5 Things to Get for Your First College House
You may not have graduated from college, but congratulations are still in order. You’ve defeated the dorm. Now it’s time to take on your first college house. While house living has several advantages over dorm dwelling, it requires a bit more attention and effort to get going and stay going. You’ll need a few new supplies to make your house really feel like a home. Wondering what to buy? We’ve got you covered. In this guide, we discuss the top five essentials every college student should have when moving out of the dorms and into a real house. Get these items to streamline and simplify your living experience — so you can focus on school, and other things.
Hot Water Boiler
In college, student diets are notoriously fast and affordable. With minimal cash flow, many students resort to staples like Easy Mac and Instant Ramen that are easy on the wallet and easy to prepare. With a hot water boiler, these dishes become even easier. Boiling water in just seconds allows you to get to your food faster, which is a major win. Add an egg or two and some sriracha sauce to your ramen and you are almost hitting a well-balanced meal: a rarity in college. Next to maybe money, your time is the most precious thing you have in college. So why waste it boiling water?
Potentially even worse than losing a couple of minutes boiling water on the stove, is the dish situation you may have to deal with when boiling your water. You’ll have to break out a pot or pan, which you’ll then have to wash. If you’re like many of your college compatriots, dish-washing probably isn’t high on your priorities list. Circumvent this entire issue by getting a hot water boiler that is only used for boiling water, not the contents of the dish. You won’t have to wash it nearly as much, and you can use the boiled water for other college-student staples like coffee and tea.
Beverage Makers (Brita Pitcher/Coffee Maker)
Speaking of hot caffeinated beverages, some college students prefer to do it a bit bigger than boiled water when it comes to their drinks. Buying coffee at coffee shops is expensive and can quickly chip away at your cash fund at 3–5 dollars per day. Get a coffee pot and you will see the savings returned to you nearly immediately. If you’re looking to invest a bit more, you can shell out for a single-cup coffee press like a Keurig and still end up saving hundreds each semester on your coffee habit. Single-cup makers are great options for you students out there who don’t keep the cleanest kitchens: you don’t have to deal with day-old coffee grounds and cleaning up a dirty coffee pot ever. Make sure you get a travel mug or two when you get your coffee maker so that you can bring your coffee up onto campus with you every morning and out to the library in the afternoon or evening.
You may love coffee or tea, but water is your true best friend. Not Kaitlyn, not Michael. Water. To get the best-tasting water possible, invest in a filter-equipped water pitcher and keep it in your fridge. Depending on your living situation, the house or apartment you are living in might be pretty darn old with some pretty darn old pipes in it. Old pipes make water taste weird, which leads people to end up drinking less water than they should. And if you love to partake in the social side of college by partying up a storm, water is going to be an even important best-friend for the days following the long nights. Heavy drinking dehydrates your body, and the best way to kick a hangover is to re-up your fluid levels. For this purpose, there is no better beverage than water. Why not enjoy drinking it by using a refrigerator-ready, filter-equipped water pitcher?
An Instant Canopy Tent
You have a backyard of your own for the first time in your life! That’s something to celebrate. Why not celebrate your yard in your yard? Throw a party, host a potluck. Just make sure that your back yard is ready for the occasion. Above all else, you should be sure that your yard can supply some shade and, if the going gets tough, some shelter. There’s a simple and relatively cheap solution: it’s called an instant canopy (or “pop-up tent”), and it’s a great item to have in any house, college-student-inhabited or not. Lightweight enough to carry and strong enough to withstand most weather patterns, instant canopies are great for get-togethers in any season. With expandable frames and no assembly required, they are easy to set up and tear down. Keep the party going at your place, even when the weather doesn’t cooperate.
Instant canopies are also great for extracurricular activities outside of your house. Give your intramural team the competitive advantage in the league final, or catapult your club to the next level with an official-looking tent that shelters players and catches eyes. To stand out at any event, no matter where it’s hosted, go with a custom canopy tent: one where you choose your own color and text, logos, and even photos to your roof and sides.
Wall Decorations
With at least 18 years of life under your belt, you probably have some posters, photos, and wall art to your name. You probably even hung a few things in your dorm room. But, as you now know, you live in a house: there is way more wall space decorate that you’ve dealt with before. Most college houses have drab white walls that you are contractually not allowed to paint. Don’t just accept the fact that your walls are going to be boring all year. Turn your new college house into a home by adorning your walls. Are movie posters your thing? Maybe decorative flower painting? Possibly prints from your favorite photographer? The internet is a beautiful marketplace for inexpensive things to put on your walls.
Spend an hour or two perusing eBay, Etsy, Art.com or one of the many poster websites out there looking for stuff that you really love. Buy five or six of the most enticing pieces and ship them out to your new address. Maybe even get one or two of them framed if you’ve got it in your budget. A word of caution: landlords can be sensitive about nail holes in the wall. Even the tiniest of nail holes is going to cause your new landlord to take umbrage when assessing the property for damage. Don’t give them the opportunity to take away as much of your deposit as they can. If they can take it all, they just might. Invest in a bit of sticky tack, no damage wall hangers, or double-sided sticky foam to put up your new cool wall pieces so both you and your landlord will be happy. Not a fan of art? Try hanging lights or framed photos of you and your friends.
Power Strips and Outlet Splitters
Unless you live under a rock, you probably have a few tech products to your name. Those tech products require power, which means they need to be plugged in at some point. Most houses or apartments don’t have anywhere near enough outlets to handle all of your plug-in needs, especially in areas like the living room and the bedroom. This one’s simple and doesn’t need much explanation: get a couple of power strips or outlet splitters to put in these heavily wired areas and it’ll be just like magic: your two outlets on your wall will turn into six, or more. Be sure to invest in a power strip with surge protection to protect your home from any electrical surges, some of which can cause fires. This is especially true for older homes with dated wiring.
Turn That College House Into a Home
You got the house; now make it a home. Start with these essential supplies. Then, you’ll be able to tackle the bigger stuff — everything from furniture to finals.
