5 Devices That Will Definitely Make Your Dorm Life Easier
By Sylvia Kohl
Student life can be tough at times, and a poorly organized, uncomfortable or just plain dirty dorm can exacerbate the situation to the point of being completely unbearable – which is especially true if it is your first long sojourn away from home. Therefore, keeping your dorm convenient, clean and generally fit for living plays a huge role in making your entire student life successful. Here are some devices that can considerably ease your strain.
1. Portable Induction Cooktop
If you don’t want to stuff yourself with dubious food from your college cafeteria, these little things can be your way out. You should, of course, first check if your dorm policy allows them, but practice shows that the absolute majority of colleges is strictly opposed to hot plates, microwaves and toaster ovens but have nothing against induction cooktops. Get one, and you will never again have to depend on processed foods or whatever you can scrounge at a cafeteria. Combine it with gaining at least marginal cooking skills, and you get yourself a winner.
2. Steam Mop
Keeping your dorm clean may sometimes seem like an insurmountable task, especially if you aren’t very lucky with your roommate. However, there are ways to take the edge off cleaning and tidying up – for example, steam mops. These things are compact, easy to use, save your time and come with an in-built water bucket – which means that you don’t have to lug one around, constantly risking to spill dirty water over your newly cleaned floors. In addition to their simplicity, steam mops don’t use chemicals and still disinfect better than most of them, turning cleaning into an easy and even pleasurable experience.
3. Wake-Up Light
Getting up in the morning is a bane of all living things, but students in particular, due to their notoriously high workload and constant lack of sleep. In such conditions, it is especially important to find a way to not only get up on time, but actually get yourself up and running when you do so. Philips Wake-Up Light performs exactly this function – it is a lamp that lights up at the assigned moment and emits light the wavelength of which is close to that of real sun. As a result, it influences you brain and makes it immediately stop producing melatonin, a sleep-inducing hormone, thus making it easier to get up.
4. One-Can Fridge
Sometimes – especially when you have to do a lot of cramming in a short period of time – getting up from the desk to go get a can of soda or other beverage may result in a half-hour distraction. Or longer – depending on how tired you are and how boring the subject you study is. A one-can-fridge is a nifty little device that can be plugged into any USB port and will keep exactly one regular-sized can cold (or warm, depending on what you need) until you need it. It is useful, it is stylish, it eliminates distractions – what else to want?
5. Handheld Vacuum Cleaner
Lack of space is about as problematic for students as the lack of funds – and Dirt Devil handheld vacuum successfully solves both of them. It is a small yet powerful vacuum cleaner that will help you quickly get your room cleaner – without occupying half of it when you don’t need it, and not costing half of your yearly budget.
It may come as a surprise, but dorm life can actually be bearable and even comfortable. Make good use of these devices and don’t let mundane problems keep you from all the excitement your new life presents you with!
Sylvia Kohl is an IT teacher with more than 7 years of professional experience. Her main spheres of interest are e-education and beta-testing. This writer chose news about the increasing role of IT usage in colleges and schools as the most common topic for her articles.
