Shopping for College: Should I Bring the Kitchen Sink?

When I went away to college, I literally brought the kitchen sink. I brought clothing that I haven’t worn in ten years, shoes that haven’t fit in five years and a blanket I haven’t used since I was a toddler. I even tried to figure out ways to put my bookshelf into my suitcase, to no avail. Eventually I learned that I didn’t need to bring my entire bedroom to college. Here are some of the essentials I felt were necessary for college life.

Appropriate Clothing: Bring appropriate clothing. Don’t bring your whole closet! That ripped Madonna T-shirt and matching biker shorts do not need to come with you to college! Buy appropriate clothing for cold weather conditions such as gloves, mittens, hats, jackets, boots, socks, thermals, and earmuffs. Buy most of these clothes online or in the same state where you will be attending college especially if you are from an area with warm weather. Purchasing snow boots on Hollywood Blvd in Los Angeles is never a good idea.

Identification: Bring important identification, such as a driver's license or an identification card. If you plan to work, you will need to bring a social security card with you to college.

Pictures: You may want to bring pictures with you to college. Pictures are nice to accent a room and can give character to a smelly small dorm room. When you get homesick or start missing a friend, you can look at pictures and reminisce.

Dorm Size Refrigerator: Are you really planning to get up to eat breakfast in the dinning hall before that 8:00am class? I guarantee you will change your mind once you start college. Refrigerators are nice to store milk for breakfast or other items you may want to eat. Many colleges have community refrigerators, which look like the inside of a trash can. You don’t want to put your food in those refrigerators. If you are traveling long distances, purchase the refrigerator close to where you will be attending college.

Bike: Bikes allow you to travel from one side of the campus to the other quickly. You can save time, especially if you are late to class! You can also deliver newspapers as a side job. Again, don’t ship a bike. Purchase a bike where you will be attending college.

Backpack: In college you can not bully people to carry your books so a backpack is necessary to transport your books.

Bathroom items: You will need a few towels, wash cloths, a robe and flip flops (so you don't have to step on the nasty hair clogs in the shower.)

Laundry bag: This will allow you to transport your laundry to the laundry room. Most schools have a laundry service also. You can pay several hundred dollars a term to have someone else wash your own laundry and pick up your dry cleaning.

Phone: You need a phone soyou can call home and cry to your parents. Cell phones are an option however you will want to have a land line phone also, just in case something happens with your cell phone.

Bedding: You will need blankets, sheets and pillows. Most colleges have twin extra long mattresses in dorm rooms so that students who are six feet tall feel just as comfortable as those who are four feet tall. You can sometime purchase your bedding through a company which contracts with the college. This way, you don't have to lug bedding on the plane with you. It will arrive straight to the college.

Television/Stereo: These items are a necessity but they both are not excellent distractions

Computer/Printer: Handwriting term papers are not acceptable in college.

I found that these were the basics that I needed when going away to college. Many of these items I was able to purchase around my college. Bringing unnecessary items only cluttered my already small dorm room.