We moved one of my daughters into her school last Thursday and when we got there the room was much tinier than we’d expected, the furniture larger, and the roommate (actually, the roommate’s mom, I think) had already picked all her things and spread her stuff everywhere in order to unpack.
We didn’t want to step on any toes (heh) but managed to get the room moved around a bit so the girls had room to walk, at least.
My point? It seemed awful at first, and the room was so crowded it was difficult to imagine it being livable. Now it looks very nice, and I haven’t heard anything from my daughter since last week, so I assume she’s alive.
It would have helped if before move-in I had heard some “it was totally horrible but turned out great” stories, and I’m sure there are some doozies. Anyone have some good ones? D#2 (her twin, also a first-year, and slightly scarred by the process of moving in her sister) is moving in this Friday.
No doozies here, just a few mild problems, but hugs to you for moving both your first-years in within a week… We moved in our youngest this week, and even though we had been through it before, several small issues accumulated and left me feeling frazzled. The upperclass students at her school unloaded the car so quickly it was amazing, but her lap desk was broken and leaked those little white filler balls all over. She was embarrassed and felt bad because they were rolling all over the entire hall and in her room. It was so hot, even with a fan. I washed all the new sheets and towels, but didn’t take the comforter out of the package. We thought there was a stain on it which grossed me out and aggravated me. There wasn’t a local Pottery Barn to exchange it, and she wanted that exact comforter on the first day, which is understandable. So I was tense, but we guessed later that it might have been one of our sweaty hands that left the mark. Such a sticky, hot day!
I think it’s such an important moment and emotionally-loaded day that even small issues can seem more significant. For what it’s worth, my daughter’s roommate came several hours after her, but we took great pains to clean up all those white balls and make sure her stuff was not spread out all over her roomie’s side. We didn’t move anything. At one point my DH was fixing something that had broken (not by the student helpers) and was sitting on her roommate’s bed. It was probably over the top, but I suggested he not sit there. I just felt if they walked in that second, they might not like to see people sitting on her bed.
Basically, I think it’s a good move-in if no one suffers heat exhaustion, everyone is speaking at the end of the day and your student is comfortable. The family of a student a few doors down from my daughter got there very early, but the code/lock did not work on her door. They had to wait in the hallway for an hour and a half for someone to open the door. Valuable time was wasted, but it worked out ok.
Sorry such a long post, but congrats on a successful move-in, good luck moving your other daughter and do something nice for yourself next week!
When we moved my older daughter into her residence hall (7 years ago!), younger (and neater) daughter offered to put away all her sister’s clothes. She did a great job. I’m pretty sure that was the only time D1’s closet and drawers were well organized, before or since.
No doozies, but a few laughs. When DD moved in freshman year (with a room-mate she had been online chatting with), they cooperated well throughout the move in, found great ways to arrange the furniture and all was smooth on the parent front, too. As we were about to leave, her new roomie remarked on how well things were going and that she was especially happy not to have a messy room-mate. We stifled a guffaw and left. They were the odd couple, literally. Roomed together all the way through and every visit we could hardly tell she was sharing the room due to roomie’s orderliness. Still very close 8 years later. HInt: put the messy kid in the back and use a bookcase as a room divider.
None from my own kids’ move-ins, but I remember this from my own freshman move-in decades ago.
When I arrived at the dorm, my roommate and her family were in the room. There were two girls about my age and a set of parents. I had been told my roommate’s name (let’s call her Caroline), so after I said hello, I asked “Which one of you is Caroline?” All I got in return was blank stares from four faces.
Later on, I learned that Caroline had all her life been called CJ and was so unaccustomed to being called by her legal name that she didn’t think I was referring to her – and neither did her parents or the other girl, who turned out to be her younger sister.
My D moved in her first year into a triple. Even though she got there right on time for move-in day, her two roommates had already moved in. One was an international student, the other family had a conflict with their other child’s schedule so got permission to move in a day early.
The int’l student had taken the best bed location. She took the single bed on one side of the room, while the other two beds were right next together on the other side of the room. Like so close they looked like one big bed.
I later found out from my D that they lived like that all year. It had never occurred to them to move the two beds apart.
The good news is that she got along with both her roommates really well!
My freshman year I requested a non-smoking non-drinking roommate. The minute her parents left my new roommate asked if I would like to share a joint. Half an hour later we were in the RD’s office and a swap with the girls across the hall had been arranged.
We got there right on time so were surprised that the roommate had had time to spread everything out. @525600minutes , I would have felt the same way about touching the roommate’s things, which is why we were all a bit surprised to see my daughter’s roommate’s things all over my D’s bed, dresser, the floor, etc. We could barely move.
D2’s roommate is international, and will be arriving 2 days before D2, so again my D will get second pick of the bed, etc. There’s already also a language/communication barrier so it’s a bit scary (and the roommate doesn’t really respond to emails or texts) so we’re just crossing fingers.
My D’s move in last week went pretty well, but it was still hectic. There were seven people total in the room most of the time - too crowded! But none of the family members wanted to leave. We had a little trouble getting the TV hooked up to NetFlix, etc., but it finally worked. The roommate was getting a little stressed that her mom was putting up album covers on the wall not quite precisely enough, lol. My D had a big smile most of the time. She texted me the next day that they had fifteen people in their room the first night to watch episodes of “The Office.” The price of the TV was definitely worth it!
The summer between S’s freshman and sophomore year, he rented a storage unit for his stuff. For move in, I rented a 10ft U-haul to move the stuff because there were multiple sofas involved. Instead of a small, manageable 10ft U-haul, we were given a 17ft U-haul. I was terrified to drive it but made out okay. (I pruned a few low lying branches on St. Mary’s Avenue.)
When we got to the storage unit, I found out that S and 11(!) friends had there stuff there. It was so stuffed that the 3(!) sofas were put in on their sides standing up, with boxes on top of them - it was a tiny, but very tall unit. My S, now DIL, and one other friend emptied the unit and filled the truck. I took one look at the mess and decided to go shopping for a rug for the room while they took care of it. 6 out of 12 of the students hadn’t even boxed their stuff and only 1 had labeled his boxes. We had to deliver the goods to two neighboring campuses. Oh, and mice made nests in DIL bras.
The next year, S and DIL had two storage “roommates” and they were all responsible for retrieving their own things. Lessen learned.
Not exactly a move-in story, but the whole family went along as we dropped off our D yesterday. Of course, we were there all day, from 9-6. My 15 year old son looks quite a bit older than his sister. He was asked repeatedly what dorm he was in, welcomed to the college, etc… The funniest moment though was when we asked a passing dad, who was with his college son, to take a pic of all of us in front of our D’s dorm. The dad’s son held out his hand to shake my son’s hand and introduce himself. We then had a slightly awkward moment introducing this kid to our daughter. But they shook hands anyway and laughed:-)
When my D was a freshman last year, and on the freshman part of campus, she had the luxury of having a single. It was quite a room, large with a sink closet and plenty of closet and storage space. This year, she had to move across campus and has a roommate, and boy is the room small! So when we were moving her in a two weeks ago, it was a great lesson in purging things she never used or wore. I ended up taking 3 boxes of stuff home. Will wonders never cease?!
My youngest, D, stayed at school for an internship, but had to move her stuff from dorm to apartment. Then when she came home for 2 weeks before she started her sophomore year last week, she and roommate moved their stuff to a storage unit for those 2 weeks. Turned out to be an upper unit that was accessible only via a steep rolling staircase/ladder thing. She had to go back a week early for a retreat for some organization she’s in. I volunteered to fly in, rent a minivan, and get her stuff out of the unit, then meet her on campus when she got back from the camp-out. The storage unit was a nightmare, no air conditioning, and I wasn’t sure I could carry the boxes down the steep stairs. Texted a picture to my other daughter who replied, “If you think you’re about to fall, just drop the box and save yourself!” Never again.
One year later, it’s all a blur. D15’s school takes the “rip-the-bandaid-off” approach to move in. The one thing I remember is that D’s roommate had a very anxious and rigid dad. We were right in thinking that didn’t bode well (didn’t know if the kid would rebel from dad or be like him…turns out both). My D moved to a new dorm with a new roommate during finals. D’s sticking with the new room and new roommate for this year, so it all ended up fine.
@525600minutes Don’t think it’s over the top at all. We also took pains not to sit or place anything on roommates’s side. In fact at one point, I was so tired and all the sitting spaces on my Ds side were occupied, that I sat down on the floor, even though roommates’s side was empty.
My son and one of his roommates tried to figure out if anyone had a bed preference in their triple. They emailed the third roommate several times over the summer but never heard back from him. When my son moved in, he was surprised that third guy had snagged what they thought was the best bed – the bottom bunk. My son was OK with the situation, but the other roommate immediately declared something called Bottom Bunk Duties, where he now asks the third roommate do little things like open the blinds in the morning and see who’s at the door (they claim that it would take too long to get down from their loft/top bunk!). I’ve never heard of this evil rule – the the third roommate is a good sport and complies with all his bb duties though, and my son swears that they’re all getting along, and that they’re not making him do much more than open the blinds. I guess we’ll see how long this bit of “fun” lasts.
I agree, Pheebers. I felt bad for you when I read your 1st post. Good for you for dealing with it so well and getting D1 all settled in. I hope your move-in with D2 goes smoothly, and that everything works out well with the roommate situation.
