#dorm tips

Most dorms provide a microwave area (in which people constantly make burned popcorn and set off the damn fire alarm). 

At my college, cafeteria hours did not work for my sleep schedule and class schedule. Cafeteria was also closed on weekends. I also did not have a mode of transportation and my campus was far away from town. 

Keep a drawer/shelf/trunk with easy to make microwaveable shelf stable meals. Campbell's quick go soups, instant oatmeal, beans (GET A CAN OPENER), chili, and Ramen work wonders. 

Also keep some quick dishes. A bowl, a plate, a fork, a spoon, a knife, and a cup is all you really need. 

That being said, also keep at least $25 cash somewhere in your room or on you. Never know when a card isn’t going to cut it. You should have more, but you are a poor broke college student so we’ll keep this a low number of $25. You can do a lot with that if you are desperate enough. 

Also keep a roll of paper towels. Trust me on this one. When that cup of water hits the floor you don’t want to be throwing your clothes on it in an effort to soak it up. 

You can’t keep a hot plate or cooking device in your room, but there exists a thing called “An electric Kettle”. Check your dorm rules, but it’s something you plug in and push a button and it heats up water. I doubt it’s illegal. You can use this for coffee, tea, ramen, oatmeal, or other instant meals that just require hot water! 

HYGIENE:

 You are suddenly sharing a space with people! People that might have relied on their parents to tell them when they stink. Sounds bad, but most people are so familiar with their own smell that they don’t notice when it is bad until it is VERY bad. 

Deodorant! Keep it. Use it. Keep a little one in the car for those fun days of ‘I spent the knight and now I smell bad’ moments. 

CONSIDER SHOWER SHOES. And clean them. It’s all fun and games till you get athletes foot. 

Showers! I’m going to get controversial here, but again, experiences.  You do not always have to do a full shower. Depression is a thing and so is lack of sleep and bad schedules. Wash your face every chance you get. Splash cold water on your eyes. Sink showers can be a thing. I’ve dunked my head under running water and called it a day way too often back in the day. 

If able, please keep a shower schedule though. 

Wash your clothes any chance you get. Set a timer on your phone. Some asshole is going to go in there the second the buzzer sounds and throw your shit all over the floor. MEASURE THE SOAP. If you aren’t used to doing your own laundry, there is no harm in reading the back of the laundry soap container. Soap builds up a film on your clothes if you put too much in. It’s itchy. 

Wash your bed sheets once a week if able! Check for bed bugs. This is a big issue in dorms!!! 

THOSE OF YOU THAT MENSTRUATE: Keep pads and or tampons on you at all times. Maybe you got your schedule down and know it, but that girl crying in the bathroom outside of chemistry is having a BAD DAY. Keep extra in your room. Never know when you will be stranded on campus and suddenly the store is closed and you forgot that you grabbed the last pad a month ago. 

SHARE THE SPACE: Got a roommate? First time ever sharing a room with someone? Even if you are besties from high school, you need to figure out your schedule and rules. 

Is one of you going to stay up all knight with the lights on while the other one can’t sleep because they need total darkness? Does one of you set an alarm at 6am and hit snooze fifty times while the other one got three hours of sleep and wants to sleep till 10am? Do you need to shower but they’ve been in the shower for the past hour and you are running out of time before class? Are they going to sneak their boyfriend in through the window and risk getting you both expelled out of the all girls form? 

TALK! Figure out schedules and comfort zones. Do not sit there being miserable. 

Got a suitemate situation where two rooms share a bathroom? Keep that access door locked so they can’t come into your room through the bathroom any time they want unless you have given them permission. 

Keep your room at least a little clean. Don’t let things rot in there. Maybe you go out and party every night but your homebody roommate is miserable because you have flowers growing white fuzz in the window and a trash can filled with old food that is going bad. 

TOOLS:  

You are going to want a measuring tape. You’ll know why when you need it. A flat head screwdriver, a philips head screw driver, a hammer, and pliers. If you need them, you’ll be happy you had them. Also you’ll be the cool guy of the friends that is prepared for anything. 

CAR: 

Things to keep in your car. A basic first aid kit. You can buy one of these at the store pretty cheap. Jumper cables! A pack of tissues, hand sanitizer, an extra mask if you are in a covid restriction area, and I recommend a basic overnight bag with a spare pair of underwear, socks, deodorant, tampons/pads if applicable, and a hair brush. It’s all fun till you fall down in a huge ass puddle in the parking lot. Keep the bag in the trunk so no one sees it and tries to break in thinking it’s something else. 

Learn how to change a tire. There are youtube videos! 

Weather appropriate items! Live in rain city? Keep a poncho/umbrella. Live in snow capital? Consider tire chains and de-icer. Out in the desert? Sunblock is your friend. Out in a dangerous area? Pepper spray! 

DO YOU HAVE GLASSES?! KEEP A SMALL GLASSES REPAIR KIT IN THE CAR AND DORM ROOM. Do not be the sad child that lost a screw and is now going to glass for the next three months with their only means of vision taped to their face. 

Do you need contacts? Keep extra. Don’t go to class blind.

Are you or your roommate handicapped? Make sure your campus is accessible to you! There are some old campuses out there that were made way before handicapped people were considered real people. And some of those campuses, unfortunately, still look down their noses at them. Do not just roll over and decide you won’t be taking that class because there is a flight of stairs in the way. You make sure they know you are taking that class and it is the schools job to make it accessible for you. They can move that class to a different building. I’ve seen it done. It can happen. 

Need special print? Make sure your professors know what you need. If they refuse, then there are other professors out there teaching the same subject. Or you can go talk to the school board about how they are breaking the law. 

Now let’s talk medical! 

Do you have a health condition? Do you need to be wearing a med alert bracelet? Make sure that shit is visible! Make sure your friends, professors, and dorm leader knows about it! You do not want to be passed out while someone fumbles with an epi pen and ends up stabbing themselves. EDUCADE THEM! Tell them what they need to know to keep you alive! 

Do you have a serious allergy? Are you prone to seizures? Do you have a heart condition? Educate anyone that is going to be spending time around you. TELL YOUR ROOMMATE. If they wake up to find you seizing on the floor, don’t let them be the idiot that is trying to pry open your mouth to keep you from swallowing you tongue like they do in movies. 

SEIZURES: Odds are high someone on campus is going to have one. DO NOT TRY TO PRY OPEN THEIR MOUTH. YOU WILL LOSE A FINGER. 

If someone is actively seizing, your job is to make sure they are in a safe place. Get them out of the road. Make sure they don’t hit their head on anything. Put a shirt or something soft under their head. Call for help. Check for any medical alert tags, watches, or bracelets. Any information you can give the 911 operator is gold. Even if they already know they have seizures and are on medications, breakthrough seizures can be serious and may mean their medication isn’t working right. 

BANDAIDS: I keep latex free bandaids on me. Latex allergies are a hell of a thing (I have them!). Keep bandaids in all sizes and shapes. You can also consider surgical first aid skin glue, but this is not a solution for everything and can also sting like a biiiitch. Glue is useful in areas that a bandaid can’t quite get to and if you are doing something that requires a lot of hand washing or where bandaids might cause a hazard (fire). GLUE IS FLAMMABLE. KEEP THAT IN MIND YOU FUTURE CHEMISTS. (Surgeons use glue at work when they have cuts on their fingers). 

Bandaids are not always good enough. 

Keep a pack of the following in your kits!: 

Telfa pads. These are sterile absorbent smooth pads. You can apply triple antibiotic ointment to them (neosporin) and place them over any larger scrapes. It will keep them clean and absorb the blood. 

GAUZE WRAP. Comes in rolls. When using this on limbs/fingers you want to start on the telfa pad to hold it in place. Then wrap up or down. You want to overlap the previous layer by 50% with each round you make. DO NOT GO TOO TIGHT. Just a gentle firmness is all you need. It is designed to cling to itself. When done, ripp the end and smooth it over the previous layer. It will stick. 

COHESIVE BANDAGE. Comes in fun colors! This stuff is vaguely sticky, VERY stretchy, and will hold anything in place. The biggest thing to remember about this stuff is that the stretch sinches! You can and probably will pull it too tight and after you place it, it will retract on itself and cut off circulation! 

The proper way to apply this bandage is to unroll what you think you need. This releases the stretch. Then gently and loosely wrap it back up on the roll. Apply over the gauze wrap without stretching it out again. When done, cut it and lay it flat. Keep the 50% rule just like with the gauze. 

TAPE: Bandage tape. This can be placed over the ends of the cohesive wrap and will hold it in place. Can also be used to make your own bandaid! Wad up some gauze or fold up a telfa and use the tape to hold it in place! Do not cut off circulation! 

BANDAGE SCISSORS: These are a sort of safety scissor we use in the medical field. You can slide the flat end under clothes or bandages against the skin and cut things away from problem areas. They use these in ambulances. 

70% Isopropyl Alcohol! It will hurt. It will help. 

Peroxide: I don’t know what they use this for in the human field. It turns white because it’s damaging off the damaged tissue. That’s why it bubbles. Dead tissue turns white and bubbles. Also not great near eyes/ears/face… What is it good for? It is a quick way to get small amounts of blood off of things. Clothes, surfaces, hair…. As long as it doesn’t set in or become old, it will get it off! I’m sure it also disinfects wounds too. But not like Alcohol does! ;) 

Remember when placing a bandage, if your limb is numb, it’s too tight! If you have immediate strike-through (bleeds through the bandage) you may need stitches! This isn’t a good thing if it bleeds through. 

DO NOT TOURNIQUET. You are not in a medical movie. You will kill the limb and cause an amputation to be needed. Don’t do it. The ONLY time you should tourniquet is if a medical professional TELLS you to. I’m not even going to tell you how to do it because I can’t stress this enough. You place a tourniquet only if the other option is death. 

PRESSURE. Just put pressure. Fold up a shirt, jacket, something, and lay it over the wound then use the heel of both your hands to apply firm and even pressure to an area if needed. 

Alcohol prep pads: Little godsavers. 

GLOVES. Latex free gloves! DO NOT TOUCH BLOOD BARE HANDED UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO. Put a box in your car and put a box in your room.

EYE FLUSH. Keep eye drops or sterile eye flush. DO NOT USE VISINE. Visine shrinks blood vessels (it’s how they get rid of red eye. Makes it smaller) and causes them to get more irritated. This makes more red-eye. Then you need more visine to get rid of that red eye. It’s a vicious cycle. 

Medication!

Got allergies? Benadryl! Don’t got allergies? STILL KEEP BENADRYL. Doesn’t have to be Benadryl. Medication is “Diphenhydramine”. Super cheap if you get off label. It is an antihistamine that helps with insect stings, allergic reactions to plants, animals, or something causing you irritation. If you are experiencing something the benadryl is not helping, you may need doctor intervention. 

Pain medication!: Tylenol and Ibuprofen both live in my kit. Why? Because one of those is not good for people with heart conditions! Some people can only take Tylenol. In fact, keep some aspirin in there too! Your friends will thank you for having options! 

Are you prone to bad flu or colds? Keep a medication you know helps you. If you like it, keep nyquil and dayquil. Not everyone can take this stuff. 

Stomach meds! Tums are always good to keep. Or Peptobismol, Pepcid, Famotadine. Know what medication works for YOU when your stomach goes south. Imodium is also good to keep in a first aid kid. Useful when the diarrhea hits and you need it to stop. DO NOT RELY ON IT. If you need to take Imodium for longer than a couple of days (I’ll give you three days), you are having a problem and may need to see a doctor. 

PEDIALYTE. This may sound weird, but your drunk college friend is going to need this. You might be the drunk college friend. Vomiting or shitting yourself? Pedialyte will keep you from the worst of dehydration or hangover. 

All in all: If you know there is a medication you often are turning to in regular life or in times of need, keep extra with you in your dorm! 

If you are on a prescription medication, keep it in a safe place. Get a pill timer app if you need to or a pill organizer. Make sure you’ve had your annual exam so if you need to go to a random pharmacy to get an emergency refill there shouldn’t be an issue transferring it over or refilling it. Know what things may interact badly with your medications. (grapefruit, asprin, charcoal...) 

FIRE! FIRE!

Know where the nearest fire extinguisher is. You can even keep a fire blanket in your car and/or dorm. They pack down real small.

Know HOW to use the fire extinguisher. There are pictures on the can. Give them a glance now and then. 

Defibrillators! They are required in most major buildings. Know if your building has one and where it is. Know how to use it! If anything, 911 will tell you how. But they can’t help you if you don’t know where it is. 

CPR: UPDATE. Breathing is less important than compression!!!!!! Do not stop compressing unless they revive or a medical professional tells you! If the heart is not going, the lungs do not matter. KEEP COUNT. It is hard business and when the ambulance arrives, they need to know how long you have been going. GO DEEP. I would rather have a broken rib than be dead. Ribs are fixable. Death is not. Sing the song if you need to! 

Bee Gees Staying alive is the correct rhythm. 

Consider taking a class on CPR and first aid and staying certified! You won’t regret it when you need it. Some colleges offer classes for free! Your nearest fire station may also offer classes! 

LEARN THE HEIMLICH. Remember, if they are talking or laughing they can still breathe. If they stop making sounds, There is NO air getting by. Ask clearly “Do you need help?” If they nod or are clutching at their throat, consider this a pretty good permission. 

LEARN HOW TO EPI PEN! Watch a youtube video. 

JUST BECAUSE YOU USED THE PEN DOESN’T MEAN THEY ARE FINE. The epi pen has bought them time. Now they need to get to a hospital/doctor so they can continue to get help getting the allergen out of their system. 

You are out in a new world of new things. There’s a good chance you might suddenly find out you have a new food allergy or allergy in general. Listen to your body. Take note of unusual reactions like itchy tongue, itchy throat, swollen face or numb lips. 

OKAY. Here’s a rough topic. 

Suicide. Self harm. Depression. You are away from home, you are away from family, support groups, friends. You may be failing class, struggling with being alone. Struggling with romance. It doesn’t matter the reason. Learn to recognize signs of depression in yourself and in others. Reach out to people struggling. Make a friend. Leave them a note asking if they are okay. Do something nice for someone random. One good thing in a sea of sadness can give them a light to cling to. 

Recognize signs of suicide. Giving away items. Telling people strange things like ‘you were always a good friend’. Odd behavior. Reach out. Tell a professor or councelor or dorm mother or someone. Make sure they are given help. 

Abuse. Watch for signs of domestic abuse. People are getting into their first serious relationships. Bruises, overly clingy, ‘protective’, demanding, controlling… Don’t let your friends fall into this pattern of abuse. Some college romances turn into lifetime nightmares. 

THAT’S IT. All I can think of off the top of my head without getting into my own personal stuff…Or rambling on and on. 

But if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out! My ask box is ALWAYS open and so are my DMs!