Dorm rooms are designed to all look alike. The neutral desks andchairs, metal frame beds, and austere shelves and closets are thesame from room to room.

To combat the similarity between rooms, some students take anextra interest in the arrangement and decoration of their dormrooms. With time, creativity, and a little muscle, students arrangeand decorate until they have created a unique place for them andtheir friends to hangout.

The following three sets of residents have put extra time andeffort into their dorm rooms to make them more personal andlivable.

In Kresge, self-proclaimed “neat freaks” Tonya Thomas andJennifer Chambers, both freshman, didn’t get much of a work outwhen they re-arranged their room to create more space.

“We’ve actually only moved our furniture once. We were bothgoing for being able to fit the most we could in our room,” saidThomas.

Their plan seems to have worked. By lofting their beds, puttingtheir TV in existing cabinets and buying stackable drawers andstorage units the girls have created a space that Chambers calls”really organized and easy to get around in.”

Thomas gives Chambers all the credit for the arrangement.

“If you were to compare my closet to hers that would beobvious,” she said.

Chambers agrees with her roommate.

“I am a freak about things like that. I drew [the roomarrangement] out a few times, maybe 20 or 30, before we came, justto be sure it would work nicely.”

A tip to take from Thomas and Chambers’s room is to use a winerack to hold curling irons and toiletries for accessibility andconvenience.

Over in Buxton, sophomores Christian Huntley and JJ Thorius alsowent for a room with lots of extra space. These two had specialcircumstances that helped. They two men are living in a roomdesigned for more people. The room also seems designed forentertaining.

“We have a couch plus a loveseat set up in an L shape againstthe east wall. The entertainment center is opposite that, allowingus to have a coffee table in between them,” said Thorius.

They’ve stored the extra desk and chair on the extra beds, putthe dressers in the closets, and put their desks side by side.However functional the room is, the men are not as organized as theKresge women were.

Thorius said, “We kind of just started to move stuff not fullyknowing what was going to go where. It was a bit of a process.”

A tip to take from Huntley and Thorius’s room is to try puttingthe desks side-by-side to save room.

If you need tips on Feng Shui, don’t try asking sophomore DanCarver, an R.A in Barker.

“Feng Shui? I don’t like Chinese food,” Carver joked.

He does, however, like all the space that he has in his dormroom. Carver lofted his bed only half way up the wall and put bothdressers underneath, along with his VCR, DVD, TV, microwave and asmall fridge.

Fitting all that under the bed gives him a lot of room to becreative in. With all the space left over, Carver can comfortablyseat five in his room, a feat that many Barker residents might finddifficult. Carver also managed to find a unique d����cor thatis attractive, inexpensive, and handy.

“I guess I’m known for my maps,” Carver said, “I’ve got a U.S.map, a Des Moines map and an Indianola map. Say what you will, butthose things are useful.”