Getting Ready for College

Dorm furniture can be so expensive if you don't know to buy it cheap and used. The problem with cheap and used is that some things may not be in a completely put together state. Missing lamp shades are one of the most common problems I've seen. Sure, you can buy the cheap lamp and then go to Wal-Mart and buy a shade, but why work it that way? You can make a lamp shade that doubles as a bulletin board!

There are also a lot of great finds that can be made on larger furniture, such as desks, chairs and nightstands. The problem? They're usually ugly, unfinished or just an unpleasant color. See the Decoration section below to see how I handle furniture like this.

Lighting is another big problem. There's either not enough of it or too much. Those fluorescent lights they use in your dorm may seem great, at first, but when you're sitting up reading for hours on end, you may find yourself going blind from the brilliance of them. A little light is better than a lot and I have the coolest, funky lighting idea made out of a dryer hose.

Storage. You never seem to have enough of it in a small dorm room. There's just not enough floor space and not enough desk space and not really enough of any type of space. Utilize your bulletin board for more than just holding papers and reminders with this fast craft idea.

So above I mentioned finding unfinished, ugly and unpainted furniture. Well now I'm going to tell you how to deal with it. This furniture may be unattrative now, but there's no reason it has to stay that way. You can give these pieces a quick paint job that leaves it looking better than any normal finish could or you can give your furniture a little flair by giving it a cool graphic. Use your favorite television character, book character or painting. Whatever you use, just get it on your furniture! Keep in mind, you can't do this with college-owned furniture.

So now you've got your funky, awesome furnitu, but you're room is missing something. All that splash of color in the rest of your room seems to be thrown off by the depressing white of your walls. Well you can throw down the gauntlet and paint those walls! Except that that requires college permission, fees have to be paid sometimes and in the end, you have to repaint it or be charged even more fees. So what are you to do?

Provide your own wall art, of course! You can use photos of family and friends to start with, maybe even a few pages of your favorite comic book or some art you really like, but in the end, you'll have far more wall space than you do photos to cover it. Have no fear! You can create your own unique wall art. No one else in your dorm will have anything with as much style or interest as you do!

And don't forget collages. They're entertaining to make; are you thinking study break already? And most importantly, they give a litlte more spice and vitality to that dreary dorm room.

So your room looks hot now, right? It just screams, 'you' and lets everyone know that YOU are the one who lives here; not some bookworm who never gets out because of all the studying. You've gotta have friends to invite over though. Did you know the best way to make your first frieds in college is to leave your door open? Now you do.

But you've got to keep a level of privacy sometimes. Sure you can close the door when you change and stuff, but do you really want people to stop by just to peak in and see you studying? No way. So think about getting a door curtain. You could go with an old, retro 60's beaded curtain. It's cliche, but it'll get the job done. Or you can go with this hippy inspired record door curtain.

The record curtain also makes a great window blind if your school doesn't provide you with an adequate one. It allows air in, allows you to see out pretty easily and yet obscures anyone trying to look in. Don't overdo your hippy look by having records on both the door and window though.

So if you're using the records at your door, what are you supposed to use on your window? Well, CD's of course. Pick up some of those old, unused ones and make a valance out of CD's. The strings of CD's can be elongated to make a full curtain as well.

Don't be shy of switching around which of these two curtains goes where. You can put the records over you window and the CD's over the door. Make it your own!

Getting to the store from many campuses can be a hassle, especially those small campuses where it's more of a pain to have a car than just to walk around the town. But what do you do when the nearest Wal-Mart or other big box store is too far away to just walk to?

Well you beg for a ride, naturally. It's degrading, right? And no one ever really wants to take you. Even if they are already going to Wal-Mart, they don't want someone else with them.

Throw out those antiquated ideas about shopping. You don't have to go to the store anymore! Have all those items delivered right to your dorm mail box with Alice.com.

Not only do you get to shop online and have all the items delivered for free, but Alice helps you determine when it's time to reorder items and even helps you budget based on previous months' purchases.

All images and content on this page are the creations of the lens owner or were obtained with permission from the original artist. No images on this page are to be reproduced, redistributed or altered in any way without acquiring the permission of the page owner first.