Last summer I shared our dorm faves from our Addie’s freshman dorm, which I heard was helpful for some. But that dorm was from 2023, so I thought I’d do a more updated post from our Millie’s dorm this past fall (2025).

Millie had the same layout as Addie’s first dorm, which was one of the smallest rooms on campus, but she and her roommate did a great job of making it very cute, cozy, and functional.

Millie and her roommate went with a light theme of white and baby blue, which really helped brighten up their tiny space.

Here are links to some decor items we thought made their room really cute. I do make a small commission off of purchases bought through these links, but it doesn’t cost you any more! 🙂

• Ruffled comforter – We loved the seersucker fabric on this and the adorable ruffles.
• Bow shaped pillow – I couldn’t find these same pillows, but these are similar and adorable
• Plaid pillows
• Ottoman – unfortunately, Millie found hers at TJ Maxx, and I can’t find another just like it online. But this blue and white striped one is adorable, as are these blue flower-shaped ones.
• Bed-skirt – Not necessary, but it did really make the room look cleaner and brighter when we could hide the dressers under the bed.
• Headboard pillow – It’s hard to see in this picture, but this was a must-have. It serves as a headboard, but it’s also a wedge pillow, so you can lean up against it very comfortably.
• Sheets – can’t see them in the pic, but these white and blue floral sheets are adorable.
• Memory foam mattress topper – This is an affordable mattress topper option that Millie found very comfortable
• White wall frames – Millie made some cute prints on Canva and put them in these lightweight frames. We used hot glue to hang these, but I guess that’s actually not allowed in her dorm (even though it worked like a dream and left no damage), but for Addie’s dorm, we had used these velcro command strips to hang them, and those worked very well too.
• Rug – We found this affordable rug that looked great in their room. Being white, it did get pretty dirty by the end of the year, but we took it home and are going to try and clean it up – we’ll see how well it cleans!
• Sheer curtains – The girls covered their whole back wall with sheer curtains and strung lights up behind them. In these pictures, they look very yellow, but in person the lights were soft and very pretty behind the sheer curtains. We bought this rod to hang the curtains on and used these hooks to hang the rod.
• Bedside lamp – Millie loved the ease of this touch lamp, and that she could choose the color temperature.

Her dorm room came with the bed of course, her desk, and a 3-drawer dresser that is hidden under her bed. Here are the other furniture items we bought:

• Bedside tower – The exact one Millie bought is out of stock, but this looks like the same thing. She loved the storage in this tower, and the height was nice for her tall bed.
• White canvas dresser – You can’t see this since it’s under her bed, but Addie has this same dresser too – you can see a pic of it in this post. It won’t let me link my commissioned link since it says this is a frequently returned item, but I have no idea why it would be unless people don’t realize the drawers are canvas when they’re purchasing it. We preferred this over the cubbies as we thought it looked nicer. And once you buy the bins for the cubby systems, it ends up being more expensive than this dresser.
• Desk topper – These are essential for maximizing storage space on your desk.
• Lap desk – Not shown in this picture as it was stored folded up under her bed. But this was nice for when she just want study in her cozy bed. This lap desk has a drawer to keep pens and pencils in, so she didn’t have to be searching for those once she was up in her bed.

Here are links to some of the items for her desk:

• Woozoo fan – Apparently it’s worth buying the name brand of this fan. Millie had originally bought a knock-off that was okay, but not great. She ended up lucking out and got a real Woozoo that someone was getting rid of, and it was much, much better. If you look closely, you can see her little fan peeking out behind the frame on top of her desk topper.
• Desk lamp – This lamp is nice as it has USB charging ports in the base.
• Makeup organizer – This was great for storing her cosmetics and brushes.
• Vanity mirror – Makes it easy to apply your makeup right at your desk.
• Q-tip/cotton pad holder – Cute way to keep your cotton necessities handy.
• Desk accessories – In keeping with her blue theme, Millie got a stapler, tape dispenser, scissors, etc all in light blue.

Kitchen items:

• Wire shelving – We found this wire rack to be a great way to store the girls’ kitchen items. Both girls had this in college and it got a lot of use.
• Dorm fridge – Millie’s roommate provided this dorm fridge, which worked great for them. Make sure you coordinate with your roommate to figure out who’s bringing what so you don’t end up with 2 of everything and no space to put them.
• Microwave – This isn’t the exact one we got, since that one has sold out. but it’s the same size and wattage. Be sure to check your dorm’s wattage limitations. For Addie’s freshman year, I had found a cheap microwave at a garage sale. We tested it out at home in the basement and it shorted out the electricity in the basement because it was too high of a wattage. So careful with that – you don’t want to be responsible for taking out the electricity in your building!
• Keurig – Millie’s roommate provided the Keurig, so this isn’t a link to the exact one, but it’s similar. Having a Keurig will help you save money on buying a specialty coffee everyday!
• Brita pitcher – Dorm water isn’t always great, so this is a necessity.

Millie and her roommate shared a small closet, so they had to make the most of their small space.

• Velvet hangers – These are great for space saving – plus they look nice! The girls were able to fit a lot more clothes in their closet with these as opposed to the plastic hangers.
• Hamper – The liner comes out of this hamper and has handles to make it easy to carry to the laundry room. And it comes with 2 liners, so you can save one for clean clothes to carry back to your room! It’s also completely collapsible, which was great for transporting to and from school.
• Fabric storage bins – These were great for storing things at the top of the closet. She had one bin for extra sheets and towels, one for feminine products, one for cleaning products and laundry stuff, and one for extra bathroom items.
• Laundry sheets – We love these detergent sheets for college! They’re so much easier to haul to the laundry room instead of lugging a big thing of detergent. The pods can be handy too, but we had heard complaints of them not fully dissolving and leaving a mess on the clothes, so we went with these instead and they have worked great for the girls.
• Downy Wrinkle Releaser – If you have this spray, you don’t have to take up space with an iron and ironing board. What college kid is going to spend time ironing? But this spray is so great for getting the wrinkles out!
• 3-drawer storage – With storage at a premium, this is great for pajamas, uniforms, extra shoes, etc.

Miscellaneous things you’ll need:

• Moving bags – I can’t stress how much these are needed. We didn’t even use boxes to move the girls at all. We threw everything in these bags. They stack up nicely and the handles make them easy to carry. The zipper around 3 sides of the top make it so the top opens up all the way and you can get things in and out easily. The Ikea bags only zip down the middle, so they are fine for moving, but not nearly as good as these bags. Plus, once these bags are unloaded, they fold up nicely and can be stored easily. My girls chose to keep them behind their dressers under the bed. Then at the end of the year, they could pop these out and load them back up without having to find boxes.
• Extension cords – This cord is great since it is also a surge protector and has multiple outlets and USB ports.
• Another extension cord – Millie bought both this cord and the one above. She kept one by her bedside table and one at her desk.

So there you have it, another list of our dorm faves! Hopefully this helped you out some or at least gave you some ideas! If I’m missing anything that is a must-have, please let me know!