Hacks On How To Decorate Your Dorm Room

Let’s say that your walls are white, or that you will be living for a few years in your dorm room and you desperately want it to feel like home. Or maybe you are an exchange student like me, staying only a few months, but still want to decorate your crib and feel like it is yours, I will simply tell you what I normally do, maybe these are simple things, maybe you did all of them already or simply think that these are stupid, in this case - in sorry, cheers.

1. Bring relevant but nice stuff from home

My room was going to be empty and without bedding, so I had to bring my bed sheets and blankets from home or buy everything here once arrived. I chose the first option and so I brought with me my favorite sheets, which are the ones with the Empire State Building on them. I also brought a very thin but warm blanket which is really nice. My parents shipped this one to me when I was in Denmark saying that I could put it on my shoulders when it was cold so that it could feel like if my parents were hugging me, sounds cheesy but I like that, I live abroad quite often and I would like to hug my parents more.

2. Print and hang pictures on your wall

I think that the easier way to decorate your room is to print out some pictures and hang them on the wall. This is the easiest way to pack decorations with you (if you already have hard copies), or the cheapest way to decorate your room because you simply have to print them out. At my university, you pay twenty-five cents for each colored paper so what I did was putting more than one picture into one sheet… and there you go: two or three pictures ready to be hung on your wall for twenty-five cents.

3. If you were an exchange student, bring flags

I was a Rotary exchange student and since bringing my rotary blazer with me everywhere is impossible (and I do not want to risk losing pins), I rather bring flags with me and I currently have two: the Italian one with my friends’ signatures and notes, and the American one, because after all, I feel a bit American too.

4. Print out a colourful calendar

Being organized is important, especially when you first arrive abroad and you feel like everything is going so far and you have a lot of information to store in your little brain. Print out a colorful calendar and hang it on the wall. The colors will brighten up the room a little, and you will be able to be organized and catch up with the workload, classes and social events that might be going on day by day.

5. If you have drawers, save one for anything

This is slightly different from a decoration hack. If you have some drawers, save one for anything that might not have a specific place. I will try to be more specific: my desk has four drawers, the first one is a complete mess. I have cables, receipts, and documents inside. But no one sees that, so it is in some sort a decoration strategy because it means that your stuff is not laying somewhere in the room and is not creating a mess either.

I hope that these simple steps will help you keep your room nice, cozy and welcoming. Remember to share some tips if you have any more!

- Cristian

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