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Moving to college is an exciting time, but it can also be a bit overwhelming. There’s much to consider, from choosing classes to finding a roommate to figuring out where to park your car. One of the most important things you’ll need to do is pack your dorm room. But where do you begin?
To help you, we’ve compiled a comprehensive dorm room packing list and some great Arkansas sources for these products. This list includes everything you’ll need to make your dorm room feel like home, from bedding and bath essentials to kitchen supplies and electronics.
Where to start?
Before you begin, it’s important to check back through those emails you’ve received from the Admissions Office and potentially the Student Life department of your college. They’ve no doubt already sent you a master packing list and things you are not allowed to bring. They may even have a student blog or forum to get tips for maximizing move-in day.
10 Arkansas Stores and Companies That Can Help
Mattresses and Bedding | Dreamline Bedding in Cabot
These bedding and mattress products, including the iChill brand, are used in Arkansas State Parks lodging, The Capitol Hotel, and several college campuses because of their trusted DormGuard products, ready to withstand for the duration.
Blackmon’s Furniture and Appliances | El Dorado and Camden
Apartments and homes need more than pretty things. Sometimes, you must get practical with places to set your books and for bottoms to rest.
Insert Blackmon’s practical meets beautiful home furnishings.
Hostess Pastries | Arkadelphia and Little Debbie’s | Gentry
As if any college student needed more incentive for late-night snacking, our favorite chocolate and powdered doughnuts are now made in South Arkansas. The McKee teams in Gentry keep Zebra cakes, honeybuns, donut sticks, and chocolate cupcakes on the ready. Next time you grab a bag, stop and look to see where it’s made!
Toilet Paper and Paper Plates | Georgia Pacific Crossett and Fort Smith
While products like diapers, chicken and gin are quick on a list of Arkansas-made items, don’t overlook the essentials like paper towels, plates, and toilet paper. That’s right, Crosset plants manufacture Angel Soft and Quilted Northern, and teams in Fort Smith oversee Dixie paper products. And if the pandemic taught us anything, we better have TP!
Skippy Peanut Butter | Hormel Foods in Little Rock
The snack shelf over the fridge between our beds was one of the first things I set up in college. And one thing we always had on your shelves was the versatile jar of peanut butter! Hormel Foods plant in Little Rock produces Skippy Peanut Butter, 3.5 million pounds per week.
Natural cleaning products | Natural Grocers in Fayetteville, Jonesboro and Little Rock
Keep things safe while you clean. Usually, on move-in day, you start with deep cleaning the room, ensuring all the cobwebs are gone, the shower is pristine and the floors have a once-over. Using clean cleaning products helps everyone feel better about their environment.
The Arkansas Cooperative Extension office suggests a vinegar-based solution for safe cleaning that you can make at home and carry.
Cereal | Post Foods in Jonesboro
Popular cereals like Honey Bunches of Oats and Fruity Pebbles fly off the lines at Post Foods in Jonesboro. I’m sure nearby college students can almost taste them in the air on a perfect breezy day! Cups of cereal, with no milk needed, are perfect any time of day for on-the-go college students.
Aromatique Home Fragrances | Heber Springs
Combating crazy scents is a constant battle of dorm life. Whether it’s old carpet, bathrooms, or last month’s leftovers still in the fridge, many strange scents loom in the air. However, candles are often not allowed, so companies like Aromatique, which sells reed diffusers and botanical potpourri, offer flame-free solutions.
Good Coffee | All Four Corners of Arkansas
College is often the gateway stage of life for life-long coffee drinkers. And, let’s be honest with great Arkansas-based coffee companies like Onyx, Airship, Leiva’s, Arsaga’s, Fort Smith Coffee Co., Westrock, Round Mountain Coffee, Rozark Roasterie and The Ouachitas, high school kids move on to college as students with a sophisticated palette. Many colleges offer access to an on-campus coffee shop in their dining meal plans, so keeping ground coffee beans as a treat in your room may be easier. But bringing a coffee pot to college is a staple these days. Don’t forget they need a great flavored syrup to stir into each cup!
College Town Stores for Dorm Room Shopping
Occasions | Siloam Springs
This Main Street stop has it all under one roof: whether you’re looking for a new doormat, pickleball equipment, small plants, snacks or tools to make your room smell good.
City Supply and Revival Home and Gifts | Fayetteville
Both stores carry local Arkansas products and home decor to enhance any apartment or dorm room. They also sell game day cups, coffee syrups, decorated school supplies and trendy threads.
Doorframes | Searcy
Every purchase doesn’t have to be practical, and that’s where boutique shopping helps you find something special to make your new home feel like home. Dishrags, botanical prints, throw pillows, note journals and even a bag of popcorn make your new digs cozy and unique.
Mary and Martha’s Florist and Gifts | Arkadelphia – florists are often a spot to grab pretty things in college towns. M&M is ready this year with decorative pillows for Ouachita and Henderson and all the pretty things to make your room smell…..not like a dorm room!
Hardman Interiors | Arkadelphia – yes, it is right next door to a lumber company which may help Dad with the tools and bolts he needs to fix everything, but while he’s looking for the necessary stuff, this is a great spot to browse and see if you need anything extra!
Infinite Interiors | Jonesboro – You never realize on move-in day that there’s one thing you didn’t bring. And it’s usually an essential piece that Dad needs to loft a bed or connect electronics. But stores like Infinite Interiors will walk you to what you are looking for and discuss how to get everything back in working condition.
honey & hope or Enhancements Boutique | Jonesboro
Both shops will keep you game day ready for the Red Wolves, and you might even find a few accessories, clear bags, or decor for your apartment walls.
Arkansas Food Gifts
A college student always needs a snack, and these Arkansas companies can help you tackle the munchies!
Arkansas Soap Companies offer simple alternatives that make bath time luxury even in a cramped space!
Dillard’s | across the state – while it’s a large department store, Dillard’s started in Little Rock and is a great place to look for bedding, linens, lamps, simple kitchen supplies, athletic shoes and a new oversized sweatshirt you can wear every day to class!
Additional Tips for Move-in Weekend
- Go to orientation events. This is where you will meet some of your best college friends and not feel as lonely in your first moments away from home.
- Get involved on campus. Attend intro meetings and make friends.
- Meet your advisor and resident assistants. Get to know them; they will become your advocate on campus and an insider to everything you need to know, especially on the hard days.
- Study hard. College is a time to learn and grow.
- Take advantage of all the opportunities that college has to offer. There are many resources available to help you succeed, learn leadership and make lifetime connections
- Have fun. College is the time of your life to make friends, push yourself to do hard things, and make many memories with the friends you are making.
- Take lots of pictures! But you don’t have to post all of them on social media.
Moving to college is a big step, but it’s also an exciting one. Even now, I can remember the day I moved to college, my feelings, how I said goodbye to my parents, the friends I met the first night, and the awkward conversations with my new roommate. But I also just texted this week with my best friends from college, almost 25 years later, and we still share silly memes, hard life lessons and the idiotic things our co-workers do regularly. This is the time of your life; chase your dreams and have the best time!!
Remember to call your mom and wait to post everything online until you know you want to see it again or answer, “What were you thinking?”
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