Upgrading Your Childhood Bedroom if You're Going to Live at Home During College This Semester

By Kaitlin Hurtado on August 20, 2020

To the disappointment and dismay of many college students, the upcoming fall semester is going to be much different than they hoped it was going to be. Gone are the traditional dorm experiences or days of moving into an off-campus apartment with your closest friends as many schools are deciding to go fully with remote instruction for the fall semester and the coronavirus pandemic rages on. While some campuses are welcoming students back to on-campus housing or others are seeking off-campus housing to get near campus, others are deciding to stick back at home for the semester. If you are deciding to live back home for college this semester, you may be facing a pretty big dilemma.

What you once looked at as a temporary living situation may now be your living situation for the rest of the year — your childhood bedroom may not be cutting it for your longterm plans this semester. Rather than settling for the old, outdated room that you grew up in, upgrading your childhood bedroom can be a welcome change for your upcoming study space (and your mental health). Upgrading your childhood bedroom can be the fresh start you would normally get with moving out for college without actually leaving for school.

Keep reading for tips on how to start upgrading your childhood bedroom if you’re going to be living at home during college this semester.

Photo: Pexels

1. Clear out the clutter in your childhood bedroom

Quarantine had many people shut in their rooms for longer than they had been in a while. Thus, many took to cleaning out every nook and cranny possible during their time in quarantine as there was quite nothing else to do that meant no social interaction or going outside. So, if you are not one of the countless people who can proudly say they spend a good chunk of quarantine cleaning out all their clutter, now is the time to do so.

What better way to start the process of upgrading your childhood bedroom than to make sure you only own the stuff you really need (and enjoy) are still in your personal living space?

If you haven’t done some serious decluttering in recent years, this task may be a bit more time-consuming than you would think. You may be working through years of schoolwork dating back to elementary, or half-finished projects you picked up during quarantine but never had enough motivation to finish. You may also find that your room is still overfilled with stuff, from clothes to items you brought back from your college living situation. Depending on what the items are, you have multiple options on dealing with the excess of belongings.

Let’s say you moved back home where the climate is much different than where you were attending college. Consider packing up clothes you are likely to never wear while living at home to clear space for what you are actually wearing. Or, maybe you are finding yourself surrounded by things you used every day in your college housing, but haven’t touched at all because you either don’t need it or already have it in your childhood bedroom or at home. Store these things away for safekeeping so that they are readily available when it comes time to move back out. For some with extra room elsewhere in their house, this could be moving everything to the garage. For others in tighter spaces, this could mean renting out a storage unit to safely store all your “college belongings” and have them packed and ready to go.

Infographic by Kaitlin Hurtado

2. Invest back into the room, from furniture to new paint

Depending on just how long you’ve spent in your childhood bedroom, it may not have experienced an update since your younger self first moved into it.

Maybe you were really feeling that bright blue paint, or the floral wallpaper that covers all the walls, when you were in elementary school. However, you as a twenty-something cringes every time you try to take a selfie with the ultra-distracting paint color in the background. Give your walls a much-needed update by repainting or replacing the wallpaper. If you don’t want to completely say goodbye to your childhood walls, leaving one wall painted with the original color or with your old wallpaper still intact can serve as a great accent wall and pop of color to your bedroom.

If it is not your walls need the update, it may be your childhood furniture. Noticing some back pain or bad nights of sleep? You may want to consider treating yourself to a brand new mattress. Sleep Foundation recommends that mattresses be replaced every 6 to 8 years. For many of us, keeping mattresses past the general recommendation is all too common. If you are going to be staying and sleeping in your childhood bedroom, you may want to invest in a new mattress and your future self’s sleep quality.

Your furniture may also be part of upgrading your childhood bedroom. This doesn’t mean to dump all your old furniture and shell out money for an entirely new matching furniture set, but getting furniture that works better for you and your current needs. Some college students may just swap out the furniture they brought back from college when they moved back home, but others may want more permanent upgrades for the bedrooms as you are eventually taking that furniture back to college with you.

Start with looking at how you can upgrade your furniture if it isn’t working as-is for you. The unicorn knobs on your dressers may have been all the rage as a child, but they could be far from your current aesthetic. Or, the furniture decorated with mismatched stickers and permanent marker drawings is a far cry from what you would do to your current furniture if you had the choice.

Start anew with old furniture. Take off old, unwanted knobs and replace them more classier, more sophisticated options. Or, take off old stickers to prep your furniture surfaces for a new paint color or stain. Small changes like this, from changing out hardware to sanding down and giving the furniture a fresh coat of paint, can contribute to the overall upgrade to your childhood bedroom. Why throw out a perfectly good set of furniture that really just needs a fresh coat of paint? You may have acquired the furniture items at different periods of your childhood, but small changes can tie the mismatched pieces together to create a much more cohesive look for your upgraded childhood bedroom.

However, some furniture simply just may not work for you anymore. Your childhood desk may have cut it for your lower education endeavors but could be far from the ideal study space for you as a college student. Design a study space that works for you because after all, a bulk of your remote instruction is more than likely to be taking place in your childhood bedroom this semester.

3. Design a study space fit for a college student 

You may be asking what exactly makes for the best study space. This answer varies between students, and also depends on the amount of space you are working with in your childhood bedroom. For starters, think of what made an effective and productive workspace for you back in college. Some need the bare-minimum for an effective study space, like a flat tabletop or even just somewhere to sit, like their bed. However, for others, study spaces have a few more requirements.

This may also be the perfect opportunity for you to rearrange the furniture in your room. Maybe you had your desk shoved to a dark corner in the past because you really never bothered to sit at your desk to complete school work. Instead of settling for a dark corner, rearrange your furniture to work better for your current needs. Maybe another corner will allow you a bigger desk, or closer access to a bookshelf you keep a lot of your school supplies on. When moving your desk, it also is a great idea to consider what is behind you when you sit at your desk because that is the view anyone on your Zoom classes is going to be seeing for the next semester.

As mentioned, rearranging furniture can also help you plan out your study space to give you everything you need within arm’s reach. While your desk may lack a lot of the storage you got in your dorm desk, placing your desk near a bookshelf can give you the opportunity to still have all your supplies, books, and necessary tools within reach as you progress through your studies.

As much as you relied on your laptop when you were attending regular, in-person classes, it might not be cutting it for your virtual classes. Figure out a setup that works best for you in your upgraded childhood bedroom. This can be as simple as getting a second computer monitor to connect your laptop using an HDMI cord, making it fairly easy to create a two-screen setup and giving yourself a bigger digital workspace. Or, your laptop might be giving you some technical issues. It may be time to upgrade your laptop, or investing in a desktop if you are committed to only working in your room and at your desk.

4. Organize to your heart’s content 

After you have decluttered, made changes to furniture, or rearranged your room, it is more than likely that you’re still missing “something.” That something may just be a matter of organizing your childhood bedroom in a way that works better for you now. Your room is going to double as your personal oasis and study space all-in-one, and you may be wondering just how you can find the perfect balance in your childhood bedroom.

While a bookshelf may have worked best in the past a place to shove all your games, stuffed animals, and toys, it’s more than likely taking up essential storage space you can be using for other things you would likely use more now. These can be plants brought back from your college apartment, school supplies, course textbooks, personal care items you use now, and so on. While your childhood belongings may have been missed during your initial decluttering, take the opportunity to see if they can be donated or temporarily placed in storage.

Photo: Pexels

5, Add your style back into the room

When you are done taking the unnecessary old out of your childhood bedroom, it is time to bring in the new you. This will likely be the most fun part of the upgrading process, as you can make it as time-consuming and budget-friendly as you want it to be. Need some inspiration on simple ways to bring some new personality to your room? We’ve got you covered.

Pair that upgraded mattress with new bedding, which you likely haven’t upgraded since high school, and decorative throw pillows. Once your bedding is settled, take to the floors or windows and upgrade your shaggy rug or window curtains to something that fits your desired aesthetic. This could be the perfect time to get a pair of blackout curtains to chase your childhood dreams of sleeping in without the sun shining through your old curtains.

While old-you may have never raised a houseplant on your own, your newly-acquired green thumb may be itching to add some greenery into your upgraded childhood bedroom. If you get a lot of sun in your room, opt for cacti and succulents. Common houseplants like pothos, monsteras, and spider plants are also perfectly low-maintenance. Don’t want to add a living plant to your list of things to worry about? Artificial plants are great for brightening up your room, hassle-free.

Cover up your walls with some more personal touches, from tapestries and movie posters to photos of you and your friends to bring a bit of your college life into your childhood bedroom.

While this upcoming fall semester will likely bring plenty of adjusting to a new-normal, upgrading your childhood bedroom can help you get ready for the semester and be a change you never knew you needed.

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