Ideas on Transporting "school Luggage" long distance

Parents Forum
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<p>One way car rentals can be expensive. Varies by company, city mix, etc. A few years ago we had a “summer of funerals” and unexpected travel interwoven with existing vacation/flights. It required my husband and kids doing a one way rental from Columbus Ohio to Albany NY. I think the cost was something like $150. </p>

<p>Husband was wise enough to take them up on the offer to spend another $30 to make it a Cadillac. He really enjoyed the drive, and it was so cushy/relaxing he was able to make the trip (about 600 miles) in a single day instead of doing the originally planned overnighter.</p>

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<p>My son is going to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for college. We live five hours away, in a New Orleans suburb. I’m looking at three huge storage bins of bed linens, towels, right now, and we have a CRV. Knowing most of this stuff will end up on his bed solves the problem of how it will fit in his room, but I’m already considering how we’re going to get it there and get it home. I’m seriously considering waiting on sending the comforter, though if he has a hot blooded roomie, he’ll need a blanket at bedtime. As I said, luckily, we live five hours away, but I do not want to be making monthly trips up there to bring things and pick them up. Got to do that enough with the mother in a nursing home in Houston. As for storing these items, I considered a bed bug protector bag I saw at BBB, but am considering just storing the items in storage bins over the summer. I had some leftover pillows from our Katrina evacuation, but they’ve been in a public storage unit for almost five years, unprotected, and I am quite hesitant to reuse those. Should have thought of the plastic tubs back then. Those will be going to the homeless shelter. Any bugs those pillows picked up will find company with the homeless downtown. I know, terrible thing to say, but hate to throw them away when there are so many needy people in shelters in my city. Bought new pillows at Target for five bucks a piece. They are stored in bags in a storage tub right now, and will remain there until move in day.</p>

<p>As it stands now, we were only able to get two hotel rooms, each with a king size bed, for the day before move in day. This is winding up being a blessing in disguise. As we will not want to leave things in the CRV overnight, son will have a hotel room to himself, with all his storage bins and luggage around him. How funny it will be. We will unload everything from the storage bins into his room, leave him a couple of reasonable size ones for his room, plus a suitcase and duffle, and bring the large storage bins home to store until break time.</p>

<p>At least, that’s the plan, anyway. Will have to check back on whether that’s how we actually do things.</p>

<p>I am hesitant to rent a bigger car for the trip, which will be round trip excursion, as the more space we have, the more we’ll tend to bring. Perhaps limiting ourselves to the CRV will help us keep things down to a minimum.</p>

<p>Still a work in progress, though.</p>

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<p>Montegut you’ll be amazed at how compact comforters, sweaters, jackets, etc. get when you use the Space Bags. The trick is to suck the air out of the bag after you put the bag in the box or suitcase you are using. You get to fit a lot more stuff in the same space. The bags keep getting reused back and forth every trip. It’s a good investment. New sheets are already pretty compact as they come and don’t need to be “shrunk”, just take the cardboard inserts out.</p>

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<p>THank you so much, j’adoube. I think I will invest in some space bags, then. Do you recommend the kind where you have to connect a vacuum, or are the smush’em kind just fine? Got plenty of BBB coupons ready to use. It’s conveniently right next to Target close to my house, so I’ll be visiting there a lot.</p>

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<p>We flew Southwest the 3000 miles. As a freshman, two flew with four bags. As a graduate (two weeks ago…yahoo)…three of us flew back with 6 suitcases…not a bad increase in stuff over four years.</p>

<p>If you do fly, remember to rent a vehicle large enough to transport the “stuff” from the airport to the next spot. A small subcompact car…well…it just doesn’t work!</p>

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<p>Montegut,
j’adoube beat me to the space bag idea. Definitely use the ones with a vacuum. Good luck.</p>

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<p>Second the rental car rec. We just got back from Seattle, with six suitcases and three duffles plus a laptop and camera. We luckily got a Camry, but we barely fit it all. We had to bring outriggers for whale watching. Oh, I wish I had thought of those space bags a few weeks ago. Sorry to hear about the vacuum, though. I guess son will need one at school. I’m sure the only time it will be used is to make the space bags.</p>

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<p>I’m sure there will be a vacuum cleaner someplace in the dorm that he can borrow. We rented an Impala a couple of weeks ago and it had the most enormous trunk. It’s deep and tall, plus it seats 5 people easily.</p>

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My SIL brings one with her when she goes to pick up her D. She says the space the bags save is worth the trouble of transporting the vac.</p>

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<p>Remember, the space bags reduce the amount of space an item takes up BUT it doesn’t make it weigh less. If you’re flying it’s very easy to pack an overweight bag when using space bags.</p>

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<p>Last year I bought the smush’em kind from Bed and bath and they ended up in the church rummage sale pile. I would go with the vacuum kind. Can anyone recommend good place to get these?</p>

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<p>I think BB&B has them still (we got them there).</p>

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<p>Kajon, I am pretty sure that Costco sells them, but you get a variety of sizes as one package. I believe the price was very good though.</p>

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<p>Costco sells a box of space bags for around $20 and it’s worth it. I second the reminder that space bags only reduce the size of things, not the weight. I have one of the non-vacuum space bags and it works fine, but the vacuum-type one are probably your better bet.</p>

<p>I live in WA and go to school in Alabama. Freshman year I flew down with my mom and sister and only brought 2 suitcases, deciding that it was easier to shop near the school. This year, I’m flying alone and taking the airport shuttle with 2 or 3 checked bags (Alaska charges $20 each for the first three bags). The local Target has a college night the day after I arrive, so I’ll buy things there or at the grocery store. Should I need stuff at another store, I’ll either have it shipped, carpool with friends, or wait until my family comes for family weekend.</p>

<p>What you bring really depends on how much stuff you think your son needs. I come from a family that travels very light (think one carryon and a small backpack for week-long vacations) and enjoy shopping for things when I get somewhere. Other people have more stuff and need a U-Haul trailer for all their stuff. When it comes time to ship stuff home, if the replacement cost of something is near what it costs to ship it, I’ll usually donate the used item and buy a new one next year. Remember that stores near colleges are crowded and are out of stock on many things around move-in day. </p>

<p>During the year, remember that the post office has flat-rate boxes (online postage discount available) that take only 2-3 days to cross the country. It’s a great way to send care packages.</p>

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<p>Oh, that college night sounds like something we want to steer clear of. It’s worth my sanity to buy things now when I see them than save a few bucks when the sales go on. I also tend to overbuy when things are on sale, I can’t resist a bargain, then wind up spending days returning things I don’t need. This way, I’m doing the weeding out now and returning things on my own time. We do not have a Costco down here, but do have BBandB and Target, and Pier 1 and World Market, which I’ve been recommended.</p>

<p>Now, this vacuum bag space bags, can you use a Dirt Devil with those? </p>

<p>You can tell I don’t vacuum much.</p>

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<p>Because stores tend to run out of these early, I think the only thing you absolutely have to buy ahead of time is the twin x long bedding. </p>

<p>Any ideas on how to shove ice hockey gear into one of those vacuum bags? :p</p>

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<p>I don’t know if vacuum bags would help that much with ice hockey gear unless the gear you were putting in the bags had a lot of excess air in it (like a comforter or pillow). Otherwise, there is less benefit to using the bags.</p>

<p>You can use a Dirt Devil or other hand-held vacuum, but it won’t work as well in my experience because the bags are designed for use with the hose of a larger vacuum.</p>

<p>The Target College night will be busy, but the purpose of the night isn’t so much shopping but rather going with your friends and getting the giveaways and having fun. I’ve also done similar, non-college after hours events at Costco too and it’s still possible to do all of your shopping.</p>

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<p>If you know anyone with a business that does a lot of shipping ask them if they can ship it for you at their preferred rate. They know the rates for the different box sizes and the weight allowed for each and you pack accordingly. I remember paying about $27 for a box that weighed 67 lbs (weight limit for that box was 70 lbs, 5 day ground, got there in 3 days). He gave us the box, we filled it up, and he took it back with him to his place of business where UPS/FedEx picked it up. All the stuff in the space bags went in there.</p>