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Sheets & towels for dorm


Hilltopmom
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I can’t find the old “list of things to bring to college” post.

curious how many sets of sheets & towels you send with your child freshman year? The dorm is new & has lots of “free” laundry facilities. (My kiddo is not likely to change sheets unless forced to.- I remember a lot of moms of boys when I was in college just throwing out gross used sheets at pick up time in the spring)

i bought one set of sheets and 3 towels (plus he’s taking a thin beach towel he loves). Can’t decide if I should buy one more set of sheets- seems like I should but I doubt they’ll actually be used, sigh. He’s picky about bedding so they aren’t cheap.

its a triple so very limited storage space

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I always sent two.  Just in case the first set gets dirty from illness or a food spill and the student doesn't have time to wash them right away.  Two of my boys would change their sheets regularly anyway.  The other one never did.  

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I sent one set of sheets and two bath towels from Costco.  My dc insisted that's all they wanted, and it worked fine except for a road trip retreat weekend when one dc would have preferred a thinner towel, since the Costco one took up so much packing space.

 

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DS only took one set of sheets, but he also took a sleeping bag.  He said he would use the sleeping bag as a backup if he had some emergency like getting sick or spilling something and couldn't get the sheets washed.  (don't know that he ended up ever needing to do that)

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23 minutes ago, klmama said:

  My dc insisted that's all they wanted, and it worked fine except for a road trip retreat weekend when one dc would have preferred a thinner towel, since the Costco one took up so much packing space.

 

 

I have one ds who is a minimalist and he wanted so little in his dorm room that it made me nervous (I like to be prepared for everything).  He wouldn't even take a comforter - just one thin blanket.  I kept asking him what he'd do if there was a power outage but he insisted that was all he wanted so that's what he got.  And he was fine.  

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1 minute ago, Kassia said:

 

I have one ds who is a minimalist and he wanted so little in his dorm room that it made me nervous (I like to be prepared for everything).  He wouldn't even take a comforter - just one thin blanket.  I kept asking him what he'd do if there was a power outage but he insisted that was all he wanted so that's what he got.  And he was fine.  

Yeah mine insists he needs “nothing” but his clothes and bedding. I’m like um, a few other items may be useful!

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We are sending dd with 4 bath towels, two hand towels, 2 washcloths, and one set of sheets. I am including one extra bottom sheet (fitted) to cover the box spring because I think it looks neater, and she can always use it as an extra if she needs to. Also, kids should know some of the "tricks," to maximize storage, such as keeping "extra" towels and sheets (that you are not using in rotation, in case Mom sent too many...) under the mattress. No, really! lol It's a great trick. 

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Based on the above, lots of people go with 1 set of sheets.  I always had 2, because I'd usually get sheets put back on the bed while I was doing laundry.  In our rooms, the bed was sometimes the only place to sit, and doing laundry meant that I had an hour to hang out in my room while the laundry dried, so I'd put clean sheets on during the wash and then I'd have somewhere to stretch out and study.  

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Getting ready to send second ds off to college. I sent first ds with one sheet set. He said he would wash them and put them back on but didn't want an extra set. I'm not sure he ever washed them. I'm "don't ask don't tell" on some of these issues...LOL. I did buy brown sheets and comforter because I was not optimistic.

Second ds also insists he will wash them weekly (but I'm not going to ask) but still doesn't want a second set of sheets. He will take one bath towel and a beach towel because he has a pool right outside his dorm. If he didn't take the beach towel I would probably send two bath towels but given the beach towel is a backup or there in case of a spill he will be OK.

My boys really are minimalist and I do love that about them. However, I have realized there is a certain reverse nesting effect when sending kids off. I desperately want it all organized and to have them prepared for every possiblity. But that is for ME. They don't care about much and are independent and can trouble shoot how to make do. And we have Amazon Prime. If they decide a second sheet set would be handy on laundry day I can have a set in their hands by their next laundry day. If they need a towel they can buy one there or I can send them one in a couple days. 

My ds leaves in 5 weeks and still says he needs nothing and has not wanted to discuss preparations. (But I NEED to prepare him for my own processing of the situation).

It has made move in and out a breeze so far and I am sure has saved me some money...but I sure would love a perfectly stocked dorm room and a shopping list with a bunch of checks on it. Maybe when my girl goes.

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When I went, I'm sure I only had one set of sheets & I was fine. I hadn't thought of sending more than one set of sheets with DD#1 when she goes in a year. She'll likely have multiple pillow case covers because she changes them every two days due to her allergies (flips the pillow on Day 2). Towels ... hm, I would have thought to send two big ones & one hand towel, but after reading this, I'll probably only send one big one and one hand towel plus her beach towel. If I remember all the way until next year . . . 

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Add my kids to the "one set of sheets" crew. They wash them and put them back on - probably about once a semester. I don't ask. They did both take about 5 bath towels, maybe two hand towels and wash clothes. They use bath puffs, not wash clothes in the shower.

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@Hilltopmom if your son prefers 100% cotton sheets, Target has some nice Twin XL sheets in 100% brushed cotton (300 thread count); the fitted sheets are ~$14-15.  I find microfiber sheets too hot, and I think that effect would only be compounded by a plastic-covered mattress with a foam topper and a waterproof mattress pad. DS uses a cotton duvet cover with no top sheet, so I just bought two of the 100% cotton fitted sheets (plus a thick mattress pad with a 100% cotton cover).

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Ds only had one set of sheets, and I did ask about washing them - because I hid two $20 bills under the fitted sheet when I made the bed on move-in day!  I put a post-it note on each with something snarky like, “Don’t you wish you had washed your sheets earlier??” Or “It’s about time!” I can’t remember exactly what I wrote.  It became a running joke with my friends who knew I had done this. “Has he found the money yet??”  One thing I did encourage him to do was to wash his pillow case weekly.  I convinced him this wasn’t too hard to do, and would be better for his face/prevent breakouts.  BTW, he moved in around the third week of September and found the money in early December, if memory serves me correctly.  

I’d go with “less is more.”  Start with one set and see if he needs another.  If you have Amazon Prime, getting another set to him will be easy.  My ds also had a sleeping bag. I think ds only took one bath towel, one beach towel, and one hand towel, Again, you can always supplement more later if you need to.  Just my $0.02

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I sent two with my oldest but he never opened the second set, so they went with my second child.  Ds24 said it was too much work to fold the sheets and it was easier to just put them back on the bed (when he got around to washing them, which wasn't too often.)  I sent 2 - 3 bath towels, several hand towels and about 6-8 washcloths (cheap ones since the acne medicine ruined them.).  

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Oh my gosh! I am so glad to hear others sons also do not wash their sheets. My son has been home for the summer since early May and he just washed his sheets a couple weeks ago. I noticed that he hadn't changed them when he was home for spring break, so I left a clean set on his headboard before he came back home. It took 2 months but he finally got the hint or maybe it was the smell that drove him to it.   ?

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21 hours ago, Enjoyinglife365 said:

Oh my gosh! I am so glad to hear others sons also do not wash their sheets.  

 

 

Daughters as well, I can assure you. 

I send her with only two bath towels, because otherwise she would have damp and dirty towels crammed in the corner. 

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Kind of related- I did also decide with ds #1 that I would not be buying him new towels but sending him with spares from home. I had planned to buy but I don't know why other than just getting swept up in the dorm shopping experience. So I told ds #2 he could pick towels from here to take. Likewise with any item we have a duplicate of here at home. 

If anyone is getting new stuff it is me...LOL. My college boys don't appreciate pretty new towels! 

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2 minutes ago, teachermom2834 said:

Kind of related- I did also decide with ds #1 that I would not be buying him new towels but sending him with spares from home. I had planned to buy but I don't know why other than just getting swept up in the dorm shopping experience. So I told ds #2 he could pick towels from here to take. Likewise with any item we have a duplicate of here at home. 

If anyone is getting new stuff it is me...LOL. My college boys don't appreciate pretty new towels! 

I'm thinking of doing the same thing!

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