Five Things to Bring to College

Fitting your entire life into just a handful of suitcases is no easy feat: Should I bring my posters? What about a pillow? Can I buy snacks close by? Don’t worry, we’ve collated responses from current and previous residents to answer your questions, so here are our top five things to bring to Mandelbaum House, as well as our personal RA picks!

Top 5 Things to Bring to Mandelbaum House!

  1. Favourite Towel
  • Mandelbaum provides each resident with a plain white towel that is perfectly functional, but nothing beats strutting around the bathroom in your Hello Kitty Limited Edition Collectors towel.
  1. Formal Attire
  • We have formal dinners around once a month so be sure to bring something cute and fancy for the occasions: Don’t forget a pair of dress shoes as well, your outfit won’t be complete without them! Check out our other blogs for photos of what residents have worn to other formal dinners.
  1. (Noise Cancelling) Headphones
  • Especially as many people will have a handful of online classes, a decent pair of headphones will help you to drown out any noise, whether it’s from the games room, neighbours on the phone, or speeding motorcyclists.
  1. Personal pillow/bedding
  • While Mandelbaum provides bedding to every resident and it’s not necessary to buy your own, finding our own bedding is yet another way that you can add a personal touch to your room. You could cover your bed in throw pillows, replace the existing pillows with memory foam, or simply experiment with different colours and patterns!
  1. Room Decorations
  • Decorate your room how you would if you were living at home! (maybe don’t paint it though). Here’s a pro tip: use things that can be easily removed so it’s easy for you to pack up, like posters and photos. A diffuser is good too!

Honourable Mention

Laundry Basket/Powder/Airer + Coins

  • Of course, you’ll need to do your own laundry, which is $3 to wash, and $3 to dry. Get some $1 coins, or there’s a notes converter in the laundry! If you don’t want to spend money for the dryer, also consider getting your own airer: but Kmart runs out of these pretty quickly at the start of semester, so get in quick!

RA Picks!

Andrea – Reusable food containers/water bottle – reduce single use plastic!!

  • If the meal times don’t suit you, it’s easy to ask for a takeaway – but having a reusable container is so much better for the environment! I highly recommend glass containers because they’re so much easier to clean and they don’t leave a food smell.

Thomas –  Decent backpack or laptop bag.

  • While many classes may still be online, increasingly you will have to be walking to and from campus for face to face classes. For this, it’s worthwhile having a convenient way to carry your laptop, books and other learning materials. This may seem like a fairly obvious addition, but it is still worth outlining just in case.

Kacy – Command Hooks

  • As someone who has moved to various rooms, I always see at least one temporary (or not so temporary) wall hook. Want to hang your bags? What about a bathrobe? How about a hand towel? Purchase a command hook from wherever, and bang! You’ve got yourself a handy dandy place to put things. If you can guess how many of these hooks I currently have in my room, I’ll get some for you to join my side 🙂

However, one key tip is to not overpack – you can buy so many essentials at Broadway Shopping Centre (it’s a 15 minute walk away from Mandelbaum House), which has Coles, Kmart, Aldi and a Bed Bath and Table, as well as small boutique shops offering lots of sustainable and environmentally friendly options!

Lastly, if you’re not too sure if Mandelbaum provides something, feel free to ask your Mandelbuddy, the office, or even text one of us: our details are in the welcome week schedule!

See you soon,

Andrea, Kacy, and Thomas!