To move my little girl across the country to start her college life is so exciting but it is not an easy thing. There is not enough tea in the world that could prepare me for this. I’m so excited for my 18 year old’s new adventure but sometimes I still see her as my little kindergartner with her school tote bag and now I’m dropping that child off in the great big world. So how did I prepare myself to handle this college experience? Believe it or not, Ikea bags!
College Road trip
We decided to make her college move-in a road trip and we would hit a few fun places along the way. This was not a tea generated trip but that option is always there. With the road trip in mind came dorm room items that my child either received as gifts or purchased with graduation gift cards. There seemed to be package after package coming in…how was everything supposed to fit in the car??
So a saving grace for me in this pre-college adventure was college specific Facebook sites. Every day I would check out these sites to gain some kind of wisdom from parents with older children in college. What to take, what not to take and so on. One big thing I noticed was whenever packing for college was mentioned so was Ikea bags. Ikea bags?? What’s so special about them? How are they different than luggage?
My husband was sceptical
My husband thought I was crazy as I started explaining about the magical Ikea bags verses luggage. Here are some of the reasons they were recommended on these sites.
- Large bag is very roomy
- Bag is easily manipulated
- It has a Zipper
- Handles can be used to carry each bag
- The bag can also be carried as a backpack
- Once items have been removed from the bags the can be reduced to a small size to save dorm room space
- They can be used for laundry
- They can be used on planes as luggage
- Luggage on the other hand was more rigid and harder to use and store.
We were still certain that her things would not fit
Extra Storage
I have a mid sized SUV with plenty of room but adding a hitch hauler was in the cards. Luckily my brother owns one so he let us borrow it. Strange thing though, it did not fit correctly each time we went to attach it. We had to get a hitch extender and then got various sized hitch locks until we finally found some that fit. The thought of possible roof rack storage was also an option as more packages came.
Ikea shortage
A new Ikea had opened in town-yay Ikea bags! We went there walked around this almost organized maze of a store-picking up a few items for her here or there until finally at the end we saw the mythical blue bags. Now there were only 3 in the size we wanted so we picked them up. Later I discovered on the Facebook chats and Ikea site that there was a bag shortage.
I realized I needed 2 more bags so Amazon came to the rescue. The bags were a little more expensive and I knew they would be delayed a few days but it was worth it.
Prepped and ready
It was time to pack everything up and do a test of loading up the car and hitch hauler to see what additional storage we would need when I saw on one of the Facebook sites how a mother took her child’s large comforter, towels, pillows, clothes, whatever she could and vacuum sealed them in space saver bags.
Space saver vacuum bags
My family thought I was nuts but this was an awesome idea!!I When they arrived we started vacuum sealing the bedding and just kept going. Now they were starting to think this wasn’t so crazy after all.
Dorm room items
Finally all of the dorm room items and clothes were downstairs. I started putting items inside other items. Mini vacuum inside a mini trash can. Other more delicate items inside stacked shelving baskets or boxes. Finally 2 or 3 vacuum bags inside each Ikea bags with other items around them.
Trial run
Ikea Bag after bag after bag was stacked, and adjusted to fit around the fan, lamp, bed topper, Keurig, a huge space saver bag of sweaters-you name it I think it was in there and….…..it fit!!
Do I need luggage?
If I can add some of my luggage we are set or I may just need to buy clothes when I get there (imagine a few glares from my husband at this proposal). We’ll make it work. Maybe I need to buy my own Ikea bag.
The moment of truth
Well we are heading out and…….college here she comes!
Have you ever used Ikea bags?
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Bags were just great, you did a good job packing
Thank you!
Looks like a professional packing job to me. Good luck to your daughter in her new adventures.
Thank you!