Helping your kid move to college can be a pretty exhausting and complicated thing. You have to figure out what sort of items need to be packed, decide how to move all the stuff, whether to ship them or rent a van or an SUV to move them, and so on.
First off, you and your kid have to decide which items are so necessary and essential, that they have to be moved to your kid’s dorm before college starts. There are several items that are very important and that must be included in your dorm room checklist. These include: cooking supplies (a couple of glasses, dinner plates, forks, knives, spoons, dish towels); cleaning supplies; bedding (sheets, blankets, pillows); electronics (extension cords, a fan, a desk lamp, chargers). When it comes to computers, you should definitely bring a laptop, instead of a desktop, since a laptop is easier to move and won’t take up too much space when you put it in a dorm room. These is the most essential stuff that you should try and ship or move to your kid’s dorm. Once you’ve figured out what needs to be transported to the dorm, you have to think about what’s the most practical and efficient way to pack all that stuff. It’s best if you pack it in plastic storage containers, which your kid can reuse when he/she needs to move out of the dorm.
If you don’t have a vehicle large enough to put all this stuff in, you should consider renting a van or an SUV. If you do that, you have to decide whether you want to rent it for the ride to the dorm alone and drop it off there, and then fly home, or rent it for a week or so and drive to the dorm and back. Dropping a rental vehicle off for a one-way travel is pretty expensive, because of the high drop-off fees that every rental car company charges, so it might be more cost effective to drive there and back home.
Those who decide to rent a vehicle, have to remember that driving a van or an SUV that you haven’t driven before can be a bit tricky. That’s why you have to be very careful, especially with parking, lane changing, and securing the load. The van or the SUV is probably going to be pretty loaded, so you might have trouble using your rear-view mirror to see what’s going on behind you. This is why you have to pay special attention to the side-view mirrors and rely on them, instead of the rear-view mirror. Also, you must make sure there is enough space between you and the vehicle in front of you, compared to when you drive a smaller car. You should try parking backwards whenever possible, because it’s easier to leave the parking spot that way. When going into a parking garage, you must take your vehicle’s height into consideration, as some garages may be too low to get into with a large SUV.