I agree with all the above but the list that is the most pertinent to me is the OTC medicines that your kid will definitely needs at some point. I remember the first call home when my kid was sick freshman year. I was able to tell her to go to the closet, look in the box I shoved in the back and take out cough syrup, cold/flu meds, cortisone, whatever they needed at the time. It makes you feel better to know that they are taking medication that you know works for them and the brand the kid recognizes helps on their end. It prevents the calls I got sophomore or junior year while she was standing in Rite Aid looking at 10 versions of Robitussin and calling me, sick, wondering which one to buy.
Lol, that BBB list is ridiculous. It reminds me of my comparison of two oatmeal raisin cookie recipes. The one on the back of the raisin box says use 1 cup of raisins and a 1/2 cup of oatmeal. The one on the back of the oatmeal box says the exact opposite. :))
I also suggest you move prescriptions to a pharmacy that is both at home and at school. I remember freshman year picking up prescriptions and paying premium prices to send them to her overnight (because she waited till the last minute to tell me she needed it). I moved it to Rite Aid, which was close to her dorm room. So, when she is there, she calls refills in there. When she’s here, like for holidays or breaks, she can call it in here.
Back in the day, the biggest item I brought was the massive stereo with full height speakers - now that they use iPhones with a Bluetooth pod speaker it doesn’t take up more than a shoe box…Our DD17’s are putting together their piles of stuff, it’s pitifully small and I am fine with that.
Lots of good advice here. We found that even with an advance Bed, Bath, and Beyond online order for pick-up near our D’s college, they were sold out of a lot of stuff and it took them a while to find and gather everything that we had ordered (eventually they did).
We arrived at our D’s college a few days early for an optional Freshman orientation and separate parent orientation before the main Freshman orientation programs. Had we arrived for the main orientations, we probably would have found even more of the local store shelves emptied of essentials.
It’s very helpful to know what the roommate(s) is/are bringing. Our D’s Freshman year roommate brought a computer printer and Apple TV with an en external monitor along with an area rug. We agreed to rent a small refrigerator and microwave for the dorm room.
It’s also very helpful to actually get “eyes on” the actual dorm room and the way the furniture is arranged. Based on our observations, we went searching various stores, mostly Targets, for storage units our D could use that would fit inside her closet, cinder blocks from Home Depot to elevate her bed and provide more under bed storage, and see what bedside table would fit in the space available next to her bed. In addition to basic tools, it’s also helpful to bring a tape measure. We purchased some nice storage units at Target that required assembly, so I also had to get the tools required to complete the task.
We also found that our D’s dorm room had far too few power outlets. Her college requires dorm residents to use approved power strips that are hard to find (except in their college bookstore, although the ones with longer cords sold out quickly, too after the larger mass of new students arrived.
Finally, an important consideration is that the more stuff a student has, the more stuff that needs to be stored, brought home, or otherwise disposed off at the end of each academic year. Our D’s college has an arrangement with a local storage company that delivers boxes and packing tape to students during finals week in the Spring and comes to pick-up the packed boxes and stores them in a local warehouse for the Summer and delivers them to the student’s new dorm at the start of the Fall term. A great option for those that live far away from campus and can’t lug lots of stuff home, and for those colleges in temperate climates, there’s really no need to bring cold weather clothes home for the Summer only to bring them back for the Fall term. Storage is still an expense, so it is best f the student is frugal and doesn’t acquire stuff they don’t really need.
I’ll eat my hat if my daughter uses an all-purpose cleaner in her room. =))
Several of the dorms we’ve toured have an office of sorts where you can check out bigger stuff by leaving your id - everything from a frying pan to a vacuum. Some of the rooms are very small, which has been an eye-opener for her. I told her she is not going to the moon, just a couple hours away. Anything that can’t wait until a visit there or here can be shipped.
Plus, if she chooses the school 40 minutes away we can zip up there with the essentials. 
My guys just like a spray bottle of wrinkle release and the location of the nearest dry cleaner lol.
I don’t even have all of the BBB items in my forever house … why would I think my college student would need them in a dorm?
The emergency medical kit is really key as mentioned above. My college rising sophomore just got back from Harvard Beijing Academy summer study program. She advises Benadryl and Benadryl spray for those allergic reactions to spider bites, bug bites and the like. Of course, add Tylenol, cough syrup, fresh inhaler, melatonin if used before.We always bring 2 cans of chicken soup and 2 bottles of Gatorade.
There is no such thing as “too minimalistic” dorm shopping. Really. Most people err in the opposite direction. As far as school supplies go, it’s fine to wait until she gets there. My kids learned in about 5th grade not to buy notebooks, etc., until after school had started.
We saw a Dorm bed on display at BBB, where they had it outfitted with a mattress protector, a mattress pad, a mattress topper and then the fiber bed thing. Overkill! We got the mattress pad and topper and called it a day! And if your school has good mattresses ( though those may be few and far between), you may not even need the topper.
I got the surge protectors with the long cord and two ubs charger ports. I also got a chair cushion from Ikea — cheap, adds decor color, and its packable. I like the rollable space bags (no vac required) and the giant zip bags. Dollar Tree had some of the 2.5 gallon zip bags. I’m hoping to use them to pack underwear and socks to make unpacking easy, and for DS to pack any care products in for no-leak storage.
"I’ll eat my hat if my daughter uses an all-purpose cleaner in her room. "
My daughter used an all-purpose cleaner once. The same day she made her bed. Once. On move-in day, probably for my benefit. Once I was gone…
Well it depends. My son attends a small school with nothing walkable and no car. The school bookstore was pretty much cleaned out on move-in day. We thought the same as you and were mistaken. He didn’t have the supplies he needed on the first day of school. Amazon came through on Tuesday, but not on Monday. It was not worth the stress when we could easily have gotten big back-to-school sales on everything he needed at home.
I used it in my son’s room! Once. On move-in day. Myself!
I think I’ll get one container of Lysol wipes to use for move it and to hopeful keep the gems down in flu season. That will be it for cleaning supplies. Maybe some Febreeze.
My D uses her shower caddy every day, keeps everything nice and organized. Two things I didn’t see mentioned here that my D needed was a makeup/magnify mirror and a first aid kit with ibuprofen, cough drops, antibiotic creme, bandaids. Half of what she took the first semester came home at Xmas and stayed home. There just isn’t enough room for non-essentials. No need for a printer or fridge, they are both down the hall.
My daughter’s college puts the syllabus and class notes on their website. You really don’t even need notebooks anymore. She lost her notebook right before finals, and still managed to pull off an A because the prof had posted class notes on a website.
Really, don’t bring too much. It’s overkill. You’ll be sorry when you have to haul it all out at the end of the year. I remember when I went, parents had 3 kids to move in to the same college (senior, junior and freshman). All they had room in the trunk for was 1 suitcase, 1 bulletin board and 1 mug. And I survived!
For parents of girls - don’t forget feminine hygiene products. Us females in the house share supplies, and we realized we had to buy D her own boxes to take to school. I know that’s stuff that can be purchased there, but I figured it was likely to get overlooked during the excitement and stress of starting school.
Best idea on the thread: a box of Color Catchers! Anything to simplify laundry and make it less likely that everything will end up a weird muddy pinkish grey. 
The BBB list is, of course, ludicrous. I sent my S to college with 2 sets of sheets, and after 4 years one came back still in the original plastic.