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<p>I posted this in Parent Cafe thread as well, but thought I would try here as well. My son would like a not-too-small but not-too-big safe for his dorm room to hold the usual valuables plus smaller music devices (pedals, cables, etc.). I wonder if there is anything that will work for this sort of thing that couldn't be simply picked up and carried away but can be attached without any structural damage to something in the dorm room.... any ideas? Did a google search but nothing looks quite right and I would rather get some CC recommendations!</p>
<p>Where will the guitar(s) be kept? It or they could be far more valuable than the small electronics. Is your son a music major? If so, or even if he is not but is taking lessons from a faculty member, he may be able to get a music locker for his instrument(s) that will also hold the accessories. Another benefit of keeping the instruments in the music department is that it should have better temperature and humidity control than the dorms, and the practice rooms will be close at hand when he retrieves his equipment.</p>
<p>You may still want a dorm-room solution for the laptop, iPod, or whatever… but you could probably get by with one of the items in Mezzo’sMama’s posting chained to something heay and immobile.</p>
<p>There are a number of safe threads (with recommendations) in the Parents section. Here’s one <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/671000-room-safe.html?highlight=dorm+safe[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/671000-room-safe.html?highlight=dorm+safe</a></p>
<p>Agree with BassDad that the best place for instrument and accessory storage and security is a music building locker.</p>
<p>Also probably a good place to pull up an instrument insurance thread.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/366446-insurance.html?highlight=Insurance[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/366446-insurance.html?highlight=Insurance</a></p>
<p>There are general insurance, rider type threads in the Parents forum for the nonmusic, personal items as well.</p>
<p>How about a foot locker that you can lock and secure to a bed perhaps…here is one site but many others if you google foot locker college</p>
<p>[Home</a> Page - Steel Trunks, Cedar Trunks, Camp Supplies - Trunk Outlet](<a href=“http://www.trunkoutlet.com/]Home”>http://www.trunkoutlet.com/)</p>
<p>My daughter took a footlocker and used it a lot. She locked valuables in it and stored it under her bed. She also used it for storage. She has the “Happy Camper” one from this site. </p>
<p>[DormTrunks.com</a> - Trunks](<a href=“http://www.dormtrunks.com/category.php?pc_category_id=92]DormTrunks.com”>http://www.dormtrunks.com/category.php?pc_category_id=92)</p>
<p>One of our kids used a hard sided suitcase…locked and also locked TO the bed. But truthfully, the thing college kids need to learn ASAP…KEEP YOUR DOOR LOCKED…even if you are only stepping out to the room next door or the bathrooms. And keep valuables out of sight.</p>
<p>Agreed, music related items should be kept in a locker in the music building. To be honest. that’s where my kids used the music “stuff” anyway. No one in the dorm was interested in hearing them practice in their rooms!!</p>
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<p>At my son’s orientation they said that they have not had a reported theft from a locked dorm room.</p>
<p>cartera, I am assuming that your D didn’t go to the extreme effort of chaining the footlocker to her bed because stealing something of that size would be a bit obvious?! I ask that because of thumper’s post about the suitcase locked to the bed- while someone might be able to pull off a theft by strolling out of the dorm with a piece of luggage, lugging a footlocker would be harder to carry off (in both ways!!). I hadn’t thought about a footlocker since seeing the rooms, but now that I know that my D will be in a triple, where the room itself is the size of two regular double rooms, I am reconsidering. It could be used for everything from her laptop and I-pod to jewelry and special sheet music.
The bed would have to be up on those risers, wouldn’t it?</p>
<p>No, she did not chain the footlocker to anything and the bed was on risers. The footlocked slipped in and out from under the bed pretty easily. She did have a lock for her laptop and since she didn’t carry it around, it stayed locked all the time. The footlocker was very convenient for moving in and out and holds a ton of stuff. We got wheels for it and it was pretty easy to handle even packed full.</p>
<p>Am I allowed another dumb question, cartera, and ask about the wheels for the footlocker? Are there special ones, where do you get them and how does one install them? D has a good lock for her laptop, so I guess that’s all set, but I am really liking this new idea as an all-in-one spot for everything else! Oh, do you, by any chance, remember what size footlocker she had?</p>
<p>Yes, she got this one - I believe. There is one called “the undergrad” that is deeper but I don’t think we got that one. </p>
<p>[Happy</a> Camper footlocker from C&N Footlockers. Footlocker for college.](<a href=“http://www.dormtrunks.com/product.php?pc_product_id=3]Happy”>http://www.dormtrunks.com/product.php?pc_product_id=3)</p>
<p>Click on accessories and you’ll see the wheel set - they attach very easily. She just kept the wheels on so she could easily roll it out from under the bed. </p>
<p>Another parent on the board recommended this company - the trunks are very well built and come in great colors. She said that one of her kid’s trunks served as a coffee table in the first apartment. It is definitely sturdy enough to sit on too.</p>
<p>I’ve checked it out and placed the order already! We settled on the “Companion”, a model that is slightly smaller at 11.5 inches high, just to be certain that it will fit under her bed. Of course, we ordered the hot pink trunk- and who would ever have thought that it would come with the same color wheels!! Actually, I went whole-hog and got the duffle too, since storage space is tight at school- that way, it can be filled with bedding on the trip out and she will have that to use as a weekend bag, because everything else is coming home with me! That company is much less expensive than the others and is even having a “special” on shipping, with the whole order costing $9.95.
Thanks so much for making something else a lot easier for us!
Can you believe that we are entirely finished with her shopping? I even ordered her voice recorder on Friday night…</p>
<p>Great - glad I could help. I can’t believe how quickly the summer is going by and we’ll be thinking about packing up again so soon. Much less will be going this year though - she took way too much stuff initially last year. Which recorder did you get?</p>
<p>Many thanks for all the suggestions… I knew the music folks would have some pertinent ideas. I am guessing he will have at least 3 guitars with him at school and there are practice rooms on every floor in the dorm, so other than keeping his dorm room locked (assume the roommate will have similar concerns) I’m not sure there will be a whole lot more he can do with the guitars from a safety perspective. I think he is thinking about the smaller items that someone could more easily walk off with. </p>
<p>Thanks again for the great ideas.</p>
<p>Even though my D’s instrument - voice - is with her at all times (unless she loses it) she still had a locker in the music building for books, etc. She practically lived in the music building so it would not have surprised me had she curled up in her locker for a nap.</p>
<p>We went with the smaller foot-locker because she can keep all of her linens in it, and , since it comes with a sliding tray on top, there is a place to keep those items which are all too easily stolen. She’ll also have a small locker in the music building, which is what the voice majors get, so I hope she has the good sense to stash her beloved I-Pod in there when she has a class! Her dorm is about 30 yards away, but I really hope she makes good use of the locker as a place to put the things she doesn’t need at the moment.
The voice recorder: having a long talk with an older student who does recordings on the side for other kids (actually did my D’s audition CD), led us to the Zoom H2. It is really easy to use and she preferred it’s sound to the other devices when she had a chance to hear them all in one sitting. E-Bay has become my dearest friend and we found a great price there. Does anyone else have an H2?</p>
<p>Re footlockers, make sure you know what kind of dorm room they will be in. DD’s room was very small. Both beds were lofted with the desk and dresser under the bed and wardrobe next to it. That took up the entire half of the room. On the other hand they had a large suite common room, but 4 footlockers would have been difficult to accommodate. DD had to learn to live in the space she had and send things back and forth to home by the season.</p>
<p>Folks…be realistic… your kids probably will NOT use an under the bed foot locker EVERY TIME they leave their rooms. It’s just too much to do. They might leave things locked in it that they don’t regularly use, but the likelihood of them using it to stow an Ipod when they leave their room isn’t high…in my opinion. </p>
<p>As I said earlier…kids need to learn to LOCK THEIR DOORS and NEVER leave valuables unattended. DS had a Dr. Beat stolen from a practice room when he was a freshman. He left it and his music in a practice room while he went to the bathroom. He had the sense to TAKE his instrument with him. The thing that troubled him the most was that the practice rooms were accessible ONLY to music majors with card swipes. It bothered him that either another music major had taken his Dr. Beat…or had let someone in who didn’t belong there.</p>
<p>Agreed - if lofting is chosen, then a footlocker may not make sense. D and her room mate won’t be lofting so we know the trunk will go under the bed. Her room for the fall is larger than the room for freshman year.</p>
<p>Edited to add - agree with Thumper in that my D used the trunk to store things she didn’t regularly use. I think she had her Ipod with her at all times so I doubt that was stored. Her laptop had its own lock. She liked to lock her door but her room mate did not so she never trusted that she did it. She assumed the door would be left unlocked and acted accordingly.</p>