Understood. Well, she does all the packing herself. Cleans the room herself. Arranges the storage with friends – no parental involvement there. She even makes arrangements with one of her professors to keep her plants in his office over breaks. But one way or another, her stuff has to get from dorm room to storage unit and back again (usually with a side trip to the post office), and that’s the one thing she can’t do herself without a car. She’ll probably have a car senior year, and will be able to manage it herself (and at that point, we’ll be busy with freshman year move-in for her brother). But for now? It’s not possible for her to manage the actual moving on her own. And given the number of parents I see loading cars during move-out (my husband does move-in, but I’m assuming it’s the same), I think this is just the way families handle it at her college, given the logistics of moving and storage.
I think a lot of this depends on the specific circumstances of summer storage in each college. Back when I was in college, after my freshman move-in, my parents were never involved with moving me in and out of my dorms. But I had a car and summer storage on campus.
I was very fortunate to have a friend from grad school in the area where my son goes to college. We live on the east coast, my friend lives about 20 mins away from my son’s college on the west coast. We bought most things through Amazon or other online vendors and shipped them to my friend’s house, who kept everything for us until we flew out for move-in day. My friend met us at our hotel after we landed and we transferred all of the online stuff (including a bike) to our rented SUV. We then bought some toiletries and stuff at stores. The main thing we brought on all our carry-on’s on the plane were my son’s clothes. Between the 3 of us (me, spouse, son) we didn’t need to check any bags on the flight. Between my spouse and myself, we brought very few of our own belongings on the plane, just prioritized my son’s clothes and other items. Over the summer, my friend is picking up all my son’s stuff and keeping them in his house again. My friend is even driving my son to and from the airport and helping him move his stuff into his new dorm after the summer. I was very fortunate…my friend has been a God-send. If my friend’s child ever goes to school within about a 2 hour drive from my home, I will more than reciprocate for his child.
Are those cross country parents or ones who live local? We did drive up to get DS who was only 2 hours away.
In our experience, the students who lived far away dealt with storage at the college location. Those who lived local…yes, their families came and got the stuff.
I was just suggesting…this family needs to look at the other end too.
I think learning to pack light is a life skill. My DD originally had a HUGE pile of clothes to take from here to CA. But she whittled it down so it would fit in 1 1/2 large suitcases. She said she was fine. But like I said…no wonder bulky clothes which really helped a lot on both move in and move out.
I think each family needs to decide how they will manage all of this.
And as noted by someone above….DS had far less “must haves” than DD had. His first year, we moved him to college in our minivan with only three seats (sister didn’t come along). By his senior year, we moved him home using the trunk to my Volvo sedan.
My daughter used dolly.com to move her belongings into storage for the summer. She shares a storage unit with a friend - they put neon stickers on their boxes to make for easy separation when they move back on campus in the fall. The hourly service worked out well as she was on the top floor of a walk-up. The extra hands made for lighter work, plus she didn’t have to rent a vehicle…
On the regular move in days, at many colleges there are upperclassmen who help schlep the stuff from your car to the dorm room. Check to find that info out for your college.
BUT…my across the country move kid did the very last orientation which was right before move in day. Because she was doing orientation, she was allowed to move her stuff into her dorm room…but there wasn’t anyone there to help carry it up the stairs to the second floor. Just FYI…but they did give us a one day parking permit to park in front of the dorm…which usually isn’t allowed. So we unloaded the car, and went to Target and Staples to get stuff that same day…so we wouldn’t have to carry stuff too far.
My oldest had great helpers, my next there weren’t nearly enough helpers (9th floor, no a/c dorm, it was rough), 3rd did early move in so no help, 4th had no helpers, not a thing, and 5th stopped having helpers due to COVID. My suggestion is to bring a hand truck if there is an elevator, even if they advertise helpers.
We were very fortunate, as the athletes begin a week or two before freshman orientation (which is an additional 4-5 days before returning students move back in)—and so the athletes were all on campus and are traditionally tasked with helping in addition to all the support staff and RAs. I’ll never forget the swarm of smiling basketball players assigned to my kids dorm who quickly surrounded each incoming car, whisked everything onto the sidewalk and then effortlessly carried it up all the stairs while being chatty and kind to all the new kids.
So speaking of helpers… My S22 had them at his move in and it made life SO much easier than I was thinking it would be. I don’t know why, but for some reason I assumed that all colleges had a set up like this. And I just found out last week that S25s school does not. And of course his dorm has no elevator. He’s only on the 3rd floor, so it’s not going to be a disaster, but man, I’m already missing those moving helpers!
At D19’s school they have big carts to put everything in and wheel to the elevator (most dorms have one). Of course, if you’re moving in at peak time there was a wait. RAs were on hand to give assistance as needed.
What I realized later on the thread was that the cheapest way to get things out there at the time was to pack up suitcases or large boxes and pay for them as checked baggage. ShawSon asked ShawWife to come out and help him fix up his dorm room (something that he had never considered before). Southwest was the cheapest way ship suitcases / boxes (it was $25 per item after maybe the first one). I just looked at my calendar and it looks like I flew from a different city and met them at SFO. We rented a car and drove the boxes to the school. I don’t recall if we also took an uber if we could not fit all of the luggage/boxes in the car but I think we were able to do without the uber. It was much cheaper to do it all as checked luggage.
We bought a new bike and things like sheets, blankets, towels, and lamps (I think we made trips to BBB, Target and Staples).
As an aside, I looked back at my calendar for the month and am thrilled my life is simpler now (That month, I went from Boston to London to DC to Boston to Frankfurt to Boston to DC to San Francisco to Boston from Sep 1 to 19 and then stayed at home for the rest of the month for Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur before heading out on the road again).
I’m curious if any parents have used shipping services where they pick up dorm gear boxes from your home, store the boxes near your C’s college, and then deliver to a dorm room on move in day? There are a few companies I’ve found that do that (I am not mentioning the names due to CC’s community guidelines) and we are considering those based on a cross country college move where the student is not taking a car to campus. Our backup, if shipping doesn’t pan out, will be checked bags on the plane for move in day.
We have a company that does that out at W&L, and I personally don’t know if its the best. While I didnt use it, the boxes I saw other people in the dorm using were quite… flat. I would say the primary box I saw people using were only 3-4 inches in height, albeit with a large surface area. They may use other boxes, considering you probably choose what box you want. From the pricing I saw on their website the boxes themselves are reasonably priced, but the main kicker is the cost of either shipping it back to you, or having the company store it.
Running the cost for what they say as a “summer storage” for two boxes, heres what they would charge total.
The box referenced in this picture is an 18x22 box per their website (Im unsure if I can name-drop the company, considering CC TOS), so it may be worth having a company ship your stuff straight to your dorm room if you can pack a lot into these boxes. Otherwise it seems pretty costly.
We all flew business class to school as a family. That gave us 6 included checked 70 pound suitcases! DD is not a minimalism kind of kid. Best advice we got was to ask the hotel for a first floor room. ( and to stay at a hotel that had them). No waiting for the elevator as we moved things in during the course of the day. It seemed like a small thing but friends who stayed on higher floors said there were looong waits for the elevator.
