My Dorm Room!

This year, I made a resolution to be more adventurous with Oh, Hailey, and try to become more than a blog my friends and family read after I shared it on Facebook. So, in keeping with this resolution, this blog post is going to be a little more fun and entertaining, rather than my reflective and spiritual posts.

I was nervous to share my dorm room with you, just because it’s not the most beautiful, aesthetically-pleasing, Pinterest-worthy dorm room in the whole world. But I realized, dorms are made for college students, who are living there, with real lives. So, while this room is a little messy, it’s us making the best of what we’ve got. Whenever you see those dorm rooms on Pinterest just know those people are living without a lot of necessities. I can truly say, that out of all the stuff I have in my room, even though it may seem like a lot, I need and use just about all of it.

So, without further ado, here is an incredibly thorough tour of my home away from home, my little slice of TCU, my dorm room!

Here are some pictures of the whole room before we get to my personal areas.

At the beginning of the school year, we had my bed lofted in an ‘L’ shape over Liesel’s bed. We liked the way it opened up our room to a lot more space, and it was a pretty unique set up compared to other dorm rooms we had seen. However, after some time, I realized I didn’t like having a lofted bed. Getting into my bed, even if it was just for a short time, was a bit of a commitment, and so to watch Netflix, I’d normally have to watch it at my desk instead of my comfy bed (that was the most ‘First World Problems’ thing I’ve ever said, and for that, I apologize). Additionally, if I ever had to get up in the middle of the night to get some water or use the restroom, the noise of my bed right over Liesel’s head would wake her up. The point I’m trying to make clear: It was not working.

After this semester, I expressed that I didn’t want my bed lofted anymore, but Liesel, understandably, also didn’t want to be in a lofted bed. We decided to rearrange a bit to accommodate both of our wants. Now I no longer have to climb a ladder to get into bed, and we still have a pretty open set up.

One of my favorite spots in my room is the decorations I have set up above my bed. The beautiful canvas was done by one of my dear friends back home, Tess. The Nebraska-shaped photo collage was an incredibly sweet gift from two of my best friends, Savannah and Jennie. I knew I wanted photos of my favorite people right above my bed, so I got cheap frames from Target to hang on my wall. The sign and lyre are from my sweet big, Alison.

Underneath my bed, like most college students, is a lot of storage. The three-drawer dresser was supplied by TCU, and it holds my pajamas, undergarments, socks, workout gear, shorts, leggings, and t-shirts. On top of the dresser I keep our printer because it’s close to a plug in and it’s not taking up desk space. I bought the nine cube shelve and storage bins from Target. It has been such a life saver and that extra storage I need. It holds my books and DVDs, all my food, my cups and bottles, and my shower bag. There’s still tons of space behind the shelves under my bed, so I store other things I don’t need often, like my suitcase or some of my gifts from big/little reveal.

My bedspread is from Target, from quite a fear years ago, that we still had at home and I thought was cute. I bought the storage cube bin off of Amazon, because I still need a little help getting into bed. The cube was smaller and less sturdy than I expected, but it gets the job done.

Next up is my other favorite area of the room: my desk. The desk came with the room, and it’s got a decent amount of storage. It comes with a really large drawer, and then a shelf underneath the drawer. The shelf is really big and I kind of wish there was another shelf in the middle, but I’m able to make it work. In the drawer, I keep many of my school supplies and various forms and documents. On the shelf, I keep all my textbooks and more documents in a magazine holder. Behind the books is my very important cereal stash.

I was inspired by Liesel’s hutch on her desk to buy shelving for my desk. I was just in need of more storage that wouldn’t take up a lot of room on my desk. In my opinions, a shelf or hutch is one of the smartest investments you can make if you need more storage or like your desk less cluttered. However, some hutches are more expensive than others—that’s why I went with these cheaper shelves. They don’t provide A LOT of storage, but they keep my desk clutter-free. On the shelves, I keep cute photos and my favorite mode of pencil and pen storage: mugs! Also on the shelves is my aroma diffuser, which my mom bought me last semester. It has been a game changer. When I need energy during long homework crams, I diffuse lemon and orange, or I diffuse chamomile before bed. I also have fake flowers on my shelves that my friend Amanda gave me. Another essential for my dorm room was a surge protector that I use on my desk. There’s only so many outlets in a dorm room, and some of those are eliminated depending on how you arrange your room. I bought this outlet on Amazon, and thus far, it has been a true lifesaver, and has not failed me. The lamp is from Target, and it’s also been very useful. It comes with a USB port and an outlet, which you can use even when the lamp is on. It also comes with some organization, which I use to hold my push pins and paperclips.

As you can see, my TV is on the ground between our fridge and my desk. When we rearranged the room, we ran out of counter space for my TV. Originally we had it under my bed, and planned on pulling out my dresser whenever we wanted to watch TV. However, this did not work. One day when I wanted to watch the Bachelor, I set the TV up on my desk, because there is a cable outlet near my desk and I was able to watch while lying in bed. We then realized there was enough room to set the TV down on the ground when we didn’t need it, and then we could just pull it up and set it on my desk for our weekly reality TV shows. It was a great way to make do with what we had.

TCU provides every dorm with a fridge and microwave combination. I bought the caddy that’s on top of the garage, and it’s been great additional storage to hold my plates. The caddy was made for a refrigerator, but since the microwave is unattachable, we’ve had to place it on top of the microwave, and be careful of not covering the vents. For anyone that knows me, they know I love coffee, so, of course, a Keurig was at the top of my dorm shopping list. My mom found a great deal for it online. The awesome thing about a Keurig in a dorm is that it provides more than just coffee. A Keurig can make a hot cup of water at the perfect temperature, so you can have tea or pour water over ramen noodles.

Arguably one of the uglier parts of our room is our sink area. I am SO thankful that our dorm room comes with a sink because it makes getting ready in the morning so much easier, without having to go to the bathroom. The only complaint I have about our sink is the lack of counter space there is. There’s just small counter space on each side of the sink and a small shelf above. For storage, the mirror above the sink has a medicine cabinet. Thankfully, Liesel’s mom was genius enough to take dimensions of the room and found shelves to go underneath the sink that Liesel and I share. They are a life saver, and hold all my extra make up and hair products. Additionally, I found a shower caddy that I tied behind my towels on my towel rack. It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing, but it holds all the other things I need to get ready in the morning.

Liesel and I’s room is across from our dorm lobby, which means that anyone in the lobby can see into our room if our blinds are open. We really quickly realized how inconvenient this was because we like the blinds open to let light in, but we had to close the blinds every time we needed privacy when we were getting ready in the morning or evenings. The blinds were also harder to open and close because Liesel’s bed is against the window, so you have to climb on her bed to close the blinds. Thankfully, Liesel and her mom were able to buy sheer blinds and a tension rod to place in the window. These have been AMAZING. The blinds are sheer enough to let light in, while also providing us privacy from the lobby or outside.

I am a huge pictures person, especially being so far away from home. This semester, after rearranging, I found myself with a lot of photo that weren’t being displayed. As a quick and easy solution, I hung up the photos randomly on the back of our door with washi tape, and Liesel did the same. It’s just another cozy detail to add personality to our room, without taking up much money or time to do.

While I wish the closets were even bigger, I know the Milton closets are pretty nice. Dorm room closets are all about optimizing space. I am a big shoes person, so finding enough space for my shoes required both a hanging shoe rack, another shoe rack, and utilizing the closet’s built in shelf. Quite a few years ago, my grandparents gave me these beautiful earring and necklace holders that I have always loved. I wanted to be able to show them off in my dorm room, but space got the best of me, and after we rearranged, I had to tuck them into the closet. It sucks but that’s kind of how dorm rooms work.

One last important detail in our room was the rug Liesel bought after finding a good deal on Target. Rugs are so important to add comfort to any dorm room, especially when you have wooden or linoleum floors. This rug went great with our ‘color scheme’ and doesn’t get too dirty too easily. Just make sure you vacuum your rug often—especially if you’re a girl who sheds hair easily!

Overall, living in a dorm room is about being creative and making your dorm room cater to your needs. You can make your dorm room into a living space that you love, without sacrificing a ton of money.

#college #dorm #life