My S19 was fairly modest through middle school but that all went out the window when he started playing water polo. He’s spent the last four years wearing a speedo or underwear around the house. Let’s see if I can get him to bring a robe to college 
D17 is about to start year three of coed bathrooms. I can’t believe she doesn’t complain about it since she is very modest.
@homerdog First and only. DH and I went to college abroad and I was a commuter student, so this is all very new and exciting. I want to be a fly on the wall in his dorm!
@liska21 one suggestion we got was to pack up the hiking trip stuff before move in day. That way, you aren’t unpacking and looking for that stuff amongst everything else. At Bowdoin, the kids move in at 9:00 and need to be packed up to go on their orientation trips by 4:00 at the very latest.
Thanks to jellybean5——My son has a shower caddy (holdable mesh one) which we all used on our several camping trips.
We want to go “minimalistic” but my son’s college dorm list includes “flashlight” and “duct tape”…A flashlight is understandable. But why “duct tape”??? Something may fall off in dorm rooms?
I asked my D if she wanted a robe for walking to/from the shower. She asked what was wrong with a towel. I said it might some people uncomfortable and she was flabbergasted as to why- she said a towel covers more than a bikini. Ha ha. I guess we don’t need a robe!
Yeah I was just informed that there will be no robe. “Relax, a towel is fine.”
@elena13 Ha! I’m getting that every day. Mom, relax. I don’t need that much stuff. I put a small umbrella in his pile of stuff and he took it out. Said kids don’t use umbrellas. He’ll just put his hood up. When he wasn’t looking, I put it back in the pile.
Lol @homerdog I gave up on umbrellas and just upgraded S19 to a more water resistant backpack.
I recently got him a desk organizer. “Mom, I’m not going to use a desk.” Sigh.
He was also pretty confused by the shower caddy and hanging shoe organizer but he has a lot of shoes!
@Jejeje duct tape as something on the list of things to bring to the dorm. That is hilarious! It does fix just about everything. Seems like something we should all add to our lists!
@SJ2727 Did not need to look at more bedding options! The ruffled washed cotton…
I’m already on bedding purchase round#2. And the pronoun “I” is correct. D19 texted her roommate last week, shared details with me and told me she trusted my decor decisions. I asked if that meant she’s so busy she just doesn’t care at the moment (at summer program). Nope, she said she just trusts I’ll do something she likes. I was kind of stunned after she hung up. But it’s been a weird summer. She’s been home only about 8 days since graduation, but in the past she’s rarely called when away. Texted verifications that she was alive or maybe a request was the most I’d get. I think I’ve gotten a phone call almost every day this summer.
I’ll see her this week. Moving her out of summer program, directly to a flight to meet her international travel group. It’s been a hectic couple of weeks making sure everything was in order for this trip. Then she has 9 days home to prep for move-in day. I’m thinking there might not be much left by then, and there’s exactly 5 weeks between move-in and Parent’s weekend if we miss anything.
@JeJeJe my son made a dorm list yesterday and it also had flashlight and duct tape! In an area prone to tornadoes I won’t argue about either one I guess, but there’s a likelihood he will never use them. Bed bath and beyond puts out a dorm shopping list and he may have found them on that list, which has many many more things than will actually fit in a dorm room.
My oldest D said yesterday she has at least one box of stuff we got her freshman year for her dorm that she has never used. I should probably ask her what’s in that box before we shop for S!
She had a hall communal bath for two years and did say she used a robe.
I haven’t bought one thing yet for S19 and his move in day is 8/14! Part of the problem is that he doesn’t even find out what dorm he is in or who his roommate is until Aug 1. His first choice is suite style with its own bathroom and his second choice is a double with hall bathroom. Until we know where he’s living, we haven’t decided on what he will need (shower caddy, etc). His list is already way shorter than D17.
The other problem is that he is playing a fall sport so he has to be there a few weeks early. One of his teammates told him that when he was a freshman last year, for those few weeks they did not live in their actual dorm room. I said, “wait, so you have to move all your stuff from one room to the other?” His response was “I guess.” So when he told me that, I wondered how they transport their stuff from one dorm to the next since we obviously wouldn’t be there. And of course, no information about any of this from his coaches.
So we are in a kind of wait and see situation until we get more information. He says maybe we could just drive back on actual move in day at the end of August with the bulk of his stuff. It’s a 5 hr drive. I normally wouldn’t care but he already has three home games in Sept that we are planning to drive up for so I don’t relish the thought of an extra trip just to move him from one dorm to another. The upside is that since we will be up there several times this fall, anything he doesn’t bring but decides he wants or needs we will be able to bring up with us later. So when we go for the initial move in, we can just take the essentials and wait to take up the “cold weather” stuff on a subsequent trip.
@4kids4us bit tricky not even knowing what dorm you’re in till 2 weeks before move in day. Everyone except some of the late waitlist acceptances know their dorm assignments by now but freshman (freshmen can’t choose roommates) only find out roommate assignments 2 weeks before move in date. At least you don’t have to fly, which would make planning a lot trickier.
@4kids4us yikes your situation of not knowing would drive me nuts!
I’m now looking at cheap stick vacs. I couldn’t find anything that said whether there is a hall vacuum to borrow but DD’s roommate said if we bring a vacuum she will bring a TV. DD doesn’t care about a TV- she would just watch Netflix on her laptop, but roommate wants one. I hope there’s room.
towel vs robe dilemma - I pointed out a wrap around towel to my D. She said - why would I need that - I have a robe!
Shower caddy - I think most boys are shower caddy phobic, while girls debate the mesh vs hard case versions. But many dorm bathrooms will have cubbies where kids can just leave their shower stuff.
My son doesn’t get his room and roommate assignment until August 1 (19 days before move-in). He knows which dorm he is in because he’s in a residential learning community. I hope the rooms are a pretty standard size because I based my “dorm mountain” purchase on a “typical” room in that building.
@4kids4us That sounds stressful! Hopefully, you will be hearing more about the living situation for the freshman athletes very soon so you can plan.
S19 also doesn’t find out his dorm or roommate until Aug. 1st. We leave two weeks after that. I don’t expect boys to do much coordinating and I’m just buying stuff I think he will/may need and we’ll see what happens when we get there. But it would still be nice to know!
I even don’t know when officially roommates will be notified by my son’s college but I guess it will be around August 1st like other colleges. Several of his friends (from other states) will start at the same school so he and one of them agreed and completed online roommate “request” on the same day together before deadline. So, they are pretty sure that they are becoming roommates. It is a double-occupancy room which is bare to basic (only 4 electrical outlets!) but the larger than I expected. We didn’t see bathrooms during campus tour. If there are more enrollments this year, the 3rd student will be assigned in a double-occupancy room with about $2000/year less at all 3 families (I love an idea of saving $$$$). At least, we would like to know soon if there are 2 or 3 in a room…
I’m feeling better about my son after reading through these posts! 
My D16 had SO much stuff - between the toiletries, bedding, decor, string lights, ottomans, rugs, etc…it was “fun” getting her ready to go to college until it wasn’t anymore. She went a little crazy.
S19 doesn’t want a top-sheet, doesn’t want a robe, doesn’t want a shower caddy, doesn’t want shower shoes (gross), doesn’t want an umbrella, doesn’t want a rain jacket, doesn’t want boots and doesn’t want any desk accessories because he will not be using his desk either apparently. I could throw some toiletries, a blanket, a few towels, some shorts and flip flops in a bag and send him off tomorrow. SO different than his sister.
D19 starts on Sep. 1st, but will only know her dorms and roommate around mid August.
It is just as crazy starting - D19 has orientation, followed by a three day hiking trip into the wilderness (fixing trails, evidently), so it’s a couple of days in the room, out to hiking, back, and starting classes.
It also means that we need to get her some hiking stuff as well, such as new hiking boots with good ankle support. Luckily, since both my wife and I have do work in the field, we at least have some of the items, such as headlamps and heavy duty flashlights. Well, I also have a good handheld GPS unit, but I don’t think that I’ll have time to upload the right maps and to train her in its use (it’s an old Garmin 60CXs - still the most reliable one out there, but not as user friendly as the newer models).
We have some dorm stuff, like the extra-long sheets, mattress toppers, and other stuff from her summer programs at Northwestern, but we probably need to add some stuff. However, since she starts on September 1st, we are procrastinating…