<p>I am going to be sending my D to college 2500 miles from home in August. I have questions - about packing; helping her to understand the limits of dorm room space when she hasn’t seen the dorms at the school she is to attend; in room storage and decorating without breaking me financially; etcetera. </p>
<p>Also, wondering about your experiences as far as dorm mattresses and the need for “toppers” - egg crate vs. memory foam</p>
<p>I am interested in learning from those of you who have been through these experienes before; and I am especially interested in ‘meeting’ those of you who may have students at Lake Forest College.</p>
<p>I belong to the same “club”. D plans to attend Northwestern. We are thinking of going out with her(she asked us to come), buying what she needs for her dorm room-that way we can keep on top of what is spent. Any parents with students attending NU-I would love your insight/lessons learned.
I am also grappling with the whole idea of what it means to be an “empty nester”. <strong><em>SUGGESTIONS</em></strong>?</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about Lake Forest College, but I do know about packing and decorating.</p>
<p>Look into frig/microwave rentals for dorm rooms. </p>
<p>As far as bed comforters/sheets/towels…Can she get this when she goes to campus (like at a Walmart/Target/Bed bath and beyond)? That way, you don’t have to take it with you. Either that, or ship it???</p>
<p>As far a decorating, posters-posters-posters. She can get them at the student store. Get sticky tack for the cinder block walls at student store too. The rest of her room is going to be taken up with clothes, books, supplies.</p>
<p>Make sure she buys/brings a good light to read by (at night).</p>
<p>Take as little as possible and she will she have more than she needs or wants. College kids (and parents) almost always bring way too much stuff. Dorm rooms are small with little storage for the excess stuff. Most college kids get by with minimal clothing. My D always changed clothing frequently and never wore anything twice…that was before college. Now it is the same jeans and flipflops for weeks on end. She did not need desklamps, mattress toppers, curtains, posters or much of anything else. We ended up bringing quite a bit of stuff back with us after the freshmen dropoff and even more returned midyear and at the end of the school year.</p>
<p>One “extra”-- an electric fan. S’s school suggests them (no a/c), and they also come in handy for white noise if there’s a racket in the hallway (or in my case, a snoring spouse). The small vornado-type ones are pretty compact, and work well.</p>
<p>As for bed toppers, we might just wait and see how the mattresses are. The salesman at our local Bed Bath & Beyond suggested something called a fiber-bed(?), which sounds like a quilted mattress topper and is washable, as opposed to an egg crate.</p>
<p>We’ve found BB&B to be very reasonable with shipping, and you can also choose the stuff at your local store, and then pick it up at a branch near her campus when you arrive.</p>
<p>I don’t have a student at Lake Forest College but work about two miles from the there (my boss lives a couple of blocks away right on Lake Michigan!) If you need to know anything about the area or where to buy dorm items, PM me and I would be happy to advise. </p>
<p>Remember the old adage ‘out of sight out of mind’? Use it to your advantage. Let her discover the limits of dorm rooms for herself–don’t prejudice the matter one way or the other. My son lived in a shoe box hostel dorm room with three other rotating people and no closets and he managed quite well. My other son was assigned to a double dorm room with three people in it–he survived too. Those experiences gave them confidence. They know they can survive some hardships.</p>
<p>Residential college is the relatively safe time to take your children out of cotton wool. Let them learn about the world on their own. The only advice I would give is to have mercy on the roommate–don’t drive them away with slop or necking sessions w/ bf/gf.</p>
<p>As for empty nest–did you enjoy your childless 20s? Well, that lifestyle is coming back to you. Make the most of it by trying new activities and new travels–and you will be happier than you imagined possible.</p>
<p>Another reason to not go overboard with the dorm stuff – you’ll be surprised at how often they move! You picture getting them all set up and they live happily ever after, but, not necessarily! Next thing you know they don’t like their roommate and they move across campus, or they decide to stay the summer and their stuff is in and out of storage several times in the course of a few months… So, less is more. They’re little nomads.</p>
<p>cheers…I enjoyed my childless 20s and my kid is away at school but somehow while the mind is willing the body is less able than it was in my 20s…not quite the same experience. But still fun, don’t get me wrong.</p>
<p>Haha…I wish we had travelled more–and we travelled all over the bloody globe in our mid-twenties.</p>
<p>That’ sense of ‘not enough’ is the reason why I encourage/fund so much travel for my sons. The time for globe trotting is limited. It makes sense to pack it in betweent he ages of 18 and 28.</p>
<p>As for the body…yeah…I know what you mean. On the other hand, my emotions, creativity and intellect are so much stronger now. </p>
<p>If all three components came together at the same time…I dunno. I might have had to don a silver lycra suit and started leaping out of clouds.</p>
<p>You had asked about helping your D “understand the limits of dorm space.”</p>
<p>Without seeing the space, it can be tough to visualize how SMALL a small dorm room can be. Often, the college websites will have dimensions of dorm rooms shown in the residential section of the sites. Some have actual photos, etc. If her college has this, measure out that same area in her own room, and remind her that she only gets HALF of that (assuming roommate).
That can go a long way toward getting real about what there’s room to bring.
(Warning: we did this, and it helped D to a point. She still overpacked by a mile, though )</p>
<p>Also, the distance to travel complicates things. There have been some very good discussions on this board about how to prepare for a long-distance move. I’d suggest searching for some of those threads–you can pick up some very good suggestions that way. </p>
<p>One idea you definitely need to check out is the Bed Bath & Beyond registry which allows you to choose and pay in advance for some of the basics (like an egg crate–a MUST have), and picking it up when you get there. We used this method with great success. This assumes you will have a car at move-in and a BB&B near campus.</p>
<p>Anyway, just by searching at CC you’ll learn so much and avoid some of the mistakes we’ve all made in the process. Having had a son and a daughter, I can say that overpacking with D was our single biggest challenge. Not a problem with S at all!</p>
<p>Good luck and enjoy the experience. It can be fun if you do the shopping together!</p>
)</p>