Just a reminder for those with kids that are thinking on moving larger items to their RC for next year. We did this last year and her roommates made a deal where they took her boxes and she got to put furniture in the new suite with their name on it. When we went to move her in, her ikea storage unit was gone, her pink chair that she had had since she was little was also gone. Her couch was there but stained (I took the slipcovers home to wash) and the only thing in tact were the lamps. Don’t leave anything you want to be there in the fall. They will be taken, rearranged and used over the summer if left in the suite.
Really? Ugh! We are heading up tomorrow but planning to put a large couch in next year’s suite. We rented a uhaul in august to bring it up but told our son it was a one time deal. I sure hope the couch is still there in the fall! Not sure how best to label it or make sure it’s safe. Any idea which colleges are used for summer programs?
@SoftballFan thanks for the info. Very helpful!
Reading some of these posts puts my mind at ease that my kid isn’t the only one procrastinating in the packing department 
D lost one butterfly chair, but gained a few lamps. So it was a break even deal. The futon, bookshelf, lamp, and other chairs were still there in the fall. I think a love seat was also acquired one year because no one moved it out to the new location.
Yes, we were irritated, too, at the status of the things stored in the new room over the summer. We had a futon that was taken apart for transport. The hardware, the cushions, the frame…were in all different suites. No care was taken to keep it together and we had no idea we should label every piece. They were able to round up most of the pieces by posting requests/pictures on the RC Facebook page, but he still had to have his dad cut a new piece of wood in his carpentry shop before it was useable. It was Thanksgiving break before it was completely assembled this year.
Larger couches might be ok because they are not as convenient to move. That won’t help with stains but it’s less likely to be relocated. This year we are only leaving the loveseat and lamps. I wish we could leave behind the fridge. That is the biggest pain to move.
For the uninitiated, how much furniture do the students need to bring first year, and how is this usually handled among the suite mates?
We brought no furniture freshman year; there would have been no room for it in their cramped rooms. We did agree to a 1/3 share of a fridge rental. Sophomore year, the other suite mates had everything set up in the common room.
Thanks @IxnayBob. So generally speaking, freshmen have rooms, and not suites, or is the range of housing so wide that generalizations cannot be made? As in, do freshmen not have suites?
Older son’s fridge has been sitting in the garage for a year so hopefully a good cleaning is all it will require!
Many freshmen do have suites, but there is a wide range of housing. Some suite mates handle the furniture coordination well and others not so much. I tried to stay out of it. D’s suite gradually acquired common room furniture in the first few months. Others had a full set up at move in. The size of common rooms greatly vary too.
When my daughter found out who her freshman suitemates were, she divided the providing of things like printers, fridge, microwave and keurig between them. We offered to bring up a love seat as we were the only one within easy driving distance. She is still with all but two of her freshman suite mates so they just keep bringing back the things they have. We offered to house the bigger items in our basement over the summer since they will all live together again the next year. We also bought a storage unit with four drawers from Ikea for her freshman year because she has way too many clothing items. She would not have needed it this year which is good because it wasn’t there when she moved in. All in all its just common room things you really need and they have a craigslist type site for Yale students where many pick up items.
My son was in a suite of 6 freshman year. Each of them had a small single room which had no space for any additional furniture. Each room had a single bed, desk, shelves, and closet.
Together they furnished their large common room with a sofa (locally bought and delivered from Craigslist), tables, fridge, microwave, lamps, flatscreen, and chairs from the New Haven IKEA.
Freshman dorm assignments are based on their residential colleges. I believe they learn their assignment in June.
at least in my DD’s RC (Timothy Dwight) the suites were similar year to year, but each year fewer people lived in them. So first year, the bedrooms each held two girls with no room for desks, so those were all in the common room. A chair or two, and maybe a coffee table was by far the most that could be supported in the common room. Later years some of the desks could move to bedrooms, and there were fewer desks, so more room for furniture.
Don’t most freshmen have suites with a common room? I think that is by far the most common set up, but the size of the bedrooms (and whether they are doubles or singles) and can vary from college to college. My daughter was one of the few in her Old Campus dorm that did not have a suite (she had a huge double with lots of closet space and storage, but no common room). So there was no need for sofas, coffee tables, etc.
One other tip someone gave us last year - don’t split costs on things that are purchased, only things that are rented (like a fridge, if you go the rental route). For example, if a group splits the cost on a sofa, and they do not room together the next year, it makes things complicated at the end of the year.
Next school year, my daughter is joining a suite that roomed together this year (one or two broke off to join different suites). The suite she is joining did not get any major furniture items for their common room - they made it work a bunch of chairs/beanbags. Since we only bought a small rug for this year’s room, we are going to chip in with a sofa for next year’s suite (which is located in her residential college, and has a common room). This sofa will hopefully stay with my daughter for the next 3 years.
Most students, including freshmen, will live in suites with a common room. They will need some kind of furniture for the common room, but it can be pretty crude. One year, we bought a number of cheap folding camp chairs (on sale at the end of the summer), and they got a lot of use.
Nowadays, some freshmen suites come with school-supplied sofas and chairs in the common rooms (I know some kids who were pleasantly surprised). It might be a good idea, once the student gets his/her dorm and residential college assignment, to call the office of the head of that college or the Facilities Department to find out what furniture the room comes with.
Thank you all for your input on furniture! Sounds like my best bet is to hang tight and let him figure out with his suite mates what, if anything, he needs once he is on campus.
There is a Yale Facebook group called free & for sale where kids who are leaving post a lot of stuff. This helps current students more than freshmen since peak sale time is in the next couple of months, but things are sold through the year. I have occasionally seen really nice, little-used furniture being sold for a song.
My daughter and her freshman suitemates pooled $50 each and went to Ikea and Target and got a coffee table, cute lamps, microwave, kitchen table + chairs, dishes, and also a carpet remnant from Lowes (the one in Derby had not been mobbed by Yalies). They already had a futon. Their common room looked more put together than my house! – For about a week.
Daughter is all moved out, and she said it was super stressful to do it all herself, especially since she barely packed before exams officially ended at 5:30 on Wednesday (she had two papers due on Wednesday). She only slept 2.5 hours last night, but she did it, and it was a huge learning experience! Thank goodness for @Tperry1982 and her tip to use dorm room movers. It is not cheap, but certainly cheaper than me flying there in May and August to help move out and move in. Dorm room movers picked everything up today (nice since my daughter is on the 4th floor of a dorm with no elevators) and will deliver it to her new suite in August.
I feel envious of the parents who can easily drive to Yale to help out or at least pack a car full of stuff. I am also keenly aware of the advice that was given to us in August - be as minimalist as possible because what goes in must come out! Or will be thrown out or given away, as was the case with some of the things I got my daughter that were barely or never used.
That is a shame you had to lose it those items- you should have messaged me and I could have picked them up for you. The catch with being local is that everyone knows it
We saw lots of items being donated that I would have loved to grab. From lamps to storage devices. There was a big issue with the RC running out of the special white boxes and room in the trucks. She said it was hard for those in other states because they rely on the RC storage and wasn’t sure what they were going to do. This was on Wednesday so there were plenty of others that still had to pack and get ready to leave for their flights. There were piles of boxes outside the moving trucks and the truck was almost full.