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Your Tropicana Gardens Suite: What’s Included and What to Bring

The first thing that you will be happy to know about a Tropicana Gardens Suite is that this soon-to-be home-away-from-home is not just the typical dorm room. A Tropicana Gardens suite comes equipped and ready-to-go with several living essentials that you won’t have to worry about transporting! The living room is furnished with a couch, a lamp, a chair and some tables, a bookshelf, a mini-fridge, and (wait for it) a large FLAT SCREEN TV (what?!). So, other than bringing decorative elements (such as throw pillows, rugs or posters) the living room is set!

Your bedroom, similarly, will come outfitted with a bed frame and mattress (twin XL), as well as a dresses, desk, and chair. Some bedroom basics to add to your packing list would be sheets (twin XL!), a comforter, and your favorite pillow. Many students also choose to bring along a mattress topper for increased comfort! I highly recommend bringing your computer, though the Trop on-site Study Lounge is equipped with 2 desktops as well as a printer especially for student use. Some easy-to-forget essentials include a laundry basket, phone charger/alarm clock, hooks, clothes hangers, and- the one I forgot, and sorely missed- a desk lamp. Some personal recommendations would be a whiteboard (scheduling, scorekeeping, doodling…), good headphones, and good-sized plastic storage bins. To hang up everything from posters to whiteboards to clothing hooks, command strips also come in handy.

As for the bathroom, a shower curtain is optional, as the showers here at Gardens come with a sliding glass door. A must is a shower caddy; this helps keep all your bathroom supplies organized and separated from your roommates’. Anti-slip bathroom mats were something I found to be very useful along the way, preventing the floor from getting wet and causing falls! Toilet paper, lots of it- the bane of every college student’s existence- is another easy-to-forget essential.

There are also some Isla Vista-specific items very useful in this particular beach-side paradise: most locals travel by bicycle, foot, or longboard, so these would be fun things to add to your packing list! (Tip: Bikes are often easiest to buy here in IV itself; there are a bunch of sales around Move-In Day, and this saves the trouble of transporting the bike!) A beach towel, doormat, and lots of sunblock are sure to complement those scenic days in the sand! In short –

What’s Included:

  • Bed Frame
  • Mattress
  • Dresser
  • Desk & Desk Chair
  • Couch
  • Chair
  • Tables

What To Bring:

Bedroom

  • Sheets (Twin XL)
  • That favorite pillow
  • Mattress Topper
  • Blanket/Comforter
  • Desk or Clamp Lamp
  • White Board
  • Photos
  • Hangers
  • Storage bins
  • Laundry Basket/Bag
  • Alarm Clock
  • Fan
  • Rug
  • Command strips (to hang up posters, photos, etc.)

Bathroom

  • Towels (including Beach Towel!)
  • Shower Caddy
  • Shower Mat
  • Toilet Paper

Living Room

  • Door Mat
  • DVD Player

These things, the wonderful Trop amenities, this beautiful town and the people you meet will result in some of the best years of your life, trust me!


Tanaya

Tanaya is a pre-biology major at UCSB, from Mission Viejo, California. Her hobbies include painting, singing, playing guitar and Indian drums, and playing basketball. A random fact about Tanaya is that she lived in India for half of her life.

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