragraphs will save you headaches, money and time, and each of the series’ topics will continue to add your Dorm IQ.
Every dorm is different these days. Different setups, layouts, bed sizes, bathroom types, laundry facilities, rules, restrictions and allowances. Until you know your dorm assignment, please hold off on shopping except for a subset of items that are useful and most likely allowed in any situation.
Also consider roommates and timing before shopping. You might decide with your roommate(s) to have a certain color scheme or find out that the roommate already has a great rug or mini-fridge.
I’m adamant about this, and here is why.
As mentioned above, every dorm is different. Every dorm has a different set of rules, often even dorms on the same campus. Older dorms have different rules than more modern dorms. Layouts are different, bed sizes are different, everything is different!
Every single visually pleasing dorm checklist I’ve seen includes items that are frequently prohibited in dorm rooms or don’t make sense in many situations. Some even SELL these lists – do not spend money on these, no matter how pretty they are!
If you are directed to a Google doc or sheet with a dorm list, those links are usually affiliate links which means the author is making a commission on your purchases. If they’re sending you to a page like this without any understanding of your situation, they’re not there to help you or be sure you’re not wastefully spending money, they just want you to buy so they can make money.
You need to create your own list, and we’re here to help you. We have MANY resources to help you do this, and we personally answer dozens of questions everyday in the Facebook group if you get stuck. We do not want you to waste money on products people recommend that they haven’t tested and are poor quality, on products the RA will confiscate on move-on day, or items that won’t be reusable in future college years but could’ve been if you’d gone in a different direction.
There is an unfortunate amount of low quality “dorm essentials” on the market, and a majority of these products are marketed by less reputable international manufacturers.
Common business practices of these overseas manufacturers with the funny names:
In addition to these individual low-quality items, you’ll also encounter dorm bundles and dorm value sets. You may even get an email or a flyer from your college about these.
Sure these seem easy and less expensive, but the quality is LOW. The bedding is thin and not certified toxin-free. It’s all made overseas with various levels of quality control and questionable materials. These packages also tend to come with many pieces to make them seem like a bargain, but you won’t need or use many of the items. A 75-piece set for $299 sounds great, but please do your due diligence.
This caution is relevant no matter your shopping list! Dorm, home, gifts, clothes, shoes, electronics, etc.
Many of the common business practices mentioned above aren’t new, but you primarily saw them only at the one big online retailer where individual sellers create their own products and product listings.
Today, many other retailers have introduced marketplaces to their online shopping experiences including Target, Walmart, Home Depot, even Kohl’s. A marketplace means that the retailer opens up their e-commerce platform to 3rd party sellers and allows them to sell direct to the consumer. We don’t love this. These sellers don’t necessarily uphold the retailer’s more generous return or replacement policies or offer much, if any, customer service as you may be accustomed to with the primary retailer.
How will you know if there is a 3rd party seller? There should be an indication near the price that says something like “Sold By <Company Name>” or “Sold And Shipped By”. In some cases, if we know a company and their reputation, we may recommend these items, but for the most part, we will avoid recommending these products. We suggest you follow a similar approach.
We research everything we recommend. We use a variety of plug-ins to detect fraudulent reviews, sketchy/scammy sellers (on the major retail sites) and to track pricing. We often buy and test the products too because we have our own dorm room with 2 adjustable dorm beds. This allows you to see items in a dorm environment. We’ve also sent 4 of our own kids to college and have a LOT of life experience with dorms, furnished & unfurnished apartments and sorority house life.
Based on recent questions and trends, we are regularly adding new topics to Dorm IQ to help you navigate the process! Below is the list of all of our current topics (be sure to bookmark for reference later!)
Some of the topics you can expect are:
We have so many more topics we’re working on including rugs, personal safety, moving bags, TV’s & projectors, water dispensers & ice machines, cleaning supplies, taking a car to college and much more.
Facebook Group: While we intend to cover each topic comprehensively here on the website, you will no doubt have questions as you learn and as you start shopping! You can bring those questions to the Dorm Shopping Recommendations & Deal Alerts Facebook Community. The deal alerts will help you find the best times to buy too.
Our Newsletter: In addition to following on Facebook, we also recommend subscribing to our newsletter. You may think Facebook is enough, but their new algorithms are maddening and only show each post to a small subset of group members. To be sure you’re seeing all of the Dorm IQ content as well as key Deal Alerts, subscribe to our newsletter in the box below. You can opt out at any time, and we will never sell your data or information.
Instagram: Follow us on Instagram for more visual, short videos and posts.
Parents of Class of 2026 Students, you can copy this https://thedormguide.com/category/Dorm-IQ/ and
Roommates! Definitely send this to your roommate(s) and have them join the Dorm Shopping group on Facebook or follow our Instagram page.
Affiliate Disclaimer: I only recommend products I do or would use myself. All opinions expressed are my own. I may receive a small commission, at no additional cost to you, for purchases made through the links in this post. Please see our full disclaimer for details.
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