by Kelly Fuller

Created on: August 28, 2009

College is a milestone in every person's life, glorified by television and movies and relatives; "The Best Years of Your Life," they will insist. While those four years will impact you greatly, let us hope they aren't the best. It would really suck to peak at 20, especially since due to marvels of modern medicine we're living at least 50 more years following college.

The "College Life" is a strange thing, and the dorm life is something to adjust to. They pack you into rooms like sardines. At my college, the honors students were promised better housing. I'm still waiting to see what that meant. In a luxurious dorm, you have your own bathroom. Otherwise you corral in flip flops to the floor bathroom. In the room should be two beds, two dressers, and maybe a mini-fridge. I have learned, though, that there are ways to make that little matchbox into something you can call home for 10 months.

Granted, this feat requires money and daring. The daring part stems from the fact that before I came to college, I possessed a fear of Walmart. To be fair, the Walmart by my parents house appears to be a breeding ground for pedaphiles and people lacking dental insurance. Also, it was dirty. But the Walmart by my school was organized, and once I swallowed my fear and stepped inside, I discovered that there were treasures to be found.

So with the help of a little money, these three places will make your dorm room come to life: Target, Walmart, and Goodwill.Target and Walmart both market themselves as places to find cheap and attractive dorm furniture and decor. Goodwill stores are, yes, second hand, but cheap as hell. I now live in an apartment and I can attest that Goodwill and Ikea furnished the whole thing.

Posters are a fairly inexpensive way of decorating and showing off your personality. I loved the art of Marc Chagall, Gustav Klimt, and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and I coated my wall with these prints. Take it a step further with picture frames. I found all my frames at Goodwill or the Dollar Store. You can find some amazing frames made from all kinds of materials, and at Goodwill or the Dollar Store, they won't make your checking account whimper. Another way I decorated my room was that I bought a box of vintage scarves at Goodwill ($5 for the whole box, and there were tons of them!) and pinned them all over the place. I tied a bunch of them together and hung them like streamers across my ceiling and window. It gave the place a lot of color.

If your room doesn't come with

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