The average college student will spend $3,184 per year to furnish their dorm room. That adds up to much more than a couple of posters from campus bookstore. Making transition from high school student to college co-ed does take planning. But costs can be controlled with creativity and communication.

A dorm room needs functionality first. With a plan in place before even first desk lamp is purchased, money can be saved by avoiding items that don’t fit budget, room size or theme.

A dorm room is a college student’s haven; it serves many purposes beyond sleep and study. The best way to assure that it will meet and exceed all functions is to establish a color group and theme.

Color is often most difficult decision. By choosing a color or finding inspiration from a pillow, painting, nature, etc. entire room can be designed and unified. Once this decision is narrowed down, visit a paint store for paper color card samples. Keep samples handy when shopping.

The theme is next choice. Any decorating magazine is a starting point to find a style that conveys mood. Shabby chic? The Simpsons? Architectural? Even in a tiny room these elements can make a big difference.

Armed with a color and theme preference, it is time to start shopping. The big three, walls, windows and floors are place to start.

Colleges often have lots of restrictions about treatment of dorm walls, including no nails and no tape. Creativity comes in to rescue. Colored chalk can be applied to many cement block walls and washed off at end of school year. Hanging Kraft paper with poster putty can be either a blank canvas to be added to through year, or painted with a mural, design or solid color. Fabric is inexpensive at mass merchandise stores. Applying fabric to walls with liquid starch is fast, looks great, and leaves only a wall to wash when removed. Canvas stretchers available at craft and artist supply stores come in all sizes. Stretched and stapled fabric on frame gives illusion of a colored, finished wall. Clothes line can hold panels of paper, photographs or posters suspended from ceiling to floor.

I have been a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant for 16 years and have worked with many different types of physical disabilities and clients with mental illness. When I started scrapbooking 8 years ago, I never realized what a therapeutic value it could have on my life. As years have gone by I have also recognized therapeutic values scrapbooking can have for those many different types of physical disabilities and those with mental illness. I have discovered that Scrapbooking has many qualities that can help restore an overall sense of well being, accomplishment, and self-worth, as well as help with physical deficits. Taking photos of loved ones and creating a scrapbook not only showcases familiar photos, but can also display feelings and memorabilia. It is not only actual “scrapbooking” of pictures, but memories pictures reveal, that can be of great value.

I made a 25th Wedding Anniversary album for my parents and which included photos from their childhood as well as photos from time since they were married. What I learned from rummaging through all these old photos was an invaluable lesson in family heritage. There were places they had been, and family members I did not know and events that were unknown to me until I sorted through these photos and interviewed my parents. The end result was a wonderful memento of their lives and a keepsake we could all cherish and share for generations to come.