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Nothing beats the feeling of falling into bed after a long day of lectures. Your college dorm is your home away from home during the semester. With the amount of time you spend in your dorm, it is important for it to feel as comfortable as possible.
Before starting college I spent a lot of time researching dorm decor, dorm essentials, how to organize a dorm, and so much more. It took me a year to get it to where I wanted it, but I can now say that my dorm room is my home.
My Dorm Room Entrance
If you have followed the blog for some time, you will know that I am studying abroad in South Korea. My university offers an on-campus dormitory that is different than the typical American dorm. Each room has its own bathroom and most floors have a shared kitchen. Size-wise, the rooms do run on the small size, so I needed to maximize my storage space to fit all my stuff.
Call me the queen of organization
My Desk 
My “Kitchen”
School supplies are a favorite in my home. My mom has a large Ikea cabinet filled with any supply imaginable and I guess I inherited her passion. In addition to textbooks, color-coordinating folders, and notebooks, the desk also holds a ridiculous amount of highlighters, pencils, pens, and flashcards. Peep my ThinMints on the shelf š.
I know most people will say having a printer in your dorm is not worth it. Let me tell you when you have a 9 AM presentation that requires a handout for your professor, having a printer in your room eliminates the stress. My printer is an HP Envy 5055, which is surprisingly affordable.
Besides the desk and a small under the bed storage area, my room lacked the space for my cooking supplies. To remedy this, we purchased an adjustable shelving unit. My mini-fridge slides right underneath and with storage containers from the local dollar store, my ‘kitchen’ is well stocked and ready to handle any cooking ordeal.
My favorite part
In my last post, What I Learned My Freshman Year of College, I wrote about my struggle with early morning classes. This bed is to blame for that. A three-inch memory foam mattress pad and weighted blanket send me to sleep heaven every night, and mid-day when I need a nap. Pink is my favorite color if you could not tell, and I love mixing it with grey since it neutralizes my thoughts and calms me. Of course, I had to add in the faux fur.
My favorite view 
DIY gallery wall
Behind my bed, I have a lamp, alarm clock, and my Amazon Echo Dot. Although I have a regular, digital alarm clock, I find myself using my Echo Dot to wake me up and set timers. I honestly do not know how to set an alarm on my regular one, so until I figure that out, Alexa wakes me up with the ringing blue circle of light. My body is so used to yelling at Alexa in the morning that I find myself doing the same towards my phone alarm.
The gallery wall above my bed is my favorite feature in my dorm. This wall grew from a few quotes to the expanded gallery you see above. I mentioned in a previous post that you can purchase premade collages, but none fit my taste. With free printables, non-copyright images, and Pinterest, I was able to make the photo collage of my dreams. In the future, I may expand and update the wall with fresh pics and quotes.
Details that make dorm life better
An IKEA knock-off that saves my life on the daily. 
My control center
We found this cart at our local store, but this storage cart on Amazon looks similar. In fact, I am pretty sure this is the exact storage cart. I store my morning routine supplies, snacks, and anything that I need to quickly grab on this cart. Think of it as a nightstand, but much cuter and with wheels.
An additional area in my dorm that helps me prepare for the day is my control center. Growing up, my mother always had a large control center hanging in her office. I created my own control center out of corkboard, a cheap calendar, a small whiteboard, and a $5 clock. I truly believe every college dorm needs a space like this to keep you on track.
There you have it, my official college dorm tour. I plan on keeping it this way for now, but who knows. Every time I open Pinterest a new decoration idea pops up in my feed. Let us see how long before I add more fairy lights.
P.S.: Follow my room + dorm decor board to see all my latest dorm decoration/organization ideas!
