<p>There is also a Bed Bath and Beyond in Ithaca.
It’s a fairly big town with nearly any store you will need.</p>
<p>One word…Amazon. This is how my daughter gets her supplies-- school supplies, health and beauty, snacks…etc. Ships to the mail room and she is in charge of getting it to her room. You have a record of what is purchased so when supplies run low, it is easy to remember such things as what flavor deodorant does the kid like to use. Prime shipping also means free shipping for most things.</p>
<p>I think students get Amazon Prime for free, too.</p>
<p>Amazon Prime for everything!!! </p>
<p>Including lots of free movies and TV shows on Amazon Instant Video…</p>
<p>@prntosome, you rural folks are not in trouble at all. You can park your car and unload it. City folks have to figure it out with no parking, likely no car, probably hauling on subways or in taxis or as MTTwinsinCA pointed out, by bribing the hotel to let you use their luggage cart (Good one btw. I wish I had seen you doing it). It should be easier for more rural locations and you’ll pay less for storage at the end of the school year than city folk do. The only downside that I can think of is if you forget something, it’s harder for the student without a car to go get it. But Amazon Prime as already mentioned is an excellent option and totally the way to go. I’ve used it throughout the year and I know our very busy kids like having what they need just show up instead of having to go hunting and gathering.</p>
<p>halflokum, my advice about college boxes dot come is to check with students at your child’s college who have used them recently. They used to have an absolutely terrible reputation about returning boxes and belongings in good shape, or even to the right person! That may have improved but I’d make sure before using them.</p>
<p>Thanks alwaysamom. I did check with people that have used them successfully (and swear by it) and also read the blogs in NYULocal which had an article from 2011 that is about “NYC: Tips for Summer Storage”. There are certainly comments about people whose things took a while to retrieve along with people for whom everything went perfectly. I have the impression that for the most part, it works out well but of course there is always the risk of being THE ONE for whom it does not. I’m knocking on wood and would hate to have that happen (ugh) but for the sake of the convenience of the pick up and delivery I guess we’ve decided to roll the dice. We will also store the one thing she has of high value, (her keyboard) with a friend. But yes a worthy heads up for anyone considering storage options wherever.</p>
<p>We also used BBB for most things, but we also found that we wanted a lot of stuff from Target. If you get the Target Red Card, you get 5% off and FREE SHIPPING on pretty much everything. We were fortunate enough to have found the family member of a friends who lived in the same town as the University so we got permission to ship stuff to their house, but we could probably have shipped things directly to the University if we had planned the timing right.</p>
<p>D’s school is in a suburb so we had tons of options for a hotel and it wasn’t a problem at all. We planned a “tourist” trip for a couple of days ahead of the move in. Flew into a different city 2 hours away, saw some tourist attractions, then made a leisurely drive to the school. We stopped at stores along the way that weren’t anywhere near a university so that we wouldn’t have to fight crowds for last-minute items (school supplies, toiletries, etc.) and checked into our hotel the day before move in. We went to BBB to pick up all our stuff and took it back to the hotel. In retrospect, we probably should have waited and picked it up on move-in day so we didn’t have to schlep it twice. But D wanted to go through it and get it sort of organized (she’s a born organizer, like her mom) before taking it to her room.</p>
<p>One thing to be aware of if your kid is an “out of state” student at a school where the vast majority of students are in-state; all the promotional materials tout how the “football players” are so happy to help the freshmen move into their dorms and how easy it will be. And it would have been had we moved in on the “normal” day. But they planned an early move in for out of state students who were coming for late orientation. And there was not one soul there to help us move all D’s stuff up to the 4th floor with NO ELEVATORS. It made NO sense to us, since these kids likely had MORE stuff than the in-state kids whose parents could make trips during the week or on the weekends to bring more stuff. We had to do it all in the one day. I’m sure the folks who scheduled that stuff really didn’t think about it and there are so few OOS students it’s probably just not on their radar. Might be worth a call ahead if you’re in that situation!</p>
<p>If you’re moving into NYU - you will be very impressed on how organized everything is. Police are conducting traffic, teams of kids are available to move supplies with huge carts and kids are assigned different move-in times to alleviate the crowds. Even the taxis seemed prepared for the situation! Only advice I would give would be to get to B and B a day or too early, because even if you’ve ordered ahead, so have hundreds of others and the lines to pick up and check out will be long. However, they even have a mass of people to help you, including someone to flag down taxis! Oh, one more hint, go the the center where they are processing the id cards at least a day early, or you will hit those lines, again.</p>
<p>alibabba808, good to hear from you again! I can definitely use your knowledge where this is concerned. Thanks for the advice. Planning a stop on the way back is definitely a good idea. Would make leaving her easier. I think time may be the only factor there. I’m sure I will be contacting you again soon. I welcome any advice you have.</p>
<p>Hotels are filling up for the BoCo move-in…we just called the Sheraton, and they are full! We are at the Marriott Copley Place, about a block further away.</p>
<p>When at Boco ee always stayed at either the Back Bay Hilton in city or went to the Bedford-Glen area and stayed at the Double Tree or Marriott (about 20 miles away). On moving days I would circle the block and try to find a legal parking on the street (about 4 spots per block) or park down a nearby alley way for $15 or $40 if there is a Red Sox game.</p>