Quick answer: Restock the consumables that quietly ran out in November, fix the one thing about the layout that annoyed you all semester while the room is still half empty, and add the two or three winter-specific things that make a January dorm liveable. It's an afternoon, and it sets up four months.
August move-in is a guess. You had never seen the room, you did not know which side the sun came in, and you bought from a list. January is the opposite: you have a semester of evidence about what the space is actually like, and the room is emptier than it will be again all year. That combination makes it the best time to change anything structural.
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What has run out by December
None of this is exciting, which is exactly why nobody plans for it and everyone ends up buying it at a premium from the campus shop in week one.
- Laundry detergent, dryer sheets, stain remover
- Cleaning supplies, sponges, bin bags
- Paper towels and toilet paper, if your bathroom is your responsibility
- Shampoo, toothpaste and the rest of the toiletry restock
- First aid: plasters, painkillers, whatever you got through in flu season
- Batteries, printer paper, pens, notebooks for new classes
- Snacks and anything you binned before break
Fix the thing that annoyed you
Everyone has one. The desk faced the wrong way, the lamp was in the wrong place, you could never reach the plug, the under-bed storage did not fit. In August you had no way of knowing. Now you do, and the room is emptier than it will be in September, so it's a twenty-minute job instead of an hour one.
- Move the desk to face the light or away from the door, whichever the semester proved you needed
- Re-do the under-bed storage now you know the actual clearance
- Move the power strip to where you actually charge things
- Deal with the thing you have been stepping over since October
The winter-specific additions
- Better lighting. It gets dark before dinner. One warm lamp changes a room more than anything else on this list.
- A drying rack. Wet coats, boots and gym kit in a room with the windows shut.
- A humidifier, if your building runs the heat hard and you wake up with a dry throat. Check your hall's rules, some prohibit them.
- A door draught stopper, in an older building.
- A boot tray, so salt and slush stay in one place.
The reset itself
- Strip and wash the bedding before you unpack anything
- Wipe down the desk, shelves and fridge while surfaces are clear
- Check what came back from break that does not need to be here
- Rotate the wardrobe: autumn clothes into storage, winter to the front
- Restock, then set the room up the new way rather than the old way
Restock without re-buying
Before you order anything, look in the storage bins and the back of the wardrobe. The most common January purchase is a second one of something already in the room. If you tracked what you brought in August, this takes two minutes.
Worth buying in January
Warm desk or floor lamp
Overhead dorm lighting is unkind in January. One warm light source does the most work of anything here.
Shop on AmazonFolding drying rack
For coats, gym kit and anything that comes back from a walk across campus soaked.
Shop on AmazonSmall humidifier
Only if your hall permits it. Plenty prohibit humidifiers outright, so check before ordering.
Shop on AmazonThe version for people who will not do all this
Wash the bedding, restock the consumables, and put one warm lamp in the room. That is most of the benefit for about forty minutes of effort.
Restock the room from your DormHQ list.
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