Why You Need to Clean Your Dorm Before Moving In

Before I moved into my freshman dorm room, my mom made sure I cleaned it a little bit before settling in. Since the same room was used by hundreds of students before me, I agreed that it was a good idea to clean it a little first.

You should clean your dorm room before you move in because it might have been cleaned a long time ago, there may be dust buildup, you want the mattress to be completely clean, the bathroom to be fresh, you want the drawers to be clean and you want to prevent bugs and mold growth.

This is only a light cleaning, not a deep one. It’ll probably take 15 minutes to finish before you move in.

Amazon links: click on the “Buy on Amazon” links, not the picture above it.

Notice: Make Your Place Livable LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Why You Need To Clean Your Dorm Room Before You Move In

1. It Might Have Been Cleaned A Long Time Ago

College campuses are used for a lot of things. From the middle or end of August to May, it’s used for the students that attend that school. After those 10 months of use, most of you pack up and leave. However, some of you stay for summer classes. Not only that, but your university probably hosts summer camps, which keeps those dorms in use. Before the summer even ends, guess who’s back in the dorm? Yup, you.

During all that time, the school’s cleaning staff have to find an open window to deep clean each and every dorm room. Who knows if it was shortly before you moved in. It may have been months since your room was cleaned. A little cleaning touch up won’t do the dorm any harm.

2. There May Be Dust Buildup

Since we don’t know when the cleaning staff showed your room attention, there might be some dust on the furniture. When you walk into your room, swipe your finger across your desk or any other piece of furniture. If a good amount of dust comes off and onto your finger, grab a cloth, dampen it, and wipe down the furniture real quick.

3. It’s Good To Wipe Down The Mattress You’ll Be Sleeping On

If there’s any place that you want to give a quick wipedown, it’s the place that you’ll be laying your head for the next couple months. Even though the cleaning staff cleans the mattresses every year, it’s still slept on by hundreds of students. Wouldn’t it make you feel better to just run a clorox wipe or two over and under it? 

4. If You Have A Bathroom, You Want It To Be Freshly Cleaned

When you use a shower, don’t you want to feel like you’re washing all the dirt away and becoming squeaky clean? How can you feel that way if you don’t know the last time the shower has seen some disinfectant spray? And what if dust made a home for itself in the bathtub and on the toilet? Yuck! Make sure to touch up the bathroom with a bit of cleaning before you start using it. 

5. You’ll Be Storing Your Clothes In The Drawers

Another part of the dorm that gets thoroughly used by every student that lives there are the drawers. Hundreds of different wardrobes have seen the inside of your dresser. Before you add your own to the collection, you should clean them a little bit to make sure it’s fresh and ready for your shirts, pants, socks, etc. While you’re at it, think about if you’d want to add a drawer liner.

6. You Don’t Know If They Sprayed Ant Repellant

Even though we’re aware that there’s a cleaning staff that takes care of each dorm room at some point in the year, we don’t know their specific cleaning methods. They may have scrubbed the floors and whatnot, but did they take any preemptive measures to keep the dorm clean once they finished?

For example, when I moved into my college apartment and looked in the bathroom, I saw a small colony of ants making themselves at home. That’s not the only place. I found them in the kitchen too. During his freshman year, my friend’s entire dormitory hall had an ant infestation problem. To fight against the ants, I sprayed ant repellent around the perimeter of the entire place:

I didn’t see any ants in my apartment for the rest of the year after that.

7. You Don’t Know If They Sprayed Mold Repellent

Bugs aren’t the only thing you’ll want to repel. Did you know that it’s very common for mold to grow in dorm rooms? In fact, according to Fierce Education, “Dorms are an active breeding ground for mold.” I didn’t know about this before I moved into my dorm room for freshman year, but low and behold, it started to grow. My room isn’t the only place where this happened either. My R.A had to send out a mass email to everyone on the dorm floor due to the mold problem that occurred in dozens of rooms. Prevent yours from having this problem before it even starts.

Places You Should Clean In The Dorm

1. The Toilet Seat

One place that you’ll want to clean is your toilet seat. That way, you can have a peace of mind before using it. Cleaning it won’t take long; just grab a clorox wipe:

And wipe down the seat and the toilet handle. That’s it! It’s ready to use. Cleaning that same toilet won’t be nearly as easy once everyone starts using it though.

2. The Shower/Tub

To be sure that you’re getting squeaky clean in the shower/tub, make sure that it’s clean first. Do that by grabbing some more of those Clorox wipes and using them on the faucet handles, the faucet spout, and the shower head if you have one. While you’re at it, wipe down the same areas on your sink as well.

3. The Mattress

Remove any remaining germs from that mattress before you fully deck it out and make it your own. Grab a, you guessed it, clorox wipe and run it across the bottom, top and sides of the mattress. If you don’t feel like wiping it down, then you can skip that and just put a mattress protector on it instead:

This will save you from putting in that extra elbow grease and provide complete protection. Just make sure to get the right size. 

4. Inside Of The Drawers

To clean the inside of the drawers, take a Clorox wipe and wipe the bottom of it, then the sides. If you want to, you can put drawer liners in it to finish the job. Some wooden drawers have experienced a little bit (or a lot) of wear and tear over the years, so if you don’t want your clothes to get wood chips stuck in them, you can apply these to prevent that!:

5. Spray Insect Repellent

The spray that I linked to earlier in this post isn’t just good for getting rid of ants, it’s good for keeping them from invading in the first place. Spray some of this around the perimeter of your dorm room. After that, have a peace of mind knowing that those creepy crawlies won’t be visiting you any time soon.

6. Spray Mold Repellent

After you use some spray to keep the bugs away, use some to keep the mold and mildew away too. Take a bottle of this:

And spray under your window, on the floor under your bed, on the lower part of the wall under your bed, and on the window sill. Do this every couple months to keep the possibility of growth at bay. If you see some growth elsewhere during the year, you have the perfect tool to fight against it!