Chances are, if this is your first year of college, you’ll be living in a dorm. It’s also likely that you’ll have to use a communal bathroom and not have easy access to a kitchen or other regular comforts. And that’s probably going to suck. I’m not here to lie to you and tell you that living in a dorm is a great experience in community and blah blah blah. Dorms will slowly suck the life out of you if you don’t know how to handle them.
Here are some tips I learned:
1. Figure out when people most often shower. Communal bathrooms are notorious for not having enough showers for the amount of people who need them. But there are usually certain times of the day in which the showers are completely open. Keep your eye out for this, and plan accordingly. If you have to, only shower really late at night. There are rarely any people in there at 1am.
2. Try out every shower. Did I mention communal bathrooms suck? Because they do. What makes them suck even more is that usually there are only one or two decent showers out of the bunch. So make sure you figure out early which showers have the right amount of pressure for your personal hygiene needs.
3. Establish a regular sleeping pattern for your roommate to observe. If you’re like me, you probably value a decent night’s sleep before classes, and you usually don’t leave your room after about 9pm. Make sure your roommate knows the times in which you’re usually in bed, so if they’re out an about they know to be quiet upon returning. Also, it usually tips them off when they need to get their friends out of the room so you don’t have to ask.
4. Keep your side of the room contained. There’s nothing more annoying than finding your roommate’s pants littered around the room where you’re likely to slip on them and fall when it’s 8am and you have a Spanish quiz you’re not prepared for. Your side of the room doesn’t have to be pristine, but at least keep the mess on your side. It’s common courtesy, and your roommate will greatly appreciate it.
5. Establish good relationships with your neighbors, even if you aren’t friends. The walls in college are very thin, and at some point you’re probably going to have to yell at the people around you for being obnoxious at three in the morning. This yelling will be a lot less awkward and a lot better received if you already know your neighbors. Plus, you’re probably have to walk by them in a towel to take a shower or in pajamas without makeup, so if you all like each other, it will be less painful. Trust me.
6. Don’t blast music. I don’t care what time of the day it is, if it’s 9am or lunchtime or after midnight. No one wants to hear your shitty techno dance remixes. Put in headphones, or at least turn it down so that it’s contained to your room.
7. For the first few weeks, leave your door open as much as possible. Trust me, most everyone you’ll meet in your dorms are as lost and alone as you are. Leaving your door open, even for just the first week or two, will give you the opportunity to say hi and get to know people. There’s almost no effort involved and it’s great if you’re a social recluse like me.
8. Wear flip flops in the shower. I can never understand when I see people showering barefoot in the communal bathrooms. That floor is disgusting. Those showers are disgusting. *shudder*
9. No one cares what you look like in the morning. Seriously. For a while I was really self conscious about leaving my room without at least doing my hair or something, but then I realized that everyone (well, most everyone) looks like crap in the mornings, and no one is really looking. Unless there’s someone on the hallway you’re super eager to impress at all hours of the day, you don’t need your makeup done before you go take your morning dump.
10. People are going to have sex next door. Deal with it. Why is it that 3 in the morning is a good time to romp? I don’t understand. But unless you’re going to an uber religious school, you’re probably going to hear at least one hookup next door by the time you’re done with your first year of college. If you’re the person having sex, try to keep it down. People are trying to sleep. If you’re the person trying to sleep, put headphones in and just wait it out. They’re drunk college students. How long could it last?
