Specific recommendations for college supplies/equipment?

DS took stacking plastic drawers that had been in his room for years packed with clean towels, school supplies, and the normal stuff in his bedsides table at home (flashlight, batteries, extra wallet, lip balm, etc). I bought the small mesh shower caddy at the recommendation of someone on here at Saltwater Canvas on line. Recent college grads in my office said it was a must if bathroom is down the hall. It was not expensive and should last all 4 years. Can also be used for the beach if not used as a shower caddy. Wish I had one when was carting beach toys. He has a beach close to campus. Sheets from Target. Lots in Twin XL. Twin comforter on sale from Macy’s. 2 Samsonite tote a tons worked great for all bedding, a sleeping bag, clothes, pillow, rain coat and winter coat. Easy to roll up and store until time to pack up at the end of the year. Purchased on Amazon. Laptop traveled in his backpack. He is an engineering student so high end specs not helpful to most. Bought at Best Buy with full Geek Squad coverage since a store close to campus. Raincoat is a must for his school. Look for sales at Backcountry or Saint Bernard on line or visit your local outlet stores. Look for waterproof rather than weather resistant if it matters at your DC’s school. Last purchase before we left was a safe with tether cable on Amazon that would hold laptop, gift cards (grad gifts), some checks, wallet, birth certificate, etc. It may not get used all the time but I feel better knowing he will have it for things used infrequently and unlikely to be noticed if missing. Shipped it straight to school. May as well use that Amazon Prime student membership when you cannot find what you need locally. Locally I could only find fireproof boxes and safes without tethers.

DD went to school in Boston, and we live in So California. We registered at Bed Bath Beyond for nearly everything, and only got a few things from Target. BBB has 20% off coupons. With that 20% off and the absence of a need for a rental car since we picked everything up in one spot, we figure we came out way ahead. In case noone has told you, BBB’s registry is unlike any other registry. We picked our stuff in May in Irvine. They sent the list to Boston, who immediately pulled every item off the shelf, and put it in storage boxes in a “Pod” behind the store. When you arrive at the store, you gave them the receipt, and they retrieve the boxes of your stuff, dumping every item on tables in the back. We simply filled three baskets with what she still wanted, grabbed a few things off the shelf, left the stuff on the table she no longer wanted, paid for everything, and walked out. Took two taxis to our rental condo. The entire pickup took an hour. The Target registry was USELESS, and that trip took half a day and was a big hassle as everything good was out of stock. SO glad we did it the way we did. Didn’t ship anything - only had a suitcase and a backpack each stuffed with clothes and electronics. Several people recommended these bags https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=samsonite%20tote%20a%20ton when DD went to college. We bought three. They are AWESOME:she stuck them under the mattress and pulled them out every year at moving time. Roommates were always jealous that she wasn’t scavenging for boxes, and was done in a heartbeat. Think about it - four years and they change rooms at least once a year. So worth it! I know she still has them, and they are in perfect condition. We will probably ask her to bring them home for her sister to use in college, since they aren’t in use a lot since she is settled into an apartment.

cheeringsection and shoot4moon, thank you so much for the suggestions! Those Samsonite totes look great. I am going to order two or three. I was going to get these bags from Ikea:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90149148/

They are not available online, though, only in stores. It is really inconvenient to go to an Ikea store, I would not do it for a few bags. They are available on Ebay, though. The open version, which is available online is only 99 cents!

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/17228340/

The Ikea bags are about 2/3 the capacity of the Samsonite.

The BBB registry sounds incredible! I had not planned to use it, because there is a BBB near here, and I was hoping to buy everything ahead of time and bring it to DS’ school in my minivan. I’m trying to avoid any shopping there. We’re lucky because the school is only 3 hours away by car.

I have a similar mesh shower caddy that I bought at the Container Store.

I did want something that locked - what do you attach the tethering safes to?

I will admit to being completely obsessed with DS’ bedding. It’s a focus for my sadness at the coming separation. I want him to have a perfect bed, incredibly comfortable, with sheets that coordinate with his quilt. I am probably going to buy multiple sets and compare them, and return the ones that don’t match. If I can find any with 10-12" pockets, that is. Everything seems to be 15-18", even XL twin sheets.

Those IKEA bags are great for college. They hold lots of stuff, are strong and fold away easy.

@nymomof2 we got the Ikea rectangle zip bags. They are great, and cheaper than the Samsonite, and available on Amazon.

The ones we bought: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OS47EDK/

They have lots of options in size and quantity, also have the ones you looked at with no zipper: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dgarden&field-keywords=frakta

Thanks, OHMomof2 - I found the zippered rectangular Ikea bags on Ebay, and ordered several. They aren’t quite as inexpensive as they are in teh stores, but going to an Ikea store is a 1-hour drive each way, and I hate being in those crazy stores. The only time it was worth going there was when I bought an office-full of furniture.

There are a lot of these bags available on Ebay. Not a bad business - go to Ikea and stock up, and re-sell!

I just did a buy online and pickup in the store at Target and I was less than satisfied. One of the items was wrong and it took almost twenty minutes to get it corrected.

If you are a Costco member they had a two pack of twin XL sheets for $15 in the store on my last visit.

The cable gets wrapped around the bed frame, closet rod or something else that is not easily carted out of the room. I saw that BBB had the Samsonite bags for 9.99 each. I was glad to have bags that zipped up because it rained quite hard at move in. Getting a little wet might not have been so bad but things spilled and dropped in muddy puddles would have been.

Thanks, cheeringsection. When did you see the Samsonite bags for 9.99? They are 24.99 now.

The day I first replied. They came up when I searched for the right name on Google.

@NYMomof2 - I like the mattress pad because it holds everything in place and adds another layer of cushion. We put the bed bug protector and topper on, then secured them with the mattress pad, and topped it with the fitted sheet. The pad also protects the topper.

The sheets D initially selected were inexpensive “dorm sheets” and not deep pocket. I ended up getting her a new Wamsutta set at BB&B that were better quality and a bit deeper (maybe @13"?) with heavy duty elastic. She found that with all the layers, the fitted sheets we initially purchased, while cute, weren’t deep enough and didn’t stay on well.

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