Thanks for all your helpful replies. No we won’t have a car with us but I imagine could find public transport to get to a suburban Chicago store?
My worry is that so close to most college move-in dates that much will be sold out by the time we get to Chicago (correct me if I’m wrong) - so that maybe the online order for Chicago city-store collection would be the best option?
From your collective past experience (as BB&B give me a generic unhelpful “We have no idea about stock / dates / location information” answer to my emailed query) when do these items start to be stocked for online purchase?
@ReedsMom - I would be more worried about the public transportation to the suburban store than about a city store running out right “in season”. Did you look at a map of where you’re staying relative to possible urban stores? Then you can use something like “hopstop” to see about whether you could get out to a suburban mall. OR can you have one of the online sources send things to your rented apartment? I wonder if you could get the very basics (one set of sheets) in Australia and bring it with you, so you’re not desperate to get absolute necessities right away. You might also be tired and jet-lagged and not up to a big shlep.
Send your order for pick up at the Roosevelt Blvd Target and/or Bed, Bath & Beyond. That’s where Hyde Parkers get their stuff. It’s on the south side of the city center. CTA bus will get you there (skip the Red Line). Maybe take two Uber cars back to the campus. Macy’s is also within reach. Don’t go to the suburbs. Makes no sense.
Target’s Twin XLs are not in stock in-store now. BB&B has some year-round. Both have Twin XL online. Sign up for online/text coupons. I used one today for 20% off Twin XL sheets at BB&B (coupon did not work on mobile site and I had to use our desktop - coupon is a pop-up at checkout webpage). They’re being shipped to our house, though. Not sure how the whole order for pick-up works with text coupons, as you pay only when you pick up…I think.
And definitely order whatever you can ahead of time. It can be overwhelming during move-in week, and the last thing you will have time for is to carefully choose sheets, etc. It was great to show up and get the lamp, trash can, etc. that we ordered ahead of time. Oh, and at least with BB&B (and I’m guessing the other ones as well) you don’t pay for it until you pick it up, and you don’t have to buy it when you get to the store. So if you find it’s not something you like, or find something better someplace else, that’s ok. We ended up buying all sorts of other items (like shampoo, toothpaste, laundry detergent, etc.) and that was hard enough to pick out when we were there. I was thankful that we had done so much of the shopping in advance.
Also, given the UChicago starts so late, most the other students at nearby schools in the Loop area (Art Institute, DePaul, UIC, etc.) have already done their pick ups before Sept. 1. And most those students in Loop schools are local/regional people, and are driving their swag into the city.
Seriously: Use the Target at Roosevelt at Clark. The BB&B at Roosevelt near Clinton (or thereabouts – about two or three blocks west of Target). Maybe do one trip to BB&B and one to Target on separate days or morning/afternoon. Also, consider Amazon Prime for student trial (2-day speedy delivery, maybe for items not immedately essential).
Do you have the ability to order online and ship to a campus address for your sons dorm? We had the ability to ship a fridge, chair, carpet, bedding and other items to DS address on campus. Helped us a lot as we did not have to drive across the States with those things.
Also, don’t stress to much about everything your kid will need. With Amazon Prime, they can order almost anything they might need and it gets delivered quickly. It’s ok if you forget some things. Really.
http://www.goodsearch.com/residence-hall-linens/coupons I bought my son’s bedding at Residence hall Linens and had the box sent to a friend who lives near his school in Chicago. We live in Los Angeles and stayed at my friends when i moved him in. We took an ūber to the school with his belongings and I was so happy i didn’t have to worry about parking or renting a car etc. You can find coupons for Residence Hall Linens above.
Thank you again everyone for all your help - and yes dyiu13 - I have just google-mapped those stores at Roosevelt and they are nearby both CCPA (where my son will be studying) and also not too far from the apartment I have rented. I might ring their stores in June/July and see how best to arrange my order. It would be great to do it all from home in Australia and then pick it up after we arrive as I will be overwhelmed enough in Chicago without having to help my S choose bedlinen!!
Vaccination. These are NOT covered by health care in general so make sure to get done with it asap. You can't register for classes otherwise.
Fishnet-like laundry basket. Super convenient for laundry.
Opening a new bank account in your kids' schools in case there isn't your bank branch. This is optinoal, but when you have cash, you may want to keep it in secure place.
Roommate. There are plenty of threads in CC that suffer from crazy people in college. Make sure your children find their desirable matches.
A health care power of attorney which is a type of advanced directive that allows the student to designate a person to make medical decisions for him/her and
to discuss his/her condition and/or review medical records with his/her doctors.
A durable power of attorney which is a financial power of attorney that allows the student to appoint an agent (eg a parent) to handle general or specific
affairs (selling real estate, dealing with banking affairs, etc.) Once a child turns 18, and their parent cannot act on their behalf any longer, they should have a durable power of attorney to appoint someone to deal with
their financial affairs in the event they cannot do it themselves.
I’m not a lawyer, so pardon if the details above aren’t exact.
Bottom line is that we as parents are so used to doing things for our child but once they hit 18 years, the law limits the things we routinely did for them. We should consider putting the necessary documents in place to allow us to continue doing things on behalf of our child as they head off, often for the first time, on their own at a distance from us.
It is important to get them before college, indeed we had to send documentation in early summer. And some require a sequence of shots x months apart so it’s best to start those ASAP.
Ooops. I thought you meant he was transferring to UChicago. Roosevelt U is right there near the stores. There’s even a Target closer, on State St. near Madison Ave.
Last year D15 moved across country for school. We ordered linens at our local bed bath and beyond for pickup near her school. They told us right then whether an item was in stock at the pick up store and put it on hold for us. Mid it was not available at the pick up store, we had to make other choices. So basically we knew the day we ordered what was available. When we got to the local store to do the pick up, they brought everything out. We did an inventory from the receipt we got during ordering, and we paid for it at pick up. They took a lot of the 20% off coupons (for BBB) as I brought with me. The whole process worked very well and was pretty seamless. The only thing I did do was buy one set of twin xl sheets locally so I could wash them before they had to go on the bed.
It sounds like most have all ordered in-store for collection at another store near college. (I won’t be able to do that of course living where I do)
Has anyone ordered online for pickup at a store at a later date?
From what I can see from the BBB website it says that to order online for a store pick-up, you get emailed when it arrives in store and only have 2 days to do the pickup before it gets put back on the shelf.
I wondered if I phoned the store direct they would keep it aside for me? (I have asked this question via email to BBB but they haven’t responded!)
@ReedsMom - does it ask you for the dates you would like to pick it up? If I remember correctly, there was a 2-3 day window for pickup, but it didn’t start at the time of the order, but at a date that we picked (which was about 2 months after we placed the order). It should be giving you that option. If not, then I would call the store. Oh, and if you do choose to use BB&B, those coupons mentioned about will come in handy.
