Every spring, a few million students get matched with roommates and immediately hit the same question in a chaotic group chat: who’s bringing what? The messages pile up, nobody’s sure what’s actually decided, and move-in day arrives with two toasters, three trash cans, and no shower curtain. We call it the double toaster problem. 🍞
Divvy exists to fix it.
The story
Divvy was built by a parent who watched the chaos up close. When our founder’s kid was heading off to a shared apartment, the entire plan lived in a 200-message group text — and it went exactly how you’d expect: duplicate stuff, forgotten essentials, and a few “wait, I thought you were getting that” moments. There were apps for finding roommates and apps for splitting rent, but nothing for the part that causes the actual chaos — deciding who brings what before everyone shows up.
So he built one. Divvy gives roommates a single shared space to claim items, suggest better options and vote on them, and keep personal things separate from shared things — without anyone having to be the bossy organizer.
About these guides
This site is where we put everything we’ve learned about outfitting a dorm or first apartment without overbuying. The guides are meant to be genuinely useful — what’s worth splitting versus buying yourself, what nobody tells you about Twin XL sheets, how to make a tiny space actually work — not padded lists built to sell you more. We recommend things at the category level and point you toward solid options; we don’t push brands you don’t need.
When a guide links to a product, we may earn a small commission if you buy through it, at no extra cost to you. That’s what keeps the guides free, and we only link to things we’d genuinely suggest to a roommate. See our full affiliate disclosure.
Try Divvy
The guides help you figure out what to buy. Divvy helps you and your roommates sort out who’s actually bringing it — free to start, no app store required. Start a space at joindivvy.app.
Divvy Guides 