The store circulars are full of cute decor and storage items for dorm rooms. As your formerly little one heads off to college, your inclination is to buy her everything she might possibly need: a microwave for late-night snacks, a set of cubes to store her books, a winter coat in case it’s cold in Tallahassee.
Don’t do it.
Freshmen typically arrive on campus with way too much stuff and end up taking a lot of it home. Instead, hand your collegian a Target gift card or $100 and tell her to equip her room when she figures out what she really needs.
When I went off to college (let’s just say several decades ago), it didn’t occur to me to bring household goods beyond sheets, towels and an orange and brown Indian print bedspread.
My dorm had a kitchen and I didn’t have a meal plan, so a few weeks into the semester, I headed off to Kmart to pick up a few forks, plates and pans. With a full-size kitchen at hand, I didn’t need a mini-refrigerator, but I liked to make cookies, so I got an electric mixer. The plates and pans are long gone, but I’m still using that Black & Decker mixer.
Most college students won’t need a mixer, and many will need a small fridge. The point is that not everyone will need the same things, and they won’t really know which ones until they settle in.
My roommate, by the way, hated that bedspread. We shopped together for matching comforters and curtains, and the Indian print was retired.
Sending your collegian off with a minimum of gear may deprive mom or dad of a fun shopping trip, but it gives your student one more chance to flaunt her independence.
