Archive for ‘College’ Category

Organize Your College-Bound Student for Grownup Life: Part 3

Posted on: August 12th, 2024 by Julie Bestry | 12 Comments

Parents, you’re counting down the precious days left with your college-bound students. Meanwhile, they’re counting down until they experience “freedom” and (gulp) adult responsibilities. In recent posts, we’ve covered a wide variety of skills and information to ensure they are prepared for the world beyond having you as a backup ride, bank, chief cook, and bottle-washer.

Organize Your College-Bound Student for Grown-Up Life: Part 1 identified essential legal documents and insurance policies, and reviewed the key financial skills every first-year student needs. 

Organize Your College-Bound Student for Grownup Life: Part 2 looked at communication skills, staying safe on campus and off, and the under-appreciated life lessons of mastering laundry.

This third installment of the college life skill syllabus delves into keeping all the time management balls in the air, developing an academic safety net, being a safe car operator, and social etiquette to ensure good relationships. There’s even a smattering of bonus life skills.

We finish up with with a bibliography of reading resources for you and for your college-bound student.

HOW TO MASTER TIME AT COLLEGE

In high school, time is fairly regimented; the bell rings every fifty minutes, moving students on to their next classes. There’s study hall to get a start on homework, and teachers provide periodic, staged deadlines for students to show their progress and keep from falling behind; they turn in a topic idea, then a bibliography, outline, first draft, and finally a completed report. Class periods before tests are earmarked for reviews. Academic prep time is spoon-fed.

In college, the freedom to set your own schedule has the drawback of requiring an adult sense of perspective on prioritizing what’s important (and not just urgent or fun). Wide swaths of free time must be divvied up and self-assigned: for studying new material, doing problem sets, completing projects, and preparing for exams.

Food and clean clothes are not delivered by magic fairies; they may require transportation, funds, labor, and time! 

College-bound kids may not want to take advice regarding time management, but try to start conversations to get them thinking about how to: 

Explain how to beat procrastination by understanding its causes and then incorporating good planning, prioritizing, and decision-making techniques (like the Eisenhower Decision Matrix), and locating accountability support. These Paper Doll posts can help:

They can even try some Study with Rory Gilmore videos, including this one that incorporates the Pomodoro Technique!

I can’t think of a better expert for your college (and college-bound high school) students, especially those with ADHD, than my fabulous colleague Leslie Josel. She’s the one who developed an amazing Academic Planner for middle-grade and high school students, and I interviewed her for Paper Doll Peeks Behind the Curtain with Superstar Coach, Author & Speaker Leslie Josel.

Order Leslie’s book, How to Do It Now Because It’s Not Going Away: An Expert Guide to Getting Stuff Done, before the semester gets too far, and you’ll help your first-year college student conquer procrastination, develop excellent study skills, and really dissipate their stress. 

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HOW TO SUCCEED ACADEMICALLY

Paper Mommy has been many great things, but an eager student was never one of them. In the mid-1950s, she and her friends stood in the college gymnasium, lost in the registration chaos. They asked one snazzy-looking fellow what he was taking. Statistics. And that’s how my mother, who majored in nursery school education, ended up in a statistics course.

The professor asked Paper Mommy‘s friend, Shirley to her Laverne, about one of the concepts. As if on a game show, the friend said, “I’ll pass.” The professor replied, “You wanna bet?”

Seek support

Navigating college academic life requires a different set of skills and strategies compared to high school. Paper Mommy and her friends would have benefited from knowing to:

  • Talk to your advisor — Paper Mommy and her friends did not know that they had assigned advisors, not merely the college equivalent of a high school guidance counselor, but someone with expertise in a student’s chosen major. 
  • Read the syllabus — A syllabus is a magic wand for success, spelling out everything a student must know and do, and when. Take notes on the deadlines to plan backward.
  • Go to office hours — College professors and teaching assistants won’t spoon-feed the material; it isn’t high school.  But showing up for office hours (after studying to figure out what questions to ask) will help clarify material and set your kid apart from fellow students, 
  • Seek out peer tutoring — Colleges offer a variety of academic help, but students have to advocate for themselves, ask for help, and make their own appointments. 
  • Find or form study groups — To be certain you understand something, try to teach it to someone else. 

Expand upon good learning and study habits

  • Participate in class — Lectures, labs, and tutorials may contain insights that textbooks don’t. Encourage asking questions and participating in discussions. Engaging with the material and observing how the professor and other students engage with it deepens understanding and make the material more compelling.
  • Explore different note-taking methods — From outlining and mind-mapping to the Cornell Note-taking Method and the Boxing Method, students can find ways to take notes that support differing learning styles and specific coursework types.
  • Find the right study environment — Students should experiment to figure out where they concentrate best, whether it’s the library, a coffee house, or an empty classroom, or under a tree, as Rory Gilmore found at Yale. (The TV Ambiance YouTube page is full of virtual study environments from favorite TV shows!) Just be sure to have a backup location in case someone steals your space!

  • Embrace active learning — Go to study skills labs to learn how to use active learning techniques like summarizing, teaching the material to someone else, or using flashcards.
  • Review material often — Spaced repetition, or reviewing material frequently, in small chunks, helps reinforce learning and improve retention better than cramming. 

  • Embrace editing — One of the biggest failings of new (smart) college students is that they fail to edit their papers. Proofreading is correcting errors; editing involves reviewing arguments to make sure they are logical and actually respond to the assigned questions. Read aloud to see if it makes sense. Seek feedback; does it make sense to someone else?

Parents, encourage your student to balance academic work with self-care. Burnout is real and presents a danger to mental and physical health. Urge them to work hard, but also to participate in informal and formal social activities, hobbies, and relaxation.

Talk often so you can recognize if your student is struggling academically or personally. 

DEVELOP SOCIAL ETIQUETTE FOR COLLEGE

Manners aren’t just about knowing which fork to use when there are a multitude on the table. (But in case they get a good internship and rub elbows with movie stars or royalty, the basics are as simple as: start with the utensils on the outside and work toward your plate!)

They’ll roll their eyes, but remind them that basic manners will help them live more easily with dorm-mates, work smoothly with fellow students on group projects, and not embarrass themselves if invited to the home of a professor or to stay a weekend with a roommate’s family. Like:

  • Don’t eat or use what isn’t yours without permission. (Then replace it or return the favor.)
  • Don’t move something that doesn’t belong to you; if it’s in your way, put it back as soon as possible.
  • Return borrowed items quickly. Launder or dry-clean borrowed clothes. Refill the gas tank of a borrowed car.
  • Reciprocate other’s kind behaviors.

Other real-world manners and etiquette tips college-bound students might not have absorbed:

Dining

  • Know which is your bread and which is your drink — Make the OK sign with both hands on the table in front of you. One makes a lowercase “b” (on your left) and “d” (on your right). The “b” for bread means your bread plate goes to your upper left; the “d” for drink means the glass to your upper right is yours. Don’t butter an entire slice of bread or roll and then eat it (except at your own breakfast table). Break off a bite-sized piece of bread, apply butter (or jam, etc.) and eat.

  • Wait until everyone has been served (or seated with their dining tray) to eat. Don’t gobble your food. You are not Cookie Monster.
  • Don’t rush to leave before your companions are done eating. (If you need to leave to get to class, apologize for not staying until the other person is finished.)
  • Know when and how much to tip in restaurants, for pizza delivery, etc. 

Social Interactions

  • Introductions — Know how to properly introduce yourself and others in a social setting, with first and last names. 
  • Handshake — Offer a firm (not limp, not crushing) handshake, smile, and make eye contact. (If eye contact makes you uncomfortable, remember, it’s not a staring contest. Connect, then look anywhere in the general vicinity of the other person’s face.)
  • Personal space — Respecting others’ personal space in social and professional settings requires situational and cultural awareness and understanding the nuances of physical boundaries. Don’t touch people without asking. 
  • Phones — Don’t look at your phone when you’re eating or socializing with others unless responding to something urgent. Put  phones away at the meal table. 
  • Thank You Notes —  A good thank you note, sent promptly, goes a long way to show appreciation after receiving a gift, being hosted, getting interviewed, or being the beneficiary of an act of kindness. 
  • RSVP — Explain that not replying to an RSVP inconveniences a host. Replying in a timely manner and committing to that response helps the host plan (financially and logistically).
  • Online social interactions — A digital footprint lasts forever, and online behavior matters. Being a jerk online has the potential to ruin a reputation just as much as being a jerk at a party. 
  • Networking — Your college kid isn’t thinking about the business world, but people help and do business with those they know, like, and trust. Help them see the importance of strengthening connections by sharing personal stories where maintaining connections, being generally useful, and even sending a LinkedIn connection request with a personalized message can mean a lot down the road.

Cultural Sensitivity

Good cross-cultural etiquette means not judging people who don’t follow the above guidelines. 

Respect diversity. Understand cultural differences in manners, and be open to learning and adapting when doing study abroad or interacting in other cultural settings.

Use language that’s respectful, inclusive, and kind. 

CARE FOR THE CAMPUS CAR

@the_leighton_show

The low fuel warning also doesn’t stop my wife from going to @target #teenagers #drivinglessons #driving #parentsoftiktok #funny

♬ Highway to Hell – AC/DC

Even if your student has been on the road for a few years, being a car owner (or responsible party) is different from driving Mom’s car to school. Car care can be a mystifying area of adulthood.

Oversee that inspections and major maintenance gets done when your student is home for breaks, and jointly go through the recommended auto maintenance schedule in the car’s manual. Help them figure out how to either do basic car care or to get it done professionally. 

Teach the basics, like how to:

  • Fill the gas tank before it’s only 1/4 full (and not when the gas light comes on). This is especially important if they attend school in wintery locales.
  • Fill the tank on a schedule, not when it’s empty, but perhaps every Saturday after lunch. (And don’t try to put diesel in a non-diesel vehicle!)
  • Download an app for finding the best gas prices, like Gas Buddy.
  • Know how to check the oil before the oil light comes on. Oil and filter changes don’t have to be done as frequently as they used to, due to synthetic oil, but it still must be done.
  • Know how to check tire pressure and fill tires properly.
  • Know what the dashboard lights mean. — I once heard someone call the tire pressure alert the “Surprise Light.”

  • Understand how to check and change fuses, replace windshield wipers, and know when to seek a professional mechanic. 

Prepare them for emergencies. They should:

DON’T GET SCAMMED AT COLLEGE

According to a study by the Better Business Bureau, 18-24 year-olds are more often victims of scams than senior citizens! Teaching college students to recognize and avoid scams is crucial. Encourage a skeptical mindset.

Common Scams Targeting College Students

Just as I wrote about scams that target seniors in Slam the Scam! Organize to Protect Against Scams, there are many that target college students, including:

  • Scholarship and grant scams — Legitimate scholarships don’t ask for fees.  
  • Student loan scams — Be wary of companies that promise to forgive or lower student loans for a fee. Confirm loan information through the school’s financial aid office or consult government (.gov) websites like Federal Student Aid.
  • Housing scams — When seeking off-campus housing, avoid listings requiring upfront payments before touring properties. Use reputable rental sites; don’t send money via wire transfer.
  • Job scams — Know that legitimate employers don’t ask for bank information until you’ve been officially hired. Be wary of job offers promising high pay for minimal work.

Watch for Red Flags

  • Urgency and high pressure tactics — The world is full of deadlines, but scammers use fear of missing out to create a sense of urgency. Don’t become a victim by being pressured to act quickly without time to analyze what’s happening.
  • Unsolicited Offers — Be dubious about any unsolicited contact from outside of the school’s usual resources, whether by email, phone, or (especially) text, whether seeking personal information or offering services, funds, or assistance.
  • Unusual Payment Methods —  Students need to understand that payment by check or credit card is normal, but requests for payment by gift card, wire transfers, or cryptocurrency are hallmarks of scams. Legitimate transactions use secure, traceable payment methods.
  • If a financial loan, grant, paid internship, or side hustle seems “too good to be true,” especially if the college’s financial aid office or academic departments doesn’t know anything about it, it’s likely a scam.

Always do independent research and verification. Check websites, Google to make sure phone numbers and addresses aren’t fake, and seek unbiased reviews. Consult trusted sources, including professors and advisors, college financial aid and work/study divisions, and yes, parents.

Online Safety

GenZ will be dubious that parents can advise them on online safety, but talk about:

  • Privacy Settings — Adjust social media privacy to limit personal information visible to the public.
  • Phishing Scams — Be wary about emails, texts, or social media direct messages that appear to be from trusted individuals or institutions but ask for personal information or money, or contain suspicious links. Pick up the phone and verify by calling people or institutions directly.
  • Secure Websites — Look for “https://” in the URL and the padlock icon in the URL bar before entering personal or financial information! 

Report Scams

RANDOM LIFE SKILLS

I lived in the International Living Center at Cornell for all four years of college. Of 144 students in our dorm, only about 15% were from North America; whether they were the youngest freshman or the oldest grad students — from ages 16 to 34 — many students experienced some sort of culture shock.

College is already its own kind of culture shock. Your students shouldn’t hesitate to ask for help. That said, adopting an attitude of weaponized incompetence instead of seeking to learn how to do something themselves may eventually annoy roommates, friends, and professors. In these last days before college, make sure they know:

  • How to tell time on an analog clock — Additionally, it appears that many GenZers are miffed when GenXers and Boomers use expressions like “a quarter ’til” or “half past” because they think it’s some kind of code. And does your student understand time zones?  
  • How to use public transportation — If your kid will be living in a city where subways, light rail, or busses are essential for moving around, they’ll need to learn…fast. If you don’t know how to navigate, where to stand, or how to pay, ask someone who does know to give you and your student a lesson in the basics.
  • How to read a map — GPS can be flawed. GPS (and cellular service) can go down. Being able to read and understand both digital and paper maps is a key navigation skill. (So is orienteering, but if your kid is leaving for campus in a week or two, it may be too late.)
  • How to hide emergency money — “Mad money” was a 20th-century term for having some cash set aside so you could escape a bad date and get home safely. You never know when you might need money or an approximation thereof and Apple Pay won’t cut it.

A friend recently recalled how fellow students used to keep subway tokens in their penny loafers in the 1980s. My grandfather, Paper Mommy‘s dad, was interviewed by a newspaper in the 1930s after being robbed outside of a hotel; he reported that hadn’t lost all of his cash because he’d hidden some bills in his socks!

Advise hiding a few dollars inside their phone case.

  • How to unclog a toilet or a drain — Bonus points for teaching them how to turn off the water at the source. It may not be necessary in the dorms, but once they have an apartment, knowing how to find the shutoff valve for an overflowing toilet, sink, or washing machine will be a nifty skill.
  • How to change a light bulb — Yes, seriously. Turn it off and let it cool before unscrewing it. As with screws, hoses, shower heads and similar items: righty tighty, lefty loosey.
  • How to sew a button back on.
  • How to swim — Yes, we’re cutting it close in mid-August, but some schools (such as my alma mater) required and still require swimming proficiency (for safety’s sake). 

No matter how much these three posts have tried to cover everything, it’s likely you’ll have your own submissions for Chip Leighton’s The Leighton Show by the end of the school year. (The caption is the same, but this one is different from the videos in the last two posts.)

@the_leighton_show

What’s your street name?? #text #college #freshman #son #daughter #mom #dad #humor #greenscreen

♬ original sound – The Leighton Show

RESOURCES FOR COLLEGE-BOUND STUDENTS

The Adulting Manual by Milly Smith

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The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College by Harlan Cohen

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RESOURCES FOR PARENTS

Articles for Parents of College-Bound Students and New College Students

Support and Advice Groups for Parents

  • CollegeConfidential.com Parents’ Forum
  • College Parent Insider’s Group
  • Facebook groups for parents of students at your child’s college — Search Facebook for “parents” and the school’s name. Official groups may be moderated by school personnel; others are independent and moderated by fellow parents.
  • College-based forums — Some colleges set up their own online forum or listserv for parents. Google “parent groups” or “parent forum” and your child’s school, and you will find sites like this one from the University of Minnesota.

Note: there’s a balance between asking group members to recommend an emergency dentist for your first-year who just cracked a molar and being a “helicopter parent” who tries to stir up controversy over a professor who gave your student a B. Check out Before You Join That College Parents Group on Social Media… at CollegeInitative.net.

Dear Parents: It will be a learning experience, and you’ll struggle with the balance between granting independence and being there for support. I hope going through the advice in these past three posts together will help you both feel more ready.

May you and your college student have a stellar first year!

Organize Your College-Bound Student for Grownup Life: Part 2

Posted on: August 5th, 2024 by Julie Bestry | 6 Comments


From living with strangers to not having parents and teachers overseeing study habits and self-care, college is a melange of delightful freedom and terrifying responsibility.

Last week, in Organize Your College-Bound Student for Grown-Up Life: Part 1, we reviewed the serious side of what to make sure your kids have and know before heading off to college. We covered making sure they know their Social Security number by heart, having a a handle on important contacts and key medical information, and getting registered to vote and knowing how to exercise their rights to vote.

We looked at legal documents, like Power of Attorney for Healthcare (AKA: healthcare proxy) documents, FERPA waivers, and HIPAA releases, which in combination ensure that a college student has someone they trust looped into their medical situations and able to make medical decisions if they are unable to. 

We also started developing punch lists of adulting information and skills, starting with the essentials related to financials and insurance.

And, because people pay more attention to serious things when they can take a moment to breathe, I included a few Chip Leighton “texts from college students” videos from The Leighton Show. More are peppered in this post. (As with last week, click near the lower left portion of the video to un-mute.) 

@the_leighton_show Posting one more for all the parents dropping kids off at college #teenagers #college #freshmanyear #text #funny ♬ original sound – The Leighton Show

HOW TO COMMUNICATE BEYOND TEXTS AND EMOJIS

Recently, I was surprised to find that most younger people don’t ring doorbells or knock; they text when they pull up outside. (Honestly, to keep from waking babies or making dogs go nuts, this is pretty smart!)

Gen Z students have often managed to get through life without learning some adulting skills with regard to communication and interaction. Before dropping them off on campus, make sure your kids have these skills. 

  • How to write, address, and mail a letter. Somewhere around fourth grade, they taught us how to write a “friendly” letter and a business letter, including the entire format of date, “inside address,” salutation, body, and appropriate closing. They also taught us how to address an envelope, where to put the return address, and where to place the stamp. Apparently, this is not taught anymore, as evidence by various Reddit threads, including the one below.

  • How to sign their name in cursive. Some elementary schools stopped teaching cursive in 2010, though there now seems to be a backlash against the removal. Whether or not your student knows how to write (even remotely legibly) in cursive, make sure they understand how to sign their legal name. 
  • How to write a grown-up, professional email. Use a clear subject line that indicates the purpose of the message. Write in full, grammatically-correct sentences. Spell check. Don’t use emoji or slang. (Seriously, no cap.) Except in a rare case when asked to do so, don’t address female professors as “Mrs.” That’s a social honorific, and this isn’t kindergarten. They’re either Professor or Doctor or (if TAs or adjuncts) Ms. (unless they ask you to use their first name). Don’t address professors of any gender as “Bro” or “Dude.”  (This goes for verbal communication, too!)
  • How to schedule an appointment (and how to reschedule or cancel one) — Your kid knows how to log into a web site and pick a time slot, but Gen Z is particularly phone-averse. Role play with them how to make a call to request an appointment with a doctor or dentist, to get their hair cut, to have their car evaluated or repaired, etc. Teach them how to summarize why they’re calling (whether to a gatekeeper or for voicemail).
  • How to leave voicemail — Guide them not to say, “Um, so this is Joe. I need you to call me back” without any hint of why. Young people are often nervous about calling strangers, so they should plan the message, mentally or even in writing.  Encourage them to think about why they’re calling — and what result (information? permission? assistance?) they need.

This is good advice for grownups, too, especially those suffer from social anxiety. Practice eases the process. State your name, phone number, and reason for calling so the recipient can do their legwork and get back to you at their convenience without wasting their time (or yours on a cycle of call tag).

  • How to write a thank you note — In case it’s been a while since you impressed upon your child the importance (and power) of this habit, share a classic Paper Doll post, Gratitude, Mr. Rogers, and How To Organize a Thank You Note and remind them, once again, that grandparents are more likely to send gifts (money? Apple gift cards? freshly baked cookies?) when thanked for their actions.
  • How to apologize authentically and effectively — Whether your student eats her roommate’s last yogurt or commits a more unpardonable act, don’t let kids go off to college without this essential life skill. Make sure they understand that “I’m sorry you got mad” is not an apology.

There’s an easy formula:

    • Use the words, “I’m sorry” or “I apologize.”
    • Take responsibility and state what you actually did wrong.
    • Illustrate that you understood the impact of your actions on the other individual.
    • Explain how you’ll ensure it won’t happen again, or show how you’ll make reparations.

STAY SAFE, ON CAMPUS AND OFF

There will likely be a safety workshop during orientation week. Encourage your student to attend and to understand what kind of built-in infrastructure the campus has for safety. 

Be Safe When Walking Around

When I attended college, we had a Blue Light service, poles throughout campus with blue lights at the top and telephones connected to Campus Safety. You could make a direct call (without a coin) or just hit the handsets as you ran from a horror movie monster (let’s ignore the more serious alternative) and campus safety peer volunteers and personnel would come out in force. There were also free “blue light buses” on campus to ferry people home safely at night. I was delighted to find out that this system is still in place, with some modern tech additions.

Nowadays, most campuses have high-end safety systems and apps. Still, encourage students to program the campus security number into their phones and know how to request an official campus peer escort. Other advice to impart:

  • Don’t walk alone, especially at night. Take heavily-trafficked routes with good lighting.
  • Let your roommate or BFF know where you are headed, and program your phone to share your real-time location (one time or ongoing) and ETA:

  • You’re probably not going to convince your college kid to never ride with strangers, but you can fund an Uber or Lyft account to make it easier to get home if they’ve gone to a concert or club off campus. You may also want to discuss GrownandFlown.com’s The 7 Ride Share Safety Tips Every Teen Needs to Know.

Be Safe in Your Dorm and When Out and About

  • Lock your room when not in it (so you don’t walk in to any surprises), or when you are, but lots of others aren’t around. 
  • Close and lock your windows when you are sleeping or not in your dorm, especially if you’re on the ground floor.
  • Program campus housing numbers into phones.You might be locked out of the dorm without keys or key cards or wallet, but nobody goes anywhere without their phones anymore.

Hopefully, you’ve had lots of conversations with your teen about how to have situational awareness when walking around (or studying, especially alone), how to be safe at parties, and how to figure out whom to trust. These kinds of skills can take many years to develop, but open conversations are the beginning.

This is an organizing blog, not a parenting blog, but I fervently hope that just as many parents will teach their sons the importance of not victimizing as they teach their daughters how not to be victims.

For more in-depth advice, You may also want to share:

Be Safe During Emergencies

Personal safety doesn’t just include watching out for bad guys. Your kids had fire drills in school, but they’re used to following an grownups instructions. Now that they’re the grownups, make sure they know:

  • How and when to call 911 vs. the police non-emergency line vs. the campus health center vs. the resident hall director).
  • When to go to the ER vs. urgent care, or the health center, or a family doctor (or to call the health insurance Ask-A-Nurse line…or Dr. Mom)
  • How to use a fire extinguisher. When I visited my old campus for my reunion in June, I saw that fire extinguishers had changed; they were neither the massively heavy ones I recalled from my youth nor the can-of-whipped-cream style I have at home. Have them read the instructions.
  • Pay attention to the exits when entering classroom or building, and know the safe exit path for the dorm.

While it’s designed primarily for families, your student might find Paper Doll Organizes You To Prepare for an Emergency to be a useful starting point.

Be Safe When Interacting with the Police

If you or anyone in your family or close circle is Black (or you’ve ever watched a Shonda Rhimes show), you almost certainly know about The Talk and have had it, and multiple iterations of it, before sending a child to college. 

However, if you are not a member of a visible minority, your have probably been privileged to not have to think about this. Role-model and practice so your college-bound student knows what to do if they are stopped while driving, riding, or walking — or if the police come to their dorms to make inquiries — or if they participate in a campus protest. 

If you watch police procedurals, you’re probably familiar with the concept of swatting, the practice of making a prank call to emergency services in order to get armed police officers dispatched to someone’s address. It happens to congressional representatives and judges, but it also happens to random people, including college students. It apparently started with online gamers being targeted by others playing the game.

Almost nobody gets through life without interacting with police officers, and whether it’s municipal police or campus security, student needs a skill set for handling potentially scary interactions. 

Again, this post is about organizing adulting skill sets. Beyond, “stay calm and don’t escalate,” I won’t advise you regarding what you should tell your children, but encourage you to talk to them about how to do it safely and with some starting points:

HOW TO STAY HEALTHY AT COLLEGE

Nobody gets to college without having had a booboo or a cold or a stomach bug, but a lot of parents find that their newly independent children experience a sense of amnesia once any of these things happen at college. Use the following as prompts to make sure your kids are ready for dealing with the owies of adult life.

Be Prepared for Medical Ickiness

Everyone eventually gets the crud, and being away from home makes it worse. However, knowing how to handle the experience makes having the yuckies marginally better. Make sure students know:

  • How to treat a sore throat, toothache, upset stomach (and related intestinal distresses) and minor viruses.
  • How to recognize symptoms (like a high fever) requiring professional medical intervention.
  • How the dosage on OTC and prescription medicine works. There’s a reason why it says “take no more than X in 24 hours” — because people thought X “in one day” meant they could have X at 11:45 p.m. and again at 12:15 a.m. Medication doesn’t follow a calendar.
  • How to fill and refill a prescription — If you’ve always done it for them, your student may not know about prescription numbers or number of refills available.
  • How to take maintenance medication or perform health activities without you having to remind them — You won’t be able to ask, “Did you take your ADHD meds today?” or “How many times did you check your blood glucose today?” Your student knows how to set an alarm on the phone, but walking them through how to label the alarms to make it clear which meds are for that specific alarm could help. Even “experienced” adults with established schedules forget to take meds when on vacation; college schedules are stress-inducing and can lead to forgetting, so help them help themselves.
  • Where the nearest 24-hour pharmacy is, before they need it — At some point, your student will need Pepto or condoms or feminine sanitary products or a COVID test at 3 a.m. Being prepared is half the battle.
  • How to do First Aid — Not everybody was a scout. I’m often shocked by people (OK, men. It’s always men) who don’t know how to properly clean a small wound, remove a splinter, or put on a bandage. You can’t anticipate everything — minor and major — need to know, so share the National Safety Council’s First Aid Video Library link. It’s impressive.
  • How to fill out health insurance forms at the doctor’s office. — Seriously, your kid should know their blood type without having to call and ask you. (That’s why I told you last week to give them copies of their medical history information.)

Booboo Bear Photo by Pixabay

How to Deal with College Life Ickiness

  • How to safely drink/consume things you’d prefer they didn’t partake of at all. 
  • How to help a friend who has unwisely or unsafely imbibed or consumed something. This might range from treating hangovers to knowing how to use NARCAN to the calling 911!
  • How basic hygiene works. Wash hands! — Feel like you shouldn’t have to explain this to an adult? Reread Organize Your Health: Parental Wisdom, Innovation, and the New Time Timer® Wash. Yes, it’s from the first year of COVID, but the unfathomable reminder that people forget to wash their hands is timeless.
  • Wash water bottles. — We didn’t even have bottled water when I was in college. Now, Stanley cups (not the hockey kind) are everywhere. And no, just because there’s only water in it doesn’t mean it’s clean. Microbes are icky. (Secret cleaning trick? Denture tablets!)

How to Deal with Grown-Up Issues

I hope you and your student have the kind of relationship where you can discuss “adult” things without (too much) awkwardness. I was lucky that Paper Mommy always made a safe space to talk about difficult issues, but not everyone has that ability (or that parent).

You may have had that other version of “The Talk” with your student in adolescence, but whether you’re dealing with reproductive care or mental health or anything sensitive, at the very least encourage your college-bound student to talk. Say that you hope they’ll talk to you, but even if not, that there are many safe places (starting with the campus health center) to find accurate information and supportive care. Some of the issues they may need to contend with include:

  • Safe sex 
    • How to use contraception properly
    • How to say no, at any point in the process, and maintain healthy boundaries 
    • How to be secure consent and step back if there is no consent
  • Mental health
    • How to recognize the signs of depression or anxiety (or other mental health concerns) in themselves and their friends, including social isolation or an increase in risky behaviors, or changes in academic performance, mood, sleep or eating habits, or personal hygiene.
    • Where to seek mental health help, on campus or virtually
  • Self-care — Remind your beloved child of their options for caring for their mental health,  including:
    • taking breaks
    • exercising
    • getting out in nature
    • talking to friends
    • journaling
    • calling home
    • speaking with a therapist
    • understanding that everyone has problems, they are manageable, and there is support available

For your purposes, peruse Empowering Wellness: Supporting Freshman Health and Well-Being from College Parents of America, and perhaps get your kid a copy of something like  The Greatest College Health Guide You Never Knew You Needed: How to Manage Food, Booze, Stress, Sex, Sleep, and Exercise on Campus before they leave for campus.

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How to Stay Marginally Fit and Well-Fed at College

When I was in college in the late 1980s, except for student athletes, almost nobody went to the gym except for a required physical education class. I had to pass a swim test and take two gym classes. I took bowling and yoga. I got marginally better at bowling. Yoga was in the (padded) wrestling room on the other side of campus at 8 a.m. I have zero memories of it. Modern gym classes have come a long way from the choice of sports or Jane Fonda-level aerobics.

Your student may follow every bit of wisdom you’ve provided for the past 18 years. They may eat colorful fruits and vegetables at every meal; they probably won’t get scurvy.

They may take a fun workout class with friends; they may get the bare minimum movement just walking to class. They may waste the money you’ve spent on a 3-meals a day/7 days a week meal plan and eat leftover pizza every morning.

You cannot control this.

There are serious issues, like eating disorders; there are far less issues about which you should not make a big deal, like the freshman 15. For now, just make sure they have the skills that will help them make their best decisions, and then back off. 

  • How to read nutrition labels — I find that women my age have spent so much of our lives reading these, we forget that lots of teen girls don’t scrutinize these labels, and that teen boys (unless they are wrestlers) often have never even glanced at them. Explain the key concepts.
  • The value of eating calories and not drinking them — This applies to alcohol as well as soft drinks. Try to encourage getting calories from things that require chewing.
  • Understand food safety and kitchen hygiene — The USDA’s Food Safety Tips for College Students is a good start.

When your student leaves the dorm and meal plan behind and gets an off-campus apartment, you can discuss how to meal plan to save time during the week, and how to shop on a budget and understand the value of generic/store-brand food products vs. brand names. That’s next summer’s problem.

@the_leighton_show Your comments do not disappoint #freshman #collegelife #text #son #daughter #dad #mom #parentsoftiktok #humor #greenscreen ♬ original sound – The Leighton Show

HOW TO MASTER LAUNDRY AT COLLEGE

In 1985, my friend Paul’s mother created a double-sided set of laundry instructions, laminated it, and attached it with rivets and cords to his laundry bag. It was genius.

Whether your kids do laundry all the time at home or they call detergent and fabric softener “sauces,” there will be college laundry catastrophes. At least try to:

  • Identify what they own must be dry cleaned or hand washed (and then discourage them from taking those items to college).
  • Explain the basics of separating new, colorful clothes from whites to avoid a pink wardrobe.
  • Practice using the iPhone’s Visual Lookup to identify laundry symbols and explain care instructions. 

  • Remind them to empty pockets before washing things.
  • Remind them how good it feels to sleep on freshly laundered sheets when they’re stressed or sick. (They won’t wash sheets and towels as often as you do at home, but this may help.)
  • Go to the laundry room in the dorm on move-in day and explain anything that’s different from your washer/dryer at home. The detergent slot may be in a different place; the lint trap may be weirdly located.
  • Some college laundry facilities use plastic reloadable cards for access; others have apps. Still, many dorms (and almost all laundromats) require quarters. Hand off a few rolls of quarters and they’re less likely to come home at Thanksgiving with a semester’s worth of laundry.
  • Read (and encourage them to read) a post from the Paper Doll vault,  5 “Real Simple” Reasons We Don’t Get the Laundry (or Paperwork) Done. It’s about laundry, but it’s also about productivity. It couldn’t hurt. 

There’s a fine line between being a helicopter parent and making sure your kid doesn’t have to be airlifted out of a dangerous situation. Hopefully this series is helping you identify what remains to be discussed with your student.

Next time, we’ll finish off with tips on how to help them:

  • Develop time management skills to keep the student and work and social balls in the air
  • Achieve academically without a guidance counselor, study hall, or a scheduled lunch period
  • Keep the car from breaking down before making it back into the driveway for Thanksgiving
  • Acquire random life skills so your student’s roommate doesn’t think you’ve dropped off an alien

See you next time.

Organize Your College-Bound Student for Grown-Up Life: Part 1

Posted on: July 29th, 2024 by Julie Bestry | 10 Comments


In a matter of weeks, fresh-faced first-year college students will be headed off to begin their adult lives.

Everyone needs a little organizational guidance on this path. Last week, I re-shared a popular post from the Paper Doll vault, Paper Doll & Real Simple Organize Dorm Rooms: SUPER-EXTENDED Edition, looking at how to organize a dorm room for maximum comfort and productivity.

There’s a lot of support out there for getting the right stuff to make college life easier. IKEA has created a stellar master list of what to take to college that likely exceeds whatever your student’s department of residence life has forwarded. If you care mainly about having the right electronic solutions, you can scroll through pieces like Back to School — 10 Cool Tech Gadgets for 2024.

Taking advantage of the “college lists,” reminiscent of the photocopied (and previously, mimeographed) lists of teacher’s required school supplies, can put most parents and students on a fairly level playing field. Well, at least in terms of the tangibles, like basic creature comforts necessary to sleep, study, and snack while paying at least a modicum of attention to personal hygiene and health while at college.

The stuff is one thing. However, not all 18-year-olds arrive at college with the same levels of maturity, knowledge, and awareness of the world. TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube sensation Chip Leighton of The Leighton Show hit it big the last past few years with his series of videos of funny texts from teenagers.

But Leighton really caught my eyes with the texts from college students. These texts, and the rush of comments from parents illustrating their own young people’s texts, help us realize that parents and guardians may need to do more than they realize to prepare offspring for independent life on the planet. 

Some things are universal — students arrive at college not having a handle on how to do laundry or manage their finances. But the deeper I’ve gone into talking with clients with kids at college (and, yes, reading the hysterical — and embarrassing — stories from parents in Leighton’s comments sections), I’ve realized that there are ways in which kids are ill-prepared for college (and life beyond) in a ways that adults may not realize.

Today’s post and the rest of this series is a starter kit for the issues to discuss with your college-bound Gen-Zers before they risk endangering their lives, messing up their financial histories, or embarrassing themselves in front of age cohorts who have been better prepared for life “in the real world.”

ESSENTIAL INFORMATION AND PAPERWORK

Before we get into what your college students need to know, we should look at what documents they need to possess and understand.

Social Security Number

If you’re an American, your kid already has Social Security numbers. But do they actually know it?

This is the number you most need to memorize for the next six or more decades. Once at college, students will find they need to provide a student ID number and Social Security number on forms all the time. If they haven’t memorized it as a result of the college application process, now is the time to help them remember it.

You’ll have to discuss whether it makes sense for your student to take the actual card to school, or if it’s best kept safely in the family home until or unless they need it for official reasons. If they do take it to school, remind them that it shouldn’t live in their wallet or anywhere it could be lost or easily stolen.

Contact information for the important people in their lives

Yes, college-bound students mainly text people, but at some point, you might point out that if they send a real letter (or even a postcard) to Grandma, she might be inclined to send back money or a tin of cookies or some sort of care package.

College students need to have phone numbers, email addresses, and mailing/shipping addresses at the ready. And while yes, they can text Mom and Dad for the answers, warn them that they may end up as an example on Leighton’s TikTok or Instagram page!

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Encourage or even help them to memorize a few essential phone numbers in case their phones are ever lost, stolen, or damaged. Of course, the era of Snoopy address books is probably long gone, so this is a plug for making sure you urge them to back up their phones to their (or your family’s) iCloud or Google Drive.

Health records

At some point in the weeks before college, aspiring first-years need to provide proof of immunizations plus information regarding their medical history of epilepsy, diabetes, or any other physical or mental health conditions that might impact a student’s life at college or need for medical accommodations, per the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

But sending the requested documentation to the school isn’t enough; your newly-minuted adult needs to know and have access to this information. Make sure they either have a paper folder for medical records or a shared digital folder, perhaps in Dropbox, where you mutually maintain potentially necessary information.

It’s not enough that Mom & Dad and the school can access these things; your child may need to provide medical professionals with information about their blood type, health conditions (past and present), medications, surgeries, etc. (Seriously, your kids need to know their blood type!)

Legal documents related to healthcare

There are two federal laws related to maintaining the privacy of a student’s medical records. Both refer to when students are aged 18 or above, and in the first case, when students are at college. 

The first is the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). It protects the privacy of a students’ educational records, including a student’s treatment or care at a campus health center (as well as grades and academic standing, and any disciplinary actions against them). This applies not only to students who have reached 18, but all college students.

The second, you are likely to have more familiarity with. The Health Information Portability and Accountability Act, commonly known as HIPAA, protects all medical information.

If a student has turned 18, or in the case of FERPA, is at college, Mom and Dad don’t have any legal right to access this information. But of course, that doesn’t mean your student might not want you to have access. This means you need to talk to them about three essential documents that will allow you to know what’s going on with them if they need medical care and allow you to make decisions for them if they are unable. 

  • HIPAA Release — This grants you permission to be involved in knowing what’s going on with your student’s health situation. You’ve probably had to sign a lot of your own HIPAA releases, so you know that your student will need to specify each health care provider (so, a physician, a healthcare center, a hospital) whom they authorize to release medical/treatment information. Your student’s school health care center may have links to release forms on their web site. For security, encourage your student to fill out a HIPAA release before drop-off day.
  • FERPA Waiver — This allows a student to select what kinds of information they want to share with their parents. Rather than giving blanket access, the student can choose to grant access to medical records but not grades, or vice versa. The college registrar’s office can provide a FERPA waivers, which may be a paper or online form.  
  • Power of Attorney for Healthcare (also called a healthcare proxy) — We’ve talked about this document many times, including in How to Create, Organize, and Safeguard 5 Essential Legal and Estate Documents.

Whereas a HIPAA release and FERPA waiver allow you to be part of the conversation about your young person’s medical status, a Power of Attorney for Healthcare allows you to make medical decisions for your 18+ student in the unfortunate event they are unable to do so.

Google “Power of Attorney for Healthcare” or “Medical Power of Attorney” and your state name to find sample forms online. (If your student is attending school out of state, you may need a form for both states.)

Obviously, keep copies of these documents in a secure place where you will be able to access them if your student has medical needs requiring your support.

Help Them Register to Vote

I am cautiously hopeful that I shouldn’t have to explain to you (nor you to your college-bound student) why it’s essential to be politically aware and educated, to register to vote, and to exercise that vote (not just for the highest offices, but for all down-ticket offices and ballot measures).

“I Voted” Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Laws governing registering to vote vary by state. Some states have voting by mail; others strictly require voting in person and limit absentee ballots. Deadlines also vary by state. Determine with your child whether it makes sense to register in your home county or (if possible and/or necessary) at their college residents. Be aware that voter registration deadlines are looming in many states.

Once they’re registered to vote, teach them how to evaluate candidates and issues, how to secure an absentee ballot (if applicable), and make sure they know their protections. (For example, once they are in line to vote, no matter how long the line is, or how far past official poll closing hours, they should stay in line and are guaranteed the right to cast a ballot.)

Share resources, such as:

The point is not to tell your student for whom they should vote, but to empower them with all the resources so that they can make educated decisions that reflect their beliefs, and to understand the value of their participation in the process.

ADULTING SKILLS & KNOWLEDGE BASE 101

It would take a book (see the end of today’s post) and not merely a blog post to review all the things you should make sure first-year students should know before they head off to college. But you really don’t want to get a text like the ones in this video. (Be sure to click the audio icon at the bottom to un-mute. If you want to play it again, click the “replay” circular arrow icon in the lower left corner, not the play button in the middle of the screen.)  

@the_leighton_show Posting this again for all the parents who just dropped kids off at college #teenager #text #college #freshman #funny ♬ original sound – The Leighton Show

 

A Punch List for Adulting

The rest of this post is not designed to tell you how to teach what your kids need to know; that will depend on your family’s location, lifestyle, standards, and values. Rather, treat it as a punch list.

Traditionally, a punch list is a document that lists the final work items remaining before a construction project is considered complete. More specifically, contractors use a punch list to add all the work that isn’t included in the official specifications in the construction contract; it’s the stuff that comes up later. The punch list is often made up of various tasks that were skipped because they weren’t considered originally or overlooked in favor of tasks that were more important at the time.

Well, your kid is your construction project. You’ve been building this project for 18 or so years, and you’re ready for the closing date, but you don’t want to suddenly realize there’s no time left to complete or fix what left undone. What follows today and in this series, will provide opportunities for you to tighten the bannister on the ladder of your child’s college years and adult life.

How Money Works

Many people get out into the post-college world without any idea how manage their finances.

Sometimes this is because their parents aren’t equipped to teach them the skills; other times, parents assume that certain knowledge and skills are common sense.

However, I can assure you that writing a check is no more “common sensical” to the average college-bound Gen-Z student than mobile deposits or CashApp is to your average elder Boomer or Silent Generation grandparent. 

Talk to your student to figure out what they need to know about the following:

  • How to create a budget (and keep to it)
  • How to track when bills are due and ensure they pay them on time (and understand the basics of how interest rates, fines, and fees rack up)
  • How to write a check (because yes, sometimes that’s the only way to pay for something)
  • How to endorse a check (see above, re: Grandma)
  • How to fill out a deposit slip and withdrawal ticket, and how to comport themselves in a bank, in case ATMs are down and they actually have to (gasp!) speak to someone.
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  • How to use a banking app (including for mobile deposit of a check)
  • How to use a check register — Sigh, I know this is a lost cause these days, but learning how to keep a check register (even if you never write a check) is the key to reconciling and balancing your account and thus keeping from being overdrawn or going over budget.
  • How to call, go online, or use the bank app to check the bank balance.
  • How to safely use mobile financial and payment apps — For those of us who rarely, if ever, use such apps, it can be a surprise that the default is for users of platforms like Venmo to share and display transactions (and who they paid)!

Encourage kids to keep transaction information on financial sharing apps private. Nerdwallet’s What College Students Need to Know About Payment Apps has some sound advice for protecting against fraud and safely using these apps.

  • How to understand the difference between checking and savings accounts, and between debit and credit cards. If your student does not already have a bank account, make sure to help them open one that has a branch (and ATMs) in their college community in order to avoid non-member ATM fees. Make sure they understand which ATM networks they are in and how to identify non-member ATMs.

More generally, ensure your student understands how banks work — and how your family finances will work as it pertains to them while they’re at college.

If you’ll be funding some or all of their at-school lives, explain how much money you will provide them (at the start of the semester, or each month), what they will be responsible for covering, and what to do in a financial emergency.

They may be new adults, but they are still your children, so encourage them to come to you with problems so you can problem-solve together. (This is good advice for non-financial situations, as well.)

Make sure your student understands how credit works, and discourage opening lines of credit early on. Most of the predatory methods for signing college kids up for credit cards that were common when I was an undergraduate are now illegal. Still, help them to be wary. They can sign up and start building a credit history later in their undergraduate years.

  • How to tip, when to tip, and how to determine how much to tip
  • How to sign up for student discounts on everything from computers to clothes, electronics to entertainment, retail shopping to restaurant food.

This may require showing a student ID at a local store, downloading an app, granting permission to be texted or emailed, or other more privacy-invading options. Your student will have to weigh the discount against the value of granting a company access to them. For starters, check out these resources for getting student discounts:

If this is your first go-round with sending a kid off to college, I recognize that this might be overwhelming. Your student’s college will likely provide some financial literacy workshops during orientation and ongoing, but don’t depend on them having the time or inclination to check them out.

Start by working through Study Corgi‘s A College Student’s Guide to Financial Literacy: Benefits, Tips, + Resources. It has some stellar infographics, links, and resources for guiding a young person through getting a handle on all-things-financial. 

Another good option is The Financial Diet‘s The College Student’s Guide To Money video series on YouTube. It covers budgeting, saving, investing, mindset, and making big money decisions. Start here and then continue on with the playlist:

How Insurance Works

Your student may need some or all of the following insurance coverage while at school:

  • Health insurance — The college may offer a healthcare plan. When I was in college, I was covered by both my parents’ plan and the school’s plan, but things have changed since I was a student and dinosaurs roamed the earth.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) guarantees that your child can stay on your health insurance until reaching the age of 26. If your student is staying in-state, that should be relatively straightforward; if they’re attending college out of state, and depending on whether they will need a Marketplace plan, your student may need to apply separately. Begin familiarizing yourself with the options described on the ACA page for college students.

Doctor with stethoscope photo by Online Marketing on Unsplash

Students need to understand how co-pays, co-insurance, deductibles, and out-of-pocket limits work. Start by walking them through Paper Doll Explains Your Health Insurance Explanation of Benefits. (Who knows; you might learn something, too. Meanwhile, your student will be head-and-shoulders above where most college kids are in understanding health insurance.)

  • Car insurance — Students taking cars to college need to have insurance. Maybe your student will be on your insurance; maybe they’ll get their own policy. However your family arranges finances, it’s essential your student understands how car insurance works (and what to do in a car-related emergency).

Students, and young people in general, might be inclined to pick the least expensive coverage without knowing what it actually covers and what it doesn’t.

As with health insurance, a lot of the language surrounding car insurance can be mystifying. Try reading Organize for an Accident: Don’t Crash Your Car Insurance Paperwork [UPDATED] together to gauge what questions they might still have so you can help them make good decisions now and in the future.

Toy Car Photo by Atish Sewmangel on Unsplash

Along with standard car insurance, you may want to sign your student up for AAA or an automobile club associated with a family credit card, insurance company, or car manufacturer. Most services are fairly inexpensive and will give you (and your student) confidence in case the car needs urgent towing or emergency roadside assistance. 

  • Renter’s insurance — Homeowners know they have to have insurance, but young people (and renters, in general), are sometime surprised to realize that they should have coverage for their rented apartments. In fact, some apartment complexes require it. Luckily, renter’s insurance is (relatively) inexpensive at between $100 and $200 a year. 

Most colleges don’t require separate renter’s insurance for students living in a dorm. Parents should consult their own agents to see if their homeowner’s insurance will cover their student’s “stuff” while off at college.

Remember, renter’s insurance doesn’t just cover the cost of replacing expensive items (like computers) if they are stolen or damaged; it can also protected your whole family from liability claims if your student accidentally injures someone or damages their property. 

This is just the beginning of the advice and considerations you’ll want to discuss with your college-bound student. As this series continues next week, we’ll explore more topics, including how to:

  • Stay safe (guard your personal safety on campus)
  • Avoid an all-pink wardrobe (AKA: how to do laundry)
  • Keep the crud away (how to protect health and hygiene)
  • Stay fit and fed (what college kids should know about exercise and nutrition at school)
  • Master time management at college
  • Care for a car at school
  • Develop essential adulting skills 

The next post will also have some follow-up resources, both for parents and students, to be as prepared as possible for college life.

Until next time, when we get deeper into these resources, give yourself grace if you are stressed about sending your “construction project” off to college. Whether Leighton’s videos makes you laugh or just comfort you that you’re not alone in your frustrations with GenZ, you might want to look at his book, What Time Is Noon?: Hilarious Hilarious Texts, Ridiculous Feedback, and Not-So-Subtle Advice from Teenagers. 

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Unpacking: Paper Doll Explores a Video Game About Organizing

Posted on: November 8th, 2021 by Julie Bestry | 14 Comments

[Editor’s Note: This is not a typical Paper Doll post, but it is about organizing, so don’t worry that I’ve changed the focus of the blog. Also, if you click on any of the links in the first few paragraphs and get distracted playing classic games in your browser, don’t forget to come back and read the rest of the post!]

UNPACKING

I have limited experience with video games. Which is to say, I played the tennis-like Pong at a friend’s house when it first came out around 1972 and delighted in PacMan (and Ms. Pacman) while waiting for my Pizza Hut meal to be served, during my adolescent years.

And I even plunked myself down to play Super Mario Bros. when I was in graduate school and needed something obsessive and concentration-focusing to take my mind off what the heck I was going to do with my life when graduate school was over. 

But game strategy, manual dexterity, competitiveness, and the ability to bonk a cartoon plumber’s head upward onto a brick to make a mushroom appear (if I’m recalling correctly) — none of these have ever been my strong suits. 

In the past three decades, my interaction with video games has been limited to helping my clients pare down their video game collections, organize what they keep, and sell or donate the remainder. I haven’t played, or had any desire to play, any games until last week, when Australian game developer Witch Beam released Unpacking. My Google News feed knows me too well, and upon last week’s release, I was inundated with articles and reviews about this intriguing game.

The company describes Unpacking as a “Zen puzzle about unpacking a life.”

The game has eight chapters or levels, each corresponding to a move to a new “home” — a childhood room, a college dorm, one’s own apartment, sharing a space with a significant other, etc. — all for an unnamed, unknown protagonist. It starts in 1997 and continues forward to today. As players, we are never explicitly told the story of this character, but through her possessions, a certain  intimate bond is formed.

The game has been described as “part item Tetris, part home decoration.” You select digital cardboard boxes, open them, and through the game, put the items away. There are pre-ordained slots or shelves; the game is designed as a puzzle, and the goal isn’t to throw everything higgledy-piggledy but find the logical home.

To move to the next level, you need to generally put things where a reasonable person might think they should go. That said, as part of the accessibility features of the game, you can apply the “allow items anywhere” option to eliminate the puzzle element. With this choice, you can’t really put an item in the “wrong” place any more than you could in your own home. (Still, please don’t store extra pantry items or clothes in the bathtub; we professional organizers have seen that in the real world, and it’s just not a great option.)

So, just like at your house, you can put things in weird places. And while I haven’t seen a treadmill or Peleton in the game, I’m betting that just like in real life, you can hang your clothes on exercise equipment. As a player, you get to decide where things belong, but you have to obey the laws of physics and geometry. You can’t fit square pegs in round holes or ten pounds of whatever into a five-pound bag.

I find it appealing that there’s no competition and no timers counting down. But there are, apparently, 14,000 different audio sounds to go along with tucking items in nooks and crannies, setting a toothbrush in a water glass, arranging books on shelves and supplies in drawers, and so on. If you lift a T-shirt to a hanger placed on a rod, the shirt hangs; move it lower to a stack of shirts, and it self-folds. (If only actual unpacking, organizing, and indeed, laundry day, were so magical.)

In addition to putting things away (that is, giving them homes), you can change the color signature of the room, add some on-screen stickers to decorate, take photos of a completed room, and add those photos to a scrapbook, complete with a “handwritten” description of your move-in experience.

Here’s a peek at the game’s launch trailer:

Throughout it all, there’s a soundtrack from a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) award-winning composer, Jeff van Dyck. If video game soundtracks are your thing (Yes, I’m looking at you, my friend Chris!), you can listen to Unpacking’s soundtrack on Spotify and purchase it in all the usual music-buying places like Amazon, Apple Music, Bandcamp, etc. (And no, Chris, I’m not listening to this in the car on any road trips.)

Warning: I should also note that, assuming you’re reading in North America, there will be some oddities in the rooms and homes in Unpacking. The refrigerators are not the full-sized ones we have, but those smaller, under-counter ones that are barely bigger than dorm fridges. The bathtubs have the glass half-walls I saw in Europe; I’ve yet to figure out how one manages not to soak the half the bathroom, but at least there’s no need to run any water in the actual game.

I’ve seen reviews calling the game calming and endearing, but also cathartic and moving. (Of which, I have more thoughts, below.) As a professional organizer, of course, I found this tweet hopeful:

 And for those who wonder how much detail is available to organize exactly how and where you want things to be, this tweet gives you a sign:

Unpacking is available for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One and runs $19.99.

ACCESSIBILITY

In the real world, unpacking and organizing a new home, whether a dorm room, a studio apartment, or a multi-bedroom family house, can be a massive headache. Imagine how much more difficult is must be for those with physical disabilities or distracting cognitive challenges (ranging from ADHD to traumatic brain injury). This is just one reason why many clients call in NAPO or NASMM professional organizers who specialize in relocations to work some video game-like magic in setting up a new space.

I can’t be the only person who gets flashbacks to Bewitched watching this sped-up kitchen unpacking/organizing scene play out. Seriously, compare it to Samantha Stevens working her tinka-tinka-tink:

There are no in-game professional organizers, but Unpacking‘s developers prides themselves on its accessibility features.

For those needing visual assistance, the user interface buttons can be enlarged, and you can zoom in on the screen; if you’ve made a booboo, the red “invalid” outline (remember what I said about the laws of physics?) can be changed to a different color. And you can disable the animation feature for room-swapping (in case you unpack a box of kitchen items when you’re in the living room) to avoid motion sickness.

In terms of audio assistance, the game lets you operate soundtrack music and sound effect volumes separately, and there are no audio-exclusive cues for game play, so players who can’t hear don’t miss any of the essential game features.

For cognitive accessibility, the game has no penalties; there’s minimal text, and reading skills (in English or otherwise) are not required in order to play. And, as mentioned, you can turn off the puzzle angle to be allowed to put things anywhere.

There are also a variety of mobility-related accessibility features. None of the actions require pressing more than one button at a time, clicking-and-dragging, holding down buttons. Computer versions support playing via a mouse and keyboard, a game pad, or touch (“on supported hardware,” they note) and you can play one-handed with just a mouse. The Nintendo Switch version of the game supports (and I quote, because I have no idea what this means), “gamepad, touch, and gyro in two-handed and one-handed configurations.” Controls are re-mappable when necessary to support a user’s accessibility needs.

While Paper Doll is neither a gamer nor a reviewer, I think it’s important to accent accessibility features in products, and while this does not arise often when I talk about notebooks and storage options, I intend to be more cognizant of such issues in future posts.

UNPACKING THOUGHTS ABOUT UNPACKING

Having missed three decades of video game development, I am, at best, only peripherally aware that not all games are multi-player shoot-em-ups and car-racing (and crashing) extravaganzas. Certainly I knew about The Sims, a series of simulation games where players create virtual people, build them homes (and families) and play with their careers, activities, and moods and desires.

Apparently, this approach is called a sandbox game, an open-ended type of video game where players have a freedom of movement for their creations and there are no pre-set goals. (If only we humans felt that much ease in creating our lives and risking change!) The popular Minecraft, with it’s blocky 3D people and infinitely expanding world of raw materials, tools, and create-able structures is similar.

Unpacking feels like it belongs in a world tangential to these sandbox games; there’s freedom of movement, no timers or competition, and you can’t lose your character’s life by unpacking things in the wrong order or organizing things “wrong.” But like real life, there is a very solid goal for you as the in-world character: unpack in an organized way to live your life.

In Vice‘s Unpacking Is a Lovely Game About the Power of Seemingly Mundane Objects, Moises Taveras has created a great introduction to the game beyond the broad strokes. Through it I learned some spoilers and realized that there was more depth of insight to be had beyond how many frying pans could be fit into a cabinet:  

The “challenge,” a term I’ll throw around incredibly loosely, becomes finding where everything fits best. It’s a logic puzzle, so as long as you’ve been in a kitchen, a bedroom or bathroom, you’ll be able to sufficiently reproduce a functional home. … There’s a joy in getting it all right, but the greater one to me was playing a game that, in bits and pieces, understood the relationship we build with the things we collect.

But there’s more. After I learned of Unpacking, I started reading every review I could find, and what’s particularly gripping about the game is how you get to see the protagonist’s life unfold through her possessions (and those with whom she shares her space). It reminded me of Sam Gosling‘s book, Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You.

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Gosling, a professor of psychology, wrote, in an almost gumshoe detective approach, about how we intentionally and unintentionally create, define, and communicate who we are to the world through our possessions. Published in 2008, before we all defined ourselves via social media, it’s a fascinating look at how our stuff — the essentials, the practical items, the sentimental things, and the clutter — exposes who we are. It seems Unpacking is designed to do that, too.

Kotaku‘s Ari Notis posits, interestingly, in Unpacking Might Have the Worst Video Game Boyfriend of the Year, that there’s more to this game than pattern recognition and matching items with logical spaces. This was the article that really caught my attention, as Unpacking seems to reflect the more complex, nuanced aspects of organizing, the ones our clients struggle with, and the ones we professional organizers are brought in to solve.

The issue isn’t that the home is too small, but that the boyfriend’s items are fixed in place, leaving our protagonist limited in her options for her own things, including as to where she can put her framed diploma. (The review notes it only fits under the bed, but a commenter posits that one can, at least temporarily, place it on the wall above the toilet? Um, yeah. No.) The Kotaku review continues:

September 2010 is the first level in which Unpacking feels truly cramped. Your things—your dolls, video games, and battered kitchen supplies—won’t fit within the confines of the level’s default setup. Instead, you also have to move the dude’s existing stuff around to make room. (There’s also the sense that you’re invading someone else’s space, given the mishmash in aesthetic tastes.) You eventually fit everything, but you do the entire task all alone. It is off-putting, to put it charitably, that this dude who was fully planning on moving in with someone didn’t even bother to make an inch for his incoming partner.

As a professional organizer, I’ve worked with clients whose homes had more than adequate space, but (very) adult children had left behind all the possessions of their childhoods, dorm rooms, and even early apartments, limiting the space available for their parents to use. (This is why I tell clients, “Don’t become the curator of the museum of other people’s things.”) 

For years, I've warned my clients: Don't become the curator of the museum of other people's things. Share on X

And I’ve had clients who felt like (sometimes unwelcome) visitors in their own homes, like the wife whose husband had filled every closet with his own clothes and possessions, leaving her to hang her things on doorknobs throughout the house.

This is all to say that at first glance, this game might seem like little more than a slow-moving version of the afforementioned Tetris or those square, plastic, 16-tile games where you move the jumbled tiles to create the face of a lion. From what I can tell from these reviews and the game play videos I’ve watched, I suspect that Unpacking offers a robust, intriguing opportunity to self-soothe through in-game organizing, even if one struggles with organizing in one’s own spaces, while gaining insight into a fictional character through analysis of her possessions.

Apparently, video games have come a long way from when the plumber was trying to save the princess.

Are you intrigued, but you just aren’t the video game player type? I was surprised to learn that there are actual video of video game play on YouTube. If you don’t mind commercials, you can watch someone else play the game. This version runs two and a half hours (and the player has turned off the music soundtrack):

WHAT’S MISSING FROM UNPACKING

Granted, I’m not a video game designer, and I have zero idea what someone would find compelling in this or a similar kind of gentle, experiential video game. But I know organizing, and let’s face it, unpacking is about organizing from the ground up. Instead of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, as organizing can sometimes seem when you’re overwhelmed, you’re beginning with a clean slate (but admittedly, a whole bunch of boxes of chalk).

However, as far as I can tell, Unpacking is missing a few essential elements that might make it better reflect the real world experience. Namely:

  • Paper — We start when the protagonist is a little kid, so I really wouldn’t expect much more than the putting away of books and maybe tucking some homework into a backpack or drawer. And perhaps it’s because I’m a professional organizer who specializes in paper, but I’d want to see how the character develops some method for unpacking and organizing the paper in her life to help make sense of it. Yes, she’s got that aforementioned diploma, but throughout her life, upon each move, she’d have leases and bills, perhaps a marriage license, and a mortgage or title. (Again, Unpacking is Australian. Maybe they have much simpler paper lives? Though I doubt it.)
  • Donations — Every possession that’s unpacked seems to be kept the goal is to find someplace for it; anything jettisoned seems to disappear in the unseen transitions between levels. Though it appears there might be a trash can in some rooms (and emptied cardboard boxes and packing paper magically go *poof* when tapped), but there’s seemingly no box into which to put castoff clothes, toys that are no longer age appropriate, or any of the items that no longer fit her life once she (and you) move to the next level.

On the plus side, one feature I’d feared missing seems to have been considered: continuity. When I began researching this post, I was going to note that from when the character sets up her childhood bedroom in 1997 to when she moves in with her boyfriend in 2010 to the end of the game, there are unrealistically few items that carry through. But perhaps my experience as a professional organizer, working with people who often have difficulty letting go of possessions, has skewed my idea of how much carryover from move-to-move is realistic. (Or maybe I haven’t grasped that the level of detail I see in people’s homes can’t be emulated in a video game?!)

According to Fanbyte‘s Natalie Flores in Unpacking Is a Zen Puzzle Game about the Joys of Moving in and Moving On, each of the levels of the game shows both an upleveling of the character’s possessions and a through-line of much-loved items:

As the protagonist experiences the many changes that life brings, I was glad to see certain items from her childhood — like her stuffed animals and game consoles — still show up in boxes I emptied years later in her life. I felt similarly as I saw her upgrade her small cassette player to a boombox, and her art supplies evolve in variety and sophistication.

I was also sad when the game indicated a portrait that was previously on display — and which I had assumed was still meant to be that way — now belonged inside the kind of cabinet destined to rarely be opened. I felt similarly, too, as I realized certain items she once undoubtedly cherished (and that I had unknowingly grown attached to) no longer accompanied her on the journey. Unpacking truly embodies the act of unpacking in the sense that you’re often surprised by what you take out of any given box. As well as what you don’t. That surprise is heartbreaking as often as it is pleasant.

Finally, perfectionists beware. Moving for a stranger can be as overwhelming as doing so for yourself. Tom Orry of VG247 wrote, in Game Pass Gem: Unpacking is the kind of game you wish you’d thought of, that he’d had no interest in unpacking or organizing before playing the game, but “I can’t believe I’m enjoying placing dishes as much as I am.” However, he quickly got caught up:

I’ve seen a fair few people talking about how Unpacking is a nice relaxing game, but I’ve found it anything but. For one, I want the rooms to look perfect. Books must be placed in order of size, shoes must be neatly placed together, jeans folded, buttoned shirts hung, socks all in one place. And that mark of the wall must be covered by a poster or a picture frame.

And good lord, please let me put all the tea and coffee making things together. I simply won’t abide having the sugar in a different cupboard to the coffee. And why do I have to choose which of my childhood toys get to go on a shelf and others hidden away? I’m thinking about one mistake I made as I write this. I think subconsciously I’ve become the person whose belongings I’ve been dealing with. Are they sad that I put the pig soft toy away? I think they probably are. I’m sorry. There just wasn’t room.

Before you consider playing, consider this a warning.

OTHER REAL-LIFE ORGANIZING AND LIFE MANAGEMENT GAMES WE NEED

Finally, I’ve been thinking about the kinds of “adulting” and life skills games people (like professional organizing clients) could use in addition to this kind of unpacking and organizing effort. Different areas of organizing one’s life take different cognitive and executive function skills, and I’d love to see game developed for these needs.

Financial Management — Years ago, Urban Ministries of Durham put up an interactive, in-browser game called Spent.

The point of the game is to challenge those who go whole hog on the concept of “You should pull yourself up by your bootstraps” to get a sense of the daily reality for some people. In this game, you must get a job and an apartment and deal with the unexpected challenges of illness (and hospital bills) and car repairs (and breakdowns). I have played Spent many times, and have almost always lost. The text-only game, with somewhat ominous music, induces stress. I think a money management “game” where you can’t lose, but can learn better options, would be a great opportunity for high schoolers (and grownups).

Time Management — The same kind of intriguing artistry and thought put into Unpacking could be used to create space in one’s schedule for work (or school), adulting skills (like laundry and grocery shopping), exercise, and relationships.

Paper Management — Come on. I’m Paper Doll, what did you expect?

Hey, video game developers, if you’d like some outside advisors, I know some great professional organizers to offer you advice! 

 

Let me know what you think of the idea of Unpacking. Would you find it soothing to unpack and organize these spaces, or would you get overwhelmed? What other life skills games do you think are needed? Please share in the comments!

Vibrant and Vertical: Organizing Paper for Back-to-School

Posted on: August 23rd, 2021 by Julie Bestry | 22 Comments

What time is it? (No, this isn’t a follow-up to my Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? 5 Strategies to Cope With Pandemic Time Dilation from May 2020, though that may be worth a visit — for all of us.)

It’s Back-to-School Time! (If you said “Howdy Doody Time,” thanks for playing our Boomer Edition!)

THE ASPIRATIONAL PROMISE OF NEW SCHOOL SUPPLIES

After almost 18 months of weirdness and boondoggles, kerfuffles and plague-related malarkey, time has little meaning. But really and truly, it’s back-to-school time. And reminders are everywhere. Leaving aside the specific anxieties of returning to school in this (oh, man, I’m going to say it) unprecedented era, the new school year (whether you’re 5 and entering kindergarten or 55 and going back to finish a degree) holds both panic and potential. We may joke about it, but this tweet holds so much truth!

Yes, friends, Mead is still making those Trapper Keepers, the basis for so many our searches for perfect organizing systems in adulthood. Be honest, if you could find something that reflected your personality and offered the flexibility a three-ring binder, hole-punched two-pocket folders, a clipboard, and a Velcro closure, wouldn’t you carry it? Or drive it? Or marry it? (Just me?)

Mead's Trapper Keepers—If you could find something that reflected your personality and offered the flexibility a three-ring binder, hole-punched two-pocket folders, a clipboard, and a Velcro closure, wouldn't you carry it?… Share on X

Personally, I always liked those back-to-school days, at least the ones in August, a full month before we Western New Yorkers went back. (Here in the Southeast, kids have been back at school a few weeks in 90° heat. Oy.) August was prime aspirational time. It was the back-to-school issue of Seventeen Magazine, with everything wool and plaid and new.

Our schools didn’t provide lists of what was required for class until the first day of school, but that didn’t mean I was willing to wait. I loved this time of year, and dragged Paper Mommy into the void — I mean, into the school sales. And I vehemently insisted on getting everything all-new every year, even these:

(You know you had them. You know that you probably have no recollection of how to bisect an angle and probably couldn’t figure out what to do with either the compass or the protractor right now, short of making a circle and then cringing when the point of the compass went skittering across the table, making that screechy noise.)

But anyway, do as I say, not as I did. Better yet, do as my colleague Amy Slenker posited in her excellent blog post, 7 Easy Ways to Get Organized for Back to School when she noted, “June scissors work in August, right?” Right!

Of course, as adults, we know that motivation can come in all shapes and sizes, and when the idea of sitting at our desks bring misery, a new set of never-before-used file folders and a snazzy new planner can ramp up our enthusiasm. Also right!

Somewhere in between buying all new everything (even though some things never left your cubby between September and June) and using the same-old, same-old, there’s a sweet spot. So today, we’re just going to look at a few things that might make back-to-school for students of all ages just a little more colorfully delightful.

OPT FOR WHAT’S VIBRANT AND VERTICAL

There’s lots of research showing that color can impact mood. Greens are calming, while reds are stimulating. Studies show that blue “encourages intellectual activity, reason, and logical thought.” Yellow is associated with happy moods, self-esteem and playfulness. While fashion designers may occasionally opt for greys and blacks to convey sophistication, unless your student is a goth (are there still goths?) adding a little vibrancy and color can open up some opportunities, motivationally-speaking.

Color grabs our attention, conveys meaning, and clarifies boundaries. It also just makes us happy. For example, what kind of feeling washes over you when you see this picture?

Optimism? Excitement for new beginnings? I took a new 64-box of Crayolas off to college with me in 1985, and I guarantee you I was not the only one!

In addition to the vibrancy of great colors, another boost for students, whether they’re in elementary school or grad school, is the advantage of the vertical hold. We’ve talked a LOT over the years about how vertical solutions aid in organizing, but the key is that when our resources stand attention, we pay attention to them and are less likely to let them get cluttered..

ORGANIZE PAPERS COLORFULLY

College students might appreciate something that keeps papers organized by class, fits squarely in a backpack, but can be displayed easily in a dorm room (their own, or their study-buddy’s) or an empty classroom.

For something both elegant and bright, the Smead Cascading Wall Organizer might be just the ticket.

A revamp of the the classic version, this colorful Gen 2 organizer can hang on the wall or anywhere from a nail, hook (you sent your kid to college with a variety pack of Command Hooks, right?) or even a hanger to reduce clutter on the desktop.

In durable, bright, and easy-to-clean polypropylene, the six colorful (yellow, orange, fuscia, green, blue, and purple) letter-size pockets can be removed to take to class, the library, or an extra-curricular meeting. (Each holds 50 sheets.)

Use the clear front pocket to show the current month’s calendar, a project timeline, or a photo of far-flung friends. There’s a 3-part hanger (use one loop or all three), and an elastic cord closure for putting it all together and stowing it away.

The whole thing is PVC-free and acid-free, and measures 14 1/4″ wide by 24″ high (when fully expanded). Available directly from Smead for $17.99, or you can find it on Amazon for $11.29.

There are two variations on the theme if these brights are too vibrant for you or your student. There’s a pastel version of the Cascading Wall Organizer (well, it’s translucent, but the folders are pastel), also $17.99 at Smead or $13.78 at Amazon:

as well as one with jewel tones for $13.99 (which is Paper Doll’s personal favorite, in case you were wondering).

The Container Store has a similar product, its Multi-Color Cascading 6-Pocket Letter File Wall Organizer Tote.

It measures 13 3/8″ wide by 10 1/2″ high, and when it’s not fully extended, it folds and collapses into a 1 1/2″ thick tote. Two snap closures open to reveal six cascading pockets (red, orange, yellow, green, teal, and dark blue) that hold letter-sized interior file folders (sold separately). You can label the tabbed pockets, and there’s both a handle for carrying the closed tote and a ring for hanging it for display.

If you like the idea of bright colors and poly folders but your older student already has a great desktop file system in place and doesn’t need to be mobile, consider Smead’s SuperTab® Poly File Folders. A box of 1/3-cut (left/middle/right) tabbed, letter-size poly folders come 18 per assorted pack, with three folders, each, in blue, green, orange, pink, purple, and yellow. The durable folders are acid-free and PVC-free for long lasting durability. (And nowadays, I’m a super-fan of poly, because you can wipe it down with a Clorox disinfecting wipe.)

Oversize SuperTabs have a 90% larger labeling area than standard file folders, allowing you to use larger text, larger labels, or more lines of description. Although their tabs are larger than traditional file folders, they’ll nonetheless fit traditional vertical file drawers. These cheery Smead SuperTab® Poly File Folders run $17.06 at Smead or $16.44 at Amazon.

A WARNING ABOUT COLOR-CODING

I should note, I often warn against the potential problem of color-coding files. When a client invests in traditional boxes of assorted colored file folders (or boxes in multiple, different colors), I tend to worry about the Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote, “Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”

But wait, you might be thinking. Isn’t consistency the key to organizing?

When you color-code your folder system, it makes it easy to organize thematically. Green is biology (or family finances) and blue is literature (or insurance) and red is calculus (or medical records). But what happens when you need to make a new folder but run out of the color you need? For most people, this causes a breakdown in the system. Lacking the right folder, people often just stop filing!

But you see, Emerson’s entire quote is rarely given. It’s actually, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” 

But you are no fool! If lack of the right color is a problem for you or your student, just grab a different color folder and a Post-it! Note. Write a temporary label on the top, and stick it on the inside of the folder so that the label appears just about where a permanent label belongs. (Then go order a box of folders and get on with your day!)

HOMESCHOOL CHEER

If your student is 8 rather than 18, and you’re still doing the home-schooling thing this year (either because you’d planned it or because everyone got sent home a few days into the school year), you might want a colorful, vertical solution for making your home-school “classroom” feeling a little more official.

I like to borrow this trick from teachers who are tight on space in their classrooms or don’t have a base of operations. Scholastic’s File Organizer Pocket Chart lets you create a bright, vertical HQ for your home-schooling student’s worksheets, problem sets, instruction sheets, and other handouts.

 

Just as teacher would do in the classroom, you can use the ten sturdy pockets to hold letter-size file folders. The pocket chart is lightweight but made of durable nylon, and measures 14″ wide by 46 1/2″ high. There are three reinforced grommets at the top for hanging the chart on the wall or the back of a door. The pocket chart runs $15 on Amazon. 

ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE WITH A POP OF COLOR

Colorful highlighting is a great way to make important points stand out. But have you or your student ever highlighted the wrong thing? It’s a bummer!

But did you know there are ERASABLE HIGHLIGHTERS? (I know! I can tell that you’re squealing, too!)

Crayola’s Take Note Erasable Highlighters let you highlight (or underline!) in six cheery colors (pink, orange, yellow, teal, blue, and purple). You can color-code your highlighting by class or use different colors for different types of information (yellow for the test, purple for a book report, etc.). And a set of six is only $5.99!

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BACKPACKS THAT WILL MAKE YOUR TINY HUMAN SMILE

It’s hard to believe, but when Paper Doll was in school, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, kids carried book bags rather than backpacks until late middle-school or high school, and even then, backpacks weren’t much of a fashion statement. They also weren’t much of a delight to wear or carry, as they lacked many dividers, pockets, or ways to keep things from falling to the bottom and papers were always getting smushed.

Nowadays, there’s a smorgasbord of backpack options, but I think the most child-pleasing ones are from Bixbee. They make their backpacks (and lunch boxes, duffels, luggage, and sleeping bags) with an eye to the special ergonomic needs of tiny humans so they can carry and organize all of their “stuff” without getting weighed down. 

The bright and hardy backpacks are designed for the little tykes’ unique measurements and aesthetic tastes. The medium/large backpacks weigh only two pounds and use “contoured, air-mesh, adjustable shoulder straps with a sliding sternum strap” to distribute the horizontal load. Each backpack has an interior padded pocket to carry and protect a laptop or tablet from drops or bumps.

But I just think their stuff is cute, and if your backpack is cute, you’re less likely to leave it behind on the bus or the playground. Right? (Well, I hope I’m right.) 

For example, the Firebird Flyer, with the fire-red rising phoenix on wings, comes in two sizes (one for pre-schoolers, one for the 5-7-year-olds). The smaller one is water-resistant, made of durable 600-denier polyester, and has a variety of features, including:

  • Padded topside carrying handle
  • Top flap zippered pocket offers quick access to small supplies
  • Front flap pocket holds small supplies or snack
  • 2 side pockets holds small water bottle
  • Contoured & padded adjustable shoulder straps
  • Padded back panel
  • Easy-to-grab beehive zip pulls
  • Detailed with reflective material for better visibility in low light
  • D-rings for clipping on their favorite accessories

The interior has an ID card holder under main flap, and the main compartment is large enough for a sweater (so hopefully it won’t be left behind on the playground), and two interior slip pockets for small school supplies. The pre-schooler size is $31.99; the larger one is $49.99. For more about Bixbee’s wide array of backpacks, they’ve got a few videos, starting with this one:

Colorful, vertical (and yet, with their innovative design, also horizontal), and totally cute.

 

This post wasn’t designed to be a complete resource on back-to-school items. Next week, we’ll look at some back-to-school essentials for managing time and tasks at all age levels.

And if you want a throwback to the 1980s while still getting a sense of some college dorm advice that’s apropos today, check out this post from the vault, Paper Doll & Real Simple Organize Dorm Rooms: SUPER-EXTENDED Edition.

 

Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, and I may get a small remuneration (at no additional cost to you) if you make a purchase after clicking through to the resulting pages. The opinions, as always, are my own. (Seriously, who else would claim them?) For more information regarding how Best Results Organizing handles affiliate links, please see the affiliate section of the site’s Privacy Policy.

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