<p>I second or third the rolling duffel bag. If flattens down to nothing for under the bed storage. (rolling hockey bags work great). Milk crates do double duty in the dorm, and are easy to lug up the steps. I also vote for the Sterilite drawers. (I found one at Target last summer that has ventilation holes)</p>
<p>Pizzagirl,</p>
<p>When it comes to moving your child into her dorm, there are no dumb questions! This is what I did. We flew into Manchester, NH and rented a car (yay, Southwest - 4 duffel bags flew for free!). We brought only D’s clothes, some home artifacts, shoes, etc. For everything else, there is a HUGE shopping center in Natick: amazingly well-stocked Target, BB&B, Walmart, Macy’s, REI - you name it. We stayed at a hotel and shopped for a couple of days. D even managed to meet a few of her future dorm mates while we were shopping at that Target! I kept everything we bought in the shopping bags in the car’s trunk. On the morning of the move-in day, we drove up to her future dorm (there were student volunteers directing traffic on campus, and everything was very organized), where we unloaded everything by the doorsteps (we were given ample 15 minutes to do so), then a volunteer directed me to a nearby parking lot where I left the car, and I hurried back to help DD move her stuff up a flight of stairs to her room. A dolly would not have helped in this older dorm - it was a hassle to go around the floor and wait in line for the elevator, so we just carried everything (we are both pretty fit). I had to make a couple of runs to the shopping center to get some the stuff we missed (and buy some snacks), then we hugged, and off I went.</p>
<p>If you are planning to drive your student back home in the summer, there is probably no need for plastic bins, duffel bags, cardboard bosex, etc. *to be stored in the room *- they only take up space. My D brought the duffel bags one by one home, and somehow she managed to store her stuff *on campus *without any of the abovementioned containers. Even her bike that she later got at REI. :)</p>
<p>Do keep in mind that we do have lots of ginormous stores here - not many IN Boston, but lots pretty close. So, you could certainly buy bulky things like bedding here. Boston will be somewhat crazy Labor Day weekend because so many kids move in so be prepared. Things with wheels would probably be a plus since you may not be able to park right at the dorm. Most colleges let you store a ton of stuff over the summer as well, so containers that collapse and can be used for that would be nice. I remember that my dorm had a small closet for the hall (about 25 people) for luggage which helped a bit. Don’t know know if those exist any more.</p>
<p>My son carried everything to college in four of these duffel bags: [Adventure</a> Duffle, Extra-Large: Duffle Bags at L.L.Bean](<a href=“Adventure Duffle, Extra-Large | Duffle Bags at L.L.Bean”>Adventure Duffle, Extra-Large | Duffle Bags at L.L.Bean) and brought four of them home with him four years later. We monogrammed them with his last name (which is also his sister’s and my husband’s). DD is taking two with her this week when she moves to California. We have bought a lot of them over the years, as we also use them for storage. (There’s several with dive gear, another with ski gear, etc.) We got bright yellow, which has the advantage of being highly visible.</p>
<p>When we moved DD to CA, we did it with four suitcases. One had only linens (towels, bed quilt, one set of sheets. Suitcase two had some school supply things she wanted to take. Suitcase three and 1/2 of suitcase four had her clothes in them. The other half of suitcase four had MY things for the trip. We also each had a backpack and a carry on. My carry on was two musical instruments in a case. Hers was her laptop computer.</p>
<p>We bought everything else in CA…all the bulky linens, a small rug (ordered at our BBB and picked up there), computer printer, chair pad (she loved that), and all the toiletries. </p>
<p>We looked like pack mules but it worked.</p>
<p>Four years later, we moved her BACK here with six suitcases (three of us travelled, each with two empty suitcases). Anything that didn’t fit had to be given away. She did ship her bed linens home. </p>
<p>It really worked.</p>
<p>For freshman move in, we flew to Chicago and rented a car there. S brought two very large duffels packed with clothes and a backpack with his computer. We shipped around 4 large boxes to the dorm and picked them up on move in day (I think someone actually delivered these boxes to the room which was nice since they were big) - the college let us know when the mailroom would be open and ready for shipments, and I think a lot of out of town kids shipped boxes. We pre-ordered from our local Bed Bath & Beyond sometime in August - towels, bedding, hangers, lamp - and picked this stuff up at the BB&B near campus on move in day. It all went really smoothly - son was moved in and room set up by mid morning. After a quick run to CVS for toiletries and some snacks, and Staples to replace the printer that broke in transit, he was all set.</p>
<p>Son stored most of his stuff at the end of freshman year, and flew home with two huge duffel bags.</p>
<p>My older son went to college only 4 hours away so we drove - we still pre-shipped large boxes and picked them up at the mailroom at move in. I agree it is great to bring clothes already on hangers if driving.</p>
<p>How does this BB&B thing work? I went to the site to do a little estimating and didn’t see any option for shipping to a store. I’d like to start a wish list now so we can have a full but not too full list way in advance.</p>
<p>NEmom, the pre-ordering for college students isn’t available until late July/early August. At that point BB&B has sample lists available online (far more than any college student would ever want/need but still helpful!) and if you go to your local store they will give you a contraption for scanning the items you want to order. It was very efficient, and then on move-in day the store near campus was set up with a separate area for college students to pick up their pre-orders.</p>
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<p>Unless something has changed…you can’t do it online. You have to go IN to a BBB store. We went to the one near our home. It was sort of like the bridal registry…we picked what we wanted and they found the BBB store nearest to where DD went to college. We told them the date when we planned to pick the stuff up.</p>
<p>When we got to CA, we went to the BBB store there (with coupons a plenty…in fact, we didn’t have enough and I asked other customers if they had any extras…my daughter was SOOOO embarrassed…tough). The stuff we picked out was all set aside for us. We were able to delete things and add things from the store inventory. It was great!!</p>
<p>The nice thing about doing the ordering IN the store is that your daughter can SEE what she is buying.</p>
<p>Here’s an article about the BB&B service - there’s a reference to other stores offering this service as well. </p>
<p>[Bed</a>, Bath and Beyond expectations - News](<a href=“http://media.www.ecollegetimes.com/media/storage/paper991/news/2010/08/26/News/Bed-Bath.And.Beyond.Expectations-3925433.shtml]Bed”>http://media.www.ecollegetimes.com/media/storage/paper991/news/2010/08/26/News/Bed-Bath.And.Beyond.Expectations-3925433.shtml)</p>
<p>I’ve used some of these same ideas. Using trash bags as garment bags was a big help because the clothes could go straight from the car into the closet. Just be sure to secure the “hook” ends of the hangers before you pack the car or the may slide all around. We just used a hair tie looped around a few times and then the clothes stayed all neat and tidy. And the spacesaver bags are the best invention ever!</p>
<p>I didn’t read all the posts, so forgive me if I repeat advice. But this is what I noticed both as a freshman and as an RA to freshmen:</p>
<ol>
<li>Be realistic. if you don’t use it at home, you probably won’t use it in the dorm. Something that helped me: Monitor yourself for a week and make a list of everything you use. If you have things that aren’t on the list (and aren’t something you’ll be starting to do for yourself,e.g. kitchen supplies, laundry soap, etc.), leave them at home. </li>
<li>Bring a toolkit. This is especially important if you’re going to buy things when you get there; don’t depend on anyone else having anything, because then before you know it the whole floor is borrowing the same toolkit and every piece ends up in a different room.</li>
<li>Yes, there are stores in whatever town you’ll be going to school in. BUT. If this is the route you’re going to go, PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE get there a day early and do your shopping then. Our stores get totally cleaned out during move-in weekend, and you might not be able to find everything you need if you put it off.</li>
<li>My boss’s boss said this at the beginning of the year and it has always rung true: “Do not bring an entire U-Haul full of stuff. If it doesn’t fit in mom and dad’s car/SUV, it probably won’t fit in your half of the dorm room.”</li>
<li>PLEASE go on the Housing web site and read their list of what to bring and what to leave at home. I had to tell several of my students at the beginning of the year that mom and dad had to take things home with them.</li>
</ol>
<p>As for how to transport, I used garbage bags, boxes and suitcases. Just make sure that once you’re done you throw them away in dumpsters, not the trashcans. Ours were heaping full and facilities/maintenance was MAD.</p>
<p>Remember that move-in and move-out take place during the summer, and it gets very hot inside the car if you leave it for more than a few minutes. Also, the presence of all that stuff in your car will make it obvious that you are transporting a student to college, and I suspect that thieves know that all college students have at least one valuable possession – a laptop computer.</p>
<p>When we do move-in or move-out trips, we always take two backpacks with us whenever we leave the car (to eat lunch, use a restroom, etc.). One contains the student’s laptop and any important papers. The other contains medicines, cosmetics, and other things that could be harmed by exposure to extreme heat.</p>
<p>We are a little bit paranoid. ;)</p>
<p>Havent read the whole thread-- but combo of duffels and plastic drawers is ideal. The plastic drawers are bulky, but there is nowhere to put the big monstrous plastic containers unless you planto take them back home with you in the car. Duffels are easy to smoosh down and store.</p>
<p>Re plastic drawers: Tape them shut for the trip.</p>
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<p>This is smart, not paranoid. I have heard horror stories about things being stolen on the way to school.</p>
<p>Also, please encourage your S/D and their new roommates to keep the door closed/locked in between trips if no one is in the room. Yes, it is a hassle, but (I don’t know if this is true at all schools, but I assume so) we have the most break-ins and thefts during move-in/move-out. People know that there are doors open and lots of valuables present and some don’t hesitate to help themselves.</p>