Ways to Personalize Your Dorm Room
Posted: December 14, 2022 | Author: Clare-Estelle Perkins | Read Time: 4 minutes
As soon as you’ve found your college housing you will want to decorate. For many students, college is the first time living away from home. Personalizing your dorm room or space through decorations and habits will help make it your home away from home.
Your side or your room of the dorm is your environment, that is what you're given to work with and in. You may avoid personalizing our environment because it is temporary living but it just might be worth the energy to make your current environment perfect for you.
Dorm Room Decor
Everyone loves room decor but you only have so many surfaces in your dorm. While trendy room decor is fun, they can get stale and stop adding personality. Decorations with personal meaning are more likely to feel more enriching to an environment. You are more likely to keep and bring items that have sentimental value with you everywhere throughout your life and to every place you live. Some examples of personal room decor can include:
- Art that you made/art that you love
- Pictures of you and your friends and family
- Your favorite books
- Items that you made
- Plants
Plants can change the energy of a space. They are very calming and give you something to care for. They become a very personal form of decoration because you invest some time and energy into them. Plus, they are always happy and never ask questions (just make sure they are allowed in your dorm first).
Decorate your dorm space for you and not for people to say that's cute and trendy. Decorate it for you to smile and feel at home when you see it. This makes your space your own.
Making a Custom Photo Wall
Customizing a photo wall with pictures of your favorite things can really bring personality to a generally bland room. Sometimes the best photo walls are not just aesthetic but they are a compilation of random things you love or even just things that intrigue you;
- Pictures of your favorite bands
- Stills from your favorite movies and TV shows
- Funny pictures of your favorite animals
By putting things that make you smile up on your wall, your room will be much more comfortable.
Best Dorm Habits
It is important to make your dorm your living space. By making sure that you have a designated study space and a different place for work. This leaves your dorm as your space to relax and be separate from the stresses of school and work. Fitting a living space, bedroom, kitchen and vanity in half a room can be difficult. Keeping all your food in one place reduces the likelihood of waste and pests, an organized closet will make laundry day easier and reserving your bed solely as the place where you sleep or rest will help your body fall asleep faster. You can always make a small space a functional one.
Keep your space clean! Having a clean living space really helps your stress levels and those of your roommate(s). The last thing you want when coming home from a long busy day is to have to clean up the mess you left that morning or the night before. Cleaning your space once a day will take 5-10 minutes where cleaning up once a week or once a month can take hours. Do yourself and your roommate(s) a favor and keep clean.
Getting Rid of Clutter
Getting rid of all that extra clutter can make it much easier to navigate your area. Clutter can disturb your sleep, ability to focus, and your anxiety levels. It can be overwhelming and you are less productive. By getting rid of some things you either don’t love or don’t use all the time you both free up space in your room and lighten the load on your mind. Now, getting rid of extra clutter doesn’t mean disposing of things you love if minimalism is not your style. The less stuff you have, the easier it is to live in a smaller space.
Organizing for Your Convenience
Organizing things for your own convenience will make your daily routine both quicker and easier. Anything from the placement of your trash can to where you plug in an extension cord and even where you put your water bottle for when you wake up in the middle of the night. It can also be fun to think of different ways to organize in order to make your day more streamlined.
Hobbies
Having easy access to your hobbies makes you more likely to do them. Instead of storing everything away and out of sight, make them a little more accessible. This way instead of always picking up your phone you can use that time for a book or an art project or any one of your hobbies. Similarly, you are in control of your access to bad habits. Remove elements that encourage bad habits from your space and help yourself create new, healthier habits.
There are so many fun and new things to do with your room while in college. Remember extra space doesn't need to be filled, and to always check with your dorm resident assistant or apartment landlord to be sure of what is and is not allowed for your room.
Tags: Housing
