8 Essentials To Make The College Dorm Feel Like Home

College dorm rooms can feel shockingly spartan—a homesick-inducing space for someone’s first experience living away from home. Help ease your student’s adjustment to college. Here are 8 ideas for making their dorm room a happier place to live.

1. Personal Touches: Make the dorm room theirs by hanging up or displaying photos of friends and family, personal mementos, or their favorite art or wall decor. 
2. Rugs and Curtains: Up-level their dorm room with a cozy rug or window coverings. These two items won’t take up much space but can have a huge impact on how the room feels.
3. Other Soft Furnishings: Add throw blankets and cushions to complement your student’s choice of bedding and create a feeling of cozy comfort.
4. Lighting: A nice desk lamp and fairy lights can change up a room’s atmosphere and add warmth and whimsy.
5. Plants: A little green can go a long way toward brightening up a room–not to mention its impact on mental health. Unless your student’s got a green thumb though, choose easy-to-care for plants that won’t need much watering like succulents, snake plants, or lucky bamboo. 
6. Air Freshener: Scent is something you may not have considered, but a subtle air freshener or essential oil diffuser can make the dorm room a more pleasant place to hang out. Tip: Include your student’s roommate(s) in the selection of the scent!
7. Storage System: A good storage system can keep a room feeling more spacious and less cluttered—an essential for a small space that your student may be sharing with others. 
8. A Stocked Up Snack Drawer: Fill your student’s snack drawer with treats they enjoy at home. If they love boba, Twrl Milk Tea has way less sugar than the milk tea from the boba shops and our single-serving Boba Toppings require no-to-low prep. Both are shelf stable, making them ideal for students living in the dorms. You may not be able to keep an eye on everything they eat, but a healthier boba drink is a good start.

Remember to check for restrictions that your student’s school might have for what’s allowed in the dorms.