Freshman year of college might be the first time some students will be grocery shopping all on their own. With having to balance everything else going on in a student’s life, it’s easy to forget what we should have in our college rooms–whether it be a dorm room, an apartment, or even a house.

In an effort to help other fellow students I came up with this short list of items which I thought were ESSENTIAL to have in your room. I can’t stress enough of how handy it is to have these things with you. When you find yourself caught up in a sticky situation and you don’t have the proper items, just remember I warned you. I personally didn’t think I would need some of these items until it was too late and had to suck it up & improvise. Hopefully it won’t be a pain for you either after reading this.

1. First-Aid Kit

I know this might seem like a no brainer but seriously have a small first aid kit in hand. I cannot stress the amount of times you will randomly cut yourself and think to yourself “damn I could really use a band-aid right now”. I went through that so may times and I finally decided to take the initiative of buying this mini first aid kit at Target. However, each person is different and you can definitely DIY your own personal first aid kit, which can include any itch creams, allergy meds, and some pain killers.

Just last week my idiotic self tried cleaning glue off of a scissor and I ended up cutting my entire finger which just would not stop bleeding. But then I remembered “I bought a first aid kit!!” so I whipped it out, slathered on some Neosporin, and put on about 5 band aids. In that moment I truly felt like I belonged on Grey’s Anatomy or some other health professional related show. Please make sure to have a first aid kit in hand for cases like these.

2. Iron/Steamer

Wrinkled, creased, or rumpled clothing is NOT a cute look. I don’t know if it’s a Hispanic thing or what but nothing aggravates my grandmother more than seeing someone with wrinkled clothes.

For that reason when I moved in my first year of college she almost shoved this brand new iron down my throat. I thought she was being a little excessive with that but then one day I had to do a presentation for class and had to dress professionally.  I ironed all of my clothes since they had creases all over and were sort of wrinkly. The day of the presentation I walked in to class and saw other presenters in excessively wrinkled clothing which in my opinion made them look unprepared and unprofessional. So shout out to my grandma for helping me look the part. 

3.Ice Packs

When I first moved in, an Ice Pack was the last thing I would think to ever bring to my dorm room.. However, that ended up with me icing myself multiple times with frozen chicken nuggets or frozen taquitos. Often mishaps might happen when you least expect it and I doubt anyone would want to walk around with nasty ass bruises on any part of their bodies. Also I know people do not want to have to deal with pain from bumping their knee or elbow on something, or maybe the aftermath of some drunken falls.

Fun story– my friends and I were hanging out in one of our dorm rooms. One of them reached to grab something and accidentally dropped this really heavy glass container on their foot. Their foot immediately turned bright red and we all looked for an ice pack in their freezer but the only thing they had were frozen hot pockets. The pain was unbearable so my friend just said “freak it” and iced his foot with a pack of frozen hot pockets.

Unless you want to keep icing yourself with random frozen foods you have in your freezer, I highly suggest keeping a few ice packs in your room 🙂

 

4.Poo-Pourri

Last but not least… some poo-pourri! Some people get grossed out by the idea that people take shits. Yes we’re all human and our waste has to come out one way or another. But poo-pourri has come to everyone’s rescue. For those of you who are not sure of what exactly poo-pourri is, it’s basically a perfume that you spray right before you use the bathroom to mask the smell of you know what. They come in different sized spray bottles and are so much easier to carry around rather than an entire bottle of Febreeze or Lysol spray.

I hope you will consider getting these college must-haves for your personal space so you can avoid doom in your room!