My top 10 essential dorm room items!

     This post is sponsored by Kleenex and Walmart.


     I am giving you this blog post from a hotel in Maryland! I am officially SOUTH of the Mason-Dixon line and my dad and I are about halfway to Charlotte now. :-) I'm sure I've said this one hundred times in the past few weeks on here, but in case anyone is a bit confused as to why I am currently on such a big road trip... I am on my way back to college in North Carolina for my junior year! My car is currently packed to the brim (literally) with all of my stuff for my dorm, so what better time then to share a list of what I think are the 10 most essential items for any college girl living on campus to have? And bonus: with the exception of #5 you can find just about all of these items at your local Walmart (which means you'll be automatically saving money and getting great deals!).

     1. A beach towel. A quick refresher for y'all on my college journey: I started out college as a freshman in Fall 2012 at a private Christian college in Western North Carolina. Last year I transfered to my current school which still in North Carolina, but instead located right in the big city of Charlotte! Definitely a big change- but neither school of mine has been close to the beach. So why then is a beach towel my number one item to bring with you to school? Because as I learned during my first semester of college, you don't need an actual beach for one of these to come in handy!! There are so many instances that call for towels in which you might not want to use your regular bath towels. For example- lying out on the quad of your campus on a sunny day, discovering a freshwater "beach" on a nearby lake or river to your school (something I've tried to do at least once a semester!), getting invited to a college friend's house who has a pool... etc etc! Plus if you actually are lucky enough to go to school near the coast then having a beach towel is a no brainer! :-)

     2. A desk lamp. The lighting features that come built into most dorm rooms can be very minimal (and almost depressing!). You will definitely want to bring with you at least one good desk light. Even if you don't tend you use your desk for homework (I prefer to do homework in my bed or in other location on campus like the library or study rooms!), it will still add lots of extra light to your room and can help if you ever choose to do other stuff at your desk! Walmart has a great selection of desk lamps for very reasonable prices! (My desk lamp for this year actually came from Target though.... shhhhh.)

     3. A make-up mirror. I mentioned in the last item that I don't use my dorm desk for homework... it's because I like to turn it into a fashion and beauty vanity! I have an adorable little make-up mirror that I place right next to my desk lamp and it makes doing my make-up so much easier for me. Plus I feel like it's much more sanitary then doing it in the communal bathroom... can you say YUCK?!

     4. Command hook and strips. I CANNOT stress the importance of this item enough- and my love of them!! Most colleges don't let you make holes in the wall to hang decorations, and are very strict about the type of tape you can use on the walls because of paint damage. Command hooks and strips are sturdy enough to hold up even the toughest and heaviest items (up to a few pounds!), and don't cause any wall damage! And they're so easy to apply. During my freshman year I had never used them before and had to have a guy friend come to my dorm room to help teach me to use them... and now that I know how I'm hooked. ;-) I use the strips for all my decorations and I use the hooks for coats, my bathrobe, and my necklaces! Walmart truly does have excellent prices on these and I have bought mine there for a couple years now.

     5. A couple of nice formal or semi-formal outfits. This isn't so much a "dorm" essential... but an essential that I think every college girl should have in her dorm!! Haha! I wanted to add this because I have re-worn a lot of the dresses that I wore to high school dances and events and was able to bring them with me to college and give them a "second life." There have been way more dressy events in college then I expected, and I found that even before I joined a sorority! So it is great to show up the first day of school already prepared with some fancy clothes in your closet, so that if a dressy event should occur at your school you will not have to run out at the last minute to find something!

     6. Pictures from home! I love decorating my dorm with pictures from home and my former college!! Pinterest has so many cute ideas for how to arrange pictures on your wall. (I love all the heart shaped ideas- I did one last year and am trying a new heart style this year!) Walmart offers very low prices on instant picture prints and also has some really cute photo frames in their home goods section.

     7. A bible. Every dorm room should have a copy of the Word. :-)

     8. A shower caddy. This is such a practical (and cute!) way to keep all of your shower supplies organized and clean. And it makes it super easy when you just pick it up by the handles and are able to tote everything at once to the showers!

     9. Vitamins (and Vitamin C supplements!). This one is up here thanks to my mom who has drilled the importance of this into me... (thanks mom!)... but really, don't moms know things like the best?! I know firsthand that it is NOT fun to get sick at college, so better to try and be safe rather then sorry and fight off illness by taking vitamins and vitamin C supplements every day!

     10. Kleenex Brand Tissues. Speaking of getting sick at school... sometimes it happens even to the best of us! The thing with getting sick at college is that you want to have supplies on hand in your dorm room to be ready for it so that if you find yourself feeling ill you don't have to muster your strength and head to the nearest store to get sick-day essentials! And of course, one of the main sick-day essentials is tissues! Definitely a smart idea to have a box of these bad boys around from day one of the new semester. :-)

   
     Walmart and Kleenex have teamed up to launch a line of adorable chevron printed tissue boxes that are only available at Walmart for a limited time!! These tissues provide not only a functional purpose of helping out for when illness strikes, but are also super cute and would provided a fun touch of dorm decor for any college gal's room!

    And as you can see the chevron tissue box wasn't the only Kleenex product that I found at Walmart! I also came across these adorable pocket packs in fun designs, which are perfect for portable places like your car or purse! These came "home" with me too. (I say "home" because for tonight home is a hotel in Maryland!)


     Whether you're a college gal or not, be sure to head to your local Walmart SOON to get to find these cute chevron tissue boxes before they're gone- they're only in stores for a limited time! And they're already a bit hard to find... the Walmart that I went to on our drive today didn't have them in the normal tissue aisle or in the back-to-school section... my dad and I circled the entire store twice before he finally spotted them on a side display between the detergent section and electronics?! Below is how I felt about finally finding them after a long day of driving (and searching Walmart!):

     But I sure am glad I found them! :-) Can't wait to find a home for my cute tissue box in my new dorm room, and even more I can't wait to share pictures of my new dorm room with y'all after I move in!! Be expecting a dorm room tour sometime next week or the week after!


     xoxo Miss ALK