Many students are traveling long distances to attend college these days, Not only can this be a bigger emotional toll when a trip home is most likely by airplane, but coordinating dorm shopping and getting all of your essentials to school can be a challenge as well.

This article takes you through the collective advice of many of our Dorm Shopping Recommendations & Deal Alerts group members who have gone before you and conquered the move with a combination of research, planning, and expert packing!

Research & Pre-Planning

If you’re an airplane ride to school, please research the following options for shipping to/near the school.

1. Check to see if your school has a ship ahead program, and if so, understand their timeline and allowance. For bulky or heavy items (like storage drawers & nightstands 🙂), it would be great if you can shop online and have these items delivered to the school for them to hold until move-in.
2. Check with local hotels to see if any will hold items that you ship to them if you stay there. Book these hotels ASAP, even if you need to create a couple of reservations now, if you’re still guessing at exact move-in dates. Move-in is a busy time for hotels near universities, and rates will go up or sell out. And while you are at it, book any other upcoming hotel stays for those parents’ weekends or football games where you may be making the trip back! Pro Tip: Hotels and Airbnbs around move-out will be even harder to find as you’ll be competing with families visiting for graduation, so book those early, too.
3. If you have a friend or roommate who lives locally, perhaps they will allow you to ship items to their home and hold them for you until move-in time. One of our group members said they gifted their roommate’s family a small gift card as a thank you for their help! What a nice touch.
4. Ask in your school’s parent Facebook group how other families have successfully shipped items before move-in. In the past 2 years, we’ve seen some local businesses pop-up who do just this – accept packages in advance and deliver to your dorm on your move-in day. They also pick up and store items over the summer. This is definitely happening in Boston, and I’ve seen a few other locations. Parent Facebook groups should have this information.
5. Make a list of things that you can ship directly after move-in that don’t need to absolutely be there on move-in day. This could be small appliances such as a Keurig or an air purifier. Will you be visiting for a parents’ weekend, and can you bring things like winter bedding, clothes, and shoes later? Bring home a couple of the VENO bags after move-in (fold them up into your personal suitcase), and use them to bring back a full bag of winter gear on your next visit.

Know What Sell Out Early Or Gets Hard To Find

As we have helped families for four summers now, there is a list of items that repeatedly sell out by early to mid-July every year.

Read through the list of dorm essentials that get hard to find each year, or watch me discuss it on video in this post.

What To Know About Shopping Locally At College Move-In

I’ve been in Targets and Walmarts near big and small schools during move-in week, and they are very picked over and messy. If you can avoid shopping for popular dorm items that week near campus, please do!

If you just need toiletries and non-dorm items, you’ll be ok. Bedding (especially Twin XL), pillows, storage drawers, closet organizers, storage bins, Command Hooks, rugs, mini-fridges, microwaves, fans, air purifiers, and school supplies will all be slim pickings or sold out. Also, keep in mind that there is a smaller selection in store than you will find online, so, for example, even if you can find a microwave, it might not meet the school size limit or wattage requirements.

If you must shop locally and you have a rental car, consider driving 20-30 minutes away from campus for a better selection. Honestly, the closest college to me is about an hour away, and our local Target’s college essentials are always wiped out by mid-July.

What To Buy At Home & Bring To College

There are some things that you’ll want to bring from home, as follows:

1. I firmly recommend that you buy bedding early and ship it to your home. Take it out, feel it, make sure your student likes it, and then wash it and fold it and put it in a moving bag to bring to college. You do not want to buy bedding locally and not be able to wash it before making the bed. Quality Twin XL bedding gets harder to find online as we move through the summer and especially in-store near college campuses.
2. Same plan for towels – wash before sending to school. Quick-dry towels are recommended as dorms are typically damp (poor air circulation) without great places to hang towels to fully dry. One drawback to quick-dry towels is that they tend to shed more, especially in their first couple of washes. You may want to run them through the laundry separately a time or two before packing them for college.
3. The good Twin XL mattress toppers will also get harder to find and definitely more expensive as we get into summer. The boxes aren’t that big, so to be sure you get the right one for you, I would buy these early.

How To Get All Of This From Home To College?

Two words. Moving Bags!

Moving bags are the greatest invention for college moving, regardless of whether you are driving or flying. The bags can be checked in with the airlines as checked luggage (more on this below). They are too big for carry-ons. IKEA bags used to be the standard, but these have been discontinued. We highly, highly recommend the VENO moving bags. Please be certain to buy the type WITH BACKPACK STRAPS. These make a huge difference when carrying bags, especially when flying, considering getting to the airport, picking up an Uber or rental car upon landing, in and out of hotels, etc.

You will need 6-8 for a normal move by car. Consider a 10-pack if you’ll be flying (you’ll want to double bag any heavy bags) or for those who are bringing a LOT to college. You know who those heavy packers are! Not convinced you need these yet? Read our article all about these blue moving bags.

You should be able to fit a comforter, blanket, 2 sets of sheets, a mattress pad, and towels in one moving bag. You can first shrink the linens and clothing in vacuum bags to save even more space when packing.

Clothes, shoes and other personal items can all go into moving bags as well.

Please refer to this article for a lead-up plan for move-in day, including how to pack the moving bags, pack the car, and a step-by-step move-in day plan. Bookmark it so you can find it later!

Using Moving Bags As Checked Luggage

Assuming you can each take a couple of checked bags, you can fill up the blue moving bags with bedding as mentioned above, clothes, shoes, small items, mattress topper, fan, foldable totes, hair & makeup needs, school supplies…. and send those as checked luggage. Many of our group members have reported how much easier flying and packing is using moving bags as checked luggage!

Double bag the heavier bags by filling the first and placing it zipper side down in the second. You can also add a boot tray to the bottom of the bag to provide a bit more stability for heavier items.

Consider using a small TSA-lock or zip-tying the zippers closed, and also put a brightly or uniquely colored ribbon around the handles so that you can easily distinguish your bags on a busy airport baggage carousel.

Prior to travel, double-check your airline’s rules for checked luggage allowances and sizes.

Shipping From Home To College

If you do need to ship items from home to school, check out CollegeBoxes.com. This is a division of UHaul that will ship and hold your boxes, then deliver them on your agreed-upon date. This is often a more affordable choice than other options.

Another option is to look at Pirate Ship, which will help you price out options with the major shipping carriers.

See More Recommendations From Experienced Parents

We’ve had several posts about how to tackle a long-distance college move in our Dorm Shopping Recommendations & Deal Alerts Facebook group. Every situation is different, so if you’d like to read through some of these, the links below take you to specific posts in the group. You will need to be a group member to view these links.

• A post requesting those who’d done long distance moves to provide ideas and feedback.
• Member question about their long distance college move: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dormshoppingdealalerts/posts/1326219154954974/
• A group member going from Kentucky to Miami: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dormshoppingdealalerts/posts/1424525988457623/
• Actual during transit photos and results and advice: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dormshoppingdealalerts/posts/1363897717853784
• Another during transit post with photos: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dormshoppingdealalerts/posts/1364151867828369/