The First Few Days: How Should I Set Up My Room?

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Dictionaries define dormitory as "a place to sleep." They usually don't say much about studying, eating, listening to music, hanging out, or hosting parties"but all those things happen in dorms, too. Maybe that's why many colleges now call them residence halls, reflecting that students don't just sleep in those places"they live there.

Despite the small size and unimaginative layouts of most dorm rooms, there's room to set up yours in a way that suits your style and all that you do in your room. Resourcefulness and imagination are the key ingredients to personalizing your room.

Rooms are typically furnished with curtains or a shade, a closet, dresser, desk and chair, and sometimes a bookshelf that might or might not be bolted to the wall. Those standard-issue items won't show up in the pages of Dorm Beautiful magazine, but they are functional"they serve their purposes well.

Jacqueline Victor (University of Colorado at Boulder, ) says a smart division of space helped her adapt to the "constrained box" feel of her dorm rooms. "For eight months out of each year, this area is the one place I can call my own," she says of her sophomore-year single room. "I find that creating a mini home makes my life so much better. For example, I organize a sleeping space with my bed, a study space using a lounging chair, a workspace for my computer, a kitchen space by my refrigerator, and a preparation space near my mirror and products." Each space may be tiny, but it's also distinct. A similar approach worked well her freshman year, she says, when she shared a double room. Each roommate had her own partitioned area, and they shared a common area.

Comfort has been the top priority of Lindsay Baran when setting up her rooms"it's an approach she suggests other students keep in mind. "You don't want it to be too cluttered or too empty," says Lindsay (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign).

Lots of students straddle the line between comfort and clutter, though. For that reason, organizers of every possible kind"for papers, notes, pens, computer discs, clothes, and much more"are pitched to college students. It might be tempting to buy lots of them. They can be useful if you have a lot of stuff that's tough to keep track of, but it depends on how much stuff you actually have, and whether an organizer can really make your life easier. For example, you may not need a fancy CD holder if you can just as easily stack your CDs on the bookshelf. But if you have 10 pairs of shoes, it might be worth buying a shoe organizer for your closet. In short, you don't want your room cluttered with organizers.

Laurel Cooper (Duke University, ) suggests setting up your room according to "however things fit" "there are no set rules"and then seeing if organizers are needed. "Don't buy space savers until you arrive," she says, "since you probably won't have a clue how your stuff and your roomie's stuff will fit together."

The single biggest factor in how a room is set up might be which roommate arrives first. That person's choices can set the tone for decisions and adjustments that follow.