What I thought I wouldn’t need until I got on campus
When getting ready to live in a dorm, I was encouraged to pack light to avoid cluttering the little space I would get. I only packed the essentials: clothes I wore a lot when I lived at home, bare minimum room decor and my decluttered cosmetic collection. After moving, I realized that I actually had quite some space in my dorm, and I felt I packed too light. On my recent trip home, I brought up quite a few miscellaneous items I felt I was missing after living on campus for a month.
1. Cowboy boots
Living in the Chicago suburbs, I only wore my cowboy boots to country concerts, so I thought I definitely wouldn’t wear them in college. After being in Madison for a month, I’ve had so many opportunities to wear them: gamedays, parties, sorority recruitment, the Tyler Hubbard concert and even just everyday fashion.
2. My Cricut Machine
A few months ago, I bought a Cricut Joy Xtra machine for my crafting hobbies. A Cricut machine can draw on and cut many different kinds of materials, but I mostly use mine to cut vinyl which I iron onto clothes. Though my model isn’t the largest one they sell, it still takes up space I wasn’t sure I was going to have in my dorm. But after shopping around in Madison and seeing a lot of gameday clothes I could make for a quarter of the price with my Cricut, I decided to bring up my machine and some red and white vinyl to expand my Wisconsin merch collection. My friends are also interested in using my Cricut and we’re planning on making matching shirts!
3. A Speaker
I know this is on every “what to bring to college list,” but I tend to use my headphones a lot, and I wasn’t expecting my dorm to become my friends and my main hangout spot. My roommate and I tried using our laptops to play music, but it was really awkward, so I knew when I went back home, I needed to bring a real speaker.
4. Patagonia Fleeces
I absolutely love my Patagonia fleeces. However, I often overheat while wearing them, and you don’t see many people wearing them in my hometown, so I figured I wouldn’t need them in my college wardrobe. As the weather gets colder, well at least the mornings before the sun makes it feel like it is 80 degrees outside (got to love midwest weather), I’ve been wanting something to throw on over my outfit for my chilly walk to class, which Patagonia fleeces are perfect for.
While these items are definitely not necessities, I still think they’re worth having on campus. Since bringing these items up from home, I’ve definitely gotten at least one or two uses out of each thing in the two weeks I’ve had them on campus.