<ol>
<li><p>Our kids have too much crap.</p></li>
<li><p>If you tell your son “If you are pressed for time and it comes down to studying vs. laundry and cleaning, leave it and I will help you when I get there.”, son hears “Mom is coming, she will take care of everything.”</p></li>
<li><p>The Country Inn and Suites has video cameras of their parking lot. When one UA mommy hits another mommy’s car in the parking lot but then denies it and leaves, there will be video proof, the cops will be called, the hotel will have all the offending mommy’s information. Can’t wait to see this one on Judge Judy!</p></li>
<li><p>If you put your name on the list for a cart at 9 a.m. on move-out Friday, it will be at least two hours before it’s your turn. Probably more like three hours. </p></li>
<li><p>It is impossible to keep any social plans to meet up. There is no time. You are lucky if you can drag yourself over to Lakeside to eat roast pork and commiserate with other parents over how awful the move out process is. </p></li>
<li><p>When you and your fellow road trippin’ room mommy wear your Chicago Bama alumni shirts down to breakfast in Clarksville, you will be the social highlight of the breakfast crowd. Old men will sing “Chicago” to you. Others will comment things like “I know what that (script Bama) A stands for” and will regale you with their own college move out stories. </p></li>
<li><p>When you drive 12 hours with a huge shining A on the back of your van, you will get “Roll Tided” by several people, including one who will open his sunroof to vigorously wave his tattered Bama flag out the top of his car as he passes you at 90 mph.</p></li>
<li><p>I have the best fellow room mommies a room mommy could ever want - even if one happened to pack away the laundry detergent prematurely. Also the best CC friends who share their laundry detergent so those bathrooms rugs could be washed before being stored them away and who give you tips on where to get great Greek food and didn’t laugh when joined for said Greek food by three mommies wearing matching bedazzled A shirts.</p></li>
<li><p>Chance getting the parking ticket. Taking the 30 minutes out of your day to find the parking pass office and get the pass is not worth your time when there is so much crap to move. This tip brought to you by lattelady. </p></li>
<li><p>When you wear your bedazzled “NRDMOM Fan Club t-shirt” while moving boxes, you will pop at least 3 stones off shirt. </p></li>
<li><p>Our kids have too much crap.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I learned that my child, if given the responsibility and the right tools (access to a zip car and storage locker) will move herself out while I have my feet up in Colorado.</p>
<p>Your kids can do this without you. It took some planning and some guidance and discussions (tools referred to above) but all in all if went very smoothly.</p>
<p>I learned that our child doesn’t miss us all that much. She left Tuscaloosa late Saturday morning after moving herself out and, instead of rushing home, she has stopped to visit a UA friend along the way. So I haven’t gotten the postmortem on freshman year yet, nor do I know how much dirty laundry might be coming my way. Honestly, this is a good thing. I love to see them spread their wings.</p>
<p>Class 2012: Re #10, I assume the shirt is being re-bedazzled, right? It’s not like you can give a damaged NRDMom fan club shirt to Goodwill.</p>
<ol>
<li> Girls are much more responsible than (18 year old) boys. But I didn’t need move out weekend to learn that.</li>
</ol>
<p>beth’s mom - that shirt will be re-bedazzled and back to its original shiny glory for move-in weekend.</p>
<p>Re: Lessons Learned On Move Out Weekend (Class2012Mom)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Our kids have too much crap.</p></li>
<li><p>Ditto</p></li>
<li><p>They also had bacon on Saturday morning.</p></li>
<li><p>Which is why you send every other possible room mommie and their driver’s license down in your stead.</p></li>
<li><p>Social plans: Ha Ha Ha Ha. So tired. Asked 2012Mom to carry me to Lakeside. Sometimes she is not a gracious refuser. Should have asked lattelady.</p></li>
<li><p>Couldn’t wear honorary Chicago alumni shirt until Tuscaloosa. Got many confused smiles and waves and at least one loudly whispered commentary in the parking lot.</p></li>
<li><p>People did seem to appreciate Class2012’s shiny A.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>8a. One shouldn’t expect laundry detergent after last neatly packed box has made its way to storage. One shouldn’t glare, either. Or cast aspersions.</p>
<p>8b. Oh, yes she did too laugh! </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Parking ticket? We not afraid of no stinking parking ticket!</p></li>
<li><p>Yes - it’s best not to be chest level while 2012 pops her crystals. You could lose an eye.</p></li>
<li><p>Our kids have too much crap.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Oh, and a ‘I (heart) 2012Mom’ cap keeps the pouring rain off your head quite nicely.</p>
<p>my 18 yo freshman was able to do the move out on his own. Like Sniner, we helped with the logistics, but he packed and had friends drive him to the storage units a few times. He did his last final on Friday from 8-11:30, and was checked out, and on a plane by 4:30. </p>
<p>Packing and moving took too much of his time, IMO. We offered to come down and help so that he could continue to study, but decided not to. I think he regrets that in hind sight.</p>
<p>Yes, our kids have too much crap. Each year my kids brought less and less because too often I’d find that they were minimalists and used and wore the same things all the time.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention the most awesome CC mommy who delivered Krispy Kremes to the (formerly known as) boys of 111 to get them through finals weeks. High five and many thanks to you!</p>
<p>^^Our kids will even acknowledge this. I got a text from my D while she was in the process of moving out that literally said “I have too much crap.”</p>
<p>Some of our kids MAY have too crap because their CC crazed parents got caught up in the just slightly overzealous “what to send your kids off to college with” threads last spring …</p>
<p>^^
It would be one thing if the kids were bringing stuff for four years in apt. but, when you have to move in/move out every year it gets annoying to pack up the same stuff every year.</p>
<p>Yikes, DS is starting all this in the fall!</p>
<p>Oh for the days of clothes, toothbrush, frisbee, and a guitar…</p>
<p>LOVE! Which is why I’m laughing right now as I’ve heard my D who thinks she is going to need the entire Suburban and her car just to tote all her stuff to T-Town for move-in. I’ve joked that her “second closet” will be on 4 wheels and parked in the parking lot. Clothes and shoes may be stored in her car if she thinks she is going to take half of what she is supposedly planning on taking. Can I just say, HA! </p>
<p>Tell me if this will work:
Told D we need to get the 3 drawer plastic storage bins to go under her bed after it is raised. Put all of her t-shirts, shorts, unmetionables, bedding, towels, etc in them and move them that way. Just seems it would be overkill to pack them in boxes and then also haul the storage drawers. Why not go ahead and have the stuff in them that will be stored in them?<br>
She will be in Tut so no storage room at all and teeny closet. Right now she is planning on attending Summer II and I do not want her to get accustomed to too much crap! I know she will need some items then that she won’t at Tut and I’ll be coming down to move her over at the end of Summer II and just bring that stuff back or find out if there is a “donation box” to toss it into and pass it on.</p>
<p>we didn’t buy the plastic drawers until we got there and decided what we needed (the first year). after that, we just bring them back and forth with their stuff in them. </p>
<p>do not bring more stuff than there is room for. and use all space wisely.</p>
<p>Wish my son agreed about the “too much crap” remark. It’s a wonder we got on the plane with all of his stuff, which is all over my living room and dining room (oh well). </p>
<p>I did, however, look at his kid brother, the HS junior, and say, “You see all this? No way when you go to college. Understand?”</p>
<p>I hope he got the message.</p>
<p>We tossed out or donated so much stuff, and a lot of it was not my son’s, but belonged to roommates who could not take everything home, as one lived on the West Coast.</p>
<p>I have a confession. My DD has way too much crap AND she is a lazy a$$ slob. I flew down early to give myself 2 full days in town to make sure she was getting good meals and rest during finals. It ended up taking every minute of my stay to restore some degree of order and cleanliness to her apartment. Okay, it may not have reached the level that her brother achieved, but it was bad. The double sink and counter in the kitchen was overflowing with plastic cups and dishes. The dishwasher was empty. I actually hand washed something that looked like a funnel that had a hose attached. I was too busy to get judgmental. She said it belongs to the roommate’s boyfriend. I choose to believe that for now. I scrubbed the bathtub with a bleach cleanser, and she exclaimed it wasn’t that clean when she moved in. Ack!</p>
<p>BTW: We weren’t even moving out. She is just home for the month of May. This girl had better get a good job, because she is going to need a housekeeper.</p>
<p>All this is so true, and yet so funny. I am just glad I invested in a GoreTex jacket and boonie hat. I can’t believe the amount of rain we endured. I also learned it is FAR easier to move out than to move in. We zoomed down (in the rain the whole way from STL to T-Town) on Friday, disassembled the room/suite, grabbed a burger while shivering at Hardees and then drove to BHM for the night (not keen on the robbery of $300 a night in T-Town for a room) and then headed back Saturday AM.</p>
<p>I learned:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Presidential needs drainage around the sidewalk from the parking lot to the front, especially near the bike shelter.</p></li>
<li><p>UA needs to invest in some landscaping curbing along this sidewalk. Mulch everywhere from the overflow. UA also needs to never hire the contractor again who installed the drainage/guttering at the roof. This put Niagra Falls to shame.</p></li>
<li><p>Bringing my own folding flatbed cart was the best decision I ever made. A folding cover for the bed of my truck was the second best investment I ever made.</p></li>
<li><p>We sent too much crap with him. He owns more stuff than a small third world country. Some of his clothes look like they were repeatedly worn in a third world country. However, I was astounded to see the perfectly fine items being discarded. I am glad I am not a pack-rat.</p></li>
<li><p>Glad I didn’t invest in the time and effort to get a visitor parking pass. That is a gamble I will take every time from here on out. The parking people would have to go on foot to get to the cars wedged in everywhere. I don’t see that happening.</p></li>
<li><p>I really wish that I would have had time to socialize with the friends I have made here. While it doesn’t take as long to move out as it does to move it, it still takes longer than you would ever think, and I am amazed every time how fast time flies and how little time you really have for anything else. Sad in a way, because I wanted to enjoy the trip more by doing something fun, but that is just too much to expect, much to my chagrin.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>My garage now looks like a tent city, and the trick will be to get the boy to put things away before he darts off to Summer I in about 2 weeks. Poor kid.</p>
<p>I hope ya’ll made it home safe and sound and I hope you have a great summer with yours while they are home.</p>
<p>What I learned is that sending my husband to pick up my son was a GREAT idea!</p>
<p>Second thing I learned is to be grateful they came home in one piece. They were stopped on I65 North for almost 2 hours because of not one, but two, fatal accidents. The first involved 5 boys moving back from Indiana U where they got a flat, somehow hit a railing, flipped and the 2 boys that were ejected were killed. The second accident also had a fatality. Puts alot of things in perspective.</p>
<ol>
<li>UA needs to invest in some landscaping curbing along this sidewalk. Mulch everywhere from the overflow. UA also needs to never hire the contractor again who installed the drainage/guttering at the roof. This put Niagra Falls to shame.</li>
</ol>
<p>My son says this about Riverside and ALL of UA. The campus is not well designed for the amount of rain they get.</p>
<p>We learned that my son is very organized and self-sufficient and perfectly capable of moving himself out. My husband flew down to help him move Friday evening (my son had finals through Friday). By the time he got there my son had gone to the storage space earlier in the week, signed the lease and paid, packed and moved all of his stuff to said storage space (despite a very traumatizing incident with a spider), cleaned his room and packed his car up for the drive home. So Dad was basically there to rent a van Sat am to move one bike and one fan to storage, go to Dreamland BBQ Friday night and share the drive home. Next year we stay home for move-out!</p>