<p>I am surrounded with stuff… we are in the midst of weeding out what goes back to school. She leaves tomorrow am and we have been packing, repacking and downsizing stuff for a week now. AND I would consider her on the more minimal end of the spectrum. I’ve seen students with their car and their parents vehicles loaded… I 've seen u hauls pull up… Is anyone else swimming in stuff!!!</p>
<p>Not yet, but expect my dining room to turn in to “college central” next week for S and the following week for D! I expect S’s haul to be smaller, but also expect him to be more likely to forget stuff… :)</p>
<p>To our amazement, a semester abroad turned D into a real minimalist. Most of the “stuff” will remain at home.</p>
<p>Son went off to college with two suitcases. That was a good plan. Over 4 years 2 grew.</p>
<p>We are absolutely swimming in stuff. I never unpacked from last year because there was no place to put anything anyway, so now I am sorting through boxes trying to downsize from last year. I think I will succeed in bringing substantially less this year but I hope nobody needs to get into my living room any time soon.</p>
<p>We live across country from my D’s school so it has really limited what she can take. She leaves Thursday AM and has not even started packing! Three of us are flying there so we will each check one large suitcase. This is her 1st year at this school but she is living in an off-campus, furnished apt. We will hit some thrift stores once we get there to try to find some kitchen stuff, dishes, etc. Our concern is that while it is a year-round lease, there is a 3 week gap that the apt. (and it looks like all apts. in the area) is not available. I am just hoping we can find a short-term storage unit for those 3 weeks so we don’t have to start over next year!</p>
<p>abasket, I am a couple of weeks ahead of you. DS leaves tomorrow for “fish camp” and we’ll meet him there with the rest of his stuff on Sat. I can’t remember what my dining room table looks like.</p>
<p>How many boys really NEED 12 pairs of shoes for school (outdoor cleats, indoor cleats, 2 kinds of flipflops, 2 regular tennis shoes, torn-up tennis shoes, 3 pairs of vans…)?? I keep calling him “Imelda”. He has no clue :-).</p>
<p>In the spring, D stored three UPS boxes of possessions at school and shipped one home. Yesterday I brought four boxes to UPS to be shipped back to school. I do not understand this at all…</p>
<p>This post over on the Penn State forum cracked me up (sorry, quoting format is beyond me)–</p>
<p>“By the way… they just “tell” you that they accept packages a week before check-in, because they don’t want to accept a massive load of packages and have their place filled up with stuff. You can send it anytime you want. I always mail 2 large boxes (~50 pounds each) back home at the end of the year and not go to the post office to pick them up when I get home. I let them send it back to the “return address” and the commons desk will hold it for me until I pick it up in the Fall semester. This method is a lot cheaper than Box My Dorm or any storage company.”</p>
<p>DD went across the country with four suitcases. Four years later, she came home with six suitcases. Not bad.</p>
<p>My son is moving across country in a very small car. It will hold everything he needs including clothes, kitchen stuff, linens, etc…and a passenger. He says…less is more.</p>
<p>DD always travels with one half-full wheeled duffel bag and a “personal item”. Most of her stuff was bought in Boston, and she managed to keep it in Boston (storage, friends with apartments, etc.). I’m not looking forward to the day we have to deal with moving her stuff back home.</p>
<p>We have lots of “stuff” in the spare bedroom right now. The good thing is that D is very organized!</p>
<p>Son started out freshman year with tons of stuff. Then gradually winnowed it. Last year he slept in a sleeping bag! I just got it cleaned last week. He came home with a duffel and a backpack and sleeping bag and that seems to be what he’s going back with. Lots of stuff in campus storage that actually stayed in campus storage all last year . . . including the electric tea kettle I sent him for his birthday last year, no doubt still in the package it arrived in.</p>
<p>Ha. No packing here. We are on vacation out of the country and DD is dealing with her own move back for sophomore year. This might be my permanent strategy!</p>
<p>Jeez, sounds like some of you are getting off easy compared to my D’s crap…err stuff. She had to pay around $200 to have “stuff” stored over the summer, which included moving her “stuff” both ways in and out of storage. She also left in the spring with two small suitcases for an internship on the opposite side of the country, and will be coming back with 1 LARGE suitcase and 1 of the small ones. The other she shipped FedEx ground to be delivered to school. In addition, there is another 2 boxes being shipped from my parents who she shopped with (oops, visited with) before going to her internship.</p>
<p>S got an interesting deal this past summer. He was able to sign up with Public Storage to rent for one month. The month was FREE except for a nominal processing fee (under $50 for their air-conditioned largest room). He & D stashed their stuff there & moved it back out (there was a gap in their leases so both had to be out by the end of May & their next lodging wasn’t available until AFTER we came back from our roadtrip.</p>
<p>He had THREE TVs at the time & has since sold it & a lot of his other stuff. Between him & D, they had a TON of stuff but he’s been winnowing it down by selling on Craigslist & just tossing things he doesn’t feel are worth schlepping across country.</p>
<p>Back in the stone ages, I schlepped four boxes to school & back home each year for the six years I lived away from home. The only thing I had to figure out where to store was a clunker bike that no one was interested in stealing. The kids have a TON more stuff than we ever did! It’s pretty amazing how much they acquire & how much space it takes up!</p>
<p>My boss told me that back in the day she came from FL to Boston on the plane with everything she owned in 5 large suitcases. I said, “Can you imagine what the airlines would charge for that now? It would be much cheaper to box it up and ship it!”</p>
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<p>Haha, it is the same w/ my D. She even said, “This is probably all I should really ever bring to school,” meaning her USA school. She also told me the most that can happen is that a few times she will wish she had “some top,” and she’ll get over it.</p>
<p>She has to pack 4 months of clothes, stretching 3 seasons, into one big suitcase (weighing no more than 44 pounds) and a carry -on. She is going to one of the most expensive cities in the world. So buying a lot over there is not really an option. </p>
<p>So she will wear a lot of the same things over and over–nothing wrong w/ that.</p>
<p>Well she moved, in a small pick up truck, in a monsoon! We packed everything in plastic totes, 8 of them, covered in plastic… Everything was wet when she arrived despite our best efforts. Spend her first night back in the laundry mat! </p>
<p>My house looks (and life feels like) it weathered a catergory 5 hurricane! Man I miss the mess, the noise, the activity and my girl!</p>
<p>I live in a college town and my dog and I walk with DH to his office on campus every morning. The dorms opened for the majority of students today and the minivans are rolling in. (I look at the folks with U-Hauls and wonder where people think they are going to put all that stuff???) There is an excited buzz in the air and it made me reflect on how much I enjoy living here. I really appreciate seeing your children’s theatrical and musical performances. I have been delighted to come upon wedding parties being photographed by the school mascot’s “shrine”. After twenty years, I still share the joy of families here for commencement weekend. Thank you all for sharing your children with us!</p>