Alyssa Powell/Business Insider
- After a couple semesters living in dorms, many students choose to move off campus, which is often their first real-world exposure to all the responsibilities of living independently.
- Every college's dorm is different but most provide general amenities like access to printers and vacuuming of communal areas, but with off-campus housing, students are on their own entirely.
- As someone who lived in off-campus housing, you'll want to get obvious necessities like toilet paper, kitchenware, and cleaning wipes, but you might also need a printer, steamer, and inexpensive seating. Here are 11 unexpected things students living off campus would need.
Moving into a college dorm can be an exciting, albeit stressful, experience.
However, dorms hope to make this transition as smooth as possible with amenities like communal lounges perfect for late night studying, pre-paid dining hall meal plans, and RAs to answer any questions and tell your neighbors to quiet down at 2 a.m.
But once you've lived in a dorm for a few semesters, you're ready to swap your student ID for a key to off-campus housing. This also means you're entirely responsible for stocking your own bathroom and kitchen, resolving roommate issues without the help of RAs, and handling all the details of modern living without the dorm amenities.
I'm a few years out of college, but I remember counting down the days until I could move out of my dorm and into my own place - free from RA oversight and mandatory quiet hours.
While I definitely appreciated the freedom to stock as many cans of cheap beer as I could fit in my fridge, I didn't realize all the ways in which dorms made my life easier until I'd moved into my apartment.
Beyond the obvious items like toilet paper, kitchenware, and cleaning wipes, here are 11 surprising products you'll need when living off campus for the first time:
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