When people learn you’re moving into a dorm, they love to tell you about their own experience, or the experience of their cousin’s friend’s brother. They share a lot of horror stories about inconsiderate roommates, the notoriously thin walls, or the shared bathrooms. Or, you get the stories about people who met their best friends while living on campus and it was the best year of their lives.
There isn’t a way to predict how your nine months in the dorm will go. But, there are things you can do to help you and your roommate live peacefully in your shared space.
First things first: set clear boundaries.
When I moved in, our RA (Resident Assistant) gave me and my roommate a contract to fill out and sign. It forced us to talk about our studying habits, how we liked to relax, how we want our dorm to be utilized, any boundaries we wanted to set, etc, etc. To be honest, we didn’t ever refer back to this contract, but it did get us talking about these things pretty early in our “roommateship.” We were both easy-going people who liked the quiet and dim lighting (twinkle lights were all over our room). She brought this fluffy white rug for our floors and her only hard rule was that we keep our shoes off it to keep it clean, which was fine by me because I hardly ever wore shoes anyway.
Second, and probably most importantly, keep yourself in check.
The best way to do this is to start out the term clean and organized. Make sure your closet is organized. Hang things up, keep a laundry bin or bag (and actually put dirty clothes in it), don’t leave your shoes all over the little floorspace you have. Utilize underneath your bed. Get bins that fit and fill them with extra supplies and bulky things that don’t fit anywhere else.
Your desk might be more important, though. This isn’t just a desk for doing homework, it’s also your dining table so make sure that you take that in account when you’re organizing. Keep snacks in your room always, but keep them together. Get a bin or box or designate a shelf to these things. Also, keep any utensils or plates and bowls you have with this stuff.
Best way to keep things organized is to give everything a place. The desks usually don’t have drawers, so keep cords, chargers, small electronics in a designated box. Get a pouch or cup for your pens or pencils (pro tip: always keep extra pens in case your ink runs out and number 2 pencils because you’ll need them for exams). For things like syllabi or important receipts, get a document box or accordion folder to hold them. You could even throw it back to elementary school and get a two-pocket folder or binder and shove everything in there. It doesn’t have to be perfectly organized, just make sure you use it.
Thirdly, venture outside your dorm.
Your dorm can easily switch from feeling cozy to cramped for no apparent reason. If and when that’s the case, take your computer and notes and find a new study spot. When I lived on that side of campus, me and a few people from my hall went to the Knight Law Center and snagged some chairs to study in. That’s when I found out that every law student knows. every. other. law student, or so it seemed. Sometimes I’d take a long walk around the Knight Library and find a tiny corner to take over. I once found a perfect spot next to a window, but I never found it again because that place is the hardest maze ever created. When I needed some white noise and food while I wrote my paper, I’d camp out at Rennie’s and order some tots. Cheesy tots aren’t necessarily brain food, but whatever.
Take your roommate when you need someone to tag along, or go solo, but please leave your room. When your year in the dorms is over, you’re going to remember those times you took spontaneous adventures around campus or around town. And regardless of if you keep in contact with your roommate afterwards, they’re going to be a part of those memories, so might as well make them good ones!
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