You have a lot of good tips about move in and storage for summer. Our S is also a plane ride away for school. One thing you may want to do (depending on how long your D’s college list is) is make a spreadsheet and get a column on there for travel. We really wanted to stick with Southwest because there are no change fees and two bags checked are free. So, in that case, many of the schools on S19’s list were not a direct flight. Something to consider. We book tickets in far as advance as possible to get the best price and that means sometimes having to change the dates when it gets closer to travel time. That can be very pricey on other airlines.
I priced out flights as best as I could. Of course, flight costs change but it was easy to see that getting to Minneapolis was going to be a lot cheaper than getting to Portland, ME. Plus, he had to consider that flying from Chicago to Portland is usually an all day excursion through Baltimore each way. Not ideal for short trips home like Thanksgiving.
He did indeed end up outside Portland and the travel (knock on wood) has been trouble free so far but expensive. We’ve used points for the most part but I think his spring break flight ate up a bunch of miles and would have been almost $600. We did not put a limit on when he can come home and plan on him being home Thanksgiving, Winter Break, Spring Break, and summer (or flying somewhere else to be there for the summer for a job). You also have to factor in cost of getting to and from the airport and how easy that is. S19 can take a shared taxi easily for $30. At some of the schools he looked at, we were looking at long bus rides to the airport. None of us were a fan of that option. Long bus ride plus long flight wasn’t something he wanted to do.
I will say, when looking for D21, I’m thinking about travel again and I hope she chooses a school with a direct flight and easy access to the airport!
@Peachpie9 if you’re looking at Kenyon or any other school somewhat far from the airport, check into how kids get to the airport. I remember that getting from Kenyon to the airport isn’t so easy or cheap. Uber doesn’t go to Gambier and it’s not an easy drive. Tons of kids are there from OOS so it’s obviously done but I would check on how it works. It’s over an hour drive.
As @usma87 noted, moving the dorm stuff isn’t that problematic. As you visit, note things like the nearest bank/atm machine to campus as a new account might be needed. Does computer repair occur on campus? Do dorms close and open on certain dates, so you need to book travel around those dates? I find TSA precheck/global entry invaluable and recommend it for anyone flying. Stock up on frequent flyer points for any unexpected trips home. Learning to uber/lyft/taxi is another important life skill. A credit card is essential.
Our girls that are far away store their things in the summer - they often share a storage unit with a friend/roommate. It is much easier this way (and cheaper honestly)
Storage units over the summer cost money and you can’t always find a friend to split the cost of one with. (something to keep in mind) Almost all of D’s college friends lived within driving distance and would just cart their stuff home. We told D if it doesn’t fit in the car, it doesn’t go! Or she can pay us to have it shipped. Anything else she needed we bought when she got there. We also sent her with a small but well stocked first aid kit. At the end of college, we gave her XL Twin bedding to St Vincent De Paul. When she moved into her apartment in college, she moved into a furnished one. Saved us having to buy furniture and figure out what to do when she moved out…
Southwest and the no bag fees like @homerdog mentioned is what we do, too. I will add that one critical piece of advice I received in booking flights home ----> don’t ever book the last flight of the day. If it’s canceled, it will likely mean a night at the airport. You have a better chance of getting out the same day if you book an early flight.
You’ve gotten great advice. We pretty much did the same as thumper. We took advantage of the 2 free bags on Southwest, ordered from BBB and Target, and ordered things like a mini-fridge at Home Depot online and picked it up when we got there. My D’s school discouraged people from having a lot pre-shipped to the dorms.
There just isn’t a lot of storage space for them to hold it all. We rented the biggest SUV we could and reserved a suite style room at a local hotel so we could get organized. It’s a hassle and stressful freshman year, but totally doable. My D is a freshman at a private college 1000 miles away from home and MANY of the kids aren’t local. Her school rents PODS for the summer for the kids for storage so that’s our plan. If for some reason that doesn’t work, we’ll get a storage locker. My D is NOT a minimalist when it comes to packing.
I agree with the others that Southwest is great. If you book in advance you can get some great deals and there are no change/cancellation fees. So, we often book when prices are cheap and if we need to make changes we do. If prices drop when they have sales you can change your flight and get a credit for the difference. I have a spreadsheet I’ve been using to keep track of credits, etc (you need the confirmation number of the original reservation to use the credit so you need to keep track). It’s about a 2 1/2 hour flight home for her and door to door she gets home faster than many of her friends who go to school in neighboring states.
Another thought: For a graduation gift we got her “TSA Pre-Check” so she doesn’t have to wait in long security lines at the airport. It saves a lot of time and stress when traveling over the busy holiday times. It costs $85 and is good for 5 years.
@maya54 your kid didn’t schlep all that extra stuff across the country on an airplane.
I think learning to pack light is a life skill. But that is my opinion.
It would have taken us at least 10 days to drive back and forth from the east coast to CA to drop our kid off. That simply was not going to happen. For kids traveling by plane, they need to prioritize what they bring from home, and plan to get other essentials once they are in their college town.
I’m sure there are some families who would drive coast to coast for a college drop off, but that was not in the Thumper Family plan. Our kid knew she wouldn’t have a van or truck or SUV full of “stuff”. She figured it all out. We never heard a complaint about not having something she needed.
Our other kid went to college 2 hours away. Granted, this was a boy and he has far less stuff to begin with. But he was also a musician who had five instruments, a filing cabinet full of music, tons of dress clothes (suits, tux, tails, dinner jacket, blazers, shirts, etc). First year, we moved him in our van with only three people on it and all other seats removed. Second year, we used the same van, no seats removed and four people and half the stuff. Third year, he moved back using our sedan car and one parent. Fourth year…same.
I think each family and student need to make their own decisions about the volume of stuff they will move.
Really, our cross country college kid made it very easy…and we really had no hassles for move in…or out at the end of four years.
‘maya54 your kid didn’t schlep all that extra stuff across the country on an airplane.’
We did fly a lot of the stuff from Chicago to North Carolina. We did also pick up a lot at Target and Bed Bath &Beyond. Much easier for my UMich kid where we always drove
And we are not a “ pack light” family. I have no interest in that particular skill. Nor will I ever be. 2 suitcases every time I fly (We fly first so 2 70 lb suitcase each are allowed. Except for moves I’m way under that ) If the kids want to develop that skill they are on their own. Lol.
My daughter has to fly back and forth to school, East Coast to southern CA. You’ve gotten great advice so far.
As a freshman, D packed all her her clothing, shoes, etc in IKEA Frakta bags and checked those. She packed her fragile things, jewelry, etc in a rolling carryon. We used the FRAKTA bags b/c they were easily stored when not in use and the carryon was used to go back and forth when she flew home for breaks. We did the BBB “pack and hold” for quite a bit of stuff which was great b/c you don’t pay until you pick it up and we ended up changing our minds on a few things so we just put that aside when we got to the store. We then filled in rest of things she needed at Target and IKEA. We arrived a day early, but also had to make a few trips after move in to return/exchange a few things (over the door towel rack didn’t fit due to trim around the door, etc).
We did allow our dd to fly home for Thanksgiving her freshman year but I planned ahead and bought tix early. I was so glad I did b/c she struggled a bit socially her first semester, and tho not necessarily homesick, being able to come home was good for her. Her Christmas break started much later (like days before Christmas) so it wasn’t like she came home again two weeks later- it was more like a month later. She did, however, stay in CA for Thanksgiving her sophomore year.
After Freshman year she rented a storage unit with a friend who was also from East Coast. It was less than $150. However, one thing to consider is if your student is planning to study abroad - where will she/he store things for that long period of time? Our D studied abroad this past fall, so that meant she needed to store her things from end of May thru part of Jan. We are lucky that we have a family friend near her college who graciously allowed us to store her things with them (5-6 boxes and a mattress topper). This saved us a ton of storage fees.
One thing that also makes things easier for us - there are a couple of direct flights daily from home to school. No worry about missing a connection or getting stranded at a connecting airport somewhere. We definitely considered the ease/difficulty of getting back and forth to college when she was considering schools. We also live 30 mins from airport and her school is only 10 mins from airport. It is easier to get her to/from school than my son, who is a 5 hr drive away. He can take the train, but it can be just as expensive as her plane ticket. Taking the train for him, which requires a connection, takes almost as long as her flight across country, even tho he’s only 275 miles away versus her 3300 miles!
One thing to keep in mind…when our kid started college in 2006, a round trip ticket from east to west Coast was about $200. By the time she graduated, it was over $400 round trip.
We also had relatives sort of nearby. This required a short airplane shuttle. When she was a freshman, that shuttle was $100 round trip. By the time she graduated it was over $200.
I’m blown away by the posters who were able to move their kid in with such a small number of suitcases. I’m hoping to learn from their experiences.
We have a freshman who is attending college over 1200 miles away. She had seven suitcases PLUS we picked up a ridiculous amount of items there (mostly from
Target). But, in all fairness, D19 had both parents and a younger sibling moving her in, so with the Southwest 2-bags fly free (plus carry one & personal item), we stocked up on sale items here at home and took them with us. We left her with only two suitcases, and nested the empty ones for our flight home.
When D19 was comparing colleges, we reminded her, repeatedly, that going over 1000 miles away meant minimal visits home. We flew her back for the one-month Christmas Break, and she opted to fly home over her college’s family weekend (it was a 3 day weekend) instead of us flying out there. She does not want to come home for Spring Break, because she wants to travel with college friends, so we may not see her until Summer Break.
We have asked her to plan on inventorying her items after Spring Break so we can determine if a summer storage unit will actually be needed. She does not own any “big stuff,” as her dorm came furnished with a microwave, dorm fridge, and plenty of storage drawers. We also did not purchase a TV, as she is not a gamer, and watches Netflix and Disney+ on her laptop or iPhone.
We still haven’t determined how move out will work for her in early May, as we can’t all fly back out there when the younger sibling is still in school. By coincidence, during that week, my husband will be on a work trip nearby so he may have to swing over and toss some items in a couple of his own suitcases.
At Kenyon there are several buses that will go to C-bus airport, an approx 1 hr drive door to door. The easiest by far is the student run Gambier Coach, it usually runs for 2 days on either side of a break, with 3-5 runs per day. S19 has used it twice now and it’s super easy and relatively cheap compared to Uber (there’s ONE guy!!! LOL) or a car service. The GC is $25 one way, and it picks up in front of the Gambier Deli and drops off in front of baggage claim, (and vice versa). My S19 had never traveled on his own before, and even he said this was exceptionally convenient. The only ‘eh’ part is that bus times and flight times don’t always line up well. My S doesn’t seem to mind waiting a few hours as long as he has something to read, but I wouldn’t be a fan for myself.
I wish I could post a photo of what we brought on the plane for drop off. It really was pretty easy. We checked six Samsonite large duffles and almost everything he needed was in there - washed bedding, clothes/shoes, hangers and hanging shelves for his closet, school supplies, wall decorations. I don’t see it being any different for D21.
We checked our bags at the curb here and then, when we got to Portland, we grabbed two carts, took the bags off the carriage and rolled the cart to the rental car check out where we rented an SUV. The only thing I shipped that I can remember was a desk lamp and I had it shipped to our hotel. It was waiting when we got there. So there’s a tip. Have stuff delivered to the hotel.
Like others here, we got in a few days before drop off. It was way less stressful that way. We spent time in the town, did the last minute toiletry shopping, had a mini vacation checking out the surrounding area. By the time we dropped him off it was hard but not as hard because we felt like he (and we) really had the lay of the land. And probably three full days of time with just Mom and Dad had him ready to go. Lol.
My H was out visiting last month and S decided he wanted a rug so they went to Target to buy one. I could have easily just bought one on Amazon and had it shipped though. So, that’s a thing too - don’t worry about forgetting anything. It’s so easy to get things to kids now.
I forgot to comment on the transportation to/from airport. Our oldest was away at college within a 5 hour (one way) driving distance, but without a car, so it was easier to pay for her to shuttle (2 companies offered it) to the major airport that was about 90 minutes away and then pay for the cheap flight to/from home, than to drive there to pick her up. I think a lot of parents forget about factoring in that added transportation time & cost, when your college student is relatively close but doesn’t have a vehicle.
When our kids moved off campus, we suggested the contact the previous tenants and see if they wanted to sell their stuff. In both cases, those previous tenants were thrilled not to have to deal with selling or moving their (used) furniture.
And when our kids graduated and we’re ready to move out…they both sold to the next occupants. Win win.
