Shopping for college can be overwhelming, and it is beyond easy to forget something!
Your bedding is one of the most important things you’ll be purchasing for your college dorm. I cannot stress enough how important sleep is in college! Your bed will be a sweet refuge after a long day of work and classes, so of course you want it to be as comfortable as possible.
Let me start off by saying this: not all college mattresses are bad. In all honesty? The mattresses at my school are really nice. They’re waterproof and soft, easy to put sheets on, you won’t ever hear me complain about them! When you go to college orientation the summer before move-in, I highly recommend taking a good look at the mattresses if yours is overnight and you have the opportunity to spend it in the dorms. Not all schools have the same kinds or qualities of mattress, and yours will likely have qualities different from mine. They won’t have any extra bells and whistles so you’ll get a good understanding of a mattress’s baseline comfort level.
What are the components of a college bed?
I’m so glad you asked. There are quite a few layers of bedding you’ll need for college that you likely won’t have needed at home. Likely, they’ll be in this order:
- Mattress protector
- Mattress topper
- Mattress pad
- Bottom sheet
- Top Sheet
- Blankets
- Comforter
- Throw blankets
What do each of these do?
Mattress protectors are used to cover the mattress and protect from dust and dirt and bed bugs and anything that was left over from the mattresses old users or that you bring with you. They’re helpful for allergies and sort of a “check yourself before you wreck yourself” layer. This covers the entire mattress, wrapping around it.
Mattress toppers are for comfort. Memory foam mattress toppers are the go-to, and the right mattress topper can really make a bed feel luxurious. They’re one of my five essentials worth splurging on for your college dorm, because they can make that much of a difference. Read that post by clicking here.
This is followed by a mattress pad. Important note: the mattress pad will be fitted and go over both the mattress topper, and the mattress itself. My neighbor last year assembled his bed with his father and they didn’t realize this. He spent the first two weeks of school sliding off the mattress with his mattress topper, until he asked me if there was something wrong with his bed. The mattress pad is like the rubber band that holds the bed together with a bit of extra cushion. If it doesn’t go over the mattress, you’ll be like my neighbor and slide off overnight – and no one wants that.
Bottom sheets go over the mattress pad (obviously), and this is where the bedding everyone thinks of and looks forward to shopping for starts. Of course over the bottom sheet comes a top sheet.
On my bed I put my heated blanket next, but not everyone needs a heated blanket so I decided not to include this in the list! If you need any other blankets in addition to your comforter though, I suggest adding them here. That way they can be tucked in over your sheets and won’t fall off overnight.
Next comes what most people think of as the best part: comforters! Personally, I bought a cheap lightweight duvet and a fun duvet cover all for under $30 from IKEA. You can find the links to those here in this blog post! My heated blanket was what kept me warm. Some people prefer comforters, and some prefer a duvet because with a duvet you can switch out the cover and buy multiple – usually for a lot cheaper than a whole new comforter set!
After the comforter some people like to add a fun or cozy throw blanket over the end of their bed. My friends loved to use my throw blankets when they came over to visit my room. They were one of the most useful graduation gifts I received before coming to college! For a whole post on the most useful graduation gifts I received, click here! I liked having a throw blanket because it meant that I could work on top of my bed between classes or in the evening, and be nice and cozy without ruining my handiwork from having made it in the morning.
Think we’re done? I wish. There’s a lot that goes into making a college bed! Didn’t I tell you already?
Time for pillows! Now personally, I’m against throw pillows. They’re small and unhelpful and when it comes to a college dorm there is no point in having anything that isn’t useful. Nevertheless, I had four kinds of pillow on my bed:
- Bed pillow
- Body pillow
- Extra normal sized bed pillows
- Husband (the upright pillows with arms)
Obviously, you need a normal bed pillow to sleep on. I got a great pillow made specially for side sleepers from Sears and I love it. It was also on sale, which sweetened the deal, but it’s important to remember that the cheapest pillow isn’t always the best pillow. As I said in this post, it’s another item I would recommend not being afraid to spend on! Cheaper is (in my experience) not better when it comes to the pillows you sleep on!
I kept a body pillow next to my bed against the wall and a lot of my friends did too. Target had some really cheap (less than $10) body pillows last year and they were perfect for not rolling or kicking the wall at night. You’d be surprised how many times I heard people grumbling in early morning classes that they had been kicking the wall and woke up with bruises on their legs. They’d then say they were going buy a body pillow next semester to try to avoid it. If you’re going to have your bed against the wall I highly recommend these!
I used extra normal sized bed pillows as my throw pillows of sorts. I always had an extra pillow for when a friend spent the night, so that was helpful in and of itself. At night I would simply put one of the two $2 pillows I’d picked up at IKEA at the head of my bed leaning against the wall, and the other at my side where the body pillow didn’t quite cover. In a twin XL bed they didn’t take up any room I needed and it made it easy to prop myself up when I wanted and to remake my bed every morning. They made things cute and comfortable, and were so much cheaper than throw pillows would’ve been. And a lot more functional! Instead of pillowcases I used the shams I got with my duvet cover on these pillows.
A husband. Alright I am totally anti-husband. They aren’t supportive in the right places for me and they make my neck feel awful. However, I won one at a bingo night during welcome weekend, and I found it to be useful. I don’t recommend them, but if you have one like I did, this is how I used it. I put it in the corner of my bed against the walls, where it fit perfectly. I would sometimes sit against it in that corner, where I could lean up against the walls and have my neck be supported. Some of my friends like them, and they would use it when they came over and we would all study together or hang out. Usually they’d have it on the floor against a wall, as they really aren’t sturdy enough to stand on their own.
These are just the pillows I used on my bed, as bed pillows are a lot less one-size-fits-all than bedding. I definitely recommend investing in a nice bed pillow, and having a spare or two. Body pillows are also great to have, because you’ll never drop anything down the space between your bed and the wall! But you could also use the spare pillows in this space instead. I personally wouldn’t recommend getting a husband, but if it’s something you already have or know you’ll use then go for it! I’m glad I personally didn’t purchase one – but that’s the only thing on this list that I wouldn’t view as a bedding necessity.
In conclusion, this is what you need for you bed in college:
- a mattress protector
- a mattress topper
- a mattress pad
- a sheet set (I recommend having two sets of sheets because no one wants to do laundry and wrestle with making their bed on the same day in college, you may not even have time to do so with your classes and activities)
- comforter set, or duvet and duvet cover
- bed pillow
- spare pillow or two
- body pillow
I know it looks like a lot – but odds are you have a lot of these things already at home. No one said you need to buy new blankets or a new comforter if you don’t want to. The only reason I bought a new pillow was because my whole family was due for new pillows! I brought my twin mattress topper with me to school from home, and it was perfectly fine on my twin XL. I’m short enough that the few inches not covered didn’t even matter. If you have a twin mattress topper at home and aren’t that tall, this is an easy way to save on your college shopping! I’ll have more ways to save on college dorm shopping coming your way soon. Be on the look out!
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