As someone who traveled six hours away from my hometown to come to the University of Missouri – Kansas City, I knew I needed my room to feel like my home away from home. When deciding what to bring and buy for my dorm room, all I thought about was how homesick I was going to be once I left my family. Here’s what I did to “bring” my home along with me to Kansas City.
Making My Bed Comfortable
Stuffed animals have brought me joy ever since I was little. As childish as it may seem, I still adore them. Before I left for college, I realized that I had to pick which stuffed animals I was going to bring, if any. And at the end of the day, I decided I was going to bring one sentimental and two that matched my room decor. The sentimental stuffed animal always brings me comfort as it reminds me of my family.
Cozy bedding and blankets were also an important decision because my bed is where my body recharges for the next day. Making sure that I was comfortable and did not wake up in the middle of the night was key for me when I first got here. I had to learn that it is okay to miss my parents and that the best thing I could do for myself was to make my room feel as close to my home as I could.
Tip #1: Bring blankets and stuffed animals that you slept with at home. This will make your bed sleep as comfortably as it did at home.
Decorating My Walls
I wanted my dorm room to feel close to what my bedroom at home felt like, so I brought my two whiteboard calendars and some fake plastic leaves. I knew that I used those whiteboards religiously while in high school and wanted to bring that good habit with me to college. The plastic leaves weren’t so much about comfort, but rather making my side of the room feel like my own. As we all know, every single dorm room in each residence hall looks exactly the same, and having bare yellow walls makes dorm living feel like a prison rather than a home. Personalize your room as much as you can to make it your own.
Tip #2: Remember that your dorm room will be your home for the next nine months, so decorate it the way that makes you the most comfortable.
Buying a Rug
One of the worst parts of living in a dorm is the cold tile that adds to the prison feel of each room. My roommate and I decided that we both wanted a rug in order to add warmth to our room.
We couldn’t go rug shopping together before moving in because we were six hours apart so we had to order online. When looking for a rug, we had to assess if we were going to wear shoes in the room, how messy we are, and how fluffy we wanted the rug to be based on the two previous assessments. My roommate and I decided that we are not messy people, so we ended up getting a cream-colored synthetic rug that wasn’t super fluffy but still would keep our feet warm. The pro of having a non-fluffy rug is the easy clean-up as vacuuming dirt, hair and random fuzzies isn’t an issue.
Tip #3: When deciding on a rug, look at the theme of your room and decide how messy of a person you and your roommate are. If you and your roommate are messy, try to go for a darker-colored rug that hides spills and dirt.
These items are simple and don’t necessarily make my dorm look like my home, allow me to add items that I used on a daily basis at home and have continued using since moving to college. Many students have a dorm room as their first-ever personal living space and see it more as a temporary living arrangement rather than a home. Building a comforting and relaxing environment already seems to be having a good effect on my mental health. As I have slowly personalized my living space I have been able to fall asleep faster, am more relaxed when in my room and finally have a place to call home in Kansas City.