<p>novice07,
Make sure that your school doesn’t have a rental before you go out and buy. That way you and your roomie can divvie up the price and not have to worry about buying/lugging your own.</p>
<p>Oops I see your D is in a single…it could be cheaper to buy one. Elon’s rental had an attached microwave tho which was a nice feature in a rental.</p>
<p>My son has a roommate, but the refrigerator is one item we don’t plan to share. We figure we can keep disputes over what food belongs to who to a minimum by having a solo fridge. His roommate can keep his own food separately – hopefully that will reduce friction. My s’s school allows each person to have a fridge as long as they are no bigger than 4.6 cu ft. Target recently had a good one on sale for $99, but we missed that sale. I’ll be keeping a lookout for decent prices.</p>
<p>Keep in mind transporting the refrigerator after each year if there is no storage place on campus. That refrigerator takes up SO much room! I’m pretty frugal and the idea of rentlng instead of buying usually bothers me but the convenience of the frig being delivered in Sept and picked up in the spring is a real bonus.</p>
<p>Does anyone have advice about the best kind of laundry basket?</p>
<p>^Most kids in my dorm liked the “pop up” kind. They’re inexpensive, and fold flat (which is nice for packing in the car or storing over the summer). I also liked that they didn’t really hold more than two loads of laundry, so I did laundry on a fairly regular basis. (The sell one at LNT, but you can get them at any store: <a href=“http://www.lnt.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1829462&cp=2726142.2726146&view=all&parentPage=family[/url]”>http://www.lnt.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1829462&cp=2726142.2726146&view=all&parentPage=family</a>)</p>
<p>Just a suggestion, my mom and I bought space saver bags, and they helped a lot with keeping the car from overflowing with bedding. They were even more helpful when I had to put things in storage at the end of the year. I especially recommend using them for things like featherbeds, comforters, pillows and down jackets.</p>
<p>Are space saver bags the things that suck air out of something to make it smaller in volume?</p>
<p>That’s right, Bethievt. Get the kind you roll to push the air out unless you have access to a hose-type vacuum at the dorm. I took small versions of the ‘roll’ type to China this spring and they were a big help…esp. <em>after</em> I went shopping!</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. I should have brought those along to Hawaii my last trip. I didnb’t buy much but we were given a lot of gifts and it was hard to fit them in.</p>
<p>I didn’t have good luck with the space saver bags. All of mine had a hole somewhere in them or the zipper thing quit working.</p>
<p>You can search for bedding in google by typing in “Dorm Bedding.” a bunch of companies will pop up. I chose DormAid. You can just go to dormaid.com/bedding to check out their offers.</p>
<p>Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Linens N Things, and Target all have focused dorm sections in their stores now. I don’t know how quickly it will sell out.</p>
<p>I don’t know if all Target stores put things on clearance at the same time, but ours has HP Deskjet 380 printers for around $58. The retail is $80. They were on a clearance endcap near Electronics.</p>
<p>Before you buy any printer…check how much the replacement ink is going to be. There are some where the cartridges are more expensive than the priginal price of the printer. That can be an unwelcome surprise.</p>
<p>Hopefully someone can answer my question…my mom and I went shopping today and bought most of my bedding and a few other things at Target (btw, wait a couple of days before you go, because they are still in the process of rolling out a lot of their really nice “College 07” stuff. We got really lucky and had a salesperson who pulled a ton of stuff from the back, but we would have been out of luck otherwise). </p>
<p>Anyway, I got, among other things, a memory foam mattress topper ($20 at Target…good deal!) and we were both wondering how you use the mattress topper with the sheets and mattress pad. Can I just put it under the fitted sheet, or should I put a mattress pad on the bed and then the topper and then the fitted sheet, or what? </p>
<p>Also, does anyone know of a good place to get a shower caddy that isn’t too big but that has decent drainage in the bottom (more than just a couple small holes)? Wellesley has cubbies in the bathrooms so that you don’t have to carry your caddy from your room to the bathroom all the time, but the cubby holes aren’t huge (and I don’t use that much stuff in the bathroom anyway).</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>I am not sure, try targets.</p>
<p>I’ve found the shower caddys they’re selling these days to be either too small or too big. Lucky for D I bought one over 10 years ago that’s the perfect size. I had kept on top of my dryer to hold dryer sheets and tennis balls (down comforters should be dried with a tennis ball to keep the stuffing even).</p>
<p>Advantagious - </p>
<p>Mattress with cover (bedbugs, etc) plus topper plus pad plus fitted sheet. Pad keeps the topper in place and smoothes it out.</p>
<p>Also - found a good plastic shower caddy at Bed Bath & Beyond (they had massive ones as well, but this was the right size with lots of holes).</p>
<p>^^Thanks, that’s kind of what I was I thinking. I checked out the BB & B website and they do have some something suitable looking.</p>
<p>Hey everyone - popping in without reading the thread…but saw a great deal on an over the door full length mirror at Target. Too cute with wide white or brown wood frame and built in picture frame for four photos at the top. $16.99!</p>
<p>My d is moving from a dorm with sliders and a big suite bath with lots of mirrors…to dorm with regular closet doors and hall baths, so a mirror is needed. She figures she’ll sit on the floor in front of the full-length to dry her hair, etc… </p>
<p>Some doors won’t accommodate the over the door hardware, but at such a cheap price, worth the chance.</p>
<p>(Forgive if this was already mentioned.)</p>
<p>Another great deal–those mesh pop-up hampers, hanging closet shelves, etc., are all on sale for 50% off at Joann Fabrics. My daughter got a nice hamper for $2.50! Colors are blue, pink, green, camo, and others.</p>