<p>Son wanted to choose his own linens: dark colors–solids and stripes. At some time during freshman year, he and his roommate went to Target and bought those long body pillows with fuzzy covers. They also got a wipe-off board to post their weekly calendars when they kept losing the paper ones in the mess.</p>
<p>I say let your kids do this on their own and only but in if invited. :>)</p>
<p>dark color sheets: acne creams with benzoyl peroxide and other ingredients will discolor these. Just saying…</p>
<p>Nope, We got it from Ikea 2 pairs so that My D can wash and use it.The UCs have just blinds no rods or anything. For kids, better to buy 2 pairs if bedlinen than giving pricy custom made. One more thing to buy ,a Must -is a bed bug protector cover for the beds</p>
<p>My D was a real minimalist when it came to furnishing the freshman year room. I think she thought she was going on a trip, and we’re a carryon-only family. </p>
<p>She took the duvet she already had, and I bought her a new cover at Ikea. Some sheets from Marshalls - way cheaper than BB&B. We made a trip to Target when she was moving in, to get things like desk lamp and little storage things. I ordered a small fridge online. But she and the roommate did not coordinate. It was really amusing: roomie had a rug and comforter in a sort of depressing gray range, while my D was all white and periwinkle. It ends up being reflective of their personalities, I think.</p>
<p>My first to college, a boy, was the one I obsessed over more, because there wasn’t much he would like (he was in the something blue camp). I ended up buying sheet sets he never used, and made a comforter cover for him out of sheets I bought from Goodwill. He was happy. It was more fun for him when he moved into an apartment, and then a house. I think he was the only sophomore who had his very own Martha Stewart Dutch oven :)</p>
<p>We chose a small fridge at Sears, then had one delivered to the closest Sears to the college. Then we picked it up at that mall on drop-off day, after we had emptied the car of the things we’d brought. Roomie was from Calif & this was an East Coast school, so we agreed we’d get the larger things.</p>
<p>We also learned something really important the hard way — via permanent wrist damage. If the school does not supply ergo chairs/desks for the students, go to Office Depot, etc and chose an inexpensive chair, and maybe a small desk as well (the kind you can take apart & put together with a screwdriver) and pick it up at the nearest store to the school. In her soph year, D injured her wrists forever, typing on a computer the wrong height for her arms/hands. Some schools will let you “give back” their non-ergo desks for the year, and some don’t have the storage space and won’t. </p>
<p>I also bought a white flat sheet at Walmart & made cafe curtains from it, and we used a tension rod. The school had depressing dark shades and the girls wanted something to cover the bottom parts of the windows and still get some light in there.</p>
<p>Custom dorm decor? Ha! Everyone in the freshman dorms had the same BB&B navy check sheets.</p>
<p>At my school it’s explicitly forbidden to move any of the furniture out of the room, and it’s not remotely ergo. I couldn’t sneak the desk out but the university issued desk chair is sitting in my parents garage waiting to be traded back in with a REAL chair at move out. Shh!</p>
<p>Taking home the chair til the end of the year. That’s a good idea.</p>
<p>Get what is comfortable for your kid (whether that includes mattress pad, high-count sheets, etc. or not) as cheaply as you can. Food gets spilled. People get sick. Bodily fluids are exchanged. You won’t want to bring the stuff home after four years.</p>
<p>If your student wants to store linens at school or in a storage cube over the summer – make sure he/she has washed and dried said items first. Read a couple stories several summers ago about what happened when the summer storage stuff was opened in September. Not for the faint-hearted!</p>
<p>My grandmother moved to an apt. the summer I left for college, and I got some of her towels to take to college. STILL have some of them, though they are rather threadbare now.</p>
<p>Don’t forget to check the fire codes for each school…should be somewhere in your info packet or on-line. Some places won’t allow certain items – like egg-crate mattress pads – because of fire issues. Probably a good thing – or some kids would bring those portable fireplaces along.</p>
<p>@Decor2urdoor - Thanks, and great resource - good to have you at CC!</p>
<p>What will be the most trendy motifs this coming year? Is it still too early to commit? </p>
<p>In prior years, with the economy and all, “simple and understated” was the way to go. Is the “faux austerity” trend still fashionable, or is now an acceptable time to step up and flaunt our excellence in taste and style (in a timeless fashion, of course)? Or is that still off base outside the Ivy League - the real iveys, of course, minus Cornell (they have engineering students), and maybe add Duke? Please advise!</p>
<p>^^^ Wow, Decor2urdoor’s post didn’t last very long. Despite my semi-serious welcome, you folks in this thread just missed a valuable resource for your area of interest.</p>
<p>For my son I went to Target and picked up blue bedding for an XL Twin and towels. He didn’t want window treatments or anything else. (As long as he had his computer and gaming consoles…) </p>
<p>My daughter… she shopped and shopped online before finding XL Twin bedding to her liking, within budget; I made her curtains, which are held up by a tension rod and she selected a shower curtain with input from a roommate.</p>
<p>Ads aren’t allowed on cc, MisterK. But that poster is lucky b/c you mentioned his/her website in your post!! LOL I hope they send you free dorm decor as thanks for the free adverstising. I am 100% serious!! That seems only fair :)</p>
<p>Here’s the best solution-- as a 180 degree opposite of the UGA “best dorm room” posted upthread (that was hilarious), here’s the way to get free decor (and free clean-up)-- win the prize for the messiest dorm room (as these Ga Tech students did) and get the free makeover from Oprah!! [Tech</a> gets organized with ‘Oprah’](<a href=“http://www.whistle.gatech.edu/archives/09/mar/9/oprah.shtml]Tech”>http://www.whistle.gatech.edu/archives/09/mar/9/oprah.shtml)</p>
<p>I was always amazed when on college tours when we would go to a room where the students expected visitors and they were absolutely a huge mess. When both my daughters were freshman they went to bed & bath with their grandmother and bought sheets, pillow, comforter, trash barrels, laundry bags. I don’t remember what else but the former was basically all they used. I say let them move in with the basics and buy anything else they might need after they are there. They will have more fun that way with their new friends and not be tripping over things they don’t need.</p>
<p>On my dorm tour the girl was in bed when we got there and got right back in after she opened the door to let us in, as about 50 students and their parents took turns filing in to check out the furniture. Awkward. </p>
<p>The problem I would have had with waiting until I got here was that then I would have had to cart anything I bought home on foot or on the bus, which wouldn’t have been an option for most of the things I got. dorm shopping is hell when your options are shopping at the EXCEEDINGLY overpriced book store or taking a 45 minute ride in a packed bus trying to carry everything by yourself. If you’re not likely to want anything but a new toothbrush then you’re in fine shape, but I wasn’t one of those girls. 
I got a rug, a night stand, a tv cabinet, microwave, etc. Never could have managed without my parents car.</p>
<p>
I didn’t mention his website in my post. You need a new hobby.</p>
<p>Whats with the snarky attitude misterk?? Was explaining that “decor2yurdoor” (which I am assuming was that advertiser’s sn, as it shows up as a registered user but no posts show up on a search) IS their website too<a href=“look%20it%20up”>/u</a>, and their post is gone b/c it was apparently an ad, which, as I tried to explain, is not allowed on cc. Surely you understand that. If you misunderstood my post, apology accepted for your rude reply. If not, perhaps it is you who needs the new hobby. In the meantime, each time we type that clowns sn he/she gets more free advertising.</p>
<p>Back to topic, as we’ve mentioned many times in the past, the girls seem to like to coordinate their bedding, desk accessories, buy the rug together, etc. The guys seem more interested in deciding who is bringing the tv, the xbox and the PS2. Do they want a Wii too?</p>
<p>Son’s freshman dorm required visitors walking through many floors to get to his (series of connected buildings built into a hill, elevator in central part useless). I noticed on the way (days after move in, before classes started) that open doors revealed many nice looking girls’ rooms and generally nothing except electronics in the boys’.</p>
<p>My son’s year JCPenney ran out of navy XL sheets online until August- the most popular male choice I believe. When son next needed sheets, for a full sized apt bed, he chose beige. Not for clearasil bleaching (that caused spots on at home sheets and towels) but so nose grunge wouldn’t show when he had a cold.</p>
<p>Some of my hated yellow color towels from college served as garage rags until just recently- I demoted them from primary use as soon as I could afford better colors- they were the only color available at the best price the summer before I started college. I got son matching 2 hand and 2 bath towels in a medium blue he liked so I could keep mine. Bought the cheapest pack of washclothes- usable for anything and everything forever.</p>
<p>Son had a new comforter so his could stay at home- a red/blue one from JCP to match school color/sheets (btw- twin comforters/blankets fit XL beds so you only look for sheets and mattress pads in XL). I think his cousin wanted black sheets et al- not sure what he actually got.</p>
<p>^That is correct that twin comforters work for twin xl. My flat sheet and comforter are twin, mattress pads and fitted sheets twin XL, and it works fine.</p>
<p>I do have a hellish time finding navy sheets. I tried to get everything I could in navy or a complementing color since that’s what I’ve used in my bedroom at home my entire life and since blue is a school color, and it was not easy. I wanted a jersey sheet set last christmas and my mom got me a gray set to go with my blue comforter because navy was nowhere to be found!</p>
<p>Older s had kelley green (XL) sheets at first, then went through several sets of the t-shirt stretchy cotton ones (they get all weird and stretched out). I forget the colors. Younger s started with black tshirt cotton sheets (XL), thinking they wouldnt show the dirt. Next year we got tan ones. Dont ask.</p>