<p>Be careful about flying -- there are now NEW check-in luggage restrictions. United is now charging for 2nd bag. Check your airline. </p>
<p>My D is a student in Boston. We made her move from Denver and into her dorm a family vacation. Husband, son & I accompanied her, each of us packing light and checking-in 2 suitcases filled with mostly her stuff. We had a total of 8 suitcases plus carry-on bags! We helped her move into her dorm, then a couple days later continued on our vacation. We brought home the empty suitcases so they wouldn't take up room in her dorm.</p>
<p>When I moved d from overseas to Philadelphia we got there 2 days early and stayed in a suburb - lots of stores nearby and much cheaper hotel options. We basically bought everything she needed. Inventory of a lot of college items was low, but we found everything she needed - Kohls was our favorite - BBB and Target were very picked over.</p>
<p>I've been told by three or four friends that they had bad experiences w/ BBB - when they got to college town their order wasn't there or was incomplete and the store was picked over....it seems like you all had great experiences - did you confirm w/ the collegetown store? I'm debating if we should do the BBB or bite the bullet and buy here and ship the items UPS to be at the dorm when we arrive.</p>
<p>for those heading to colder climates, North Face is definitely the way to go for outerwear. We have some stuff from Land's End and L.L.Bean, but the North Face gear is what the students wear up here (CT and formerly Minnesota). The jackets aren't too hot in fall and spring, but are plenty warm for the coldest days of winter.</p>
<p>Going from Kentucky to Massachusetts, I flew by myself, with two bags. Everything else, my mom shipped to me gradually (or I bought it once I was actually there).</p>
<p>We flew and rented a minivan. Good thing too as we needed the room. The back of the minivan just held the 4 boxes we shipped (see below) and the hatch would not close.</p>
<p>Bed Bath and Beyond:
You can scan your items locally over the summer and they will be all bagged and waiting for you on the other end (by the college). They hold it until you get there. No need to worry about the date.
SAVE COUPONS. BBB will take ALL their coupons and Linens and Things. They even take expired coupons. Start making a pile and bring them with you at pick up. There is no limit so bring lots.
Scan everything you may need. At pick up, you get to see all of it and the student can make last minute decisions on what to purchase. We stopped at the dorm first and realized we did not need underbed storage (lots of closet space in the dorm room), etc. so we didn't have to buy it. (Son was in camp so my other son and I did all the BBB scanning. Ended up with 3 laundry bags and son got his choice at pick up.</p>
<p>DRIVING FROM TX to NJ- Besides the obvious, crowded in car, traffic, etc. how will you ever fit luggage for 4 plus all the college stuff in the car???
I vote for leaving Grandma at home until Oct when you go back for parents weekend. By then, you are visiting and not spending so much time shopping and schlepping. May be too much for her (in the heat too.) Also, events will be planned, and Grandma will get to see happy granddaughter (and her friends) rather than caught up in hectic activity.</p>
<p>HOW WE GOT SONS STUFF TO COLLEGE:
UPS.
Packed 4 large cartons. Scheduled a pick up from our house (no need for us to schlep them anywhere) directly to the closest UPS store to campus (right across the street from my sons college). They will hold the boxes for pickup. We put the date of pick up on the boxes too. Cost- $10 per box for UPS to hold them (paid for at pickup time). (Check out fedEx too as I just read somewhere else on CC that it was cheaper, but you may not be able to have anyone hold them for you. We could not ship directly to the dorm as they did not allow packages for a week.</p>
<p>Shopped locally (Target, Best Buy) for toiletries and odds and ends (hockey stick) but ended up at Amazon.com from the hotel when we couldn't find an appropriate and affordable TV. You'll save room by buying bedding at BBB (we purchased at home and shipped it ) and also had to ship the printer (gift he rec'd.) I did a Target run at home for lots of stuff which you can avoid if you can find it at BBB. You may be able to ship/bring less than we did.</p>
<p>Also, had mapquest info for dorm to all the stores we needed.</p>
<p>On the return from college for freshman son this May- he flew home himself. We visited in April and brought an empty suitcase for him to pack and we flew home with it. He is storing large items (printer/ refrig/bedding) at an apt. of someone he knows. Flew home with his 2 suitcases and shipped (UPS) just 1 box home.</p>
<p>Staples does free delivery for orders over $50. DS went to one at home, looked at everything from desk lamps to pens and then ordered off the internet. Placed the order a couple of days before flying to school. Did the same for CVS. Made moving in alot easier. Didn't have to deal with long lines or out of stock items. We live in Boston-it's nuts around here move in time.Would not want to venture into BB&B or Target. The supermarket is crowded enough with students buying supplies.</p>
<p>Yes, you can take advantage of any sales that are in place when you pick up your BB and B order. In fact, you can ditch the things you ordered and get others in their place. We did that with the mattress pad. DD ended up choosing a very thick mattress pad over that foam egg crate thing and regular mattress pad, after seeing that her mattress was brand new and quite nice and not spongy. We also picked up her lamp and a study pillow on sale at BB and B when we were picking up the order. AND we used a ton of coupons...one for each item.</p>
<p>'rentof2, the reason you need a bigger car than you think is that when you buy stuff at BB&B or Target or wherever, it takes up <em>hugely</em> more room in the bags from the store than if you had removed all the packaging and put it into the most compact form for packing into a box or suitcase.
Like many here, when we moved D from Texas to Washington we flew up with maximum (carefully weighed) baggage, borrowed a car from a relative, hit Target and then drove the 4 hours to campus. Four suitcases, 2 carryon bags and a big shopping trip filled my sister's Honda Accord to the brim (OK, it's a hybrid so the trunk is small...)
Her college held packages for the students so we could order stuff online and not worry about delivery windows - fancy mattress pad and down pillows were there when we got there.</p>
<p>We live in Texas and S will be going to school in L.A. He needs a car, so we are thinking that he and H will make the drive (1500 miles) and I'll fly in and meet them (great plan, I think!).</p>
<p>The thing that is bugging me is that he'll have to drive home each summer and back each fall. That just doesn't seem practical (not to mention how much I'll worry!). I don't know any alternative, though.</p>
<p>I checked on shipping the car, but that would be $550. That's a lot to spend twice a year.</p>
<p>I'd be interested to know how you guys have dealt with that. I noted the idea mentioned of leaving the car there in storage....though I hope it would start when he returned! :-/</p>
<p>^^^we have a silly, much older car that my husband bought that cannot be used in the winter. We store it for 6 months every year. There are things that have to be done to it first....some sort of additive put in the gas tank, for example....but it starts up each summer.</p>
<p>timely - my son left his car at his college for the summer (with permission from the school) and flew home. He wasn't comfortable driving cross country on his own, even breaking it up a couple days. He rented a storage unit for all his winter gear and since summer wear is so light, was able to bring that home on the plane. I fretted alittle bit, but his car is nothing that anyone in their right mind would steal...I'm not worried about it starting in August - might need a jump and to be run alittle to get the goop out, but I'm not too concerned. I might feel differently if my kid had a nice, new car. If the car is new, then I would look at storage options. Also, my son was thinking about leaving at a off-campus house where they had a garage - that scared me more than anything because I'm sure the "deal" included those kids being able to "use" my son's car so leaving it parked in a remote lot feels safer to me even though it's outside.</p>
<p>Several years ago a relative packed everything from dorm room into car, parked the car in a campus lot at LMU and flew home for the summer. Amazingly, not only did the car start in the fall, but all the stuff was still in it! Can't promise the gods will be so kind the next time a kid tries this....</p>
<p>Dragonmom, love that story. What are kids thinking sometimes. At first, my son was going to park his car on a city street and leave it..oh my gosh...you forget their minds are not totally developed!</p>
<p>I checked on shipping the car, but that would be $550. That's a lot to spend twice a year.</p>
<p>I'd be interested to know how you guys have dealt with that. I noted the idea mentioned of leaving the car there in storage....though I hope it would start when he returned! :-/>></p>
<p>Before last fall, my husband and daughter drove her car from California to Wisconsin. At the beginning of the trip, it seemed like a good idea. By the time they got to Wisconsin, however, my husband and daughter were tired and exhausted, and throughout the year, whenever the possibility of driving it BACK for the summer was mentioned, they both blanched.</p>
<p>We looked into shipping it, but it was very expensive, and we still needed a place for her to store her stuff over the summer (her school has limited storage space, daughter has mucho stuff that needs to be stored as she is a sculpture major). And, since she really needs a car at school in order to get art supplies and lug projects around, if we shipped the car home for the summer, we'd have to either drive it back (again) or ship it again.</p>
<p>Since she was going to rent a storage unit anyhow, my daughter just bumped up the size of the unit. It cost another $18 a month. She put all of her stuff in there, and then drove her car in and locked it up. When she flies back in August, she'll need to get someone to give her a lift over to get her car, but that's vastly easier than driving across country, and certainly much cheaper than shipping it. She's going to put it into storage again when she studies abroad in the spring. </p>
<p>Then, it will be senior year. Don't ask me how the heck we're going to get everything to where ever she'll be headed after that. :) By then, however, maybe her rickety old car will be destined for the junk pile.</p>
<p>Told H the ideas about leaving the car there for summers. He got all grumpy and said how then we'd have to pay airfare and S wouldn't have a car to drive over the summer. <sigh!> ;-)</sigh!></p>
<p>Travel light. We dropped our kid off at the airport with a carryon and laptop.
I shipped a couple boxes of winter clothes/bedding/supplies--cost about $35. Done. </p>
<p>If your kid is living in a dorm and eating in the cafeteria, what else does he/she need?</p>
<p>I agree, atamom. Our S is going to be a freshman at a school in California, and we live in Illinois. We are going to go with him to drop him off this fall. I really want to see his room, meet his roommate and attend many of the events scheduled for parents on move-in day. Since he'll be so far away, I want to be able to picture where he will be. </p>
<p>He'll be carrying on his laptop. He'll have a couple of bags of clothes and bedding. If you have fewer clothes, you just do laundry more often. The climate is mild, so he won't need winter clothes. We'll buy a few things when we get there, such as a pillow, desk lamp, powerstrip/surge protector and a supply of toiletries. We will ship him his printer after we get home.</p>
<p>He is pretty minimalist, so he's with us on this. We all have way too much stuff anyway.</p>