College dorm room checklist – everything you need to make a home away from home

This memory foam mattress topper is just the thing to soften up a firm, inflexible bed. Plush to cushion your joints yet supportive to align your spine, the ViscoSoft Select High Density Mattress Topper is suitable for every sleep position. If you know you'll be living in an older building with poor insulation, don't fret: this topper is infused with thermoregulating gel to keep you cool and comfortable.

You shouldn't have to spend hundreds of dollars to get a good night's sleep. With the SameBed Mattress Topper, you don't have to. This plush pillow-top gets rave reviews online, with thousands of five-star customer ratings on Amazon. The SameBed Mattress Topper is machine-washable and dryer-safe for quick and convenient cleaning on campus, though you'll only need to clean it once a semester.

According to months of rigorous testing, this is the best mattress topper on the market. It's made to relieve pressure and minimize motion transfer for the feeling of weightless, dreamless sleep. It's secured with no-slip corner straps and covered by a 10-year warranty. I think the Tempur-Pedic TEMPUR-Adapt Mattress Topper is fairly priced, but it's a lot less affordable than some of the other options on this list: you might want to ask your parents to go halves.

This is the best-selling sheet set on Amazon right now, with more than 240,000 five-star reviews. Happy customers praise the comfort and quality of the sheets, as well as their value for money. For me, their biggest selling point is the color range. You could buy a sheet set to complement any color palette and match any dorm aesthetic.

Inside this bed-in-a-bag, you'll find a cozy comforter, a flat sheet, a fitted sheet, a pillow case, and a pillow sham. Each piece is made from double-brushed microfiber, which feels exceptionally soft, but tends to retain heat, though that might be good news for cold sleepers studying in cooler climates. At the end of each semester, you can pack each piece away inside the bag for convenient carrying.

For my money, this is the best pillow to bring to college. It's filled with down alternative, so it's suitable for vegan shoppers and sleepers with sensitive skin. It's wrapped in a cooling cotton percale cover, which is good news for hot sleepers, and it's totally machine-washable to ameliorate the effect of spills and stains.

When I first started college, I used a pair of flip-flops as my shower shoes. They worked okay, but water used to get trapped beneath my feet, and I always felt like I was squelching when I walked back to my dorm. I soon switched them out for a set of shower shoes that looked a lot like these ones. The holes help to accelerate the draining and drying process.

This shower caddy comes with eight outer compartments and a larger storage space in the center. There's plenty of space for your skincare and haircare products, as well as flannels, combs, and body wash. Make use of each compartment when you're having an 'everything shower' or just keep it stocked with the essentials.

These towels are made from super-soft Turkish cotton, specially dyed in a range of cute shades to prevent the colors from fading. I've gone for the six-piece towel set, which includes two bath towels, two hand towels, and two washcloths. If you like the look and feel of these towels, you could always shop the matching bath mat and bath sheets, as well.

Make the most of dead space with an over-the-door organizer. I used mine to store my keys, my wallet, my umbrella and my shades − everything I needed to head out the door. This organizer comes with sturdy steel hooks to bear large weights and fix tight over your door.

I used these sorts of soft fabric bags to store my spare bed and bath linen beneath my bed. One of these boxes could fit one quilt, a couple of towels or blankets, and plenty of shirts or sweaters. Each box features clear windows, so that you can see what's inside without needing to unzip every bag to remember.

If you're lucky, your dorm will come with plenty of shelving space to store your books and folders. If it doesn't, you could use these stackable storage bins to create bookshelves of your own. Each bin breaks down into a flat-pack box to save space in your car at the start and end of each semester.

Our appliances editor, Laura, is all over the AeroPress. She trained as a barista, so she's familiar with the brewing technique, but it's easy enough to learn as you go. This coffee maker is quick to brew, with fine filtration for smooth-sipping drinks. Plus, it's portable and easy to store in small spaces.

This microwave comes with pre-programmed settings for popcorn and pizza − just what you need for a movie night with your new roommate. For a dorm, I'd select the smallest model (0.7 cu.ft.), which should fit easily on your desk and still have plenty of space inside to warm a plate.

Inside this mini-fridge, you'll find a chiller box for beverages, a double rack bottle frame for spreads and sauces, and a refrigerator compartment for everything else. The door is reversible and the legs are adjustable, so you can make this mini-fridge fit into any nook or cranny. Our appliances editor, Laura, says it's the best mini fridge for small spaces.

You get 50 LED string lights, interspersed with 50 clear clips, threaded onto 17 feet of thin acrylic wire. That's plenty of space to pin up memories of family and friends back home, with room to spare for new memories you make in college.

Over the course of my time at college, I built up a collection or prints, paintings, and postcards, swatches of fabric and scraps of wallpaper, and arranged it all in a mood board on my wall. If you're looking to fast-track your collection, you could always buy some wall prints in advance. I like the eclecticism of this sage green set − the moods and colors complement each other, but they don't match perfectly.

As I've curated my personal collection, I've learned that the best jewelry boxes are actually jewelry organizers, with shelves, hooks, and stands to display jewelry of different lengths and sizes. When you have somewhere practical and pretty to store your jewelry, you're so much less likely to lose it.