With every freshman college student installed in their dorms by now and getting used to the atmosphere, there is often a recurrent wicked thought that keeps coming up in everyone's mind that refuses to be dismissed - what are the best ways to turn the only patch of real estate in your room that is entirely yours - your bed - into something that's a little more you? It's a shame that more college freshmen don't try their hand at decorating their rooms - when else will they ever get the opportunity to go crazy with psychedelic decor - fairy lights strung up over your bed, a Sesame Street beer cooler at the foot - wherever your imagination takes you.
Remember, you'll have all the opportunity you need to be adult and sane once you've settled down (horrors!).
This is the time to let it all hang out, and we're going to start with that college bedding of yours.
The easiest thing to pick when you go buy sheets is to buy white.
Your dorm room is hardly the place for white though.
A bed in a dorm room is the lounging area; there are usually no chairs for your friends who come around and everyone's going to be in your bed with their shoes on; they will be dropping pizza material all over the place (not to mention the fact that there could be stains from several unmentionable activities).
White sheets won't last the week; try the darker colors with lots of patterns to deceive the eye into thinking that any stain you work into the fabric is actually part of the pattern.
As a group, college students aren't known for their affinity to cleanliness; in other words, college bedding doesn't get washed nearly as often as it should.
It would be a good idea then to buy at least a half-dozen sets going in.
At least, you'll be accepting your weakness and doing something about it this way.
And while you're at it, did you ever notice that college bedding was usually as tough as leather and as hard as a bag of coconuts? The material is so amazing for its unyielding toughness, scientists could be coming in to study its applications in rocket science soon.
Speaking of rocket science, make sure on your trip to Bed, Bath & Beyond, that you get a good mattress pad.
Never heard of it? Do you realize that on a standard mattress, that it's only the top 3 inches that really give you the cushioning? All the rest of it just holds the cushioning up properly.
So if your dorm bed is as hard as a countertop, all you need do is slap a memory foam sheet on top, and you'll be sleeping away like a baby.
If your tastes in bedding run to, how do we say this politely, to the dainty, there are plenty of high-end designer names in the college bedding market, that should be great for you.
Tommy Hilfiger has a Campus Kit that goes at about $100; Isaac Mizrahi is another designer name in the business.
Of course, whatever you pick, your roommate is probably going to give you grief over your choices.
What do you do if roommate has a taste that runs to the Gothic? You do need to work things out, but who knows, the roommate might secretly admire your really neat stuff.
Don't be surprised if you come in one day to find her (or him) curled up under your excellent sheets, hugging your full-length comforter.