Dorm/Apartment Essentials

As I began my journey at LIM, I found that the best living option for me was to start off in the 1760 residence hall. Now, after my first year, I will be moving into an apartment since I want to live in NYC all year round! Whether you’re moving into the residence hall, already live there, or are in an apartment, here are some of my living arrangement essentials and other tips!

Laundry

If you didn’t already know, the residence hall does have a laundry room in the basement. It’s super convenient and very inexpensive compared to some laundromats!

This laundry bag option on Amazon comes pretty close to the one I have. I definitely recommend finding something easy to carry, and you actually have a lot of different design options. As an example, one of my favorite prints is marble, so my bedding, laundry bag, and even trashcan are all marble!

Also, I really recommend dryer balls. These are basically reusable versions of dryer sheets. I had three that I used, and I kept them in my laundry bag, so it was always with me when I went down to do my laundry. I definitely think these are a more sustainable option than dryer sheets. Also, mine lasted all year and are still going strong!

Bed

My biggest recommendation is to get a mattress pad. It makes it extra comfortable to sleep, and I now that we’re at home, I’m definitely missing mine! I got mine from Bed Bath and Beyond.

Bathroom

One of my biggest essentials would be a 3-Tier pole shower caddy. Since each room has its own bathroom, it’s super nice to just be able to keep everything there. In this shower caddy, you can keep your shampoo, body wash, conditioner, razor, etc. My roommate and I were able to share the shelves with one of these, and it worked out so well!

Some Things That Didn’t Work So Well….

I had bought a service cart with three shelves. I was going to use it to easily wheel down my supplies for the kitchen such as pans, plates, etc. At first, it worked great, and then one of the wheels broke off! It broke in a way that we weren’t able to fix. I ended up just using the cart as a mini set of shelves, but it was definitely a bummer. It was nice to have when it was easy to roll, but once it broke, I used tote bags to carry all of my stuff. I never really had a problem doing things that way either!

The other thing that didn’t work so well for me was my over-the-toilet shelf. We tried to use command strips to have it stick to the wall, but it didn’t stay so well. I was able to use it, but I tried to be super careful as I was afraid at time it would fall over if I put too much on it.

I hope if you're in the journey of moving into the residence hall or an apartment, this blog will help you find some of your own necessities. If you have any questions, you can always comment down below!