10 Dorm Desk Essentials for Stress-Free Studying
Looking for items that will help you stay on-task while studying in your dorm room? These dorm desk essentials will help you stay organized and productive all semester long.
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Staying organized in college is key to keeping on top of your work and acing your classes. If you don’t have a clean, organized place to study, you’ll have a hard time focusing.
Even if you plan on doing most of your studying in the library, you’ll be using your desk for those all-nighters or early morning cram sessions.
I loved doing my homework at the library or coffee shops, but I still spent about 50% of my study time at my dorm desk.
Here are the dorm desk essentials will make your life easier and optimize your space in your dorm.
1. Desk Organizer
When you don’t have a lot of space to work with, you need to make sure that what you do have is well organized.
For that reason, the number one dorm desk essential that you need is a desk organizer.
It’s the perfect spot to store your pens, highlighters, and other school supplies.
2. Desk Lamp
A desk lamp is absolutely essential to have in a dorm room. You’ll need some light during those late night study sessions.
This LED desk lamp is perfect for a dorm desk. It has a built-in pen holder and super convenient USB ports for charging your devices.
3. Cord Organizers
I highly recommend getting one of these handy cord organizers to keep your desk tidy.
It sticks to just about any surface (wood, glass, metal, & marble) and keeps your cords from falling behind your desk or getting unorganized.
There are two options for keeping your cords in place – built-in magnets and the included cord clips. Such a genius product that will make a big difference in your dorm organization!
4. Dorm Desk Hutch
In a cramped dorm room, you need to get creative to maximize your storage space.
This desk hutch is such a genius product for college dorms. It gives you extra storage space without taking up any desk space.
You can stash your books, snacks, or other miscellaneous items on these shelves.
Some colleges already provide you with one of these, so make sure you check before you order!
5. Laptop Riser
If you want to save your neck and back, you need to invest in a laptop riser.
These stands help your posture while studying by raising your laptop up to your eye level. This will allow you to study at your computer for long stretches without straining your neck and back.
I absolutely swear by this adjustable laptop stand from Amazon. I’ve been using it for a few years now and it makes a such a huge difference.
6. Bluetooth Keyboard And Mouse
If you’re going to be raising your laptop up, you’re going to need to use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse.
Luckily, both of those items are super affordable on Amazon. Here are the exact ones that I use for my desk setup:
7. Power Strip
Most dorm buildings are super old, which means they may not have a ton of outlets in each room.
It’s a good idea to pack a power strip for your dorm room so that you can charge and power everything you need.
This power strip comes with 2 standard outlets, 3 USB ports, and one USB-C port. It’s perfect to have near your desk for charging your laptop and phone while you study!
8. USB Hub For Laptop
Unfortunately, as laptops get slimmer, they have less and less ports for USB, HDMI, memory cards, etc.
If you don’t already have one, I would highly recommend getting one of these USB hubs for your laptop.
They’ll allow you to plug multiple cords into your computer at once like your charger, an HDMI cord, the USB receiver for your mouse, a flash drive, etc.
I have mine plugged into my laptop at all times and it’s so useful!
9. Noise Canceling Headphones
Whether you’re friends with your roommate or not, you’ll still want to be able to drown out any noise they make while you’re studying.
Noise canceling headphones are seriously a must-have when you’re in college.
You’ll use them all the time for walking to class, working out, studying in the library, or getting work done in your dorm.
There are a lot of different options out there at different price points, so we’ll link two highly rated options below:
10. Planner
College is full of crazy deadlines, overlapping assignments, and a tight class schedule. A good planner is essentials for staying on track and organized.
I always preferred a paper planner in college, but some people like to keep track of everything digitally.
For paper planners, I highly recommend one that has monthly and daily pages. You can write out your due dates ahead of time on the monthly pages and plan out your day-to-day stuff on the daily ones.
This one from Amazon would be absolutely perfect for any college student who wants to stay organized:
If you’re more of a digital planner kind of person, Google Calendar is amazing for keeping all of your important dates and assignments organized.
And there you have it – the top dorm desk essentials to help you stay organized while studying.
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