10 Things you absolutely must have for your dorm

1: a mini-fridge and microwave.  Speak at your roommate about this so one of you can get the fridge and the other can get the microwave.  That way you don't split the cost and end up having to draw up divorce-like legal documents to decide who gets custody of the fridge at the end of the year.

2: Posters.  Just start buying cheap posters now because white walls will sear your brain and make it even HARDER than it already is to study chemical engineering by flashlight at three in the morning.

3: A comforter you love.  Don't get anything white and don't get anything that you don't like because your bed is the only part of your room that is absolutely yours.  You want it to look like the way you want to be perceived.

4: Power-strips.  Plural.  There are 8 outlets in my dorm room.  That give me four outlets for my computer, coffee maker, microwave, alarm clock, ihome, desk lamp, phone charger, guitar amp, and curling iron.  I have four power-strips and they are my secret loves.  ...well, they were secret until I blogged about them...

5: A coffee maker.  I do not care if you don't like coffee.  Suck it up.  Coffee is the only way to get up at 6 every morning and go to bed at midnight or later every night.  I have a four cup coffee maker and it is not enough.  Get a full-sized one so you don't have to brew it 7.23 times each day. (incidentally, coffee manufacturers hate people and they made it so that a "four cup" coffee maker does not make four mugfuls (or "cups", if you will) of coffee; it makes four MEASURING cups of coffee, which is about a mug and a half.)

6:  Music.  Bring a really good ihome or speakers or a TV or an x-box or something.  Better yet, bring several of those things.  You will go stir-crazy without constant (and preferably portable) music.  Going stir-crazy is the last thing you want to do because that is where the Freshman Fstress your Fass off comes in.

7:  A little whiteboard.  Hang this outside of your door and feel the love whenever you come home and see that someone you don't know has written "Hayley, ur room is my big pasta" on it for the third time. You may also feel creeped out, but at least you'll know that someone kind of knows your name.

8:  A rug.  Most dorms have tiled floors.  They suck.  They spread cancer.  I think mine has rabies.  You will basically be playing one big, never ending game of "lava floor" where if you step on an un-carpeted area, you die.  Get a big rug and get good at jumping that 4.6 foot gap from the edge of the rug to the door.

9:  Dishes and silverware.  You won't be at all inclined to do dishes.  Ever.  So have like four mugs and a couple of plates and bowls and things.  They don't have to match but they should all be microwaveable or your room will smell like burnt plastic because you tried to make "chocolate cake in a mug" with a bowl that melted and now that smell has permeated your room and absolutely won't come out ever unless you call in the ghost busters to suck it into another dimension, and let's face it, you're a college student and the ghost busters are expensive.

10:  A house-elf.  You will never clean unless your mom comes to visit.  Invest in a good, Winky-style house-elf for your own sanity.  Otherwise you will catch rabies from your floor.