This discussion has been merged.
At my kid’s school, they had volunteer movers. They got all of our boxes to our kid’s room in matter of minutes. Because it is so hectic and those volunteers could move pretty fast, you should label all of your kid’s stuff with his/her name, room # and cell phone. We used heavy duty garbage bags to pack our kid’s clothes. It was very light weight and easy to pack.
When I went off to college back in the dark ages, I had no clue that random volunteers would surround my car and start grabbing stuff. Nothing was packed well, I didn’t have my name marked on any of the boxes, and frankly I was both embarrassed that strangers were seeing my messy packing and nervous about any possible unmentionables falling out of those boxes as they made their way to my dorm.
It all ended well, nothing was lost on its way to my dorm room, but I wish I had known to expect helpers so I could have packed more carefully. I have heard stories of colleges in downtown areas requiring you to dump all your stuff out on the sidewalk and then go find a “real” parking spot before coming back to carry your things to your dorm room. That’s an example of needing to be prepared with extra people to stay with your things while you find parking.
So it is good to know what to expect at your dorm, some colleges give you an exact move in time frame to be parked close to the dorm. Most now have volunteers (most will give volunteers a specialty tshirt to identify them). But mark your child’s name and room number on your boxes, and pack neatly and tape up your boxes.