I asked 13 college grads for dorm essentials that stood the test of time
I asked 13 people about the things they’ve carried from college into adulthood – and found their modern day equivalents
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One of the highlights of the summer before college was trotting off to my local Linens N Things to outfit my new home, a triple dorm room in the Little Building at Emerson College in Boston. Armed with a list of must-haves and strongly suggested essentials, I filled a shopping cart with a lot of stuff I’d use immediately (jersey twin XL sheets) and stuff that I’d eventually throw away after four years (the very same sheets, useless after college when you will never see a twin XL bed again.)
Most, if not all, of the stuff I bought didn’t make it out of Boston, save for a pop-up laundry hamper that did a tour of duty in San Francisco, surviving three moves in four years, before being relegated to its final resting place, the garbage can.
But not all college buys need to be destined for the dumpster. For some graduates, items they bought to get through college have not only carried them well into adulthood, they have inadvertently turned into some of their most-cherished things. We asked college grads from 27 to 57 about the things they bought, loved and still use today, from the ubiquitous under-bed storage to a box that perfectly fits a deck of tarot cards.
And, in some cases when the exact items they’ve shared weren’t always available, we recommended alternatives that we think measure up to the original.
Shannon Melero, 34, graduated from SUNY Oswego in 2013
My item is … a fleece blanket.
I don’t know that I picked this out myself because I’m not a paisley girl, but when shopping for school, I remember my mom and I were really fixated on items that would be warm and cozy because I was traveling so far up north for the first time.
I wouldn’t say it’s special, but it’s one of those items that has just endured a lot of high and low moments. I was under that blanket when I got pulled out of my dorm room by EMTs because of bad pneumonia. That blanket was on the couch of the first apartment I shared with my husband. It was cozy and nice but not so nice that I felt like I couldn’t use it. I lay it out on the floor to make a little bed for my daughter to watch TV sometimes. Or if it’s cold, I’ll wrap it around my legs. If it starts to smell too much like my dogs and becomes un-cleanable, I will replace it.
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Stella Gewirz, 27, graduated from Denison University in 2021
My item is … an under-bed storage drawer.
… and a stepladder
These two items I bought in college thinking they were gonna be kind of stupid but have ended up being incredibly useful through my adult life! I used to use this as under-bed storage and have since purchased a table top for it to use as bathroom storage/table. The step stool is pretty self-explanatory but has especially come in handy for hanging curtains and new light fixtures (which 18-year-old me would have never imagined!)
I’d say neither is particularly mind blowing but I wasn’t aware of the importance that long-lasting practical items would have on my life until I entered the real world. I moved four times in college (all in dorms) and three times since graduating (twice cross country) and both of these items have stayed with me the entire time. I currently use the rack for bathroom storage and have since purchased another for extended hall closet storage. I probably would only replace the step stool if I found one that was equally sturdy, but 10,000x more chic.
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Sarah Holm, 29, graduated from Ohio University in 2018
My item is … a bright yellow, pink and blue ENO DoubleNest Hammock.
I picked out my hammock from a local outdoor store for my 19th birthday in August 2015. It was right before my sophomore year started. During my first year on campus, I noticed students using hammocks everywhere, so I wanted to try one for myself.
That hammock ended up being my go-to place to study and relax between classes, a quiet retreat from the rowdy dorms and a free way to spend time with friends. My highlighter yellow hammock became a beacon for my buddies to spot me across campus and come over for a quick chat or spontaneous hang. I loved it so much that I started our school’s first ever Hammock Club as a simple way to encourage students to spend time outside together.
After 11 years, that hammock is still kickin’! It lives in the trunk of my car so I am ready to hammock whenever I have two trees and 20 minutes. My love for this hammock led me to get my first “real” job out of college with the company that makes them, ENO. I moved from my home state of Ohio to North Carolina, and have worked here for over six years. It’s astounding to look at the life I have built for myself and be able to trace it all back to that one birthday present.
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Nikita Khanderia, 24, graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2024
My item is … a laundry hamper.
I bought it for the very unglamorous purpose of hauling laundry around in college. Years later, I’m the founder and CEO of ERIA, a hospitality and events company, and that same basket has ended up carrying extension cords, signage, emergency supplies and whatever else we suddenly need while producing an event.
There is something very humbling about producing a beautiful, high-end event and then arriving behind the scenes with a college laundry basket full of supplies. I keep thinking I should replace it, but at this point it has survived college, multiple moves, starting a company and more event emergencies than I can count. It may actually be the most reliable employee I have.
The funny part is that the laundry basket has evolved into a real thing at ERIA. My entire job is essentially risk mitigation. I’m constantly thinking, “What could a client possibly need that we don’t have?”
So the basket became my just in case basket. It has everything from blister supplies and perfume to detergent sticks and all sorts of bizarre little things a bride, guest or client might suddenly need. If something goes wrong, I want us to have already thought of it.
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Diana Budds, 39, graduated from UC Davis in 2008
My item is … a 10-piece All-Clad copper-core cookware set (AKA the Cadillac of cookware sets).
It was a gift from my parents my sophomore year. I begged them for it! (I also really wanted a car, but there was absolutely no way I was going to get that, and this seemed like the kind of useful, buy-it-for-life thing I could convince them to get me.) I’ve always loved to cook – one of my favorite shows growing up was Jacques & Julia: Cooking at Home – and wanted equipment that worked well.
I still have every piece, and use them whenever I cook. I actually have a lot of kitchen items that have proven their worth through many move-related purges. The useful things continue to be useful and I value that a lot. There was a time where I thought I would have to replace a skillet after a roommate burned the hell out of what she cooked in it. But thankfully, elbow grease and Bar Keepers Friend made it shine (almost) like new.
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Leopoldo Villardi, 36, graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in 2013
My item is … a 24-in stainless-steel Staedtler ruler with nonslip cork backing and engraved tick marks (from the 963 series).
It was a bit of a splurge for a college freshman and some of the cork has peeled away, but the ruler has otherwise held up remarkably well over nearly two decades. It’s still as straight as an arrow and I’m still as detail-obsessed as the day that I bought it.
I’m fairly certain I bought it in Albany at Arlene’s Artist Materials, a one-stop shop for design students and creatives all over the New York Capital District. (I never met the titular Arlene – as a young adult I never thought to ask if she was real – but let’s just say I owe “her” a lot for always having what I needed, when I needed it.) Not surprisingly I do a lot less model-making and drafting by hand these days, but the ruler comes in handy for the many projects that seem to constantly litter my small Brooklyn apartment. The extra length is great for retrieving objects that my cat has swatted into hard-to-reach nooks too.
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Angela Serratore, 40, graduated from a master’s program at Columbia in 2013
My item is … a painted wire shoe rack from Urban Outfitters that is now extinct.
I bought it when I moved into what I genuinely think might have been the smallest studio apartment on the Upper West Side. I had this idea that all of my storage pieces had to also be “cute,” so I got this rack that we then would have called twee and now would describe as “Pioneer Woman-esque,” in that it looks like it came from a 1930s farmhouse kitchen, but is obviously not an actual vintage piece. During my time in that apartment I used it for both shoes and mail, and when I moved into a series of larger spaces with closets it became a shoe rack. It’s actually not a great shoe rack – not enough space to spread the shoes out, sort of clunky, heels get stuck in the wire shelves – but I can’t bring myself to part with it! I still think it’s cute and it is also very sturdy – maybe I will repurpose it once again and use it in the kitchen!
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Seymen Usta, 38, graduated from Karadeniz Technical University in 2011
My item is … an over-the-door shoe organizer I bought for $8.99 my freshman year of college.
I would not say the bag is special … However, in terms of sentimental value, it is unique. It has survived three different apartments and a house, only to be used as a brief storage for shoes in the first and has ended up as the least likely storage solution for my garage. The pockets are stretched out, some are torn, and it’s permanently stained with old oil-based enamel that will not come off. The hooks are bent and broken over the years from struggling to hang on many doors.
There is something oddly satisfying in the thought that a small bag with torn pockets is the most appropriate tool for holding my garage supplies and tools. Every time I reach for the can of Rust-Oleum in the bag, I am greeted with a wave of nostalgia that hits me with the thought that in 2006, the biggest problem in my life was fitting six pairs of shoes into a dorm closet.
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David Zhong, 28, graduated from Douglas college in 2019
My item is … a basic plastic shower caddy.
The one piece of dorm gear I bought at UBC that has outlived everything else is a basic plastic shower caddy I purchased more than a decade ago. As a student, I would toss my shampoo and body wash in the container on my way down the residence hallway to the showers. Today, the same caddy holds chalk blocks, resistance bands and stopwatch timers in my commercial training facility, between client sessions.
When I was building my kinesiology practice, I had to make many sacrifices on the path to establishing my business. My first commercial-grade training facility didn’t have the budget for nice equipment, so I brought in my old caddy as a utility storage bin. I needed something portable and easy to clean to transport mobility tools around the weight room floor between client sessions. This seemingly unimpressive piece of plastic has outlived four facility relocations and thousands of client workouts.
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Finbarre Snarey, 48, graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in 1999
My item is … a beloved carved wooden box that I used to keep my Rider-Waite-Smith tarot cards in at university.
I bought it from Birmingham’s Bull Ring market in the mid 1990s. It was probably intended as a jewellery or keepsake box, but it was the perfect size for a tarot deck. I bought it straight after seeing The Craft at the Odeon cinema. Eight house moves and three decades later, it is still where I keep them. The box still sits at home holding the same deck of cards. The wood and carving have little worn in places and these days I use the cards as prompts for inspiration.
I would only replace it if the lid came off, and even then I wouldn’t get rid of it. It has become part of the history of the cards I have kept inside. A modern equivalent might be this gorgeous hand-carved wooden keepsake box on Amazon, but a new one wouldn’t carry the same memories.
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Ian Glennon, 57, graduated from University of Southampton in 2005
My item is … a collapsible bookshelf
I bought it in a furniture shop in Farnborough. It’s special because I’m a book addict and this bookshelf has come with me on my travels. Wherever I’ve lived, I always knew my books had a home. Of course, I have more bookshelves now (not enough!), but this one has pride of place next to my desk. At university it was home to my expanding sci-fi collection, many classics and my course textbooks. It also doubles up as a display cabinet.
It’s where I keep many of my “British books”, the ones that also followed me around the world in boxes and suitcases: Tolkien, Iain M Banks, Arthur C Clarke, JK Rowling and Conan Doyle among many others. They all have a home for life on this bookshelf. It’s the record of my reading life.
It’s been driven to Denmark from England, taken by lorry to Sweden and boated by cargo ship to the USA. I will pass it on in my will to one of my kids. I only hope that they actually have books to put on it!
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Karen Yuan, 30, graduated from Columbia University in 2018
My item is … instant abalone porridge.
Ten years later, I still keep a few bags of this instant abalone porridge in my pantry as a little treat. In college, I discovered it while wandering H-Mart late at night – back when my life choices meant studying at ungodly hours and calling instant porridge “dinner.” Whenever I was stressed, sick or just too tired to function, I turned to this microwaveable comfort food that somehow tasted perfectly salted with a deep briny savor that made it feel like a hearty meal. These days I make my own congee in my Cuckoo rice cooker, but whenever I find myself back in Manhattan’s East Village H-Mart, you can spot me grabbing this off its shelf among the hoodie-wearing, sleep-deprived youth.
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Nick Mokey, 40, graduated from Syracuse University in 2008
My item is … a 165-piece Craftsman mechanic’s tool kit
I felt very adult hauling this shiny chrome toolkit off to college, despite not knowing much more than how to change my oil at the time. Marinating in Syracuse road salt, my Pontiac Grand Prix would give me plenty of practice in the years ahead: sealing a leaky trunk lid, replacing rusty wheel bearings and fixing the cursed “fan resistor pack” that required me to sit upside down in the passenger seat with my head in the foot well to reach it under the dashboard, not once, not twice, but three times.
Two cars, one van, and six motorcycles later, it’s still the box I haul out to the driveway when something is on the fritz. I have more tools now, sure, but it turns out the perfect size to stow under a dorm bed is also just the perfect size. This modern equivalent is still the set I’d issue a DIY-curious college freshman hellbent on maintaining a string of relentlessly unreliable vehicles.
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Other pieces you might enjoy from the Filter, the Guardian’s guide to buying fewer, better things:
Squishies and ‘a fuzzy book’: 21 things tweens want for back-to-school season, according to tweens
The best tech for college students – 25 essentials for campus life
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