Every dorm has limited closet space. The typical dorm has at most one wardrobe/closet and a dresser drawer or two for each student. Some don’t even have that much. Check out the floor plans for Penn State’s East dorms and Arizona State’s North Neighborhood to see what I’m talking about.
It’s difficult to cram 4 season’s worth of clothing into the tiny space that you’ve been allotted, but it’s even more difficult to divide your belongings before you leave for school. What if you really do need those white shorts? Or that yellow sweater? Nobody wants their perfect look to be destroyed because they made a rash decision about their clothing options 3 months ago.
The most apparent solution to the clothing dilemma is storage units. Handy bins and zip-up bags that you simply stuff full of clothing and shove under your bed. If everything is packed up in vacuum sealed plastic bags than you can really fit a lot into a tiny space.
But once your clothes are all sealed up and packed away it’s easy to forget what you own. Or forget exactly where you put that gold top with the sparkles you love.
Sometimes, I would tear my entire room apart searching for just one item, only to find that I’d lent it to a friend or it didn’t look quite as good as I remembered. And at the end of my freshman year, when I packed up my stuff, I found that I was the proud owner of 3 practically identical skirts; I hadn’t remembered that I owned something similar, somewhere.
One of my friends had so many shoes and accessories that she turned to her iphone to help her find everything. She downloaded an app that allowed her to electronically put together outfits. She spent six hours taking photos of everything she owned, and then another 8 mixing and matching each item to create outfits for every day of the week.
In all honesty though, I hardly wore any of the clothing I insisted on taking with me. My standard outfit quickly became a pair of jeans and a college t-shirt or sweatshirt, that I pulled over my head on my way to class. I knew some girls who got really dressed up on Friday nights, but most of the time we still just wore the same jeans we wore to class with a nicer top. I don’t think I wore even 2/3 of the clothing I brought with me. I bought most of what i wore in my college bookstore.
It was stressful at the time, but now, looking back on it, it’s just humorous now. Being cramped for space is what dorm life is about.
Photo Credits: Image 1: Google; Image 2: Apple.com
