<p>I sent 4towels with my son, and two sets of sheets. He actually did his laundry fairly regularly but he did kind of “forget” to change his sheets until parents weekend when I reminded him, and he’d been changing his sheets and doing laundry weekly at home.
A warning about doing laundry at college… Things do get stolen. My son had a load of sweatshirts taken. They left his jeans but took several nice hoodies. I wrote a thread about it, and it seems like it’s not that in common, judging from responses.</p>
<p>My D wasn’t any better than the boys, it sounds. She came home with about 30 pairs of underwear–instead of doing laundry, she went to VS and bought more! Freshman year, her sheets did not get washed until Christmas break when she brought them home. Sophomore year, she didn’t bring them home, and I assume they never got washed. One weekend when I went to visit, she had to do laundry. D, her roommate, and I all sat on D’s bed folding her clean clothes while we talked. D remarked, “This is a fun party!” and we all died laughing. It was fun for her because otherwise the clean clothes would have stayed in the basket. Sadly, I don’t think she has changed much as she’s grown older.</p>
<p>@musicmom Oh my goodness! I thought I was bad!</p>
<p>I’m bringing a crap load of clothes and 3 weeks worth of underwear. If I need more, off to VS I’ll go. With last month’s semi-annual sale, I stocked up on underwear, lounge wear, and some clothes. </p>
<p>I currently wash my clothes every two weeks at best. Will this change in college? Yes. I simply don’t have space in my dorm for dirty clothes. XD I have too many clean clothes to begin with!</p>
<p>No idea how often they did laundry ( or changed their sheets)
If they are in college- cant they figure that out?</p>
<p>I sent DS with a sampler pack of laundry pods (I think there were 15 in the pack). I expected them to last a semester. He had three left when we moved him out. He did bring home his clothes to wash over winter break. He claimed that he was too busy to clean his clothes during the fall semester when he was pledging. to be fair, he goes to an all-male school and the entire place smells around Wednesday (when they no girls are on campus).</p>
<p>I sent my S to college with 2 sets of sheets. One came home in the plastic after 4 years. So now he can take that one to grad school. :D</p>
<p>DS (just finished sophomore year) does his own laundry and has for several years. I just asked him how often he does laundry when he’s at school and he said, “I don’t know, whenever I need to.” Sigh. I don’t know what that means. He has a load in the dryer right now, so I know he really does do laundry.</p>
<p>My MIT-educated rocket scientist dad never did learn how to operate the washing machine. When my mom was out of town for a couple of weeks once he said, “Usually I just put my dirty clothes on the chair next to the bed and they end up clean and folded in my dresser but that isn’t happening so I went out and bought more socks and underwear.” I wanted to be sure that was one way DS <em>didn’t</em> take after dear old gramps.</p>
<p>My s’s did laundry less often than they needed but more often than I expected. But others would take stuff out of the washer or dryer which caused them to want to do laundry even less often.</p>
<p>We own a front loader. When S would do laundry here occasionally he’d stuff it so full the clothes in the middle were dry after the cycle ran!</p>
<p>When we took him up to school they had an expo as they went and got their student id’s. They actually had a sample washer/dryer and he talked to the woman about how to use the machine.</p>
<p>He used Tide Pods and really liked them.</p>
<p>He did laundry every 8 days and learned to do it during the week when it wasn’t so crowded. He actually even washed his sheets.</p>
<p>However, he never once swept, dusted or vacuumed his room and when we picked him up we practically needed a shovel to get rid of the dust bunnies.</p>
<p>
My jaw literally dropped. :O</p>
<p>I’m leaning towards get the pods. But why if you have a small load and then the pod is too much detergent?</p>
<p>One thought about towels. I sent two bath towels, hand towels and 4 washcloths with him. They were all tan (gray would work, too). I told him that while he had to separate darks and lights, the towels could go in any load. That seemed to help.</p>
<p>Wow I must have an oddball son. He has kept his room neat (in comparison to DD) and is not a clutter bug. He’s been going to a 4 week summer camp and knows two weeks between laundry cycles is pushing it. I couldn’t imagine him wearing his underwear inside out. (ewwww). He will strip his own bed when it gets to a point where it is clear he needs to do so. Will wait and see what happens.</p>
<p>DD offered a piece of valuable advice…do not bring the plush thick towels, they will not dry between uses and thus mold very quickly. Get the cheap stuff…and bring a few extras.</p>
<p>You cannot know. My S is a slob…but so was I. His two sisters were much better at being clean and organised. Do what you think is realistic and leave the rest to him.</p>
<p>My son did laundry once a week. He washed his sheets every two weeks.The only reason I know this is that I just asked him. I don’t really care how often he does laundry, nor whether his room is a mess. It’s not my problem.</p>
<p>Edited to add: At home his room is reasonably neat.</p>
<p>Target has some towels that are “quick dry” that my sons all really like</p>
<p>Quick dry towels are the best! They dry faster between showers, and in the dryer.</p>
<p>Sent my daughter with quick dry towels I had gotten in Bed Bath and Beyond last year - worked well for her - she uses far fewer towels at school than at home (I don’t have quick dry towels )</p>
<p>We have a front loader too. Once in a while I’ve overloaded and ended up having to rewash the load.
</p>
<p>I like the tan towel color idea! and didn’t realize there was such a thing as quick dry towels.
I will definitely check them out.</p>
<p>As a mom of a son, I think this is the formula for laundry.</p>
<p>days between doing laundry = # of boxers (or briefs) +1</p>
<p>I just ran this thread by S2 and he agreed with most of it. Esp. # of underwear + 1 or distance to nearest store when more can be purchased. Flip flops, even in the snow, eliminated the need for extra socks. For him, ease of access to the washing machine was an important factor as well. No such thing as folding and putting away.</p>