I used to get them all the time in the mail, years ago. Then they stopped. I actually went to the website and signed up to get them mailed to me again, but they still don’t come. My neighbor gets them. It’s weird.
Thanks @bookmom7 ! My first dorm purchase!! I love Costco’s generous return policy so it is a low risk purchase.
Thanks for the insight on the tshirt quilts everyone. I will have to gauge his interest. Given that he has grown out of many special ones that he does not know I have kept and I have extras of some really special ones, I think it could make a nice one without trashing the ones he still wears. Not sure he will want something that gives away so much about him or could come off as “I am so great” to his new roomie. He tends to downplay things. It may be more of a study blanket than quilt for his bed. I have discovered some excellent local options for assembly so no need to rush a decision.
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The t-shirt quilt discussion is one I’ve wondered about. My aunt has been asking for years to make a t-shirt quilt for S16 and D18 dorm rooms, like she did for my niece, but I doubt my S would keep it in his dorm room and my D still fits in all of her shirts since she’s only 5’ tall (they always gave out Adult S shirts at activities, and they are still too big for her!). I can’t think of a kind way to let my aunt know that I might be hard-pressed to have t-shirts for her to use, and if she does make it, she’ll expect to see them prominently displayed in their dorm rooms (she does not have kids of her own). I figure I’ll see what each kid decides, and hopefully we can figure something out :). At least we have a free quilt-maker for the project, right?
@lifegarding My sister is only 4’11" so the adult small shirts often hang down on her as well. I’m sure you could figure something out regarding your aunt. Also do you all plan on redecorating your '16ers bedrooms when they go to college? Got into that conversation yesterday with my dad when he mentioned that our cousin’s room is now a guest room(a college jr.). My mom said she won’t redecorate because it’s our rooms.
@fretfulmother, don’t worry, they will get lots of new college tshirts 
The feather topper sounds very comfy but D already had an incident with uncapped pen on bed and inkstain on sheets, thankfully it came out in the wash. So things that can be washed easily were important for me. She has a duvet cover and it fits easier in the wash than a whole comforter. I just got a 1" foam topper and quilted mattress pad to make the dorm mattress a bit more comfortable and that seems to be enough for her.
I was not able to use BB&B emailed coupons – the store claimed that they were not legit. Go figure. I get my paper coupons now from the back page of the mailed BB&B sales booklets and from the large coupon postcards.
@mysonsdad, hopefully your return will process soon. I thought that when you don’t pay tax due right with efiling that it delays the processing, but someone posted here on CC that they had a different experience.
@readingclaygirl, my D’s room is still her room, waiting for her when she comes home to visit.
@mommdc and @readingclaygirl, when I sent S13 off to college, I read that keeping a college child’s room intact (besides cleaning it, that is! 
) makes it psychologically easier for them to leave, and if you can do it, you should. They feel like home will still be home. I know this isn’t possible for some families…
@readingclaygirl I won’t be redecorating either kids’ room when they leave for college. I want them to come home to visit and feel like they still have a room in our home. My MIL, however, has taken it too far…25+ years later and both sons’ rooms are fairly intact - same posters and everything still up!
When my oldest DD left for college in '13 she shared a room with her younger sister. The younger one has slowly but surely turned the room into only hers. DS’s room won’t be redecorated but it will be used by whoever is around and needs to use it.
I took a look at BB & B dorm gear last night and holy cow are the prices for bedding high! Even at 20% Target would beat them. But H suggested I look for a Ross-if you guys are unfamiliar with that store, take a look and see if there are any in your kiddos’ college towns. They carry name brand clothes and home goods but for a LOT less-I picked up a set of 100% cotton sheets there recently for D and they cost $14. Turns out there is one only a few miles from the college.
Also Big Lots is a good source of bedding, pillows, etc. D’s memory foam topper (twin) is from there and cost less than $20.
I’ll keep D’s room as is for awhile, but even she wanted more mature colors and layout, so I’ll probably redo it to a more neutral than a kid’s magenta and teal that she picked when she was younger.
PB teen had a 50% off sale last summer. Target had college sale as well.
For DD’13 we did Target for sheets, towels and bed bug cover, BB&B for a few things like shower robe and shower caddy. I think I got a twin XL mattress pad at Marshall’s. DD took her comforter and pillows from home. She is pretty low maintenance and I kinda expect DS to be ever lower.
My husband has plans to turn my D16s room into a man cave. I’m not sure what she’s supposed to do when she comes home on breaks! We have a small house with no guest room so maybe I can convince him to keep a bed of some sort in there.
I finally did my FAFSA and I can report that they expect us to pay almost 50% of our net income for college which was good for a hearty laugh. That might work if we didn’t have a mortgage, our own student loans, health insurance, groceries, etc. The two merit awards D16 received don’t seem to require the FAFSA and we have enough in a 529 to pay for the schools (thanks to a grandparent) she is still considering, but thanks for the laugh US Department of Education!
Once everyone is seated for S16’s high school graduation and is awaiting the start, the school runs a slide show where they show four photos of each graduating senior (only a class of 90). The first photo is from age 3 to 6, the second from age 8 to 11, and the last two are their freshman and senior school pictures. The deadline to submit the first two photos was yesterday, so the wife and I pored over hundreds of photos that go ALL the way back. It was hard not to tear up. We raised my wife’s two older girls (now deep into their 30’s) together, so with the boys we knew from the start that the time would just slip through our fingers. But still, where did it all go?
I experienced the same emotions that you and your wife did @AsleepAtTheWheel when I was selecting pictures for DS16’s yearbook ad, but what really choked me up was when I selected the quote to include on his page. He is our oldest , so this is new territory for me. I need to buy stock in Kleenex or Puffs because I cry at Publix commercials .
@AsleepAtTheWheel for the first graduation at D’so school, the class was so small they had parents tape a message to their students and students do their own. Many were first generation and parents did not speak English. But you could hear the pride in their voices. Not a dry eye in the house. The class is too big for that now. I’mean not sure I could do it without tears.
I told myself I will keep D’s room the way it is, throughout her college years, because -
When I went away to college, my parents sold our house the following November, and never told me until my mother picked me up for Thanksgiving break. She told me in the car, driving home. (Not only that, our dog had fallen ill and had been put down.)
So, we get to the new house - it is half the size of our old house, and I have no bedroom anymore. I’d always shared a room with my sister, and we’d had twin beds. I had my own desk and chest of drawers and a short bookcase full of books. In the new house, I’m still to share a bedroom with my sister - that was no problem - but the twin beds are gone because my sister wanted a double bed. Everything in the new room is my younger sister’s and the one closet is filled with her clothes and things. My desk and bookcase are gone - they’ve been sold. My books were sold or given to charity, as well.
I was never asked or consulted about any of this.
The next few summers, and holiday breaks, I slept in the double bed with my sister and kept my clothes and things in boxes (I also unexpectedly took two semesters off because I ran out of money for college expenses, and spent several months in a row living like this - in my own family home).
I resented it, and my sister resented it - she had envisioned having this nicely decorated room in the new house, and here were all of my things in boxes all over… I never blamed her, she was only 15. I think she was led to believe I’d never be back home, or I’d be getting my own place in the summer… My parents should have known better.
I also don’t believe my parents did it to be mean… I really think they thought I wouldn’t mind. And no, they never expected me to get my own place, in fact, my mother forbade it because I was paying for my own college expenses. My parents are just clueless like that.
It took me YEARS to get over the bad feelings over this. I’m not kidding. I felt like my family was essentially saying “Bye, we don’t need you here anymore, we’re totally okay with you being gone…” whether or not, I intellectually knew that wasn’t the case. Heck, I still resent it, lol.
I tell all this to show how young people can take something like a change in living/sleeping spaces, even if they will still be sleeping there for breaks. The thing is, our children aren’t really moving out permanently yet - they still need their own space for summers and holiday breaks, and may even be back several months after graduation.
I highly recommend parents discuss any proposed changes to bedrooms/moving, etc before doing so. I honestly think if my parents had maybe just discussed all of this with me, I would’ve taken it a lot better (and I would’ve encouraged my sister to opt for twin beds in the new bedroom! and maybe an extra chest of drawers. As it was, she also had a new vanity that took the space that a second chest or dresser would have. It was a nightmare. First world problem, I guess, but totally avoidable if my Mom had just told me ahead of time).
As it was, I graduated college and moved out when my sister had just finished high school and was going to commute to a local university. She ended up having an extra four years of having the bedroom all to herself.