The Overwhelmed Parent of a College Freshman!

Extra-long twin sheets? Is that even a thing? Shower shoes? Where is my child showering that they need special shoes to clean themselves? Laptop locks? Who is robbing them….this is on-campus housing???

http://sketch42blog.com/2010/09/dorm-room-decor/

I recently helped my cousin move her 17-year-old daughter into the UC Berkeley dorms.  On move in day, Durant Avenue was riddled with wide-eyed teens and panic stricken parents with a ridiculous number of boxes to move into ridiculously small rooms.  Having your child move out of your home for the first time is an overwhelming experience for anyone.  Here are some tips to help smooth the transition:

What to pack:

Your child does NOT need to pack up every last iota of their bedroom to take with them to school.  Most kids will be significantly downsizing in terms of space…especially closet space!  Suggest they pack as though they will be going on vacation for a month.  These are the clothes they will need.  If there really are pieces of their wardrobe that they find impossible to live without, they can pick it up when they come home for a visit!  So be sure not to sell their leftover belongings while they are away!

What to Buy:

Most colleges will provide freshman with a check-list of must have items.  These are great guidelines for what your typical freshman may need.  Do NOT use the list as a cause for panic.  Many stores such as PB Teen and Bed Bath and Beyond have dorm room kits that make shopping a lot easier.  I suggest buying as little as possible until you are actually in the space.  Remember, your child is going away to school…they are not moving to a 3rd World country.  There is nothing (other than you) that they will be missing that they will not be able to buy at a store nearby.  The essentials are:

Clothes/Shoes

Hangers (preferably Huggable Hangers…they take up less space in your closet and clothes never slide off! http://www.containerstore.com/shop/closet/hangers/specialty?productId=10023850)

Computer

Backpack

Bedding

Shower Caddie/ Toiletries

Everything else, they can survive with or without!

Where to buy things:

Bed Bath and Beyond

Ikea

Pottery Barn (their teen line for dorms is excellent.  Most of these items are only on sale through their website www.pbteen.com key word DORM)

Target

Costco (for hangers, comforters, towels, mattress covers, snacks)

Container Store

*For kids going to school out of state, I strongly suggest making your purchases online and picking up the items at the store location nearest your school.  It is not worth packing up anything you do not already own. 

What to do when its time to go home:

For many of you the hardest part of the move will be leaving your child to settle into their new “homes.”  It’s obviously an incredibly emotional time…but trust in the amazing job you did raising them.  They already made it into college.  Now you need to give them a big hug, take a picture to commemorate the occasion, head home, and wait for them to come back with bags of dirty laundry!

The Overwhelmed Me

Introductions!  My name is Sruthi Naidu and I’m a professional organizer.  I have decided to start a blog about various overwhelming situations and my solutions to them.  Before going into the ins and outs of “Mrs. X’s” disaster of a closet and how we were able to fix the problem, I thought it would be best to make the first blog entry about the biggest mess I have tackled…ME!  Now, I certainly haven’t fixed all the kinks yet, but progress has been made, and that’s good no matter how small a step!

A little over 7 months ago my life went under a complete overhaul.   I had been living in Italy and teaching English for the last 5 years and found myself back in the USA, 30 years old, newly single trying to start my life all over again from scratch.  It was time to make a new home for myself, start a new career, make new friends, and with each breath things started to feel more and more impossible!

The Problem: How was I supposed to face each upcoming day knowing nothing had gone according to plan?  If you haven’t guessed from the preface of this site….I’m a pretty organized girl.  I’m pragmatic, thoughtful and take on spontaneity when I’m able to schedule it.  This massive life change was not part of the itinerary!  How was I supposed to mend a broken heart, and figure out a whole new life plan simultaneously?

The Solution:

Step 1: Start with the basics.  I made myself leave the confines of my bedroom.  You would think that would be a given and therefore couldn’t possibly be considered as a step towards betterment, but in my case it was most definitely a step, and a challenging one at that.

Step 2: Give yourself a win! For me this was taking a shower and getting myself ready every morning.  In the beginning this meant throwing on a pair of Lulu Lemons and some sort of sweatshirt.  But hey! It wasn’t pajamas!!

Step 3: Find a purpose/project.  I needed to understand that I didn’t need to figure out the rest of my life in one day.  What I needed to do was figure out the rest of my day.  What did I do with my first day?  I drove myself over to my best friends apartment and cleaned out her closet.  Odd choice.  She couldn’t figure it out at first either.  I needed to fix something.  I needed tangible results of something getting better.  I needed to escape my thoughts, my doubts, my sadness and feel productive again.  For me this came by changing out hangers and creating order in her closet.

Step 4: Recognize your strong points.  While job-hunting, many of us try to find ways to build cover letters to show how well suited we are for a particular position.  I decided that this time around I was going to think about what it was that I was good at and build a job around that.  I was good with multitasking.  I was good at bring calm to stressful situations.  I had spent the better part of a year helping my mother with an extensive home remodel and had a ridiculous amount of knowledge of construction.  I have been influenced by my sisters, who both work in the home décor industry.  Though, I was employed as an “English Teacher” I found myself in the role of therapist more often than not.  Students can easily find themselves overwhelmed, and I happened to be good at calming them down and giving them a bit of perspective.  So there was my solution.  I decided to make my new career about helping to bring people a little bit of peace and order into their lives.  And so it began…