Don’t even deny it.

1. Pointless nick-nacks from fresher’s week
Okay, so it seemed perfectly acceptable to dress up in the craziest outfits known to man on freshers’ nights out once you’d got a bit of drink down you, but as the year well and truly kicks in, you’re beginning to wonder if you’ll ever again find an acceptable time to wear that hula skirt, gorilla mask and nun’s headdress that have been shoved at the top of your wardrobe ever since then. But it’s not just weird items of clothing you still have as souvenirs from freshers’ week. There’s also the random junk from freshers’ fair, including promotional posters, pens, bottle openers, coasters, shot glasses, wristbands, leaflets, balloons… The list is endless. And because you dived on them like a kid at a Toys ‘R’ Us mega sale, you have at least five of the same item. Now they’re dotted around your room, not really fitting in anywhere.

2. A secret stash of food
Lurking away in the depths of your bottom drawer is the biggest possible hoard of chocolate bars, sharing bags of sweets, and packets of supermarket-brand crisps you’ve gathered from various sources- namely Tesco, although the odd cereal bar you admit to stealing from when you raided the kitchen cupboards on a home visit. Hidden in the same drawer are your other guilty pleasures- a high school musical DVD, your Nintendo DS (equipped with charger and several of your favourite games) and a signed JLS poster.

3. More pens than you could ever need
Pens. Everywhere. Biro, ball point, felt tip; on your desk, on the floor, in your bed… You’ve got so many of the things, you doubt you’ll even get through them in a lifetime. You may have brought a shocking lack of underwear with you, and all-out forgot to bring your trusty toothbrush (queue a post-arrival emergency visit to the local supermarket), but good ol’ mum made sure you were stocked up with drawers full of 100-pack pens- just in case.

4. Laptop
Because where would we be right now without internet connection, Microsoft word and spellchecker? Just try and imagine your life without a laptop or tablet. Assignments- failed. Facebook- reserved only for phone use, I’m afraid. Illegal watching of Netflix on a pal’s account- illegal watching no more! At uni, your laptop becomes your best friend, your biggest enemy, and your saviour- depending on what you’re using it for. It can usually be found resting in its habitat amongst the general clutter of your desk.

5. Leftover takeaway pizza from the night before
Okay, so this isn’t always a feature of your bedroom, but if you’ve got visitors over for the weekend, they should probably expect to see that familiar red and white of a pizza box sitting shamelessly in pride of place of your desk, or better yet, on the floor in the middle of your room. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s not a myth: students eat a lot of junk food. And greasy, fried stuff suddenly becomes even more appealing after a night out drinking (another common habit of students). So don’t be alarmed if you’re greeted with the sight of last night’s less-than-fresh looking pizza- it’s a fairly common thing to find in any student’s room.

6. Dirty laundry
Whether it’s piling up at the bottom of your wardrobe, neatly folded in your linen basket, or simply strewn across your bedroom floor, there’s no way that, as a uni student, you can avoid the hideous weekly chore that is the laundry. And when, after two weeks, you discover yourself coming down with a mysterious flu-like illness every time the word laundry is even mentioned- meaning stepping foot in the laundry room is obviously out of the question- you have the joy of watching your room slowly turn into a mum’s worst nightmare before your eyes. And no one said it was pleasant for you, either. You’re now rationing your underwear by wearing each pair for an extra day, which seems highly unfair- it’s not your fault you’re far too busy with assignments to be thinking about such trivial things as the washing.

7. A childhood comfort item
Despite us setting off into the big adult world of uni promising our parents we’d evolve into fully mature, sophisticated students, there’s no denying the fact that somewhere in your room, whether hidden away or on full show to the world, is a comfort item from approximately ten years ago. Most common items are your typical ones- scraggly, chewed-up teddies and fraying cuddle blankets, but virtually anything could serve as that reminder of your innocent life as a child back at home. Maybe you have a stock of hot chocolate sachets because hot chocolate has been a nightly tradition in your family since you can remember, or a certain soap in your bathroom because it’s the one that you’ve always used at home. Because no matter how much you’re enjoying student life, there really is no place quite like home.

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