<p>“Most of the dorms don’t have a desk to receive shipments.”</p>
<p>Ah good point, I’ll check. After the kid picks a school!</p>
<p>If I am not mistaken, I don’t think my dorm allows you to ship things to be there when you arrive, so that complicates things. It is worth double checking whether or not the school will accept packages in advance of the move in date.</p>
<p>I ship a lot of my furnishings once I am already at school, but something to bear in mind is that these packages have to be carryable from wherever the package room is. I have to carry my packages a block down the street and up some stairs, and I can’t carry much more than 25lbs comfortably, so that eliminates shipping a lot of things.</p>
<p>I should have clarified - I know most colleges won’t accept packages BEFORE the student arrives. These items could be shipped to arrive just after the student - none of them are immediately essential.</p>
<p>Emaheevul07, I have considered including a lightweight folding moving/luggage cart for exactly your scenario.</p>
<p>Some Us lend out equipment for you to transport your possessions from wherever mail is delivered to your living quarters; I know it is available at USoCal. You may want to find out before purchasing something that may be duplicative and not as sturdy as what you could borrow.</p>
<p>SOME schools do allow students to mail prior to arrival, but it is definitely something to check so the merchandise isn’t returned to sender if it arrives too early. It is amazing what can fit in a USPS flat rate box & they don’t care how much it weighs either. That can be a great way of getting things to your student. I mailed an entire suit with shirt to S in a medium box & it arrive unwrinkled! Mailed D a replacement cell phone wedged in with treats & snacks in a small flat rate box @ $4.95 postage.</p>
<p>Time to have a conversation about what one really “needs.” We shipped a couple boxes east and DS traveled with a backpack and a trunk. He was a bit surprised and amused to see families drive up with UHauls full of stuff. </p>
<p>Keep shipping low by realizing that every club will have its Tshirt and the bookstore will sell hoodies, sweatpants and everything else with the college logo. Keep it light!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Definitely check, because D1’s college allowed you to ship to the university and packages were kept in a large gym until freshman move in day when they were available for pick up. Boxes weren’t delivered to the dorm rooms.</p>
<p>I agree that it is good to remember that many of the living spaces may be smaller than your child is used to, especially if the room will be shared. There is no point in bringing a ton of stuff that won’t fit & needs to go back home anyway. We managed fine by S bringing a carry on + a checked bag. I think we also had two more checked bags and that was pretty much all we brought. We bought the other things he needed once he reached campus (Target, Tuesday Morning, Costco, Fry’s, Craigslist, etc.) It was good for him to see how things fit into the room before we added things to it. It was also good to have him have a totally collapsible rolling duffle that fit well in the closet, taking NO space. (Think back on when we went to college–we survived just fine with very little; don’t burden them with too many possessions either. They do get a TON of college t-shirts–at least my S did–D not as many.</p>
<p>My mission is to shop as little as possible once we are in the school’s city, and have as much shipped before hand, with online retailers picking up the bill. If I plan it right, all we would have to buy is a six pack of bottled water and a few snacks before we hit campus with our rolling duffles. Hence…</p>
<p>I was scoping out CVS/Walgreens locations by the campus hotel - to do personal item shopping for stuff we don’t want to lug on the plane. I was thrilled to see that they seem to have the best deal for shipping (over CVS, Riteaid) - $25 of qualifying items ships free, with incremental, small upcharges when your basket gets over 10 pounds. These are some of the things I would consider for my son - liquids, and bulky items. </p>
<p>shampoo/conditioner
soap/body wash
shaving cream
mouthwash
toothpaste
Q tips
batteries
Febreeze (room air freshener)
tissues - compact and room size
laundry detergent
stain spotter
paper towels
etc.</p>
<p>I plan on taking him to a Walgreens in our area, walking up and down the aisles, and making a ‘registry’ of items he wants. If necessary, we could break up his list into several shipments so he can carry the packages from the campus mail center but I bet he could find a friend to help.</p>
<p>from the Original Post:
</p>
<p>All I know from experience is this: When you send a boy from Buffalo to Southern California, there is NO problem of receiving back dorm items…or child, for that matter…following graduation!</p>
<p>Kid flew to school alone with one carry-on and a laptop.
I mailed a couple boxes with bedding/bulky winter clothes. Done. (Obviously, this kid is a minimalist.)
Don’t think of it as “moving”–think of it more like “going to camp.”<br>
Most people take way too much stuff.</p>
<p>Our strategy is to fly D to Boston (with my frequent flyer miles, we will each get 2 checked bags for free, plus we’ll each have a carry-on), pick up bedding there … and since we’re coming back in 4 weeks for a parents weekend, that’s when we’ll bring heavier winter clothing.</p>
<p>D makes the trips on Southwest with 2 rolling duffels (motherlodes from ebag), rolling carryon for books/heavy items, and backpack for under the seat. She’s sort of a human scale, can tell when the duffels are right at 50 lbs. Then I send her a box of winter clothes and boots in Sept.</p>
<p>Problem with picking up alot of items at the destination is that, somehow the stuff has to get back. Her school doesn’t have storage. So the printer and thick mattress pad got tossed end of freshman year. Too bulky to bring back, too expensive to ship back and forth. Shares printer with roommate or uses computer lab printer.</p>
<p>An amazing amount of stuff gets tossed out by the kids in mid-May. Each dorm has an area devoted to donations. Literally piles of perfectly good lamps, TVs, etc that go to charity.</p>
<p>^^ Or nabbed by other students.</p>
<p>I love this thread, I found it quite accidentally and it really helped in organizing my plans. Thank you to everyone for all the helpful information. Just a couple of questions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>In your experience, which carrier is best for shipping big boxes? My family will also take advantage of checking baggage on our airline, but we only get one piece of luggage each and that might not be enough for me. </p></li>
<li><p>Obviously, if you’re going to shop, doing it in the campus area is better since you don’t have to ship it, but what about things you already own? Which is cheaper: to ship, say, school supplies or bedding that you already own, or replacing it all once you get there? </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Again, thanks so much!!</p>
<p>This gets even more complicated when you live in state Westcoast, kid goes to college in state Eastcoast, and then gets an internship for the summer in state Midwest. (Feel free to exchange the regions for your example.) You may find yourself scribbling notes to yourself, like “Don’t forget to pack your dress shoes and good belt.” Especially if your kid is moving into an unfurnished apartment for the summer. (Can opener, saucepan, windowfan…)</p>
<p>Don’t think you will finally be able to relax and let your brain cells erode when the nest is empty. You’ll need to stay sharp just to figure out logistics because your kid will be too busy taking finals.</p>
<p>We too live in San Diego and DS is finishing his freshman year about 2500 miles away. All the posts are very good so I will only add a couple of things not previously mentioned.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The Container Store in Fashion Valley operates likethe Bed Bath & Beyond Store. Anything you buy there will be sent at no cost to their store in Boston for you to pick up. Some time in June or July Container Store will have a special college night which I higly reccomend that you attend with your daughter. Sign up on the container store website and they will send you a 20% off everything coupon to use. They will also send you a nice booklet with packing lists for college so it will at least get you started. The college night is fun because they have music;free give aways; special pricing; food etc. When you enter the store they have a giant map and the student puts a pin on it for their college location. They have special displays set up for college dorms. My normally “I hate shopping” son really liked it and got him excited for college. He also ran into a lot of students in knows and the kids all talked about college and moving. Also don’t forget to start collecting those 20% off coupons for BBB since they let you use as many as you have. </p></li>
<li><p>Sign up for an account with USPS under the “click and ship” link. You can enter your daughter’s address into the address book and it will be available for future packages. Plus best of all if you print the label from home you get about a 5-9 % discount on mailing costs. Every little bit helps and it allows me to easily send my son packages. You can then call USPS and they will pick up your package. You can also avoid the line at the post office and they will let you just go directly to the counter to drop off your package. I get a bunch of priority boxes each semester and keep them in my closet for future use. The service is good for any packages not just priority mail. We just put the box on the bathroom scale for figuring out the weight on non-priority box mailings. I also shared the password for the account with my son so he uses it to print labels at school to mail things back to us. </p></li>
<li><p>I highly recommend getting either a jet blue or southwest credit card. Do a search of different credit card deals especially on flyertalk.com to find the best one. The summer before college Southwest offered a credit card deal of 1 free flight; $500 travel giftcard and waiver of annual fee. I added my son to this account so that he had a card for emergencies. The credit card allowed us not to pay for any flights home for our son so far. Stick to just one airline for flying to the college city and you will see the miles/points add up. Also be sure to open a frequent flyer account for your daughter. </p></li>
<li><p>Right now reserve a station wagon or small SUV for when you are moving her in. An old friend told me that tip and I was so appreciative. I would have rented a smaller rental car not realizing that we would not be able to get everything into it for moving. Having a small suv allowed us to transport the new bike; and the purchases from BBB and Container store. It just made the move easier.</p></li>
<li><p>Be sure to reserve your hotel room for the movin-in weekend now. Look at the hotel options to find which one will be big enough to store your purchases until you move in. Also most hotels will accept packages so you can send any packages to the hotel and they will hold it until you check-in. </p></li>
<li><p>See if the school has any program which allows the student to move in a day or two earlier. My son’s school has a special 3 day pre-orientation camp which he did. While he was a camp I drove around picking up things we had ordered. He then did a special move-in program where he was part of the group moving students into the dorms. By doing these programs he got to move in when things were more quiet; plus it allowed him to select his desk and bed and have his part of the room set up by the time his roommates moved in. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>You don’t want to bring too much. Dorm rooms are small and you are sharing the space. We checked 4 suitcases with my son’s things (in addition to pickups at BBB and Container Store) and he was glad we didn’t have more since there really wasn’t any space for more in the dorm room. Another bit of advice given to me was not to stay past the day of moving in. My DS moved in on a Thursday morning and I flew back Friday night. If you stick around for long it might cause some homesickness. Also being around means they are not making any friends and thinking of home. On CC I learned of this final trick. Place a small gift and card somewhere in her room among her things. When you are gone she will find it and it is a nice touch.</p>
<p>Great idea on the SUV and reserving a hotel room now! Freshmen move in 2 days early, but I would not have thought of the hotel until I booked our flights.</p>
<p>Fantastic posts!</p>
<p>My brother just reserved his hotel room for his son’s graduation next May; never too soon! I tried, but the B&B I tried for won’t take reservations that far in advance & won’t tell me when they will! Another place nearby has REALLY HIGH hotel rates for that time period, so I’m not so interested. Will keep looking, as I have 11+ months.</p>
<p>We lucked out–we reserved a mid-sized car but were able to select a mini-van because it was parked in the mid-size row & considered that category! Generally, it’s somewhat more expensive to rent a mini-van or station wagon than a mid-sized car.</p>
<p>itsv, thanks so much for the tip about the Container Store college nights. Here’s a link to a page giving all the nationwide locations and dates for college nights: [The</a> Container Store > College Night Events](<a href=“http://www.containerstore.com/collegenight/index.html]The”>http://www.containerstore.com/collegenight/index.html)</p>
<p>Another tip on reserving an SUV/minivan: if the price seems high, try bidding on priceline, or check hotwire. Expedia/carrentals.com/etc prices for renting a minivan at Logan Airport in Boston in late August were $85 a day :eek: hotwire initially was $45 a day, but when I went to pay it was up to $50. I bid $45 a day on priceline, and voila! You do have to prepay, but if you know your dates for sure it’s a money saver.</p>
<p>As an excuse to bump the thread…I bought this plug expander at Home Depot for a couple of bucks. Good for kids in an airport who might want to share one of the rare outlets that are already taken by someone. I made sure to pick one that had no ground on the male side, but did have it on the female. </p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Leviton 698-W 15 Amp, 125 Volt, Triple outlet Adapter, Grounding, White: Home Improvement](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Leviton-Triple-outlet-Adapter-Grounding/dp/B00002NARZ]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Leviton-Triple-outlet-Adapter-Grounding/dp/B00002NARZ)</p>