As students head off to college, their dorms can feel like home
Your recent high school graduate is about to leave home and go away to college. He or she will be living under a different roof for a significant portion of the year and will need to transform a sterile and usually small dormitory room into a fun and comfortable place to live.
And time is growing short. So where do you even begin?
Never fear! Stores like Bed, Bath and Beyond; Target, The Container Store and IKEA have been helping overwhelmed parents and anxious students accomplish this herculean task for years. So they have lots of tips and checklists to offer.
Bed, Bath and Beyond spokeswoman Catherine Gentile suggests downloading its checklist from bedbathbeyond.com and then taking a walk around your house to see what your child can take from home first.
"Mom might be ready for a new iron or hair dryer and she will be willing to send her old one to college," Gentile said.
She also suggested talking to the future roommate and deciding who will bring bigger things - like a rug, refrigerator and television - to avoid duplication and trips back to the store to return things.
Finally, before you buy anything, check your college website to see what size bed they provide. Many American colleges have twin extra-long beds that require special sheets.
And keep in mind a special free service offered by the Union, N.Y.-based chain for college students. To save shipping costs or even renting a large vehicle to make the trip, you can go into the Bed, Bath and Beyond store near your home, choose all of the items you want to purchase, pay for them and then use their Pack and Hold service. The information about your choices will be relayed to the Bed, Bath and Beyond store closest to your college campus and the items will be packed up and marked with your name so you can pick them up at that store when you get to school.
Keep in mind that 10 days notice is necessary, according to Gentile, so don't go shopping the night before you get in the car. And take note that this free service is not available through the Bed, Bath and Beyond website. It is only available in stores.
Gentile suggested concentrating on the bed first when shopping. It is the core statement in a tiny dorm room and a reflection of the student's personality, she said.
Bed, Bath and Beyond has bedding sets ranging from $39.99 for a comforter and pillow shams, but no sheets, to 11-piece sets including sheets, comforter, shams, towels and more in four different patterns for $79.99.
She also stressed the importance of buying a hypoallergenic mattress protector for $59.99 to protect your student from germs and bed bugs left behind by last year's student. A mattress topper of feathers, foam or fiber will also smooth out the lumps and bumps in that college mattress and allow your student to get a good night's sleep.
And to make sure that your student wakes up in the morning for class, Bed, Bath and Beyond offers a $99.99 alarm clock that works with a student's iPhone. It charges the iPhone while he or she sleeps, plays music from the iPhone as an alarm and allows the student to get weather, Facebook and Twitter updates when they awake via a free downloadable app.
The space under the bed is often ignored as a storage possibility, Gentile said, so she suggested buying under-bed storage boxes and, if necessary, bed lifts to make room for things like off-season clothing and bedding and shoes.
Bed, Bath and Beyond also offers fun storage solutions like colorful grommet-covered totes in a variety of colors and sizes ($5.99 to $9.99) that look modern and hold lots of "stuff" and can easily dress up a shelf. Another possibility is a $29.99 faux-leather storage ottoman that allows you a place to prop your legs while studying, storage within and has a top that flips over to make a desk top for your friend.
Storage solutions like this are the bread and butter of The Container Store, which is based in Dallas and has four area stores in Schaumburg, Oak Brook, Chicago and Northbrook. It specializes in maximizing space.
"No matter what campus your student is leaving for and whether they will be living in a dorm or an apartment, college students need to pay attention to maximizing space in six basic areas - the closet, walls and doors, desk, laundry, bathroom and storage," said Olescia Hanson, spokeswoman for The Container Store.
"And remember that you will be moving many times over the next few years, so choose items that are versatile and multifunctional," she said.
Hanson suggests buying an adjustable closet rod expander to hang from the dorm or apartment's existing closet rod, doubling the hanging space. Since it installs without tools or additional hardware and removes just as quickly, Hanson said it is perfect for students with lots of clothes to hang up and only costs $19.99.
Specialty hangers made for tiered pants or skirts are also an option. Furthermore, Hanson suggested that students, when possible, leave their off-season clothes at home, trading them out as needed.
Students may also want to consider using their walls and doors for additional storage of things like baseball cap assortments and purse collections.
"Walls offer a lot of real estate for storage in a dorm room," Hanson explained. "But most colleges have strict guidelines not allowing nails or drilling in the walls. So 3M now makes Command adhesive hooks in different sizes and shapes for hanging things - even heavier things like towels and hair dryers. They start at $2.99. And over-the-door hooks are great for hanging even more."
When it comes to the desk, The Container Store offers a huge variety of organizers for a college student's work, of course. But they also sell a folding solid wood hutch for $75 that stands on top of a standard-issue dorm desk and nicely holds textbooks, binders and other supplies and requires no tools to assemble.
They also have a very comfortable, lightweight bungee office chair ($139) that you can use in place of the invariably uncomfortable desk chairs most colleges supply. Its wheeled base and adjustable height make it very comfortable to sit in during long hours of studying.
Other storage solutions are also very desirable. The Container Store offers a three-drawer cart that you can use as a nightstand or place next to your desk to hold extra supplies. They also sell a refrigerator cart that easily holds a mini-refrigerator but has two drawers underneath that can hold plates, utensils and snacks.
Laundry and bathroom supplies also need to be addressed, since neither will be used in your dorm room itself. Hanson said you need a hamper or laundry bag that is easy to carry (with handles or over your shoulder) and is big enough to hold everything you need to wash. And since most students share a bathroom either down the hall or between two rooms, you need a shower tote that can easily hold shampoo and other toiletries, but which also has holes which allow water to drain out.
IKEA's two Chicago stores in Schaumburg and Bolingbrook are also a dream destination for college shoppers. They offer everything from a loft bed frame with desk top, which opens up additional floor space in the bedroom of a small college apartment or house for $238.99, to a colorful two-piece floral twin duvet cover and pillow sham for $14.99 that dresses up any dorm room.
Everything a college student might need - from furniture for that first apartment to cookware, storage items and bedding - can be found at IKEA, said Christopher Garcia, spokesman for the two Chicago area IKEA stores.
Snappily-designed LINGO heavy cardboard storage boxes are a particular favorite with those who want storage that adds to a room's décor. They range in price from $2.99 to $7.99 and come in a variety of sizes and shapes.
Target is another great place to check out while trying to find all of the supplies on your list for that dorm room. Like IKEA, they offer a wide variety of items - everything from bedding to appliances, and from file folders to calculators.
Target sells a mini 2.8-cubic foot refrigerator in shocking pink or black with a dry erase board for notes on the front for $89. And following that pink theme, they have a Sunbeam iron in shocking pink for $17.99 and a polka dot ironing board for $13.99.
A set of two black-and-white polka dot nesting tables would serve as a great nightstand in a dorm room or a perfect end table in an apartment. These are available at www.target.com only for $49.99.
And Target also carries a wide array of electronics for the college student - from computer printers to digital cameras and camcorders to televisions to "designer" USB drives. The most interesting such offering, however, is a $99.99 power mat that simultaneously charges cell phones, iPods and much more.