If your kid goes to a school 8+ hours away, and you helped move them out of the dorm

[Anonymous]

Long car drives aren’t something I do often do that would be a lot for me. My car isn’t that comfortable.

Also, I find college move-in and move-out more stressful than just the heavy lifting. There’s an emotional piece to it too (the dynamics with your kid, the sense of reaching a milestone) that makes it extra tiring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read the entire thread, but for moving college kids in/out of the dorm, it is very helpful to invest in a basic dolly to wheel the stuff out.

You just stack the boxes on the dolly, lean it back, and off you go.

I am a super wuss, and even I can clear a room in a few trips, hardly breaking a sweat, if I use a dolly.

Also, connect with your military or former military neighbors. The spouses, not the actual military members.

Any military spouse will have the best advice and tricks for packing and moving under any circumstance, especially if you have to single parent it.

OP here.
Lol, I actually am a spouse of retired service member (he was active duty when we were married, and then he retired about 16 years later.)
The military paid for the movers to come and pack everything and load it into the truck, then take it out again in our new house. Literally all we had to do was put anything we didn't want packed/stored in a separate room with clear signage to NOT to pack anything in there.

[Anonymous]

DH (early 50s) has done this a few times. He does the drive on day 1, has dinner with DS, and sleeps in his hotel room. The next morning, they load up the truck and drive home. They can split the driving duties on the return trip. Having adaptive cruise control helps a lot—DH has a lot less back pain since upgrading to a vehicle with that feature. It also helps that DH and DS are in good physical shape.

[Anonymous]

Yes Boston, and yes $300 for 5 large boxes over the summer. You have to compare all the different companies making offers. Luckily our child did good!

[Anonymous]

I've done this a couple of times now. I always drive up the day before and move the kid out in the morning. Usually, also, the kid drives the whole way back.

I find the move *in* to be worse, and we do the same thing. Drive up the night before and move in the next day (though it's nerveracking to keep the stuff in the car overnight).

And yes-- store as much stuff as you can in the summer storage most popular at the school. Bonus-- at our school, you can pay the summer storage people to deliver straight to the room in the fall. (Which is great because kid is on fourth floor with no elevators this year!)

[Anonymous]

My child is 14 hours away. He packs and stores stuff over the summer and then flies home. We like going with him for drop off (we fly) but he could definitely manage on his own if we didn’t.

[Anonymous]

I did it DC to Amherst MA my kid. I drive the nine hours, leaving early.we get there I unload, we go dinner. I swing by in morning to help as some stuff needed assembly take her store if needed then home in truck after lunch. I was 56-60 when I did it. No problem.

I have a large GMC SUV 7 passenger with a big container on roof rack so I was carrying a lot of stuff.

My middle kid is graduating college and next weekend doing a shorter 210 mile round trip.

My youngest starts school in two years and she is looking at North Carolina

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm mid 50s and have been driving DC to Boston for years. I stop at least 3 times to stretch and get the blood flowing, refill the water, eat something healthy(ish). I avoid as much of 95 as I can. Personally, I think Connecticut traffic is the worst.

I usually drive up, take kids to dinner, stay in a hotel, help pack the car in the morning and then we do shifts driving home.

There really isn't anything my kid would be storing up at school. He brings home the computer equipment and clothes. It's really the computer equipment that makes the drive necessary.

Lots of students have fridges, A/C’s, fans, microwaves, bed risers, crates etc. that they don’t need at home; they’d store that sort of thing.A computer would take up pretty minimal space. The monitor can lie flat, and the rest can fit in a computer bag. A printer can be bulky, depending on what you have.

[Anonymous]

NP - This is awesome and seems well worth the money. Got a future college student there, thanks for the heads up to be on the look out for something like this.

Anonymous wrote:Yes Boston, and yes $300 for 5 large boxes over the summer. You have to compare all the different companies making offers. Luckily our child did good!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't sure if I should put this in the mid-life concerns forum or here. I need a reality check, I'm in my late 40s.
A few days ago I drove 9 hours to my kid's school to help move him out of the dorm. It was hot and sunny outside the whole ride and the contrast of the hot beating sun and the cold A/C typically just makes me feel a little sick on long rides. A lot of the roads had construction where I had to drive miles right next to a Jersey wall which I find a bit nerve racking.

By the time I arrived at his school (around 4:30 pm) he had most his stuff packed in bags and bins but it's hard to get one of those huge laundry carts there (it's just "first come first serve" no way to sign up or reserve it.) So we had to make multiple trips from his 3rd floor room and across a small grassy area to my car in a parking lot, carrying these heavy bags and bins.
TBH, I was a mess. I was already hungry and dehydrated from the long drive and 2 hrs of manual labor was difficult.
After it was done we went to a hotel and had dinner and then drove home the next day.

If you've done this type of move out, did you wait a day after the long drive before doing the actual move out (like go straight to the hotel and go do the dorm move out the following morning?)
Am I just in terrible shape for someone in their late 40's and I should have been able to handle the long drive plus hours of move out lifting with no problem?
I probably should have focused more on drinking water and eating healthy (I stopped once for a fast food lunch) on the drive up, but really I just wanted to get there ASAP. But what else do you do to make sure you are in better condition for work once you arrive at the dorm for move out?

Moving and driving are exhausting. I think it is normal. In future maybe come up the night before stay in hotel then do move and drive half way. I don't do 8 hour drives in a day anymore. Always stop half way somewhere fun and stay in a hotel.

[Anonymous]

Have done 2 move outs.

For 1, I stayed at a hotel and kid bring a lot of stuff to my room on arrival day.
The next day, kid brought a ton of stuff to my room. We had breakfast.

I had the valet bring the car around and tipped bell services (a lot) to put the stuff in the car.

Kid drove most of the way home.

For 2, We packed everything except the last 4 weeks of stuff around spring break.
For an off campus move, can I suggest using only rental furniture?
Also buying things from thrift stores in the area and donating it back decreases waste and is cheap.

[Anonymous]

I may be really dense here - but how do carts and a dolly help when you're dealing with flights of stairs? Is it that they help you get the stuff to the car once you've reached the ground level?

Asking because we will be moving a kid in this fall and it's a 13 hour drive (headed to WI - Madison). I had assumed we'd drive, but I'm now re-thinking whether we should actually drive or not.

I remember that some schools help kids move-in (I don't actually know if this is the case for Wisconsin) but it sounds like one should definitely not expect assistance moving out, is that right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm mid 50s and have been driving DC to Boston for years. I stop at least 3 times to stretch and get the blood flowing, refill the water, eat something healthy(ish). I avoid as much of 95 as I can. Personally, I think Connecticut traffic is the worst.

I usually drive up, take kids to dinner, stay in a hotel, help pack the car in the morning and then we do shifts driving home.

There really isn't anything my kid would be storing up at school. He brings home the computer equipment and clothes. It's really the computer equipment that makes the drive necessary.

Lots of students have fridges, A/C’s, fans, microwaves, bed risers, crates etc. that they don’t need at home; they’d store that sort of thing.A computer would take up pretty minimal space. The monitor can lie flat, and the rest can fit in a computer bag. A printer can be bulky, depending on what you have.

You should see the computer set ups CS and IMGD students can have. Not minimal space. It's practically a studio.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I may be really dense here - but how do carts and a dolly help when you're dealing with flights of stairs? Is it that they help you get the stuff to the car once you've reached the ground level?

Asking because we will be moving a kid in this fall and it's a 13 hour drive (headed to WI - Madison). I had assumed we'd drive, but I'm now re-thinking whether we should actually drive or not.

I remember that some schools help kids move-in (I don't actually know if this is the case for Wisconsin) but it sounds like one should definitely not expect assistance moving out, is that right?

The bins are like hotel laundry carts. And you take the elevator and make multiple trips. One parent stays in the room and starts unpacking, the other goes down to the car to load the bin up again.

On the way back, it's reverse. Hopefully your kid has packed up. One of ours (in Boston) put the stuff in storage over the summer. The other (closer drive, no summer storage) did not, and wasn't actually done packing. Same thing, one parent started making trips with bins to the car and the other packed and cleaned.

While there were lots of friendly faces "helping" with load in and load out, the help isn't carrying items, it's more pointing you to where you need to go

[Anonymous]

Mid50s. I would have been tired but would have powered through the move, felt fine the next day, and had DS do a good portion of the driving in any event.