Sharing a Dorm Room With Another Person

Living in a Residence Hall is an entirely new experience that you have to get used to. A huge part of that is bringing about a quarter of your room to your new room which means severely picking and choosing what you bring. You have to share a bathroom on your floor with other people which can mean completely changing your schedule around just so you can shower before class. Of course, it also means sharing a room with another person. And when you’re sharing a room, you’re also sharing some of your essentials. So how do you do it without going a little crazy?

First of all, before you even move into your college, you need to figure out a few roommate things. Do you have to bring a mini-fridge and microwave? Your college may provide one or the other or even both in each room, so you first need to figure that out. Once that is settled and you find out you have to bring them or not, you need to decide how to split who brings the big things. Let’s face it – you’re in a college dorm room. You’re not going to have room for two mini-fridges, microwaves, and TVs no matter how optimistic you are. So you’ve decided that yes, you need to share those big items. The thing is, you can’t share the cost, meaning that you can’t each pay for half of the TV, fridge, or microwave. The reason for this is that if you’re each paying for half of one item, how do you decide who takes it at the end of the year? One person paying for the entirety of one item is much easier. Again, coordinate with your roommate how you will work it for who brings what.

Being in college dorm room means you’re going to be eating in it sometimes. That means you need A-Food and B-A mini-fridge. The key word here is mini. You won’t be able to have nearly as much food as you had at your parents. And you’re going to be eating in the cafeteria much of the time, so why would you. While your fridge is quite small, that doesn’t mean that you have to share every single food item with your roommate. There’s going to be some things you don’t want your roommate to have. For example, yogurt. Or your favorite chip dip. Or your bottle of juice. And then there will be other things that you want shared. Like the leftover pizza from the night before or the 2-liter jug of pop. The point here is you can’t expect your roommate to be a mind reader. You have to say “Harry, go ahead and eat that pizza, there’s no way I can eat it all.” Or “Ron, please…don’t eat my chicken. Again.” Or “Lily, feel free to have anything you want in this fridge.” Label things if you have to with your name or that you want the item shared. It may seem silly, but if Harry or Lily don’t think they can have any of your food yet Ron eats everything, investing in a labeling system may be beneficial.

Living Small In College - Can You Really Pack Everything?

If you're going to be living on campus in your college dorm room, your primary concern is probably how you're going to fit everything from your room at home into your Residence Hall room. You've inevitably collected a lot of things throughout the years, after all! In fact, the first thing you probably did was stand in the middle of your room at home, look around and think how to do it. How to get everything in your room into your car and then into your Residence Hall room. The thing is, you're not. Your college dorm room is small as it is and then you're also going to be living with a roommate, which further limits your space. So how can you do it?

First, you need to think about the location of your college. This may seem silly, but it will determine a lot. Your college may be an hour away or it may be in another state or even another country. If your college is an hour or two away from home, you will have the luxury of being able to leave some things at home such as seasonal clothes and switch your clothes out as you go home for the long break. If your college is farther away from home, such as in another country, you may not have that luxury. It really depends upon what your plans are for the college year and what you plan on doing during long breaks. You'll need to decide these things and plan on them before you even start packing up your room.

Once you have figured out your plans and what you're doing during the long breaks, then comes the time to pack. Here is where a list may come in handy. Start with thinking about the absolute necessities. You obviously need bedding and you may have some supplies for studying left over from High School that you can bring with you to college. Next, you need to think about clothes - this is where things get tricky. Your first instinct is to bring everything, after all! However, you really need to pare down what you bring. Start with the clothes you wear all the time - and be honest with yourself. If you wear a T-Shirt multiple times in one month, definitely pack it! But if you can't remember the last time you wore it and it may have been months and months ago....then it is probably a good idea to leave it at home. The same goes with your shoes. Give your shoes the same critical eye as you do your clothes. And don't fall for the "Oh, I MIGHT need these for this thing" trap. That will result in you bringing more things to college than you have room for.

The key in packing for college is to be realistic. You won't have room for nor will you need to pack everything that you have in your room to take to your college dorm room. This is especially so for some of those decorative items around your room - if they take up space on your desk or dresser, you have to be especially critical on if you need to bring it. You won't have much surface space, after all - You may not have a dresser or you may not have a desk. If you're lucky, you'll have both, so you really need to evaluate if a framed photo is worth taking. You can always take the photo with you and tape it to your wall, but a framed photo will take space that you need for functional items.

Moving to College – Don’t Forget About Your Family!

When you’re moving to the area of your college, whether you’re living on campus or off, it can be easy to get caught up in the day to day nature of it. You go to classes, possibly a part time job, come back to your college dorm room, work on your homework, have some free time, and go to bed. With how busy your schedule is, it can be all too easy to get to the end of the week and realize that you haven’t been in contact with your family in a week…or more. Obviously, your family won’t be too happy about this – they want to know how you’re doing in college and miss you. So as you go through college, you need to remember to stay in contact with them…you may need to pencil it in on your busy schedule.

First of all, make visits home occasionally. While talking with you on the phone is great, seeing you is even better and if you’re able to, then visit occasionally. Obviously, if your college is an hour or two away this is easier. If your college is not that close, then you want to make sure you at least come home for major holidays.

Don’t just text your family – sure texting is great, but they will want to verbally talk with you and hear your voice. Make it a point to call them once a week. Most importantly as you talk with your family, you want to make sure you aren’t just talking about yourself. Ask them how they’re doing. Let them tell you stories from home. It isn’t all about you and your stories, so you also need to make sure you don’t just use your family to vent. This can be a little hard as they’re going to ask you how you’re doing and will want some stories and will want to hear all about your classes. It can be easy to get carried away and you may find yourself venting to your family. While this is okay occasionally, your family won’t want to hear you stress out and vent every time they talk to you – remember to keep a balance.

If you miss someone’s birthday, don’t just text them. Write it on your planner in bright, bold ink if you have to. Make sure you send a card and maybe a little gift, especially if it’s your parents or grandparents.

Staying in Touch with your High School Friends

As you approach High School graduation, you make promises with all of your friends that you’ll stay in touch. You’ll text and call each other often and make promises to get together when you’re all home for the break. Staying in touch with friends from High School can be difficult once you each go your separate ways for college. It isn’t impossible, you just each need to make the effort.

First of all, you can’t just say that you’ll stay in contact. You need to commit to staying in contact. While texting is great, don’t underestimate calling. Hearing your friend’s voice and having a conversation can not only help with some of the homesickness you’re each feeling, it can also help you each talk through the stress you’re feeling with college. The worst thing you can do is to get busy and say that you’ll contact the person tomorrow. Because when tomorrow comes, you’ll say the same thing and that will continue. Before you know it, you’ve lost contact and it’s been a few months. 

Unfortunately, this is a very real thing. You start out saying you’ll keep in touch and then college gets busy and you lose contact no matter how much you said you would stay in touch. You’ll be making new friends in college, and while that isn’t a reason to abandon your other friends, it is a growth process. Who you become in college may be different from who you were in High School and while you may stay in contact, you may lose contact too because you may different and found that you outgrew your friends from High School. This can be quite a sad thing, however, it doesn’t have to be your story. You probably won’t keep in touch with every friend and acquaintance you ever made in High School. However, it is possible to stay in touch with your core group of friends. It takes more effort when you’re possibly in different cities, time zones, or even countries. You really have to commit to contacting and seeing each other. You don’t have to contact each other every day – sometimes just once or twice a week is enough to keep your friendship going strong.