So you’ve just moved into your first college dorm. Congratulations and welcome to your new home for the next nine months! Now that you’ve unpacked your bags and gotten used to the smell of the dusty maroon dorm curtains, here is a list of things that you probably forgot to pack with you, but you will definitely want to have this semester. 

• Water Filter Pitcher

Let’s be honest, tap water from the dorms is disgusting. Call me crazy, but I have a difficult time drinking any kind of tap water, and as much as I love plastic water bottles, they create a number of problems. The first is that they are harmful to the environment. This is nothing new, but they’re also an extra three to five dollars every time you go grocery shopping that college students don’t need to waste money on. On top of that, it’s one more thing to add clutter to your room when you inevitably leave half-empty bottles of water on every flat surface (and we don’t have our moms around anymore to tell us to pick them up, so trust me, they accumulate quickly).

You could go the route of just filling up a big water bottle in the dorm water fountain, but that’s another thing you have to carry around with you and the dorms all have sinks, so I highly recommend investing in a water filter (I went with Brita) and filling it up in your dorm and drinking from that. It is so much more convenient and you won’t have to drink plain tap water or make a late night run to the first floor to get water from the fountain. This was honestly one of my favorite dorm room essentials my freshman year. 

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• 10 Foot Charging Cord

This one is pretty self-explanatory, but no charging cord could ever be long enough in a dorm room where outlets are spread out in weird areas, and when you’re doom-scrolling through TikTok in your bed at 3 a.m. instead of studying for your finals, you’ll want the longest cord you can find so you can comfortably scroll to your heart’s content.

Don’t be afraid to splurge on a charging cord because when you hold it in your bed, people tend to bend the cord until it eventually unravels, so you want one that will hold up well. 

• Large Umbrella 

I feel like every college student has this same story; the second week of my freshman year, I was getting ready for my class at Lawson Hall when it began to rain—no, downpour. I was in Mae Smith and had to walk the entire way across campus for my class and all I had was a compact umbrella and a windbreaker. Needless to say, I was soaked and shivering in my class and most of the things in my bag got wet as well because my umbrella barely covered the top of my head.

You might be worried a big umbrella will be too bulky to carry around in class but I promise you that a bulky umbrella in class is a lot more manageable than having to sit in soaking wet clothes for a lecture,or heaven forbid, an exam. If you can fit a small family under your umbrella, you have the right size. 

• Good Walking Shoes

The miles on your shoes rack up quickly on a college campus. My second year at SIU I lived in Schneider and had half of my classes in the Communications Building. There aren’t many variations of living arrangements and classes that go further than that, so I spent a lot of my time walking. Now, at first, I wanted to have cute shoes to go with my outfits but by the end of the year, I had completely worn holes in every pair of my cute (but super thin) shoes.

I truly believe there is a way to be fashionable and comfortable at the same time and it is so worth it to find the happy medium, because there have been times that I would wear a nice pair of boots to my classes but by the time I got there, I couldn’t fathom walking back home because my feet already hurt so terribly. 

• Medicine

If you leave your dorm room at all, you are bound to get sick on a college campus. Think about college like an 18-to-20-something-year-old version of kindergarten. Everyone has a snotty nose and a cough and they’re all giving it to everyone else. Then, on weekends, we pack together in the hot and muggy basement of a frat house and breathe our germs into each other’s faces, repeating the cycle until we graduate.

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It’s almost inevitable, so I highly recommend preparing your dorm room with a bit of cold medicine and Tylenol to help you bounce back when you’re feeling sick. While you’re at it, get some Gatorades to help rehydrate after a long night of partying.

• Bonus: Family Recipe

This one might seem completely unnecessary, but one day, there is going to be a snow day or you’re going to have a bad day at school and all you will want is a home-cooked meal. A family recipe is going to be just what you need. I believe the SIU dining halls have the best chicken nuggets I’ve ever had, but nothing that comes out of a dining hall can ever compare to food from home, so pick your favorite comfort recipe (I chose the pancake recipe my family always made growing up) and copy it into your notes or on a recipe card. Then, when that day comes that you need a little extra comfort, break out that recipe and feel a little bit closer to home.

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