Prentice Hall Student Success SuperSite

One Student's Journey

Room To Move

All right, it's been a long day, and I'm completely out of interesting topics to write about. Hmmm... I'm looking around the room... oh, what the hell, I'll write about that.

One of the biggest changes from high school to college is being forced out of your nice little house/apartment and into a 10 by 10 cell (if you're lucky to have that big of a room.) But dorm rooms can actually be fairly livable if you approach decorating the right way.

Right about now, some of you are finding out who your roommates are and attempting to figure out a plan for decoration. This is 20 times more likely to be happening if you're female. A word of advice -- don't plan too much. No matter how much you visualize a pretty pastel and white room with delicate furniture and eyelet linens, it's not gonna happen. Trust me, with that kind of attitude, Martha Stewart must have never made it through college. Dorm rooms are just natural magnets for mess.

My roommate and I have countered this fairly effectively. Instead of going for an actual two- or three-color scheme, we decided that our theme would be color itself. We concentrated on the basics -- red, blue, yellow, black, white -- and then decided to let everything else decorate itself as we went along. It worked. We now have every color and every pattern somewhere in the room -- theres a leopard-print postcard hanging from the ceiling as a mobile, posters of all colors on the walls, and pictures/books/dried flowers shoved in every available corner.

The Countdown 8/25
Moving in 9/1
Going to Class 9/8
Rated PG 9/15
Athletes Foot in Mouth 9/22
Shaken Not Stirred 9/29
Sleeping with the Enemy 10/6
Withdrawal Symptoms 10/13
Why Duke? 10/20
Par-ants Weekend 10/27
Halloween 11/3
Who Am I? 11/10
Travel Guide 11/17
Give Me a Break 11/24
Thank You 12/1
Campus Camp-out 12/8
Apply Yourself 12/15
Rushing Back to School 1/26
Chi-Omega Land 2/2
Apply Yourself #2 2/9
Three Month Itch 2/16
School Daze 2/23
Politics and Popularity 3/2
They Came They Saw, They Choked 3/9
Dating at Duke 3/16
Weekly Update 3/30
Beep Beep 4/6
Extra,Extra 4/13
Room to Move 4/20
End of the Innocense 4/27
Help Me 5/1
The Last Hurrah 5/8

Then there are our "fabric sculptures" -- not works of art, but piles of clothing scattered all over the floor, beds, and chairs. Talk about automatic decoration, thats our style. And hey, when you wake up 5 minutes before your class starts, the "sculptures" can be a remarkable help in deciding what to wear ("Hey, there are the jeans I wore last week! They're still clean...")

The most remarkable thing about this room plan is the response we've gotten. People come in and actually like it. They're so taken aback by the brightness that they dont notice the mess, unlike with many of the other rooms, where a little mess can ruin all the pretty pink frilliness. So that's tip #1 from me -- go bright. (By the way, guys, I don't think theres much chance of you having a frilly room anyway, and your room is expected to be messy, so you can do whatever you want regarding color schemes.)

More tips:

2. Get a carpet. Vacuuming it can be a pain, but you'll be much more willing to sit on a carpet than some nasty stone tile floor. It also looks nicer.

3. Be original. If refrigerator poetry is your thing, then by all means buy magnets. Stick up some conversation pieces and pictures on your walls. If you're into candles, place them all over the room. (Hey girls, they're a great way to set the mood!)

4. Desk lamps are a necessity -- dorm lighting can be awfully bad, and unless you and your roommate happen to have the exact same schedules, at some point you're going to need light to read/type/get ready to go out while your roommate is sleeping.

5. You know those cute little organizing crates? Get some. Now. Space is limited, so in spite of your messiness you've at least got to have a place to throw things.

6. Bring an extra chair for guests. And a full-length mirror so you'll know what you look like before you go meet people who may eventually become guests.

Speaking of guests, it appears that I've got one... so I'll leave you to make your shopping list (I recommend Bed, Bath & Beyond if you've got one in your city.) Enjoy!