I’m just wondering, I’m going on a blues annual camp in the summer and need to know how to prepare for dormitory inspections what will they be like?
It will differ from camp to camp and almost entirely depend on the staff and what facilities are available to you (lockers, wardrobes, storage chests etc.)
Best thing to do is always ensure all of your kit is squared away and any lockers/storage areas are kept clean and tidy. Bedding/sleeping bag made up in the morning and not just left in a crumpled pile on the bed. Ensure any bins are emptied and give the place a quick going over with a hoover as well.
Often the large dorms will be harder to keep clean than the smaller ones but as long as everyone chips in and helps I wouldn’t be too concerned about it.
Ask your NCOs when you get there if you have questions about what needs done. It should be fairly straight forward if you keep your kit reasonably tidy.
also, make sure the room smells clean too, unless you have a can of air freshener that you use sparingly, just open the window every now and then to let some fresh air in and clear up the scent of the room
I don’t personally reccommend air freshener, they set the fire alarms off.
Sparingly was the key word 
It didn’t cause any problems at Boulmer, although I did keep windows open when spraying anything. If they say no deodorant then don’t use air fresheners either.
What is squared away?
It means ironed, folded and stored away.
Make sure the curtains are tidy and folded into the corners of the window sills.
DI’s love that sort of stuff.
I’ve never understood why some weirdos like that with curtains.
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Me neither but it seems to work. The old phrase “baffles brains” comes to mind though.
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If you really want to create a clean smell, use furniture polish when dusting
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I miss the days of bed packs getting a flying lessons out of windows from the camp wo!
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These have no relevance in the modern day, other than a sweep for valuable items. Is it a mess? Who really, really cares?
Oh yes the ‘good old days’ … not. Giving people who should really have known better the chance to be childish and petulant and pulling bed packs apart (never saw one go out of a window), because some arbitrary lines on blankets and sheets, weren’t in the right place or lined up.
Many of these men were just reliving their experiences from regular or National Service. How many SNCOs and staff in general today have had that experience and not just regurgitating some childhood memory from their own cadet camps, or working off stories of those who went through it, or just reliving scenes from FMJ etc, on some imbeciles moronic power trip?
I like many cadets slept under just a sheet or spare blanket to save sodding around with doing poxy bed packs every bloody day, even as a 14 year old on my first camp, I worked out this was a pointless thing to do. I remember several old WOs saying the room cleaning etc was just to give cadets “busy work”.
I do remember a WO not liking it as I essentially lived out of my suitcase with dirty clothes going in a ‘laundry bag’, which is something my dad told me to do when I went on my first long school trip when I was 9 and something I still do to this day for business trips. There is no point in unpacking things, other than soap, flannel etc and putting them into drawers and cupboards and purely for ATC things hanging uniform trousers and shirts, “cammo” kit doesn’t benefit from a hanger.
You can correctly surmise that I’m no fan of room inspections, beyond a cursory look and when I was a WO, I’d got bored with doing this by Tuesday. The only thing I care about is cadet’s seemingly blasé approach to security of personal belongings, especially on tented camps and this is what I look for and if visible remove it and put it in the camp office. One such look gleaned 8 mobile phones. Which caused much consternation when the cadets came back later that day, but the message sunk in and we found nothing just lying around the rest of the week. In fact many cadets asked us to look after their phones and other things, which wasn’t a problem.
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Although my comment was meant to be a bit sarcastix…You are right! Between me becoming a cadet and staff this “method” of inspection has been disolved. On my last camp a couple of weeks i was the camp wo and carried out inspections. Only to check that they were not living in a pit and everything was just put away…ie no food out to attract pets
With camps becoming tented more and more, with minimal storage its near impossible for the tents to be immaculate
that isn’t an excuse for bedspaces to be neat.
living out of a suitcase (as alluded to by @Teflon) removes a kit explosion. it is either in one bag or another. bags go under the camp bed when sleeping, and on top of the bed during the day. everything placed neatly on top of the bed making it presentable…rather than clothes and items strewn over the floor
They will check on top of cupboards and on windowsills
During my BG course, my whole freaking bed once went out of the window…
[Cpl]: ‘d’ye ken what a wee bed is?’
[Me]: No, Corporal’
[Cpl] [opens window and drags my bed to it]: ‘Weeeeee’……
[Cpl]: ‘Now go an’ get it’.
[Me]: ‘Yes, Corporal’
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I was petrified on my first inspection (don’t be me) 
Me…