Top 5 tips for life in the dorms

Top 5 Tips For Life In The Dorms 1. Get a shower routine - It is important to note what times are the busiest in the showers and to work around those time.  I always showered before the rush so I could get the good shower stall and enjoy some hot water - Almost all shower stalls will have one great shower, one mediocre shower, and one drippy and useless shower, while the rest will be mediocre and unpleasant to use.  If you try to shower with all the other students, you end up with the crappy shower and no hot water which is just a bad start to your day.  Have your stuff ready to go the night before and plan on either getting a bathrobe to wear or changing back into your night clothes before heading back to your dorm room.  Some people just come out in their towels but every now and then you run into a group of parents and future students getting a tour of the dorms and that is just slightly embarrassing to have to walk through them in nothing but a towel.2. Get a mini fridge - This will save your life on several occasions.  You will get thirsty and you will get hungry and there will be times where the cafeterias are closed and the vending machines are empty.  I recommend picking up a mini fridge even if you know your future roommate is bringing one as well, it might even make life easier since you can fill it full of your own things and not have to worry about sharing space.  The fridges only cost about 99 dollars now so there is no good reason not to have one.3. Don’t try to study there - If you need to get work done, head to the library.  There are too many distractions in the average dorm room, if you’ve got a book to read or a paper to research then your best bet is to go to the library and grab a table or a room on one of the quiet floors.  There will be noisy floors or noisy areas as many fraternities and sororities have mandatory study times where they all get together and pretend to study - although usually they just talk loudly and are a distraction.  Many dorms offer study rooms but the dorms are usually too loud and full of distractions to get any real work done so it is best to get as far away from them as possible.4. Keep it clean - Nothing gets you demotivated like a filthy or cluttered room.  Take the trash out on a regular basis, if you know you aren’t going to wash any of the cups or bowls you may have brought with you - then throw them away and get disposable ones, and whatever you do, do not get the paper delivered to your room.  Those things just pile up and most people never even read them.  If you know you aren’t going to put your clothes back up after you wash them, then get two hampers and rotate between clean clothes and dirty clothes.  Organize your room to get the most space out of it, that way things don’t feel so confined - and it can get pretty confining in a dorm room, it doesn’t help that most of them are painted in prison grey tones and look exactly like a jail cell.  For instance, if you are lucky enough to get a room with stackable beds, flip the legs upside down and reattach the mattress springs and what you end up with is a bed that sits about 3 feet off the ground - plenty of room for that mini fridge and some plastic storage drawers.5. Keep your tech safe - This one is very important considering how much technology people bring with the to school now.  If you have a laptop, take it with your or lock it in a drawer when you leave.  Keep all of your small electronics, such as iPods or PDAs in a secure spot that can be locked.  If you have a desktop computer, password protect it and keep your door locked at all times when you are not there.  There are many people who come in and out of those dorm rooms, from your roommate, to drunk people wandering the halls some nights searching for their rooms, to student workers who check light bulbs and fire alarms.  You can never be too careful when it comes to security in such a high traffic area.