LOL! I so wish we could post photos on cc. Woudn't it be great to have a contest for whose kid had the worst room? I am positive mine would win, except that he unbelievably cleaned it this week so he could pack. He must really want to get out of here to have done that.</p>
<p>
[quote]
If my neat freak D ever meets any of your squalor-heaped S's, there will be a reckoning.
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Cartera, do you believe in arranged marriages? If so, would you make your D marry my S? My worst fear is that he will marry a girl whose housekeeping skills are like his own.</p>
<p>A week and a half ago, DS told me he was going on vacay with the girlfriend and the family for a week, home for 10 hours, then gone for a week with his dad, then home for max 36 hours and then we have to leave for school. Rather than fuss about when is he going to pack, I will just do it. This is the second one. I know what he needs. If he forgets something, not my problem. </p>
<p>When he comes home he can pick whatever clothes and toiletries he wants - that will be his responsibility.</p>
<p>Oh yeah and #1 son decided he is leaving. Tomorrow. So he has been scuttling around all night trying to gather his things. He has not put his laundry down the chute in over two weeks. Once again, SO NOT MY PROBLEM. He will be home after the trip with dad for a few days - if he puts the laundry down I will do it, but if he doesn't.....it will still be in his hamper/on his floor when he gets back. I will only enable so much!@</p>
<p>I am taking next week off - I am going to the outlets on Monday, Pedicure on Tuesday, Car repair on Thursday and lunch with Mom on Friday. I figure I need to make one Target run, one BBB run and maybe a Sam's run and that will be it. He already has alot of stuff and I sacrificed my lving room a few weeks ago to the cause........</p>
<p>Update - S returned the huge wheeled suitcase to our garage and announced he can fit everything into one carry on sized suitcase if he washes and folds carefully. He won't have much, but at least it will start out clean. Concerned that he might be overlooking something I copied and printed one of the 'dorm essentials' lists from another thread and suggested he consider it. I quietly watched as he carefully read the list and then told me he'll do fine without any of that stuff.</p>
<p>I am adding one more item to the "need to pack" list--
Since my s just had a bad, precancerous mole removed from his back, I want to suggest that everyone pack sunscreen. Oh, and lots of Trident chewing gum. My s never leaves home without it.</p>
<p>I'll add another "need to have" item. If there's shopping around your campus you might want to wait till you're there, SkyGirl, but you'll need a hamper. Thanks to NorthMinnesota's input, my son found a pop-up one online at BB&B that will collapse for easier storage. It has a strap so it can be carried over the shoulder, wheels if it's easier for him to push it, and a mesh top that can be cinched up when taking clothes over to the laundry room which will be in another building.</p>
<p>4trees, good for your son! mom2three, I agree with your assessment of your son being brilliant! My son is doomed. He's messy and famous for his lack of dancing ability.</p>
<p>The pop-up hampers are now pretty easy to find, which is great. My s commented that he wants to bring 2 things for dirty clothes (I almost fell over that he'd actually given this some thought)-- The round pop-up hamper for general dirty clothes (his definition of dirty clothes: anything that has touched his body-- though now that he will be doing his own laundry that definition may change) and a drawstring laundry bag (bringing the old one from camp with his name on it) for the really sweaty, smelly, potentially rancid-smelling clothes that will be worn for his club/intramural sport team. Good plan, as unless he plans to do laundry with any frequency (NOT!) it'll get pretty gamey smelling in that room. And-- he bought 2 cans of febreeze aerosol air freshener and one for spraying fabric too. I wonder if he ever plans to do laundry???</p>
<p>Another important item-- flashlight. And one I threw in for him-- a pack of water pistols.</p>
<p>mom2three: my son also joined SWE his freshman year...said they were working on a neat satellite project for NASA, but I know it was really the fact that his school has just 18% female students, and SWE was where they were. And since he took years of ballet lessons and this summer is a regular at a local dance club, I know he must be able to move.</p>
<p>He shows absolutely no sign this summer of being able to clean or do laundry, but is living with two women next year in an off-campus apt, and so will probably pick those skills up pretty quickly ;) .</p>
<p>I know my S will pack the day before we leave, but he'll do a good job because he's been on many serious Boy Scout camping trips! I'm limiting my comments to issues that have last-minute shopping implications, as in "Do you have enough shorts that fit?" (He seems to have had a little growth spurt this summer.) Let's face it: How many of us would pack weeks in advance? If he forgets something, we'll bring it on parents' weekend.</p>
<p>On another level: I don't want him to pack too early. It would be another reminder that he's going. ;)</p>
<p>Someone started a parallel thread with the "stupid stuff my parents packed for me". Its giving me lost of great ideas LOL!! Hot chocolate packets! Just brought a box upstairs to add to the pile!</p>
<p>That means he has already put his saxaphone and djembe drum in their respective carrying cases, and identified the vinyl records needed to accompany his turntable. </p>
<p>As far as he's concerned, he's good to go.</p>
<p>Hopefully, he'll manage to also get some underwear and socks into the car before we leave. :)</p>
<p>jym626..D1 takes the canisters of Cappuccino mix. Cheaper than buying at Starbucks and she mixs them with skim milk from her fridge so it is light. She has the coolest little machine called Cocomotion by Mr. Coffee. It blends and heats so the drink is frothy and warm. Her suite mtes love it too!</p>
<p>NM- I saw one of those cocomotion machines, and while it looked cool to me, DS would not even let that go into the car, never mind consider unpacking it. Clearly a male/female difference here. He is a "water and cocoa mix in the mug and into the microwave" kinda guy-- though he doesn't plan to bring a microwave. I'll assume there will be one nearby somehwere in the dorm. Tell your d. it looks nifty to me! Men. Hrmmmph.</p>
<p>Haha! Yep...definitely a girl thing with the cappuccino and machine! She uses it at home too so she can save $$$ this summer . I thought she didn't need a Brita pitcher but she uses that all the time, too.</p>
<p>Well, moving day just officially got moved from tomorrow to Sunday because when my husband finally called to rent a truck at 5:30 pm they didn't have any availability for tomorrow. It's cheaper on Sunday anyway and gives our son another day to procrastinate. He is now "thinking" about packing, which he says is the important part. </p>
<p>I'm thinking if he wants any furniture in his room and is planning to take stuff from his room at home (which has been my assumption), he will need to remove a life-time accumulation of stuff from his desk and armoire before those pieces can go anywhere. That means his room is likely to look like a landfill after he leaves and he will probably migrate to the guestroom when he comes home at Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>^^^ OOps. Well, FWIW, many moons ago, when I graduated from grad school, I reserved one of those small moving trucks to move my stuff. Reserved it waaaay in advance. A few days before I was to pack, the moving co. calls and says they dont have one of the small ones but not to worry, they have one of the gigundo stick shift ones that will be <em>no problem</em> for me to drive :eek: NO way!!!! Needless to say, they somehow miraculously found a small truck for me like I'd reserved, but it took some persistence on my part.</p>
<p>He leaves in two weeks. He gave his two week notice yesterday at work. I am beginning to see that the stuff scattered all over the room is beginning to form into piles. Not sure why. Or if he plans on at least washing the dirty clothes that are going into the a pile next to his printer. (I am thinking the piles near the printer box are things that are going off to school) I might be wrong.
I did remind him that I am going out of town for 9 of the remaining 14 days and if he wants anything purchased he needs to do it in the next few days. I am only back 1 day before he leaves.
He is considering meeting me at Linen's and Things today. He is going to "let me Know" if he can fit it in. He just needs a new eggcrate and mattress pad plus new sheets so I should just bit the bullet and pick it up myself.
He also needs new shoes.</p>