<p>As the time approaches, of course tons of questions arise for our soon to be college bound daughter. Anyone send their kid off with a big trunk? Also, this "waiting to buy everything there" is making me nervous. Especially what if everything is picked over. I like to be prepared way ahead of time, but shipping all her dorm stuff across country doesn't make much sense I know. Needing some "comforting advice" out there from all of you:) Bed, Bath and Beyond I know can buy here and pick up at destination. But I find them pricy:/ I found D an adorable bed in a bag and body pillow at Sam's club. Will use a space bag to send it ahead. Felt it was worth it to lug that back in case everything else is picked over. As always, I appreciate all your wonderful advice, thank you:)</p>
<p>We bought everything there, except for DS’s clothes, laptop and Xbox. (And I mean everything - we didn’t even bring toiletries!!) Of course, he’s a boy and didn’t need as many things. I may be changing my tune when we take DD next year!</p>
<p>I had trunks in college, and LOVED them (one for all my preppy sweaters - hey, it was the mid eighties) but my kids have shown no interest in them.
I, too, would rather lug stuff there than pick up.</p>
<p>One advantage of buying all except clothing there is that you get to see the room first- how big, what fits /what does not, what furniture, what accessories, such as mirrors, rugs, lighting, hooks are already there…</p>
<p>You can compromise: PRE-buy what you THINK you will want at Bed Bath & Beyond. Shop at the branch by your home, and fill out the form, then they will have the stuff waiting for you at the store near the college, and you can amend as you wish after seeing the room.</p>
<p>I do not think this option exists at any other stores, but other CC’ers may know…</p>
<p>Sometimes there isn’t room for a trunk in the dorm. My D did take one back for 2nd semester of her first year because a roomie was “borrowing” from the food supply and not replacing things!
You can also order things from WalMart and Target and pick up at the local store. It’s inevitable that your kid will only end up actually using a portion of what you’re going to buy!</p>
<p>Depends on where “there” is…if it is Boston forget about waiting there are so many college kids nothing will be left.</p>
<p>Honestly the Bed, Bath and Beyond buy here and pick up at destination.is a great deal. Even if you think you can find a cheaper deal locally shipping costs would eat up any savings. And you have so much to do with getting settled, the kids want to spend time getting to know new roommates, not shopping…in the end anything that makes it more convenient will be worth it. </p>
<p>As to a trunk, could be very handy as long as you know there will be room for it either in the room or storage area. You need to ask your school directly.</p>
<p>There aren’t all that many things for their rooms that they must have from day 1–a set of sheets and a towel is about it. If it turns out that you can’t find something locally, there is always Amazon prime, target.com, etc.</p>
<p>I think it also depends on your kid. My daughter is very low maintenance. She bought a new luggage set, and bedding. Somehow, and I don’t know how, she fit all her clothes, plus her bedding, including a mattress topper, in three pieces of luggage and we brought it all on the plane with us. Once we got there she went with her roommates to Ikea and they went in together on some rugs for the room and then she bought a desk lamp. She didn’t have any winter clothing so that probably helped and she had to buy winter clothing as the need came up. I don’t think she could fit everything back into her luggage to bring it home again so it’s probably a good thing she stayed in her college town over the summer. But I think it was a bonding experience for her to go shopping with her roommates and leave her mom out of it. I did take her to Walgreens and bought all the toiletries - you can’t take those on a plane anyway.</p>
<p>If she has to fly, or will be flying the majority of times in spring and fall, forget about the trunk. It will be a big surcharge on an airline, or a big pain for an average-sized girl to lug to a shipping office. Get a large wheeled duffle that fits under the bed when folded. I can think of several rooms my kids have had where a trunk would have been too big, and in any scenario it will get used as an extra seat, for which a lot of newly-made products are not suited.</p>
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<p>Then do the Bed Bath and Beyond thing others have suggested. Order near your home for pick up near the college. The nice thing…is once you get to the college location you CAN change your mind and not buy…or add items to purchase.</p>
<p>Neither of our two college kids took trunks…too big and no place to store them.</p>
<p>i’ve pretty much got all of my shopping done now. If you wait it will be picked over. All i have left to get is a shelf thingy and a fan.</p>
<p>DS had to fly across country to start college last August. I researched online, and found it was cheapest to send two BIG U-Haul boxes with him on the plane. I made sure the boxes complied with the airline’s size requirements. It worked great! You can get an amazing amount of stuff in one of those boxes. Make sure that it meets weight guidelines, also.</p>
<p>Amazon Prime has been great. Our D simply orders through our account with delivery to her school. She bought most of her books through Amazon as well. With 2 day delivery through Amazon Prime, they got there pretty quick and were much cheaper than through the bookstore. We could have bought her computer through the school, which would have saved schlepping it and her printer, but we weren’t enamored of the brands they offered, so we bought our own and brought it with. She has 3 years on site repair. We bought a refrigerator for her through Best Buy on the web and simply arranged to pick it up there. Very easy. She wanted duffels for carrying stuff that she could then compact and store, so trunks were out. Found a local Target store and picked up the miscellaneous stuff there. Bought bedding and lamp at Ikea and brought it with. All in all, we (both parents) loaded her and her stuff into a Honda CRV with a roof pod and drove her 13 hours to school. We had plenty of space.</p>
<p>Like everyone else, there are things we bought that weren’t used/necessary, so the list and pile could be smaller. There is a thread about that elsewhere on the site.</p>
<p>Everyone has different needs, desires, circumstances, etc. Just figure out what works for you and your kid. Freshman year, my D ordered everything ahead of time from Bed, Bath and Beyond. I flew with her across country with 2 suitcases of clothes and her laptop. We rented a car at our destination to pick up stuff from B, B and ran to Target for toiletries. And she was done!!! She stored most of it over the summer (threw out what didn’t fit in her alotted storage space) and will probably make another Target run with friends this year. She’s travelling alone this time - with same 2 suitcases and laptop. Works for us!</p>
<p>I don’t recommend a trunk because the rooms are pretty small.</p>
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<p>How many toiletries do you need? I’d rather buy stuff on sale here and stock up versus pay not-sale prices the day of. A few bottles of shampoo, conditioner, tubes of toothpaste, deodorant, maybe skin or acne creams, and then (for a girl) her makeup.</p>
<p>Most of the stuff I bought DS in the way of toiletry and other supplies was never opened! He will take MUCH less stuff with him when he starts his sophomore year. All of his leftover supplies, clothes, etc. from last year are piled up in my parents’ basement in his college town. DH has been assigned the task of flying down to deal with Dorm Mountain before school starts.</p>
<p>Re toiletries: My D just didn’t want them taking up space in her suitcase (remember, she just had 2 and, as a girl, had lots of shoes and clothes!). I also told her to throw out half bottles of shampoo and conditioner, etc. rather than pay to store them over the summer. I’m a frugal mom - but I have practical limits.</p>
<p>In deciding whether to buy at school, give some thought to what the college town is like. For urban schools, there may only be 1-2 larger stores like Target, and they may be serving a number of campuses so it is likely that things will be picked over unless your student is going to the school that moves in first in that area. Same for very rural schools, where there may be 1-2 stores serving a huge state U. Though if you’re going to a medium sized school in a mid-sized city, you won’t have any problem buying things at school, esp. if you have a car at move-in. If you go to the closest store and find that a lot of things are picked over, often you can drive 10 min to the next suburb and find another set of strip malls.</p>
<p>Always drove girls to schools and bought everything for the most part in advance, but still needed to go Walgreens or Target or Radio Shack or supermarket or Bed & Bath on day of. In younger d’s case, her room had zero place to put towels-you need a towel bar of some sort. The sticky’s did not work and so we had to buy some sort of towel rack that went over the door of her large freestanding dresser. For older d, the roommate brought TV but she and her mom arrived later than us and had no idea about the cable wire or how to get that… so a trip to Radio Shack was made. Supermarket for snacks, water bottles, juice boxes, whatever, some plastic cutlery, napkins, etc… Don’t forget toiletries and supplies that you are available in your house but you need to have with you- soap, tylenol or aspirin, bandaids, tissues, cold medicine, cough drops, cotton balls, sunscreen -it can be hot and sunny in many places the first few weeks of school-there is a lot more stuff than just shampoo, conditioner, deodorant.</p>
<p>you can do the bbb thing at walmart too. order online or at the store, and pickup at the store near her college. definitely some things way less expensive at walmart vs bbb</p>