Make Your Own Dorm-Friendly First Aid Kit

Listening To: Silversun Pickups – Lazy Eye
College Countdown: 87 days

I’m planning to make my own first aid kit for my dorm room so I thought I would make a list of things to put in it… and then I thought, “Why not make this an article for Kill Jill?” and here I am.

Unless you’re attending The Arizona School of Snake Ssssscience, you likely won’t need any snake anti-venom included in your first aid kit. This article includes a list of things you would need if you’re living in a dorm or just away from home for the first time. Dollar stores offer some of these items but you will have to go into the drug store to get the rest. Most of these items are fairly priced, so no worries.

(Disclaimer: I just made up The Arizona School of Snake Ssssscience. If it does actually exist, that’s news to me. Feel free to Google it either way.)

• First, you will need a box. This would be one of those dollar store purchases I mentioned before. Dollarama has a nice assortment of boxes with lids. Make sure the box is sturdy, has a cover and is big enough to fit everything you need to put inside. However, make sure it’s not too big, as you may need to store it under your bed.
• When I get mine, I plan to personalize my first aid kit box, like I do with as many things as I can. Add stickers, throw some paint on it or maybe glue on a few buttons. I plan to cut some pictures from some magazines and glue them all over. Whichever way you plan to decorate, leave room for the label on the lid: “First Aid Kit”.

As for what to put inside it, the following are my suggestions. Feel free to include other items and leave out any you find unnecessary. (For example: if you’re a dude, you might not want to include Midol in your kit, lest your guy friends find it and make fun of you for the rest of your college life.)

1. Band-Aids. The first aid kit staple. (I plan to get some funny kid ones. I’m thinking either Bob the Builder or Dora The Explorer. However, if I can find some Spongebob Squarepants Band-Aids, I’m gettin’ ’em.)
2. Small scissors. Small but sharp. Mustache trimming scissors would be a good kind to get.
3. Tweezers.
4. Thermometer. (And no, I don’t mean an alcohol thermometer.) It doesn’t have to be special digital thermometer or anything. Just a simple one will work just fine.
5. Package of tissues. Since a whole box of tissues takes up too much room, I recommend those small travel packs that come with, like, 5 tissues inside.
6. Gauze. You can usually get gauze in rolls.
7. Medical tape. Because Scotch tape won’t stick to skin for very long.
8. Safety pins. Good for fastening together just about anything, particularly a torn piece of clothing. (Also useful in making yourself look bad-ass.)
9. Q-Tips. Despite doctors urging people to not use these to clean their ears, people still do, as they are the best things ever created in the history of the world.
10. Vaseline. You can get really small jars of Vaseline at drug stores, sometimes with the travel shampoo stuff.
11. Vitamin E cream. This is good for putting on wounds and speeds up the healing process. (I’m including this in my own kit because it’s good for aftercare on tattoos.)
12. Polysporin. It has been my experience that Polysporin is the miracle ointment. Buy some. Like, now.
13. Tylenol/Advil/Midol/etc. Make sure to include your choice of hangover headache relief medications.

Want me to add anything else to the list? Comment on this entry and I’ll add it. Wanna see how my own kit turned out?