<p>“Why the darn XL sheets anyway?” because they’re not as wide so they’re compensating…now don’t ask why they’re narrower >.<</p>
<p>Egad - back in the day, didn’t we live with only about 10% of what’s available now for dorm rooms?</p>
<p>When both kids happily flew the coup, I took great pleasure in helping them prepare for dorm living. They, on the other hand, were terribly annoyed by the whole process (because of me, I’m sure). You’d think I would have learned when older child (S) didn’t use 50% of the stuff we got. Washed his sheets and towels about twice/semester, never using the second sets. Often just slept on the top of his bed (even in the dead of Michigan winter). He didn’t store anything in underbed plastic bins, used them as footstools. And his after-the-tornado decor looked a whole lot neater than some of his neighbors. Last year with D I did it again - buying stuff she never really needed, even though most of it seemed so necessary at the time BB&B and L&T were taking our $$. If I had another child going off to school, I’d give them no more than $150-200 and point them in the direction of the aforementioned stores (with coupons) and Target and I’d stay out of it. Regular or XL sheets - why should I care? And I don’t think the kids do either. They always seem to make do.</p>
<p>I just received something in the mail today - regular sheets fit, but I should get the deep pockets (!) - someone at the school understands this conundrum! Parents must call about this all the time <g>!!!</g></p>
<p>Maize&Blue - while I remember much about college, I can’t remember a thing about sheets so I think you accurate in your assessment - the kids are not going to care!</p>
<p>In my college, we used to have laundry service: white bed sheets, pillowcases and towels delivered every week.</p>
<p>my college had laundry service too, but only one sheet per week and a pillowcase every other week. You were supposed to take the (less dirty) top sheet and reuse it on the bottom, and put the clean sheet on top. Like someone is going to go to all the trouble to tear their whole bed apart to get half-clean sheets!</p>
<p>Rileydog: I don’t recall anything about my sheets/towels/storage containers, etc. either. All I remember is the tiny closet with a vanity mirror on the door and 3 drawers built in. Apparently, I was not scarred for life by my measly conveniences. I did have space though for my set of hot rollers!</p>
<p>marite: What hotel did you live in??? Did you leave a tip?</p>
<p>At the Wamsutta outlet you can get the XL twin sheets for $4.99. I bought quite a few. If they get ruined, no big deal.</p>
<p>Hotel Brandeis.</p>
<p>At the equally upscale Hotel Wellesley, we had the same weekly linen service providing very white, but very scratchy, linens. Did I care? I did not. And I can’t for the life of me re-conjure up where I kept that wet towel… Had no special over-the-door hooks, no underbed storage, no cute “egg” chair, no egg crate.</p>
<p>I’m trying to follow Maize&Blue’s instructions, but I can only go half-cold-turkey on the buying. I know S will NEVER use the cute storage cubes/bins etc. I am tempted to buy, so nix on that. I’ll wait on a featherbed or whatever (1075 has convinced me of the eggcrate fire hazard) until he complains. No new towels for him; he can have the ones we’ve been using and we’ll get the new ones (he files his on the floor anyway). I will get him the new sheets and comforter, cheap. I think he’ll even wash them (does his own laundry now, after a fashion - ie, dresses himself out of the dryer or laundry basket; movement of clothes to closet/drawers being an unnecessary step ;)) </p>
<p>What I think we need is sheets and towels with microchips measuring frequency of laundering. We could use the data either to create a betting pool or for some arcane sociological study.</p>
<p>jmmom: Wishful thinking here too - I never could even go half-cold-turkey. It was an all out blitz each time. Just today I left the BB&B and L&T mailings/coupons for my rising soph D on the table cuz I thought there were some neat things in there. When she came home, she shoved them aside and read the Sporting News instead. I asked if she thought she’d need something for her NEW room and received the you’re-bugging-me eye-roll in reply. I just need to keep the mantras going: “It’s all gonna be dirty and on the floor for a long time, It’s all …” AND “I don’t care”, “I don’t care”, …</p>
<p>I grew up on the wrong coast when it came to college laundry services.</p>
<p>jmmom, could you expand on</p>
<p><<1075 has convinced me of the eggcrate fire hazard>></p>
<p>See post #6 on this thread:<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=74497[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=74497</a></p>
<p>1075 is a firefighter and came on to cc in response to some questions about egg crates vs. featherbeds, etc. The egg crates, so popular here, are really quite dangerous from all that 1075 is saying, and other research/data that have been cited.</p>
<p>Thanks again to 1075.</p>
<p>I headed off to college with a set of orange and pink “psychedelic” sheets and a furry blue bedspread; boy did I think I was cool! Lasted all 4 years with that combo, though I ditched the blue fur before law school, opting for a fake leather spread instead! No wonder my D doesn’t want me to accompany her to BB & B…</p>
<p>Marite, I knew I could find you on a thread about egg crate mattresses! Ya know, when we stay on CC TOO long, these topics all come back up again in a cycle. We could all collaborate on a book. Well, for me, I’m gonna be back at this point in the next couple of weeks, one year after doing it. I tell the kids to enjoy picking out the linens as their birthday present and it is likely the last time they are gonna get all this new stuff of this nature until their weddings. </p>
<p>To the person who asked about the underbed storage bins…last year at BBandB, my daughter got these big plastic clear bins that were tall (she had bed risers) and some of them also went deep (the entire width of the bed) and some did not go as deep just like you described. They sold both. She bought one as wide as the bed and two that did not go as deep. She used the area behind the less deep bins to store empty duffel bags used for vacations home, etc. You likely could put skis there as well She has three pairs of skis (is a racer) but is able to store hers in the athletic department so did not have to put hers under the bed. Just wanted you to know that there ARE tall bins that also go the depth/width of the bed. </p>
<p>Marite, I think next year, older D is gonna be lofting. So, we can chat about lofts now too :). She got one from a friend who is no longer using hers and stored it at school. Now, I am about to embark on round #2 with the next daughter. Haven’t done it yet as she just got back from her summer program. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>Soozie:</p>
<p>S does not have his housing info yet, and frankly does not seem bothered by it. But we do live within driving distance of Target, BB&B, etc… Plus, he can store things at home, so I won’t go into the lofting vs. not lofting. S1 was too far to do so, but most of his stuff was either stored in his suitcases if it was seldom used or ended up on the floor if it was used frequently.
S2 inherited S1’s mattress, now 20+ years old. One day, I lay on it and got poked by the boxsprings. I put on an eggcrate mattress I’d gotten from the hospital. I’ve never heard any complaint about his mattress! Nor has he ever evinced a preference for bedsheets’ colors, patterns, threadcounts… Makes life easier.</p>
<p>Sounds like your D2 had an amazing time at her camp. What will she be doing the rest of summer? My S has another 3 weeks to go.</p>
<p>A few years ago I told friends that the purpose of summer camp ~ the real reason they exist ~ was not for kids’… but for parents. Not to give parents a summer off, but to give them that first warning shot accross the bow that they better get used to the fact that, someday, the kids will be gone and they’ll have to live together, alone again. </p>
<p>Now I realize the answer to my question which started this thread. The purpose for XL sheets has nothing to do with colleges ease in allocating dorm space. It’s to prepare kids for the fact that, someday, they will have to set up their own homes. Buy linens, think about furniture etc etc. Going with parents to choose sheets, shower caddies, down comforters, computers, stereos etc. is merely college as preparation for life in a whole other way.</p>
<p>And of course, it’s also one last chance for parents/adults to indulge in the nostalgia for their own college lives and their first apartments/homes… before they have to begin preparing to become grandparents.</p>
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<p>This may be gender-specific (or maybe not, in my case: I prefer online shopping whenever I can). My Ss have been happy to devolve all purchasing decisions to me (I know better than to purchase sheets with hearts and flowers for them). The only things they want to have a say in are computers and other electronic gadgets (but they can do their research online).
I have the strongest suspicion that when it comes to furnishing their own homes, they will want to just transfer their existing furniture.</p>
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<p>My niece told her mom (my sister) that she got an apartment and is planning to move on Sept. 1 (this gives me hope that they do actually move out after college:)). MY sister is so happy D is moving that she is actually paying to furnish her apartment . Sis told her , if she needs anything she will throw her a housewarming.</p>
<p>Back to the XL sheet. Purchased D some of the nicest sets of sheets last year (ordered on-line from JCP, even sprung and paid the $5 to have them monogrammed). Majaority of the stuff she never used (she said it is still in the trunk that I painstaking shipped to school last year. She said she changed sheets when she did laundry and could not figure out how come I thought she would need so much linen. Elves (me) changed her bed at home so she did not even pay attention the difference in the sheets.</p>
<p>Last year, I did ask her about getting the linen service at her hotel. She was horrified asying she did not want people to think that she did not knwo how to do laundry (at the rate she does it she could have fooled me). If I had not taught her myself when she was 12, I would seriously question it. Yet this is the same person who when I came to pick up her stuff in may to bring home was washing 5 or 6 machines of clothes. I asked her why is she doing all of her laundry at the last minute. Her response: I haven’t run out of clothes yet. I could go the rest of the term (another 4 weeks) before doing laundry. You just don’t want to take dirty clothes home. Who knows when was the last time those sheet were washed. When I brought this up to her last night she stuck out her tongue, and said, well I did not sleep on the sheets anyway, I slep on top of the comforter which I did was a few times.</p>
<p>sybbie: plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose</p>
<p>My last two years at NYU (this was in '69 & '70) I lived in the East Village on 13th between B & C. Today it is a semi upcoming area called Alphabet City, but back then was just plain slum. I had a 5 room railroad flat for $45 a month with a tiny water closet bathroom and a bathtub in the kitchen with a porcelain metal top. I hated tubs anyway and showered at friends apartments.</p>
<p>My parents bought me an 8 piece place setting of dishes, G-d knows why, I neither cooked nor entertained (unless you call several Fillmore East stage crew friends getting the munchies at 4:00am entertaining). But I soon learned that by starting on the dinner plates and working my way down to bowls and saucers, I could go almost a full month before having to wash dishes. I simply used them and then slipped them into the water filled kitchen bathtub to await the monthly washing.</p>
<p>Marite, I do think the picking out of linens and such is a bit of a gender thing. I can see why many boys could care less. For girls, it is like decorating the room, not unlike clothes shopping, ya know? </p>
<p>As far as my sixteen year old…she always went six weeks to her summer program but not this year, just three (one session) because I can’t pay for summer programs with college coming up and she is expected to work the summer before college. It did turn out, unknowingly, to be even more special for her to go back to her theater program one last time because of how she was out of commission for the past several months and this was her return to the stage, what she loves. And then she got cast as the lead in their big show so it was a great way to go out. </p>
<p>As soon as she got home, she began nightly rehearsals for a professional production locally of Bat Boy, a musical that once played off Broadway, and one she happens to love in particular. In Vermont, there are not a lot of theater opportunities during the year but there are more in summer but she is usually not home. This is a nice opportunity because it is extremely close to our house (unusual for my kids’ activities!) and it is professional adult theater. They bring in some actors from NYC and a couple are Equity. She does not have a big part but the cast is just a dozen people and so she is in it a lot. She is getting paid what I would call a stipend kind of pay. They rehearse daily for three weeks and then the shows are almost daily for two weeks.</p>
<p>The other thing she is doing and from which will be the bulk of her earnings, is that she created and will direct (with one other friend who just graduated and is going on for a BFA degree as well in Musical Theater) a musical theater program for kids ages 9-14. She secured the use of a local theater venue for free to use for her program and the culminating performance. While she will teach voice, acting, and dance there, a significant aspect will be producing a Broadway musical revue that she is currently developing (she has created two in the past for high school level). The kids are all enrolled and she auditioned them to see their strengths and is tailoring the show toward that. She will direct, musically direct (plays piano) and choreograph it. She actually is going to earn a significant amount of money for the two week program, equivalent to what most kids would earn in an entire summer job, so this worked out well. Those two weeks will be busy with that all day and performing in a show at night but this is what she loves to do. </p>
<p>I am letting her fly to NYC tomorrow alone for one night (I saw your post on that other thread reminding me of that time your son took that bus alone to NYC, I recall the story!). She has an appointment with a director and composer of a musical theater opera in development…the director saw her in her show this past weekend and thinks she is what they were looking for for a specific role and wants the composer to hear her and my D was persistent (she is VERY) in being allowed to go on her own. The director offered to let her stay at her place in the city but my D wants to stay with (young) friends who are there right now and we relented. I hope all goes well. I know she is moving there at the end of the summer but I thought she would acclimate gradually to the city and she does not know her way around yet and she is a sixteen year old who grew up on a dirt road in a rural town that does not even have a traffic light, LOL. But it is all set up and it is happening. In her words, “time to let go, MOM and DAD!” </p>
<p>I think the bed linens stuff is easier than this!</p>
<p>Susan</p>