<p>^Hilarious!</p>
<p>10-day update –</p>
<p>Son’s room has good A/C, so the table fan we bought is coming home. TV has seen a lot of use, DVD player has seen some. Bed risers were essential, since his storage area is largely under his bed. His room does have built-in floor-to-ceiling closets with a fair amount of storage, but you can’t count of that; some dorm rooms at his college have small armoir-type closets. </p>
<p>Didn’t need the over-the-door towel bar, since his room unexpectedly had towel bars on the back of the door. Too early to tell about the second set of sheets. Not sure about the lamps either. Toolkit has been used several times already. </p>
<p>Desk hutches are a good idea. The only flat surfaces in the rooms are the tops of the desks and chest-of-drawers, so if you can make a bookcase that sits on the desk, do so; otherwise buy one. And doorstops! Room doors swing shut, and the kids like to prop them open; bought a couple of these at Lowe’s for 98 cents each.</p>
<p>He needed a 25’ Ethernet cable (rooms not WiFi), a 6’ USB cable for his printer, and a cable for his cable TV hookup. You can go to an office supply store or Best Buy and spend something like $30 each, or you can order these from Amazon for about $5 each. That’s what we did, and all the cables work fine.</p>
<p>We were able to get a couple of his textbooks from Amazon, had to buy the others from the bookstore. We rented one; figured that with the core courses (Calculus, Chemistry, his major courses) that he probably should plan on keeping the books. But the general ed requirements he’s looking mostly to rent.</p>
<p>^^ all helpful.
What is a desk hutch ? Can you show a link?
As far as risers–when we were in college --we used cinder blocks on end–some used 2 and got the bed high enough to slid a fridge etc under…!
Thanks</p>
<p>I had to send my storage bins and bed risers home this year because I had to loft my bed.</p>
<p>My dad is building me some shelving to put in the bottom of my closet and the top to create more storage space to compensate for losing under-bed storage.</p>
<p>Here’s a link to the hutch we bought for our D - moved in for it’s 4th year on top of her desk yesterday. :)</p>
<p>[IKEA</a> | Desks & workstations | Desktop solutions | HANNES | Hutch](<a href=“Products - IKEA”>Products - IKEA)</p>
<p>Only $30.</p>
<p>bumping because there are some good sales at BB& B and Target etc…
so class of 2011 types may find this helpful…</p>
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<p>thanks…</p>
<p>Also–do any parents know the details when a housing dept at a college says no lofts…and states… “attached to the ceiling, walls, floor…” etc</p>
<p>Does that mean the kids can loft a bed as ling as its not drilled in somewhere…if its free standing etc…? Just wondering…</p>
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<p>Just wanted to warn that I sent my fan home last year because my A/C worked well. Then spring showed up, and the heat was still on from the winter because they were afraid we’d have a cold spell and the pipes would freeze, and they can only do the change-over from heat to A/C once for cost reasons. It was only in the 50s outside, but our heat is insanely strong (living in MN, it kind of has to be), so my room was a sauna (85-90 degrees according to the thermometer on my clock) for several weeks. It was awful! I ended up buying a fan online and paying a ton for one-day shipping because it was just too miserable to live there otherwise.</p>
<p>In honor of 2011 parents… ;O)</p>
<p>Two things we searched for, bought & didn’t work/get used: a bed shelf (got in the way of the side table) and a fabric bed caddy that would hold a box of tissues, remote, etc. (kept slipping out from under the mattress. </p>
<p>Everything else gets used including the printer and swiffer mop.</p>
<p>Cables of all types: expensive at Best Buy, moderately priced at Amazon, dirt cheap at monoprice.com. Shipping might make Amazon a better deal in some cases, but monoprice is always a great place to start looking.</p>
<p>^^^^newegg.com,is another good place to start</p>
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<p>We got one of those, too – what a worthless piece of garbage that turned out to be!</p>
<p>S2 asked for an iron and ironing board for Hanukkah. :eek:</p>
<p>Did anybody buy any sort of item that was like a tray that could be attached to a loft? I have one of those fabric caddies (and use it), but have been in bed sick all week and have not appreciated not having anywhere to put down a cup of coffee or a bowl of soup. I feel like I’ve seen sort of clip-on trays or something but I can’t figure out what they’d be called to search for it.</p>
<p>The trick with those caddies is to wrap the fabric that goes under the mattress over the top of the safety bar (or any bar available) and then tape it to the back of the caddy. Duct tape holds well enough that it has not shifted at all in six months but can be pulled off without damaging the product. Your kids just aren’t determined enough. :P</p>
<p>Ema: Do you mean a bunk bed shelf? [The</a> Container Store > Bunk Bed Shelf](<a href=“http://www.containerstore.com/shop/dorm/storage/livingStyle?productId=10015576]The”>http://www.containerstore.com/shop/dorm/storage/livingStyle?productId=10015576) I have one sitting waiting to go to Goodwill (unused) since it wouldn’t work with the side table in the dorm room.</p>
<p>Feel free to PM me about it.</p>
<p>Emaheevul07 – Is this what you want? [Amazon.com:</a> Deluxe Arm Rest Caddy / Side Table by totes: Clothing](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Deluxe-Rest-Caddy-Table-totes/dp/B000Z97MRU]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Deluxe-Rest-Caddy-Table-totes/dp/B000Z97MRU)</p>
<p>I have one over the edge of the tub to give me a little more space for bottles and such.</p>
<p>We are probably flying to take kiddo to school, so the stuff will have to fit in the luggage allowance, and we parents and the sibling will be traveling lightly.</p>
<p>I hope to shop/ship or pick up at a local BB&B.</p>
<p>Anyone looking at water filter pitchers. I hear thaats important when dorms are older/pipes etc…to also remove heavy chlorine. We have a reverse osmosis filter here, and my athlete-scholar drins a ton of water.</p>
<p>Have heard less is more, though have seen picks of some rooms…its alot…sofas (someone’s parents foots the bill), etc…for the common rooms.</p>
<p>^^^Fogfog: one of the things that D ended up picking up last minute was a Brita water filter pitcher at Costco. She said it’s one of the best things that she brought with her.</p>
<p>Ha! Funny…the Brita pitcher came home with me when I dropped her off after the winter break!! She drinks a lot of water, but apparently doesn’t feel like filtering it.</p>
<p>Folks- this thread was started in May of 2010 (I wondered how so many could be packing to go home in February…). Still good advice. </p>
<p>Most important in use of stuff. The student needs to know s/he has it. This means making sure they know every item being packed, and help with the packing. I had used the dining room for staging. Son was supposed to okay everything, but didn’t so some stuff he never used. I know I had plans for son to do things- but at noon of move in day he needed help (he was asking which clothes should he take, my response-all of them- this wasn’t some 3 week course…). Telling him he had cold supplies when a virus hit- he didn’t know what was in his kit… Sophomore year he took less. They do grow up, there’s a transition to more and more awareness of household necessities.</p>
<p>For eager parents. You need to wait until summer for college related stuff to be most available and at the best prices. This means June/July… Computers, bedding, etc. </p>
<p>One set of sheets is best- they won’t be sleeping and washing them at the same time. Printers- so often printing cheaper via school sources. Cleaning supplies, boys, sigh. Check your school’s dorm suggestions when the time comes.</p>
<p>I didn’t bother with a brita pitcher but I kept a 2 gallon tank of water in my fridge. Now I have a brita to filter water for my keurig but I don’t use it for anything else. But I know others who refuse to drink water that hasn’t been filtered, so it probably depends on what your kids are used to. As long as it’s not well water I am really low maintenance about drinking water.</p>