Shipping son's stuff to college

ARTCC
Sun, 19 May 2019 02:46:59 +0000

We had to fly to get to our D’s college (which was 4,800 miles away) so we pre-ordered much of our D’s dorm needs (e.g. bedding, towels, etc.) through Bed, Bath, and Beyond and picked them up at their location closest to our D’s college after we arrived with her for the college’s freshman orientation program.

She also rented micro-refrigerators and microwaves through a company that had a contract with the college with her roommates each year so she didn’t need to bring those, either.

We purchased some small dorm furniture items, such as storage cubes, desk/table lamps, and shelf units from Target after we arrived.

When she came home for the Summer, her college had a convenient arrangement with a local storage company that would provide boxes and packing materials at the end of the Spring term and pick up the packed boxes and personally owned furniture from her dorm room and deliver them back to her when she returned to her new dorm before the start of the Fall terms.

She graduated earlier this month. After her commencement ceremony, we flew home with her and six checked bags. We also mailed two Priority Mail flat rate boxes home that contained books and other heavy or bulky items we didn’t want to pack in our checked bags. Fortunately, I’m a United Premier Gold frequent flyer and my wife and I received first class upgrades for the first segment of our trip home, so the two of us were entitled to three free checked bags each. As a result, we didn’t have to pay any checked bag fees for our flight home with our D.

Our D donated items such as her personally owned dorm furniture and clothes she no longer needed that we did not wish to bring back with us. After graduation each year, her college has a tag sale of student donated items, with proceeds going to the university.