5 Items Parents Shouldn’t Purchase Before College Move-In Day
College move-in day can be a nightmare. Amidst juggling the approach of saying goodbye and helping your child prepare for the start of this school year, you’re rushing to unpack along with other students.
Making this day as painless as possible starts long before your actual arrival at college. As you compile college items for your soon-to-be college freshman, consider waiting to purchase the following 5 items.
#1. A dorm mini-refrigerator
You don’t want to arrive on campus, cart a small fridge up a flight or two of stairs, and then discover your soon-to-be college freshman’s dorm doesn’t allow that size of a refrigerator. Consider waiting to buy a dorm fridge until after arriving in your child’s dorm to avoid this unpleasant situation.
Before spending the money on a small dorm refrigerator, be sure you understand the specifications this refrigerator needs to meet. Additionally, you want to ensure that your child’s dorm room has space for this larger item and that your child’s roommate doesn’t already have one which he or she is willing to share.
Avoid the frustration of searching for a receipt and carrying this larger item back to the store by waiting until seeing your child’s dorm room to purchase this item.
#2. Paper supplies
You want to fill your child’s stock of paper supplies: paper towels, plastic utensils, and more. Rather than taking up space in your likely already heavily packed vehicle, consider waiting until after arriving on campus to purchase these items.
Once you’ve arrived you’ll have a better idea of how much space and storage your freshman has available for these items. Then, you can make one trip to purchase these dispensable items. Here are some paper supply items your child may need:
Paper towels
Kleenex boxes
Q-tips
Cotton balls
#3. Cleaning supplies
You will want a few cleaning products for when you first arrive in your child’s dorm room, because you cannot ensure these dorm rooms were cleaned as well as you would like. Think about bringing some disinfectant wipes or a disinfectant spray and something to wipe out drawers and clean surfaces.
However, you don’t need to come to campus with a semester-long supply of cleaning supplies. Not only can these bottles take up much needed space when traveling to college, but they can also spill or break on the journey to college.
Take one big trip to purchase these items (along with your list of paper supplies):
Window cleaner
Disinfectant
Clorox wipes
Laundry detergent
Air freshener
#4. Toiletry items
Your child may have favorite body washes, hand soaps, and more. However, before arriving on campus is probably not the best time to stock up on these items.
Not only can these items easily spill and break, but your child may not have the space to store them the dorm room. Wait until after arriving and unpacking to purchase a semester-long supply of toiletry items.
#5. Furniture
Your child will likely have a roommate (or two). Before buying all of the items that help to make a dorm room cozy, consider having your child connect with their roommate(s).
Furniture items like chairs or floor lamps can help to make the dorm room feel less like a dorm room, but your child is sharing their space with a roommate. Before assuming it’s okay to bring big items, your child needs to ask if the other person living in that space is ok with curtains, chairs, or larger lamps.
This certainly isn’t an exhaustive list of items, but hopefully you have an idea of which items are best to wait until after arriving to purchase. Make college move-in day as painless as possible by waiting to purchase these items until later.
