Look, I get it. Honestly, I'm basically the pot calling the kettle black right now, because if it was marketed towards a college kid in any way this time last year, I just knew I needed it, for sure. Not only that, but I thought I also needed all of the stuff I had spent eighteen years accumulating in my bedroom at home to be packed up and toted to college with me too. But I quickly learned that majority of that stuff I brought and bought just ended up collecting dust all year long and then requiring a ton of effort to get all back home. This is especially aggravating now that the year is almost over I want nothing more to just be done and gone for the summer.
So, when I tell you that you don't need all the stuff that you probably think you do, believe me, I get how hard that advice is to take. But also believe me when I say that by the end of your freshman year, you're going to be so incredibly done that you're going to want to do absolutely anything but pack the (several) car-fulls of stuff you just had to bring back up before you head home.
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1. All your clothes
I brought, hm, probably my entire closet and then some to college with me. You name it, I brought it. Blouses, tank tops, skirts, four different types of denim shorts, dresses of all types, and way too many pairs of shoes. And you know what I wore all eight months that I was in college? Yoga pants and a t-shirt. And on days when I wanted to change it up? Nike shorts and a t-shirt. In high school, I planned outfits every single day of every single year. I rarely ever wore the same outfit twice. So, I thought, surely that would continue in college, right? Wrong. Nobody cares in college, yourself included. Planning outfits out every single day quickly changed to "I'm doing good if I don't wear the same t-shirt twice in a week."
2. Decorations
Before college, I was pretty sure that the only thing that was going to be worse than living in a dorm room would be living in a dorm room that looked just like a hospital room (which they 100% do, btw). And yeah, a few decorations here and there make it a little easier to not be homesick, but you do not need something hanging on every wall, you don't need five decorative pillows, nor do you need three storage chests with three drawers each. I promise that no matter how much you think you want all that stuff, you can live without it. For example, I was convinced that I needed a $70 tapestry from Urban Outfitters (and I'm still certain that it's the most beautiful thing ever), but at the end of the year, it was just another thing to have to deal with packing up. I packed it up a week before I actually left my dorm and realized, in it's absence, that it added nothing but a little bit of frill for a whole lot of money. Do yourself a favor, don't fall into the decor trap. Save your graduation money for something that actually matters.
3. Kitchenware
Another thing I feel like I totally wasted my money on was a whole set of dishes. I'm talking, plates, saucers, bowls, coffee cups, ect. But because it was such an ordeal to clean them after I used them (no kitchen sink, ugh), I barely ever even used them. Furthermore, because I love to cook, I thought it was completely imperative that I have at least one pan to cook in, and I'm telling you that community kitchens will completely kill any desire you have to cook anything because I never even touched them. Besides feeling like a little more of an adult (because I now have my very own real, matching plates), I seriously gained nothing by spending my money on these things. They mostly just served as a place to sit my paper plates on top of.
4. A ton of towels
I think I bought like five towels, twenty wash cloths, and four hand towels. I used the same two towels in between laundry days, probably half of those wash cloths, and only one of those hand towels. Laundry day comes way quicker than you could ever use the sheer amount of towels I brought. Unless your dorm room somehow springs a leak, you really don't need that many towels, I promise.
5. Books
I had gotten into reading at least a book a week during the summer, so I had high hopes that would continue even in college. Plus, I could always remember having a book on hand in high school, for any extra time you might have wherein the teacher was forcing you to be silent. But things couldn't be more opposite in college (big surprise). You're practically never going to have free time in class or on your own. Even if you do, I promise you'll be studying for something (or you probably should be, anyway). So leave the stack of (heavy) books at home. They'll only be a pain to lug back after spring semester. And if you wind up just absolutely in dire need of recreational reading, you can always check out your campus library or bookstore.
