About Us

I have moved two daughters into college dorms.

And out of them.

And back in again.

Between the two of them, I have done this enough times that I could pack a dorm room in my sleep — and honestly, some of those move-in days felt that way. Up before sunrise. Car packed to the ceiling. Long drive to campus. Haul everything up three flights of stairs. Realize we forgot something important. Make a store run. Miss the first family lunch because we were still assembling a closet organizer at 2pm.

I don't want that for you.

Move-in day should feel like a milestone. Not a marathon.

Hi, I'm AJ — and I've been where you are

I'm a single mom, and putting my daughters through college has been the greatest privilege and the most logistically complicated thing I've ever done. I did it without a co-pilot. I did it on a budget. And I did it while working full time, making the lists, doing the research, and showing up every move-in day with a packed car and a full heart.

What I didn't do — at least not until I figured it out the hard way — was show up prepared for what dorm life actually requires.

Not what the university packing list says. Not what the big-box stores push in August. What dorm life actually requires. The gear that holds up in communal showers. The storage that fits in a 10-foot closet. The laundry solution that works when there's no elevator. The things my daughters texted me about two weeks into the semester because they wished they'd had them from day one.

I learned all of it. Eventually. Across multiple move-ins, multiple schools, multiple dorm configurations, and more Target runs than I care to admit.

I built DormJoys so other families wouldn't have to learn it the hard way.

Why I built DormJoys

After my second daughter's move-in — standing in yet another tiny dorm room, surrounded by bags, trying to figure out where everything was going to go — I had a thought I couldn't shake:

Someone should make this easier.

Not easier in a generic, one-size-fits-all way. Easier in the specific, real-life way that only comes from actually doing it. From knowing that communal shower floors are not the place to go barefoot. From understanding that a rolling laundry basket is useless in a building without an elevator. From learning that the space under the bed is the most underutilized square footage on any college campus.

So I started building what I wished had existed when my first daughter moved in. A curated collection of dorm essentials — not everything, just the right things — chosen by someone who has lived every version of move-in day and knows what actually makes the difference.

That's DormJoys.

What makes DormJoys different

Every product we carry has been chosen with one question in mind: does this actually make dorm life better? Not does it look good in a flat lay. Not does it have impressive specs. Does it solve a real problem that real students face in real dorm rooms.

We don't carry everything. We carry the right things. And every single item has a reason it's here — a story behind why it made the cut and what it's going to do for your student's first weeks away from home.

Because I know what those first weeks feel like. I've stood in the parking lot of a college campus and watched my daughters walk back into the dorm without me. I've driven home in silence trying to remember if I forgot anything important.

The answer, now, is no. Because everything they needed was already there.

That's what I want for your family too.

We handle the list. You make the memories.

To every parent reading this

Whether you're sending your first child to college or your last, whether this is your first move-in or your fourth — this season is a big one. It goes fast. And the weeks leading up to it deserve to be spent on the moments that matter, not the errands that don't.

You've been preparing for this for eighteen years. The last mile is ours to handle.

Welcome to DormJoys. I'm so glad you found us.

With a lot of love (and hard-won dorm wisdom),

AJ

Founder, DormJoys

Mom of two. Veteran of many move-in days. Here to make yours easier.