Enhance Your Dorm Desk With These CL Essentials

Since we have such limited space, a co-ed’s desk must be versatile in order to accomplish all the tasks that we, as college students, need it to perform. Therefore, our dorm room desk can be a table used for eating/snacking, folding clothes, and collecting nick-knacks. It can be a study space for sprawling out papers and books, taking notes, or reading. It can be used as the ultimate place of procrastination or relaxation whether in cleaning, checking Facebook/Twitter, or catching up on the latest Glee episode. No matter what the use, desks typically hold a computer, paper, pens/pencils, pictures of family and friends, and maybe even a printer. There are, however, some essentials to make your desk shine with College Lifestyles class.

1)      A Plant.

Indoor plants are not only lovely, environment-friendly décor used to brighten up a small room, but they help keep us healthy mentally and physically. As we all learned in elementary science class, plants provide us with oxygen and eliminate carbon dioxide which, while in a confined room, provides us with increased concentration and productivity to get those tasks done to the best of our abilities. Plants also help us to not get sick by controlling the humidity of a room and removing harmful airborne contaminates that can cause headaches, nausea, sore and itchy eyes, and loss of concentration.  They have also been known to create positive feelings and decrease anxiety, which is what every college student needs. Indoor plants are a cheap, easy, and healthy way of enlivening a college desk.

2)      A Bottle of Water.

Our brains are 95% water. Therefore, when we are not hydrated enough, our most important organ cannot function to its capacity, causing the other parts of the body to also suffer. Many studies have shown that without enough water, the brain must work harder to perform its functions, resulting in mental exhaustion. Whether or not you use your desk for studying, always have water readily available and drink it regularly. It can increase your energy, concentration and memory. If you find that you have trouble forcing yourself to drink water like I do, try using the flavoring or vitamin enhanced packets to encourage your taste buds. This item you should not only keep on your desk, but with you at all times to keep your mind fully functioning.

3)      Inspirational Quotations.

Keep your desk a positive space for working and relaxing. Among all the post-it notes that detail everything you have to do, tape up some inspirational quotations on the wall, the desk surface itself, a drawer, or the computer screen that will encourage you whenever you’re at your desk. If things are going awry, the last thing you want to do is spend ages looking up that perfect phrase of encouragement. By hanging them up, you only have to glance to the left or the right and find exactly what you need to brighten your day. Don’t forget to rotate them with new quotations you find come in contact with, that way the words don’t lose their positive effect.

As students we spend a significant amount of time at our desks so it is important to fill that space with healthy and encouraging items that help us to show our CL style even when we are in our rooms.

Samantha Kettering is a junior at Kenyon College, majoring in English with a creative writing emphasis. She is currently studying abroad in Exeter, England. She enjoys Spring weather, chocolate, and singing to the radio.