<p>Don't forget walmart.com and target.com can ship to the school.</p>
<p>The relatively small Walmart closest to my D's rural school ran out of some necessities at move-in time. It would be OK if he had the sheets already, and wasn't picky about color - think a choice of purple, brown or Little Mermaid. I would ship clothes, a couple of towels and a set of sheets, bring the electronics in the car, and buy the rest.</p>
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<p>The boy wears aloha shirts 364 days of the year. He even found polyester and nylon aloha shirts to wear backpacking. Do you think he would be put off by Little Mermaid sheets? I'd bet a nickel he wouldn't even notice.</p>
<p>Just want to let you all know how much I am enjoying this thread! Too true, and very funny. We live in Asia, and have some experience in packing tight for our home visits in the states: When you order your packmate bags online,get the larger sizes, rather than small. BTW, Walmart, BBB, nearly everyone does mail order. Often, we have found things online, that are out of stock in the local Target and Walmart stores, (even in San Diego county). Underwear, bedding, camping equipment, cd's,food... You'd be amazed at what you can get delivered by mail order. Also, we always carry shampoo and other messy stuff in our checked luggage: masking tape shut the lid, double bag in zip locks, and pack in a rubbermaid tub, then into the suitcase. Sometimes the plastic tub gets cracked, but the bottles don't spill.</p>
<p>Freshman year my W decided everything was going to fit into the Voyager minivan. It sort of did after we went to Sears at the last minute for a cartop carrier. This year, due to a family emergency, my D flew to school with a very large duffle and a suitcase and her instrument. I guess the pile must have grown because, when we drove the rest of the stuff, there were just two of us and the Voyager was packed and we still needed the cartop carrier. Next year she will be in an apartment and will need an air conditioner, furniture, etc. At least most of the stuff will live in the apartment over the summer.</p>
<p>Another vote for Bed Bath & Beyond. We ordered some stuff recently and the shipping cost was surprisingly reasonable, considering the weight of some of the items (stacking shelves).</p>
<p>Do you have a roof rack on either car? Our Sears "X-Cargo" has come in handy every summer for the past 10 years or so. You can't put anything heavy in it, but it does free up a lot of space in the car. Because of H's work schedule, we now often take 2 separate cars for summer vacation, but have managed on quite a few occasions to cram the 6 of us, 3 dogs :), H's golf clubs, luggage, and bikes into/onto one vehicle. The X-Cargo is great for the cluttery things like helmets, sneakers, tennis rackets, etc.</p>
<p>Since several helpful folks have suggested it, you should all know that we do have a soft-sided rooftop cargo carrier we can put on the Subaru. I'm just trying to avoid sending it on a one-way trip to college.</p>
<p>WashDad is scaring me. I've been blithely thinking that three of us and S's stuff can fit into a Hyundai (not a big one either) for the drive from NYC to Willamsburg. S doesn't have a lot of clothes (except for about 15 college T-shirts, LOL) but will be bringing his bass, amp and possibly his keyboard and stand. Do they NEED a printer? I'm hoping his roommate can buy the room fridge and S can buy the microwave....aarrgghh...</p>
<p>A laser printer is really worth the money. Cost is under $100. Cartridges last for a long time and don't dry up.</p>
<p>My daughter didn't have a printer this past year and was fine - it really depends on the school. At her college she could simply dispatch things to print over the network and then go to print it out at one of the computer labs in her dorm or the library.</p>
<p>Neither of my kids have printers at school. They've told me they just take their flash drive to a school computer and print whatever they need out for free. Actually, I think they direct send most of their papers to the prof's anyway. Both started off with a printer but had problems within the first month or two and weren't interested in fixing or replacing.</p>
<p>I think you really can start off with the basics, buy there whatever you need and then order on-line anything else within the first month. As long as you have the electronics and a sleeping bag, most guys would be fine. My son had a car on campus and he managed to buy whatever he needed - even without me!</p>
<p>This thread is cracking me up. I'm in Boston now moving DS back to CA for the summer after this freshman year. I asked him how much stuff he had and he was like "we just need some trash bags." I said, "we aren't going to pack it in trash bags", his response: "no, I mean most of it is thrased by now."
Boys are definitely lower maintenance and he did discover online clothes shopping pretty quickly when he needed something during the year. It will all work out and they need a lot less than you think.</p>
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WashDad is scaring me. I've been blithely thinking that three of us and S's stuff can fit into a Hyundai (not a big one either) for the drive from NYC to Willamsburg.
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<p>Laptop or desktop?</p>
<p>The multiple components of a desktop take up a lot of space in the car. A laptop doesn't. </p>
<p>Why do you need the third person, anyway?</p>
<p>I guess I have one of the few daughters who can make do with a backpack and one medium suitcase for enough shoes, clothing and linens to last a semester. She more than makes up for it with two acoustic double basses and accessories, a bass guitar and the associated amp/speaker. We still have to put the rooftop carrier on the Honda Odyssey to make everything fit.</p>
<p>We got her a cheap laser printer in freshman year because the school had a good package deal on them. She tells us that most of its use comes from friends in her dorm needing to print something at the last minute before running to class. Most of her assignments get handed in through email.</p>
<p>My d did a 3 week summer program at Cornell and became the most popular kid in her dorm because she had a printer. The school's printers were about a 10 minute walk away that no one wanted to do, even in the summer, especially late at night or last minute, when all the printers were busy. And they charged 10 cents per page! (She finally told those she wasn't friends with that the printer was off limits; I thought she should charge 25 cents per page "convenience charge" and make a little money!) The printer's going with her again.</p>
<p>If you're buying them a new quilt/comforter, that might be a good item to order and ship-- not terribly heavy, but bulky, and takes up a lot of car space...</p>
<p>WashDad...the list of clothes WashJr. is taking totally cracked me up. That amount of clothes would have done OK for a weekend trip for D2. D1 is a bit better packer, but I still expect moving (only a 7-hr drive for us) to be an ordeal. We do own an RV, and have already threatened to move her and her stuff into the dorm with the RV. The prospect of that has her mortified enough that I think she'll be extra frugal in what she takes with her, initially, at least :)</p>
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<p>I talked to WDJr about this last night, and it turns out I was wrong about his clothes list. He plans to take his winter hiking boots, too. Three pairs of shoes -- what is this kid turning into?</p>
<p>Girls and boys are different, part eleven zillion: If we had an RV my son would be asking to live in it in the college parking lot. "Dad, I could just run an extension cord into the dorm building!"</p>
<p>S's "wardrobe" throughout HS has consisted of 2 prs of jeans, 2 prs of shorts, white undershirts, and a few tee +/or polo shirts. He has worn a winter jacket at most MAYBE 4 or 5 times in that period-- usually his sweatshirt suffices, even in winter. Yet now I find myself coming up with this humongous mental list of clothes he might need for every possible weather situation... Will wait and see what he actually needs, though think he'll finally get some use out of that coat...</p>
<p>ebeeeee: That is pretty funny. Yeah, almost everything my son has in his dorm room should just be thrown out. Although, instead he will schlep (s?) it to another dorm room for summer stay. </p>
<p>Maybe I'm just a burned out mom, but after the first kid I've sort of realized that I'm was way too involved with the preparations/packing and he really didn't need 3/4 of the stuff I thought he needed. I can see sending son #2 off with about one suitcase of stuff, because that is all that he'd be willing to get lined up. (Except for computer -- don't know about that.)</p>