<p>mkm-Good point. I was thinking about those pop-up laundry baskets, but I will just send him with the old fashioned plastic one.</p>
<p>NE Mom…my son made me bring the plastic one back home as it took up too much space. Recommend the collapsable style that folds flat when you are done with it and works well for folding up clothes into…they sell them at BB and Beyond and other such stores like Target especially starting in July in many colors.</p>
<p>Okay, thanks Faline. I guess I will just ask my S what he prefers. To me the pop ups looked more practical. He has one in his room. I have been making him do his own laundry for 3/4 of this year 
He keeps telling me that he has no idea as to why I am asking him to do his own wash. Could you imagine why I might ask him to do such a chore? :rolleyes: The pop up has been adequate, but at home he doesn’t fold his clothes and put it back into the pop up basket. He just folds and carries.</p>
<p>About to embark on teaching my youngest to do his laundry before he leaves for a long camp. I remind them both of the girl in my freshman class who put in an entire box of Tide and the laundry room was soon shoulder high with bubbles. Luuucccee!! Sometimes my S actually folds clothes and stacks in his collapsible because it is necessary to stake out your dryer and be there when it is done if you don’t want another student to remove your heap of clothes for you and deposit them somewhere in a pile.</p>
<p>My son went to a travel summer camp several years ago (I guess he was around 13 or 14). He told me that one boy put all of his laundry bag contents into one washer to save money (not a double loader, but it was front loader). Apparently it was so overstuffed that the washer was not able to spin around. The clothes came out just as dirty as when they went into the washer. That was my son’s first experience with a laundromat, and laundry for that matter.</p>
<p>A tool kit. We found one for around $20 at Home Depot. I think it was canvas with a pocket for the tools, so it could be folded up. Make sure the student’s name is on every tool as they will be borrowed a lot.</p>
<p>If my S actually gets to college in the Fall without the university realizing that they’ve made a horrible, horrible mistake, we plan to stock his dorm room with all disposables, a bullet trash can, and a box of Hefty-flexi garbage bags. :p</p>
<p>Otherwise, I’d shorten the list by leaving off the following:</p>
<p>– Rain gear (a collapsible umbrella will do)
– Forget the iron
– Bucket (just no - a shower caddy will do)
– Study pillow lap thingie (doesn’t use one now & never will)
– Can opener (This implies that he’ll have cans. Stick with aseptic packaging and easy-open tops.)
– 2 bath towels OR 2 bath sheets (not both)
– A sleeping bag OR bed linens (not both)
– Hahahaha, stamps & stationery!
– What’s a bathrobe? My son isn’t Hugh Hefner. (Towels are fine)
– TV/VCR (laptop & DVDs instead)<br>
– Film (digital camera and memory card instead)</p>
<p>ADD:<br>
Make it 2 power strips. Get the kind that can take an adapter brick.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.luggagefactory.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?preadd=action&key=S164-5670[/url]”>http://www.luggagefactory.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?preadd=action&key=S164-5670</a></p>
<p>I purchased a hanging toiletry kit that my son loved. When he went to shower, he hung it on the shower rod, and in his room he kept it hung on a hook. I didn’t buy the one in the link I posted, I just wanted to give you an idea of what I meant by the hanging type. I think I bought mine at Target.</p>
<p>S never used kitchen stuff I sent. Said he was interested in disposables only. If it couldn’t go in a styrofoam cup or sit on a paper towel, he didn’t want it.</p>
<p>The pop up clothes hamper seemed to work fine for him. I think he mostly threw dirty clothes in the floor of his closet until the pile reached a certain height which signaled time to wash.</p>
<p>Don’t think he ever washed his sheets(I know it’s gross but he is a guy), so one set was plenty. And said he could have done just fine without the top sheet…just needed the fitted and comforter.</p>
<p>TV w/DVD was necessity. His room (due to having carpet, large futon plus another chair and the 20 inch TV w/DVD) became a gathering spot for weekend ballgame watching and movies. Also rolling tv stand from Wal-Mart allowed viewing from many different angles. The futon was very handy to have when friends from other schools came to visit.</p>
<p>DON’T send anything from home that you want to come back to you because chances are good that it won’t.</p>
<p>Things that went to school but never came back:
Clip on lamp
Sheets
A towel (although we did get one back that was not ours)
Eyeglasses
His bike (suppossedly still chained to the rack outside the dorm)
Scissors
multiple socks
posters
plastic cups and bowls
hot mat and hand towel
razor
tv stand (suffered some damage during the year and deemed
unworthy of bringing home)
futon (broken from constant use by end of year…cheap metal kind)</p>
<p>Boys just really aren’t that interested in the whole room decoration thing like girls are. Don’t let it hurt your feelings when they keep saying “I don’t care” to what you consider important decisions about the dorm room. Turns out it really doesn’t make that much difference after all.</p>
<p>My son received a monogrammed hanging toiletry kit for graduation from a friend (his mom ordered it of course). It’s still in his room at home. He has a sink in his room so shaves and brushes teeth there. Just carries soap and shampoo in his hand to the shower. No bathrobe, just uses a towel.</p>
<p>Add a surge protector for your computer, and I second the shower shoes!</p>
<p>Leave the stationary at home, and who uses a sleeping bag?</p>
<p>When I think about what I want to bring, I try to remember that my room will be TINY, and cut in half. And in that itsy bitsy half, I have to squish a bed, desk, and dresser…so before I go buying every cute little dorm item out there I try to decide if it’s a WANT or a NEED.</p>
<p>lifetime supply of Adderall!!! </p>
<p>just kidding of course =D</p>
<p>A small drug kit and a more extensive office supply kit. I sent my daughter with a Ziplock bag of paper clips, rubber bands, pens, pencils, scissors, hole punch, some colored markers etc. Mostly leftovers we scavenged from around the house. Overall it took little space in her desk, and she became the go to girl for “Staples-type” odds and ends. Great way to meet guys, becaise they have none of this stuff. </p>
<p>Same with drugs, except I cautioned her about passing them out. Similar to the travel kit of meds I always took for 1 week plus trips, beginning when the kids were small.</p>
<p>Oh, and my DD thought about getting a regular laundry basket because of the folding issue, but the kids that had them, had trouble getting up and down the stairs - too wide. She uses a small round plastic one at home, but that’s too small for a college student needing to store 3 loads of clothes, so she went back to the collapsible mesh bag.</p>
<p>cangel, Thanks. I thought about the school supplies and medications. I think that I will make up a kit with lip balm, cold remedies, pain killers for headaches, tissues, thermometer. Also sending a scale so he can watch out for the “freshmen 15”. He will be in charge of his electronics/computer needs. I guess a broom and dust pan would be nice (they have vacuums on each floor). It will need to be dust bowl before either is used (around Halloween, or maybe he will wait until Thanksgiving-LOL).</p>