<p>We like going with an assortment of those 3M hooks - the big ones will hold sweatshirts, towels, bike helmets, etc, the little ones, cords, and sometimes we just use the tape out of them to stick power strips to the sides of desks. Also, I bought the kids those metal coat hooks that fit over the top of doors, no one has ever put one over a door, but they might fit over the bed’s footboard, of the top part of the desk. When space is minimal, it’s good to have extra places to keep stuff, and my boys aren’t going to hang coats up in the closet.</p>
<p>Also, make sure you have a long internet cable, we thought the 25ft ones would work, but even when the rooms are very small, sometimes the outlet is on the roommate’s side and then you need one long enough to run all the way around the room. And try finding a 50 ft cable on move in day - we had to drive 45min to find a store with one in stock. Even if the school has very good wifi, it does go down, or is just slow at certain high volume times - like the day you have to sign up for classes for the next semester.</p>
<p>My kids all use printers, and they share them with their roommates. My dd had to do a lot of article reading for classes, and the teachers wanted the kids to print them out and mark them up. My sons don’t use them as much, but they seem to like having them.</p>
<p>If you go to this special page at the Bed Bath & Beyond site and select your state and school, you can (usually) access a page or PDF move-in guide specific to that school, listing bed info (standard or XL), what’s provided, what’s allowed, what’s prohibited, etc. I think it’s very helpful:</p>
<p>Thank you @dadinator for the lint filter tip – DS knows to empty ours every time he does a load of clothes, but it didn’t occur to me to remind him about that before he heads off to college in the Fall!</p>
<p>I went to a laundromat a couple of times that was kinda seedy. The operator I think tried to gouge college kids by not letting his dryers get too hot so we would keep putting money in the dryer machines. I’d end up taking towels home half dry so I wouldn’t be at laundry all night making the operator rich. I know one thing for sure…I wouldn’t try to clean the dryer vents at the Laundromat unless I was using a big, long stick and was wearing a hazmat suit.</p>
<p>College is for learning…you can learn a lot at a laundromat.</p>
<p>Cables: reminds me to recommend monoprice.com. Good for cheap ethernet (aka internet) cables, hdmi cables, chargers, iPhone connector cords (dunno what the technical name is), powerstrips, extension cords, you name it. Much, much, much less expensive than the big box stores. </p>