S has not been home most of the summer. After the family road trip, he had a week at home before heading to the New Mexico desert this week for search and rescue training.
He hasn’t bought (or wanted) anything for his dorm room. We have bought a bed comforter and a water kettle. That’s about it. He hasn’t even begun his summer reading.
We are driving the 22 hours (one way?) to his dorm - though we don’t know which one yet - and will stay for 3 days until convocation. We have 10 plastic containers that fit in the truck bed under the cover, so he can take basically anything he wants, but I’m guessing he won’t fill but half a dozen, including a good bit of outdoor and sparring gear. We like the idea of leaving the bins for under-bed/closet storage. They’ll also help with storing stuff over the summer if he needs them. As a kind of minimalist family, I’m not sure he could fill them all if he tried.
Robes are tricky, because if they’re not made of good (read: pretty expensive) material they stick to you uncomfortably when wet, and if they are made of good material they make you look like you’ve stepped straight out of an NC17 or worse film set.
ETA, to clarify: As characterized by my oldest kid.
My S16 has never owned a robe. I have actually never thought of that before. My D19 does own a robe which she picked out (a good two years ago) and she uses it quite often.
I’m procrastinating on teaching my D19 on how to do laundry. I’m not sure why but I really have to get on it.
We have less than a month to go and I feel our list is still long with necessities. Rain coat, umbrella, shower shoes, computer backpack, first aid kit, cold medicines (and other over the counter medicines I know she might need), a 3 drawer portable bureau (IKEA she tells me ?) for under the bed (she vetoed Rubbermaid’s), drying rack, extra printer cartridges, mattress topper, bath towels/wash clothes, etc etc. We are tackling this list tomorrow!!
D got her room assignment today! She ended up in a single in a two bed suite. She is happy with where she was assigned, so that’s a relief. She has no clue what the inside looks like at all, but it’s a single and it’s close to the dining hall and library, and next to the bathrooms (the suites don’t have bathrooms). She’s easy to please. Ha!
I’m not looking forward to move in day to the third floor with no elevator.
Oh yeah, my two girls are going to get their workouts in for that day. I do wish hubby were joining us though. D has a lot of stuff, and the idea of the stairs wasn’t a deterrent at all.
@milgymfam Have you tried YouTube for a dorm tour of your D’s specific dorm? My S’s college has lots of tours online where kids document their dorm life. Might help with planning.
I have, but unless I’m missing something there is nothing online. No pics, no videos, no diagrams. Just the layout of the building itself and an external shot on the school webpage. I never realized it would all be so secretive. Every time we move- often- I look up pics and videos of the new base housing and I always know what we are walking into, so this is new territory for me.
The summer is moving along faster than any of us would like over here! D19 got her dorm assignment a while ago and is thrilled to have a single in her preferred residential program. She is wrapping up her summer as a camp counselor and finishing the Penn Reading Project assignment before turning her attention to packing.
As far as getting all of her stuff to the across the country, we have a pretty good plan. All of the clothes she needs from now until fall break will be taken on our flight. We will likely ship some items directly to the college for them to hold until move-in too. I dragged her to the Bed, Bath, and Beyond last week to do Pack & Hold (thanks, CCers for the tip!) so all that will be ready when we arrive. Any extras will be gotten at IKEA.
D19 will get a robe. She has long, thick hair that will leave a trail of water if she doesn’t wrap it up after her shower. Taking two towels to the bathroom just seems silly when a robe is so practical. Slippers are also on the list. D14 used hers all the time when visiting hallmates.
After DD found out her roommate was bringing a TV, she asked me yesterday if she could get a Wii to bring. Today we happened upon a garage sale that had one for $50 with two controllers, 2 nunchuks and 19 games. So that was easy.
@milgymfam - At many of the smaller or private colleges, they have upper class students who are volunteers for each dorm and will help move your student in (of course only freshman year). At Vassar, all the volunteers wore color-coordinated t-shirts and had balloons etc. for each dorm. They made a big deal of it as we pulled up to her dorm, cheering and waving signs. We unloaded everything onto the sidewalk and by the time I parked the car, all of D17’s stuff was in her fourth floor room. I think it will be the same for S19 in a few weeks. I’m not sure how it is at Haverford but you may get lucky and not have to make as many trips up and down.
I tried to find any YouTube videos on my son’s college dorm but it was unsuccessful. However, I found a couple of “boys” dorm videos. What they really recommend to take to a dorm are a shower caddy and tons of underwear! So, I am done with shopping!
Yeah, I hear at ours they have a crew ready- we drive through, unload onto the sidewalk, and then park cars elsewhere. Students help cart it up. We also have a third floor room with no elevator. I think we’ll let DD out to accompany her stuff while we park.
Spent the whole day tackling my D’s dorm list. The main item we really wanted to find was the perfect storage unit for under her bed. She really does not want Rubbermaid’s like her brother uses. She will raise her bed as high as it goes plus use bed risers. My son has done that and he can get the fridge underneath. Anyways we were at IKEA which turned out to be a flop. Nothing similar to what she wants at all. So disappointing. Anyways we went to Bed Bath & Beyond to check it out because we were an hour from home and our local BBB is not fully stocked with the Back To College items. We found the perfect, absolutely perfect portable drawers for anyone who wants to raise their bed and utilize the underneath for storage. Go to BBB and search “Deep Underbed Storage Drawer”. They are made by Iris. In the store you can see all the various sizes - but you want this largest one. Online they are $29.99 a piece, in the store they were $21.99 each. We bought 3. They are stackable, stylish and huge. If 3 is too tall, she can do 2 and 1 next to it (but I think 3 stacked is perfect). We even got to use the 20% off coupon on all 3. I wanted to share in case anyone was also looking. We are thrilled because her dorm bureau is on the small size and she is a kid with lots of clothes. Now we are in the hunt for a small ottoman for storage and to use as a step to get up to her bed. I think I found one on the Target website - going to check it out in person this week.
@Stuffedquahog first time we are sending someone to college. What do kids put in these bins under their beds? Just more clothes that don’t fit in dresser or closet?
On moving day, they usually have students on hand to help out. I remember you saying that she is moving in a few days early, but hopefully there will be someone to help you lug all the gear up the stairs.
@homerdog Yup clothes. Dorm closets (or wardrobes) and bureaus are small and they will fill fast. By the time you place all your shoes, sneakers, boots plus all the items that need to be hung (like dresses or button down shirts/dress pants), and your winter coat, fall coat, rain coat, blazers, sweatshirts - closets fill very fast. The portable drawers come in handy for tee shirts (my kids have a ton) sweatshirts, workout clothes - oh and sweaters, they both have lots of them too and they are bulky. They are also good as a snack drawer too. Possibilities are endless.
@Stuffedquahog Like those!
Maybe I missed this revelation, but I tried to use the search to find a specific older post, but I guess the site developers did not test for the side effects of repaginating. Arghh! The hyperlinks in the search are tied to the original page numbers.
D19’s dorm already has risers and underbed storage included, so that’s one less thing to organize. The wardrobes actually look reasonable size from the photos (though the desks look pretty small - will probably add some shelves there). The official guide says there is enough space for 2-3 50lb suitcases’ worth of stuff, so hopefully she will be fine.