Move-in day comes fast, and residence stores know it. Anything you buy on campus that week costs double what it would at home. Build your list now, buy most of it at a Walmart or dollar store before you leave, and you’ll skip the markup and the panic. Here are the 12 things that matter, roughly what they cost, and what you can leave behind.

The essentials

1. Shower shoes (slides or flip-flops). Shared residence bathrooms get cleaned on a schedule, and you are not on that schedule. HealthLink BC recommends wearing shower sandals in public showers because the athlete’s foot fungus thrives on wet shared floors. A $10 pair of slides lives by your door and goes on every time you walk to the washroom.

2. Shower caddy. You’ll be carrying shampoo, soap, and a towel down a hallway, sometimes past people you know. A caddy with holes in the bottom for draining costs $5 to $10 and holds everything in one trip. Without one you’re juggling bottles and dripping on your phone.

3. Electric kettle. Even if your residence has a shared kitchen, someone is always using it at exam time. A kettle gives you instant noodles, oatmeal, tea, and instant coffee without leaving your room. A kettle costs about $20 for a basic model. Check your residence rules first, a few buildings ban anything with an exposed heating element, but most allow kettles.

4. Ramen and a stash of snacks. The dining hall closes at 7 p.m. and the vending machine charges $4 for a chocolate bar. A case of ramen runs about ten dollars for 24 packs. Add peanut butter, granola bars, and crackers and you’ve got backup meals for the nights you get back late. Do not rely on your roommate’s stash, that’s how roommate fights start.

5. Headphones. You will share a room with someone who plays games out loud, calls their mom at 11 p.m., or watches TikToks at full volume, and you will be that person for someone else sometimes. A pair over your ears, not earbuds, blocks more and survives longer. Budget $30 for a basic pair or $100+ for noise cancelling if your budget stretches.

Five more that earn their spot

6. Bedding in twin XL. Most Canadian residence mattresses are twin XL, the same width as a regular twin but 5 inches longer. A regular fitted sheet will not stay on. Not every school is the same (Waterloo’s residences use regular singles, for example), so check your residence page before you buy. A decent set runs $40 or so.

7. Power bar (with surge protection). Residences built in 1970 have two outlets per room. You’re arriving with a laptop, phone, lamp, and fan. A $20 power bar turns two outlets into six.

8. Desk lamp. Overhead lights hit your sleeping roommate’s face across the room. A lamp with a clip or a small base lets you work past their bedtime without a fight. Lamps like that run $15 to $25.

9. First aid kit and meds. Tylenol, band-aids, cough drops, and anything you take every day. The campus pharmacy closes, and walking to a Shoppers at 2 a.m. sick with a fever is a bad night. A small kit costs about $15.

10. Door hook or over-door organizer. Dorm rooms have almost no storage. Hooks over the door hold towels, jackets, and bags that would otherwise end up on the floor. A few dollars at any dollar store.

11. A lock box or small safe. You’ll have cash, a passport, and prescriptions in a room where four other people’s friends wander through during the week. A $20 combination box covers it.

12. Water bottle. Residences have refill stations everywhere. Fill it before class and you stop buying bottled water, which for a one-a-day habit costs a few hundred dollars a year.

What to skip

Residence halls often include a mini fridge and microwave, or rent you one on move-in, so check what your room comes with before buying either. Skip the full kitchen setup too, you’ll cook in the shared kitchen a handful of times, and a $40 frying pan you use twice is $40 wasted. Leave your printer at home, campuses charge roughly 10 to 20 cents a page at the library, which still beats ink and paper costs. And hold off on the big TV and gaming setup until you know your room has floor space for it.

One budget note

The full list above lands around $200 to $250 if you shop at Walmart, the dollar store, and a discount bedding store instead of the campus store. Set that aside in August so it doesn’t come out of your first month’s food money. Buy bedding and towels new, but most everything else (kettle, lamp, hooks) turns up cheap secondhand from students who moved out in April.