Should you bring a lot of stuff to go dorming?

Sponsored content

The simple answer is yes, you should. You are essentially moving houses. Think about how much stuff you have in your home home. Don’t you think if you need that stuff to live with, then if you are going to spend most of your time in another house then you’ll need it too?

However, that is the short and sweet answer. Straight to the point, and lets you know what you need to know. But, saying “bring a lot of stuff” isn’t very helpful now is it? I remember when I first went to dorm, I wasn’t completely positive about what I should bring.

If you can get all the things you need with you, then it can feel like you won the Thunderbolt casino bonuses. However, leaving stuff behind can be one of the worst feelings you can have.

I remember when I first went away from home to go dorming, I forgot pencils and paper! I only brought a laptop and just figured I was going to use that all of the time. But, when I got there, I barely used my laptop for anything!

I wanted to be able to write in books I was reading or learning, and take notes and make handwritten summaries of things I learned. It was the worst feeling to want a pencil so badly but just simply not have one…

Sure, I could have gone to a store and bought one if I needed to, but that’s an extra expense. Especially if I ended up having to buy a lot of things. And, it would be free if I brought it from home!

Thankfully, I was able to go home a couple weeks later on break, so I didn’t miss it too much, but I live relatively close to where I am dorming. If you live in the US where you could go to boarding school, college, or whatever else in a different state, then it would be a lot harder to go home to get things.

So, as someone who has a little experience, what are some important things to remember to bring with you before you leave home to dorm at school, college, etc? Specifically things you might not think about bringing with you.

Kitchen

First I will start with what things you should bring that are usually found in the kitchen. This may not apply as much to you personally, or it could apply to you more than any other thing on this list.

Before I start talking about what you should bring, it is going to depend on a few things. These will affect how much stuff you need to bring.

First, does where you are going offer food? Do your meals come included in your room and board? If yes, then you don’t really need to bring stuff to cook with.

Second, what does where you’re staying allow you to have? Some dorms don’t allow hotplates and toasters and such. They might only allow an electric kettle or something like that.

Finally, do you have any reasons why you wouldn’t be able to eat the food they offer? This could be both food allergies or just dietary restrictions.

For instance, if the place you are going to stay regularly offers dairy meals, but you are lactose intolerant, then that isn’t gonna fly, chief. You’re probably going to have to cook many of your own meals.

This means you should bring a few things (if they don’t give you your own kitchenette to cook with or something) to allow you to cook your own food.

First of all, a hotplate. This is probably the most important part of the kitchen. You can cook 5 star meals on a stove, and make a huge variety of foods. This will give you a variety that you need in your diet.

The aim is to allow you to make the most wide variety of foods with the least amount of appliances. We don’t want the stereotype of college dorm students surviving off frozen waffles and ramen noodles.

After you have something to cook on you need something to cook in. This would be a frying pan or a pot. Now if you want the most variety, then all you really need is a saucepan if you are cooking for one.

A saucepan can be used as a frying pan, but also as a pot. This means you can boil some water for cooking pasta, cook rice, make stir fry, or whatever else.

After you have something to cook on and cook in, you need something to cook with. This would either be a spoon or a spatula. I would recommend a nice wooden spoon.

A wooden spoon allows you the ability to use it like a spoon, but is gentle like a rubber spatula.

Finally, and this might be a bit of an expensive purchase, but a mini fridge. If where you’re staying offers a fridge then great! But if not, then you are going to need a place to keep fresh ingredients. You need a complete diet!

Speaking of ingredients, all of your ingredients and spices and so on are best to be bought at a store where you are going to stay so as to keep them fresh.

Bathroom

There isn’t too much in the bathroom that you wouldn’t remember to bring, but one thing I do think you should do is bring some kind of rack such as a coat rack.

You don’t know how many hooks and such they are going to have in the room you are staying in. If you have roommates, you are going to have to share all of them.

Since you don’t know how clean your roommates will be, it is probably best to not have your towels, robes, etc hanging up and touching your roommate’s towels etc.

Bedroom

The place that I regretted the most at not bringing was things for the bedroom. I once heard someone say that you should never be cheap about things that protect you from the ground.

This means shoes, socks, mattresses, sheets, pillows, pillowcases and other things. Most likely, where you are going is going to have cheap mattresses that they bought in bulk for all the rooms.

This means you are almost certainly going to want to bring some sort of mattress pad or comforter.

Sleep is really important for most people to be able to function properly. So, if you are going to have things that will disturb or ruin the quality of your sleep then you are going to want to make sure you alleviate them as much as possible.