If you are moving your college student across the country…have them store their stuff near where they attend college between college years (summers). This was a HUGE benefit, in my opinion. No living room full of college stuff every summer.
Our kid took everything from here in four suitcases, two carry on items, and two personal items. Two of us flew Southwest. We picked up other things at the college site when we arrived there. It really wasn’t hard.
When the kid graduated, three of us flew there with two empty checked bags each. We were pretty clear that whatever didn’t fit in the six suitcases needed to be donated, given away or thrown away. It worked!
Here is what we did. We went to a second hand store and bought three LARGE suitcases that could be checked. We already had one. So four in total. We were able to fit clothing, shoes, linens, some school supplies, some books, some decor items into these four checked bags. We each had a carryon bag. Mine had the things I needed for the five days I was in CA (3 for move in then 2 to visit a friend). The kid’s bag had toiletry related items that really couldn’t get lost…think retainer, glasses, things like that. We each had a personal item. Mine was an instrument case with two instruments in it. The kid had the computer bag.
Once unpacked…the four suitcases were tossed in the dumpster. Kid kept the carry on for travel use.
When we got to the rental car place, we really looked like the Beverly Hillbillies except we didn’t have a rocking chair on the top of the car. Note…we rented the smallest car. It would have been adequate size BUT the trunk opening was not large enough to fit the suitcases through. So we needed to upgrade.
We did a BBB run and a Target run for things we didn’t bring with us.
At the end of the four years, three of us flew to graduation with two suitcases each (the graduate was not flying home…so 6 suitcases was the total). Those six suitcases belonged to us and our neighbors. We flew out with empty bags and flew back with six full bags…and the instrument case.
Two had to fly to school, and we took a different approach. We brought personal items in suitcases, but bought everything else at the college (toiletries, curtain, bedding, carpet, mirror etc etc etc). There are Target/Bed Bath and Beyond/Walmarts pretty much everywhere
Samsonite has some fabulous huge duffle bags called “tote-a-ton” that are super durable. We always use a couple of those for move in and move out and they are fine being checked. We usually put a TSA approved lock on the zippers just to make sure they don’t come upzipped.
I wish I could say my daughter packs light but she doesn’t. We store the majority of her stuff in the town where she goes to college over the summer rather than bringing it all home.
