<p>TXMom, what color BMW? NRDSON is very specific on color, too.</p>
<p>As to the laundry, you can add one can of magic sizing to the list of things brought and not used this past year.</p>
<p>Imola Red.</p>
<p>TxNewCollegeMom-</p>
<p>Does she mind messy hair? NRDSON drives a convertible -
I don’t believe he thinks a girl like that exists. He would heartily approve.</p>
<p>Class2012Mom is already bedazzling the bridesmaids dresses.</p>
<p>Much to my shock, son used the steamer a number of times. I assume over-cramming the dryer then throwing all his clothes on the floor of the closet had something to do with it.</p>
<p>NRDMOM,
Oh, we are very sticky on color of cars. I will not buy a car nor even look at it if it is not the chose of color I am wanting for that vehicle. Her BMW is black. Her first car, that “junker” we made her drive for the first 6-8 months till I found a replacement in order to hand her down the BMW was a convertible. My newest one is a convertible and I love it! We drove it down to T-Town for Preview 
The car she was wanting, the stick that she could not reach the clutch was DH’s 81 911 Targa, red of course.</p>
<p>To those of you who think towels cannot be washed with clothing, I have two children who would beg to differ. Sigh.</p>
<p>NRDMOM - Is it possible the steamer was used to soften hotdog buns??? Buns can get pretty hard after sitting on the counter for a week or two. I know my STEM son is much more concerned on the softness of his bread than the wrinkles in his clothes.</p>
<p>We were surprised when his Christmas list last year included one of those shirt folding boards like Sheldon uses on Big Bang. We were thinking that just maybe he was starting to come around. It was one of our prize purchases and at Easter we asked him if it was helping to keep wrinkles out of his shirts…reply was “I guess so”. Turns out he had measured the drawers in his dorm room and found that one of the boards folded to the perfect size for maximizing space. So in the end it was not a style statement…more of a science project. ;)</p>
<p>MemphisGuy: Outstanding idea - THEN we could smugly brag our boys both steamed <em>and</em> starched!</p>
<p>TXMom - If she plays video games she wins the trifecta of his heart. A Black 2005ish M5 was his dream car. None to be had in the week we had to get one. DH gambled and surprised him with the car HE fell in love with during research, '06 Z4M Red Roadster. <em>Shocking</em> how quickly he adjusted… ;)</p>
<p>My son has a shirt folder at school, too. When we were packing to come home, I asked him if he wanted to bring the shirt folder home and he quipped, “no, I already have a shirt folder at home.” (ie. me.) :)</p>
<p>Happy to report that as we were leaving this morning I noticed DD had come down and ironed her white capris 
Now, will there be any space at all in her room at Tut for an iron and ironing board… The steamer is starting to sound like a great idea although it may make the room a little unbearable in certain weather. Like today here where it has been HUMID all week, ick. I am hoping that she can keep up with the good washing, ironing habits once she is away. </p>
<p>NRDMOM, she knows video games and participates. Forza is her game of choice or any like it for video games. She hangs around the guys that play such. She is not interested in guys that are not interested in cars. Just like her mama :)<br>
She is sporting a 06 325i, black in color. Mama wanted the M6 convertible but figured driving in city traffic that would get old fast and settled for the 650i Conv. I do joke that her car will be her secondary closet in the parking lot at UA. As for cars, she is one of my prime helpers for registration for the car show we organize. Also, during summer marching band practice in the school front parking lot she used to say she could hear a car coming and had great peripheral vision to be able to stand in place, head straight and catch a glimpse of whatever was going by. We are known to see a car, snap a pic and share it with the family. It is a disease :(</p>
<p>Son, and his clothes, survived freshman year. Shout Color Catchers and Tide pods worked great. We tried to find the Tide pods, during move in last August, but several stores were sold out, so we had to drive around to find them. Son had never done laundry before, but he managed to figure it out.<br>
On another subject, I asked him if they kept their kitchen area clean and who did the dishes. His response “Oh XXX from down the hall loves to do dishes, so she comes and washes ours”. Of course, this young girl loves to do dishes, it has nothing to do with the four handsome young men in the room. LOL</p>
<p>We stopped in Hoover at the Costco and they had Tide pods. If you are flying, or driving in and have a membership, I highly suggest this option. We were able to get a lot of her stuff without fighting the Tuscaloosa Target/Walmart crowds and empty shelves. We moved in the Friday before AA and found many empty shelves. Yes, they will restock, but to make several trips back and forth is time consuming.</p>
<p>^^Gotta love those pods. Dawn dish soap is just about the best thing ever to remove all types of stains from clothing, especially grease stains. Who knew?</p>
<p>^^I’ll throw in another use for Dawn dish soap. Mix equal parts of Dawn dish soap and white vinegar in a spray bottle. I heat the vinegar in the microwave first and put it in the spray bottle, then add the Dawn. Spray it in the soap scum covered tub or shower and let it sit for a couple hours. Then rinse and wipe it down. This has taken care of showers and tubs that I’m sure made the showers in the NRDSon/C2012Son suite look pristine.</p>
<p>Tide Pods – I’m surprised to hear the praise. We tried them at home when they first came out and we were very disappointed. Things just did not get clean (HE, warm water).</p>
<p>Shout Color Catchers are amazing! Remind your new to laundry students to be certain they pull them out of the washing machine. They have a nasty habit of clogging drain in HE machines (get caught under the rubber seal in front).</p>
<p>Great advice to do shopping before nearing T-Town…Just hope we have the room in the car.</p>
<p>I cannot testify as to the efficiency of the Tide Pods, Lonhaul, but they are super convenient and easy for the “laundry challenged” to use. We use liquid, but we purchased some for an elderly relative who is “laundry challenged”. Alzheimer’s made it difficult for him to use and measure different products, but tossing in a pod was a simple way to maintain his independence for a while longer.:)</p>
<p>I’ll have to give the Dawn/vinegar solution a try.:)</p>
<p>To those of you who think towels cannot be washed with clothing, I have two children who would beg to differ. Sigh.</p>
<p>lol…absolutely. As a matter of fact, my kids each had a set of white towels and a set of blue towels (and some white boxers and some colored boxers). That way if they could only do one load of laundry, they were sure to emerge with at least some clean towels and undershorts.</p>
<p>I’ll have to give the Dawn/vinegar solution a try</p>
<p>Oh yes. Definitely a good combo to get out grease stains. Also good to get out a “leftover stain” that you find after the items comes out of the dryer. </p>
<p>With a difficult dried in stain, microwave some water in a bowl til hot, add dawn and white vinegar, then put the stained area in the bowl to soak a bit. Don’t use water that is too hot for the item. (sometimes adding some oxy-clean powder is needed for a colored food stain)</p>
<p>Unfortunately, some of the liquid fabric softener bottles look like detergent bottles. The Gain example is one where their detergent and softener come in similar bottles. I nearly grabbed the wrong one in the shopping aisle. </p>
<p>Two boys entered the laundry room with laundry in tow. They dumped the laundry in the floor and began the tedious task of sorting whites, lights, and darks with much discussion and deliberation between them. After successfully sorting the laundry, they opened the washer and tossed ALL of the laundry in the same machine together. Apparently one or both of the boys’ moms had explained the need to sort, but she must have assumed they understood the purpose of sorting was to wash the items separately</p>
<p>lol…too funny. Wonder what they thought the reason for sorting is? </p>
<p>For ease of dealing with stains, my kids used the green and red bottle of Resolve Spray and Wash pre-treat stain remover.</p>
<p>One container of Tide pods from Sams Club lasted 1+ boys more than the year.</p>
<p>For those of you with a Sams Club membership, I suggest you do a “Click and Pull” order a few days before move in. Sams will gather your whole order and have it waiting for you in a cart. All you have to do is pay when you get there and load. </p>
<p>And I’m adding a spray bottle, Dawn and vinegar to the year’s list of things to buy. Thanks, beth’s mom!</p>
<p>Never used the Tide Pods but thinking that might be less messy to store and tote to/from dorm room to laundry room. We need all of the space saving we can being DD will be in Tut. Pods may be the answer. </p>
<p>Will tout the Sam’s “Click and Pull”. We use it every other week for our large order for the office. We go one more step and that is they put our order on a pallet, shrink wrap and we pick it up at the dock. Still have to go in and pay and pick up any items that may not have been available online and perishables. </p>
<p>Plan on coming down with all essentials DD will need from our local Target and not have to worry about getting it in T-Town. I know even around here and not in a college town those certain items start to disappear off of shelves fast for the college kiddos to take with them. I am already picking up a few things here and there as not to be overwhelmed in one stop so as not to make dad pass out after seeing the checkbook.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Just don’t add it to the list until next May when you’re picking them up. I can’t imagine it seeing much use prior to that.</p>