Moving into my dorm

Happy Friday everyone! I thought it would be great to reflect on my college experiences and hopefully give you guys an in on what college is actually like. I thought this could be beneficial because all I knew about college going in was what I saw in movies and what my family told me! I'm currently a freshman so my experiences are all very recent and all my posts will be in real time with how my life is going. 

So let's talk about move-in day. My college has a program where you are able to meet people and grow skills that will aid in your adjustment to college. This program took place before school had began. At first, I was reluctant about taking part in this program. I felt that I was being 'babied' into college, and that I could figure everything out on my own. I was going to be fine right? I've been to a sleep away summer camp for a month before so I totally got this whole college thing in the bag! Even after explaining how I felt, my parents still encouraged me to go. What intrigued me the most about this program is that you could move in early!! Wohoo, I could dodge the dreadful freshman move in day. With that thought in mind I decided to sign up for the program.

Move in day had arrived. I had to wake up early to drive up to school and get a decent spot in line. The day had finally come. To my luck, no one else in my dorm was moving in yet, so it was not as chaotic as it could have been. But let me tell you, it was still pretty crazy in my room. We had a lot of things to do and were only allotted a few hours to do it! My parents and brother came with me to help. At first, we parked outside of the dorm to unload both of our vehicles (yes both, we had 2 SUV's full of my things). They had us put everything on the ground first and park before we were able to bring things into my room. This was so they could keep the line of cars moving. As I parked my car my mom checked me in and got my room key. They began moving things up into my room. Now there may have been less people moving in because it was not the official freshman move in day, but there were still A LOT of people trying to move in all at once. My dorm is on the fourth floor, and well we had to get everything up there. Normally you would take the elevator right? No physical exercise needed! Well, there was a long line of people waiting for elevators. As soon as I saw the line, I decided I would test my health and take the stairs. I'm not going to lie it was kind of exhausting walking up four flights of stairs with heavy things in my hands. But finally, I had made it to my room. 

So now it was time to set up my room! We had to re-position the furniture and raise the bed so my drawers would fit underneath. We did this to optimize the space in my room! Then me and my mom got to working on setting up the bathroom and my bed spread while my dad and brother worked on assembling my coffee cart, and two shoe racks. No, I did not bring two shoe racks worth of shoes to school. I used one for my actual shoes and the other actually goes on my desk and it doubles as storage and decor! I also set up easy things like the over the door hooks for my towels and hanging shelves in my closet for my jeans. My favorite feature has to have been the clear shoe holder that goes on the back of my closet door, it actually holds my food; it's a great way to organize all of my food visibly, without having to take up extra space! My coffee cart also doubles as a mini pantry to hold some of the bigger food items that we could not fit into small slots on my door (popcorn, trail-mix, pretzels, etc). Another helpful trick was one we did with all my clothes that go on hangers. Now instead of taking them all off of hangers and putting them all back on them when we got to my dorm, we found a hack! What you do is take all of your clothes on hangers (you may need more than one bag depending on how many) and put them in a trash-bag through the open side with the top of the hangers going up to the bottom; next you cut a whole in the bottom of the trash-bag big enough to have the top of the hanger stick out and tie the bottom, tada! That trick was my favorite because it saved me so much time. We rolled out my rug, and put my remaining belongings away. 

We had finally finished everything! Well not quite. I think most people believe they will have their room completely decorated and finished on day one, but what I have to say to that is it's very unlikely. First of all, I haven't spent any time in the space! Yes I toured it, but that's it. I did not know how big of a picture I would need or where I would need to place it! Secondly, there just isn't enough space. We managed to fill two entire SUV's and that did not even include decor; imagine if I had bought decor, it would have had to be brought up at a later date or we would have needed a third vehicle. Think about all of that gas! With all of that in mind, I waited to get my decor until after moving in and I am so glad I did. I had a much better understanding of what I wanted, how big it needed to be and where I was going to put it. And that's how I have the dorm of my dreams! Check it out below :).

Please comment below any questions about move in day or about dorms themselves. I would love to answer any questions and share more helpful tips!