You’re eighteen, and you have just left home to start life as a student. Life at college is a little different from being at home. You have to clean up after yourself, provide your own meals, and make sure that you have the self-discipline to keep up with your college assignments. Many students also find it hard to make ends meet. Some of them are lucky enough to be supported by their parents, while others are living off student loans that they will have to pay back. Yet others do part-time jobs to subsidize their studies and make sure that they can pay for their basic needs.
Living as a student may mean staying in a dormitory or a student apartment. Many of these are small, and you have to learn to share your home with your fellow students. But this does not mean that you have to live in a dump. You can use the few resources that you have at your disposal to make your home as comfortable and pleasant as possible.
If you have your own room, you can make it habitable by keeping it very tidy. Being a student does not mean leaving piles of dirty laundry everywhere, to be taken home at weekends for washing. Do your laundry regularly, and keep a small hamper for your dirty clothing. You might only be one person, but laundry piles up.
Keep everything functional. For example, you could buy a small desk for your laptop, writing implements, and books. In addition to this, a chair, a bed, a closet, and a small dresser are all you really need. If you are in a dormitory, these things are probably provided for you. But if you are in a student apartment, you may need to find your own furniture. As this is not a permanent situation, you can buy cheap furniture – probably secondhand – that is in good condition.
Keep your room looking cheerful with tasteful pictures and wall designs. You could add to the atmosphere by adding some wind chimes. However, don’t overload your room with superfluous ornaments. When you have a lack of space, it is best to keep things simple.
You probably can’t afford a carpet, but you could certainly add an area rug. To make your room more luxurious, you could choose from one of the many shag rugs out there, which would give your floor a soft, warm touch. Or maybe you would want to be a bit more adventurous and choose tropical rugs or solid color rugs to add some vitality to your room.
If you are sharing an apartment with several students, you can work out how you decorate the public areas together. Even if you don’t have too many resources at your disposal, you can still decide together what colors you prefer, the kind of pictures that you like, and the general layout of the furniture.
In fact, accommodating each other’s tastes provides a good lesson for life, as you will gradually learn how to live with other people and appreciate their opinions. In this way, your life at college will provide you with more than a degree.
