We Grabbed Walmart College Dorm Room Essentials on a Dime (50¢ Dishes, Under $25 Bissell Vacuum, & MORE!)
Score everything you need for college on a dime at Walmart!
Walmart is what dorm rooms everywhere are calling for! 🛌
College is expensive, but all your dorm room essentials don’t have to be thanks to all the affordable finds at Walmart! My daughter shared her 2022 haul and my wallet couldn’t be more relieved as a mom. 😉
One of my favorite things about Walmart’s back-to-college shopping is how quickly you can have the items delivered. Especially if you have a Walmart+ account and shop online.
You’ll score free 2-day shipping on every order of $35 or more or no minimum if you’re a Walmart Plus member! 👏🏻
Some of my daughter’s dorm room essentials we ordered online were even delivered within an hour! 🤩😱
I can hardly believe my daughter is officially off to college in a matter of weeks. 😢 Man, time flies doesn’t it? 😩
My daughter, Morgan, will be staying at college her freshman year and will be living in a dorm room called a “Super Suite”. It’s basically a shared apartment without a stove. She’ll have her own bedroom but will share the living room and bathroom with a roommate.
Super sweet, right? 😆
Since she’s essentially starting from scratch she needs ALL the dorm room essentials to start her new chapter.
I knew Walmart would be the first place we’d go to stay on a tight budget. So, here we are! 🤩
These are some of the awesome and affordable dorm room essentials my daughter scooped up at Walmart for her 2022 college school year:
- Mainstays Plastic Dishes – 50¢ each
- Better Homes & Gardens Twin Sheet Set – $19.83
- Better Homes & Gardens Twin Velvet Blanket – $19.72
- Mainstays Blush Twin Ruched Comforter – $19.97
- Better Homes & Gardens Closet Organizer – $18.77
- The Home Edit Organizers – $7.98+
- Mainstays 15″ White Task Lamp & Organizer w/ USB – $15.88
- Bissell 3-in-1 Lightweight Corded Stick Vacuum – $24.92
- Rocketbook Core Smart Spiral Notebook – $23.67
- Rocketbook Cloud Cards – $17.99
Here’s why we picked all of these dorm room essentials:
Since Morgan is on a required freshman meal plan she won’t be doing a lot of cooking while away at school so that definitely saved money on some dorm room essentials she won’t need.
However, she still wanted to have a couple of plates, bowls, and tumblers on hand, and the 50¢ Mainstays plastic dishes available at Walmart are the perfect dorm room essentials since they’re so easy to clean, budget-friendly, and she won’t have to worry about them breaking.
We also love that Walmart has all the hottest trends for dorm room essentials and decor! 😍
There are plenty of on-trend and neutral decor options that appealed to my daughter. We were able to find a super soft velvet blanket, a ruched pink comforter, and a twin-sized sheet set – all for under 20 bucks each!
Shopping for these dorm room essentials anywhere else definitely would have cost much more and the quality seems great so far!
Extra storage space is another must-have dorm room essential for all college students.
Since I knew Morgan would need creative ways to organize all her stuff, we also grabbed a hanging closet organizer for under $20 that will be perfect for all her shoes, leggings, and t-shirts. Plus, this will add so many extra spots for her to stash little odds and ends as she unpacks.
Speaking of organizers, we couldn’t leave Walmart without some of their stylish, new organizers from The Home Edit line! They have endless options for her to organize makeup, toiletries, school supplies, and basically “all of the things” a college girl would consider being a dorm room essential. 😉
The Home Edit line really fits the bill with their clear bins and since they’re such high quality and timeless I know she’ll use them after she’s moved on from dorm life and onto an apartment of her own.
We ended up stumbling upon this awesome matte white task light for her desk at school! It comes with a built-in USB, outlet, and compartments to hold her phone, pens, pencils, and more! It’s the perfect all-in-one lamp that I didn’t even know existed!
As a bonus, it even looks very modern and trendy too! 😍
Next, we were searching for an affordable vacuum to keep her dorm clean.
We were in search of a vacuum but since she is limited on storage space this dorm room essential needed to be small and still get the job done.
I was shocked when we stumbled on the Bissell 3-in-1 Lightweight Corded Stick Vacuum for less than $25 and it even has over 5,000 raving reviews. 🤩 It will be perfect for her to keep her dorm room nice and clean without taking up a ton of space.
You can’t beat that!
Of all the things she scored, she was most excited about the Rocketbook that’s gone viral on TikTok!
Morgan was really excited Walmart also carries the Rockebook Notebook that she’s obsessed over after seeing it all over TikTok and it’s a much more affordable option when you can’t swing the budget for an iPad. 🙌🏻
It’s a reusable notebook, but it has a QR code so you can scan it with your phone and it will add all of your notes to the cloud and turn them into digital versions you can access from anywhere! 😱
She also scored some Rocketbook Cloud Cards that are even more affordable!
Wow, tech has come a long way since my college days! 😂
I’m so excited about my daughter’s college haul…and so is she! 🤩
Walmart really is the place to go where you can get a lot for just a little and still get so much bang for your buck!
Soon, my baby girl will be off to college 😢, but thanks to this haul I don’t have to worry nearly as much over the cost.
Here’s to an amazing 2022 school year, Hip2Savers! 🎉 Let us know if you have a kiddo headed to college this fall!
Thanks! (And congrats on your dtr heading off to college). My son is my first kid going away for college so this is all new to me. I already bought the plates but I just grabbed the lamp – I was sold on it when I saw the phone pocket in the front so it can sit somewhere while charging. Thanks for all the links listed, it made it super easy to check them out!
Hi CJ! Sounds like an exciting time in your home as well! Good luck to your son (and you as well). ♥️
I have a daughter going for the first time and have been obsessing over everyone’s lists of dorm essentials. Knowing she has most of what she needs is helping me manage my anxiety over her leaving home:)
Aww sending hugs! My daughter will be 4 hours away from home. I will say if you’ve read any of the dorm groups on FB one of the must haves is the Woozoo Fan! I liked it so much I even grabbed one for myself!
I got to keep the Woozoo fan because my daughter liked a different one better. I love it by my work from home desk.
I just came to say #trueblue #GATA!!
💙🦅
For those of us not in the know, what college is your daughter attending? Thanks!
She’s going to be a freshman at Georgia Southern! She also made their color guard team so I’m hoping if they televise any of the games I’ll get to see her on the screen performing with the band.
That’s awesome! Thank you for sharing.
Mom of a senior college student here.
For those who are college shopping be sure to check the college’s website for the specifics of whether you need Twin XL sheets. Regular twin comforters are usually okay, but look at the measurements if your student will care if it is a bit too short.
Greta tip, Kellie Z! Thanks for sharing.
My daughter starts college this fall and we are local, but she is in a program that requires her to live on campus the first year. I discovered that the current students essentially throw away everything when they move out in May. You can only live in the dorm your freshman year here, and many kids are flying home so they cannot carry most things with them. Outside the dorms there are huge piles of pretty much anything you need! We got my daughters entire dorm room, including furniture, bedding, cleaning supplies, etc. etc. for free from current students just giving it away to avoid trashing it. If you live in a college town, it’s definitely worth looking into when move out week is and checking to see if this happens in your town. My garage has been full of stuff this summer, but it’s a short time to store things in trade for super high quality items she wanted for free!!
I’ve seen photos of where my daughter is going to college and you are correct! So much stuff gets left behind on move-out day in May! That was so smart of you!!!! Good luck to your daughter this fall.
That vacuum is such good quality. I use it for toddler spills after eating and it’s so light weight and totally worth the money.