Winter sucks. To me, it means a 10-week hermitage in my room with occasional forays onto the tundra for food and beer. This puts a lot of pressure on the room to be much more than just a functioning living space it needs to be a "home." I've seen many success stories, as well as plenty failures when it comes to transforming your room into your home, so I'll examine a few case studies and offer my recommendations.
For a college room to be homey, it must be divided into two parts living and social. Living space is your bed, clothes and bathroom. Social space is where someone else would sit down. If they don't overlap, you're off to a good start.
To make your room into more of a home, start with making this separation more distinct. Put away your clothes and laundry, perhaps under or near your bed. Splurge on a couch or rent a futon so that other people have somewhere to sit. These may seem like no-brainers, but if you are entertaining, nothing is a bigger turn-off than making them sit down on that pile of laundry you never moved off the futon. Trust me, "It's clean, I promise!" is not very convincing.
Basic living essentials must be considered, and I'm not just talking about a mattress pad and a good pillow. Ignore stupid college rules about fire safety and get a coffee maker and a microwave or toaster oven. These are invaluable tools because not only can you cook coffee and croissants in your room, but you can do it for a fraction of what King Arthur Flour charges. A TV, Xbox and speakers are home improvement classics, but exercise moderation if your home entertainment system outdoes half the frats, do less.
You should already have a fridge, but if you really want to step up your game, get a freezer. Nothing soothes the late-night beast like a homemade freezer burrito.
To truly make your college-provided space your home, you need to find something unique to you and capitalize on it. For example, freshmen aspiring to be frat stars can leave the three empty handles of Zhenka from "the sickest pre-game the Choates ever had" lined up on their bookshelf like trophy deer antlers. If you are from Texas, California or Alaska put up your state flag all the other ones kind of suck.
Also, die hard sports fans should absolutely support their teams. For instance, I've seen newspaper clippings from the Giants' 2010 World Series run lining the walls of a friend's room like collectible wallpaper. Be careful though, the line between passion and obsession is a fine one, and cool people don't line the walls of their home with an obsession serial killers do.
There are a bunch of cliche sayings about "home" home is where the heart is, there's no place like home, blah blah blah. Lies. In college it boils down to this: home is where you pass out after you've played one too many games of pong. It's where you do work when FFB is too far. It's where you try to woo that special someone you're always eyeing in Collis. Plan accordingly.
