Packing: what to buy, borrow, or steal

FILE PHOTO Packing can test your patience—and your muscles.

Congratulations--you got in! So, what are you going to bring with you?

Shipping your possessions from home is one of the first challenges you'll face as a Yale student. For those who live far from New Haven, shipping is the only alternative to loading up the family wagon with plastic crates and an old sofa. Just remember to pack your things in medium-sized boxes; carrying 50 pounds to the fifth floor is certainly not the best way to begin your freshman year.

United Parcel Service (UPS) is the most popular shipping service, but it comes with a price: be prepared to stand in long lines during the first few weeks of school to reclaim your carefully packed possessions. U.S. Mail, FedEx, and Air Freight Valet are more expensive but quicker, with fewer lines when you arrive. Be sure to contact the service of your choice about size and weight limitations at least two weeks in advance. The companies will tell you when to mail your boxes to coordinate their arrival with yours.

While the cheapest way to supply your school needs is to smuggle stuff from home, practically anything you forget can be found in New Haven. Contact your suitemates before your first shopping spree to find out who can provide what; you don't want to be six new suitemates with four stereos and nary a chair among you.

Think of this Herald packing list as a series of suggestions, with some more superfluous than others. Happy packing!

Interiors

* Lux et Veritas: Bring lamps--especially if you're living in Lawrance, Welch, Farnam, or Vanderbilt Halls, which have few overhead lights. Bring desk lamps, bed lamps, and floor lamps. Standing lamps are good for the common room, but remember that halogen lamps are forbidden by the fire marshal.

* Couches, beanbags, futons, cushions: Yale provides a bed, dresser, chair, and desk for each of you, but you'll probably want somewhere to lounge. While at home, steal from your parents or check out the Salvation Army, thrift stores, and garage sales. Once at Yale, you can get to know upperclassmen by buying, borrowing, or somehow acquiring furniture from them. Extra cushions are good for window seats, couches, late-night pillow fights, etc. Shelving or crates can be useful for storing books, food, and other odds and ends.

* Rugs: Yale's wood floors create a traditional atmosphere, but they provide a cold welcome to bare feet on winter mornings. Rugs lend immeasurable coziness to a room; bring your own or split the cost of one with your roommates. Remember, however, that any joint purchase may have to be divided up if you go your separate ways later.

* Posters: Bare walls are depressing, reminding you of your strange new surroundings. Bring your own wall hangings so you won't have to stand in long lines at the store for the same prints your neighbors bought.

* Poster hangers: As long as you're going to spend money on posters, you might as well keep them intact and reusable year after year. Using mounting tape or sticky poster gum won't insure that your decorations will stay up, and they may rip when you take them down. The Yale University Art Gallery sells nifty strips of metal which will help you preserve your hangings.

Bedding

* Sheets: Yale beds are extra-long; you can use normal sheets, but they're a tight fit. Bring two sets to cut down on laundry.

* Pillows, comforters, blankets: Pile it all on. Since your bed is the place you'll return to every night to recuperate after a long day, it should be as comfortable as possible. Eggcrates and bed boards lend comfort and support to sagging mattress springs.

Clothing

The rule about New Haven weather is, "If you don't like it, wait 15 minutes, and it will change." Be prepared with everything from shorts and T-shirts to long underwear, wool sweaters, and overcoats.

* Underwear: The more, the merrier. You'll probably try to put off laundry as long as possible--or at least until you're down to your last pair of clean underwear--so bring lots. Almost anything else can be worn two, five, or more times (anti-social types will claim that this rule holds true for underwear as well, but I don't recommend it). And for those occasions when laundry can no longer be avoided, you need rolls of quarters, a laundry basket/bag, and detergent. (A cheap place to buy detergent is the Rite-Aid adjacent to campus.)

* Duck boots: If you bring no other accessories, bring these warm, waterproof, and fashionably ugly boots. When it rains, puddles the size of inland seas form between the stones of Old Campus.

* Raincoat and umbrella: You'll need them in rainy New Haven.

Miscellaneous

* Toilet articles, cosmetics, etc.: Again, you can buy all of these things at local stores, but they are expensive. Get your parents to buy as much as you can before you arrive. You'll want to spend your hard-earned money on things more important than soap--like beer. Don't forget a soap dish, a bathrobe, a shower basket, and shower slippers--the walk to the bathroom can be slimy.

* Household items: You will continually borrow these items if you don't own them yourself. So, to remain on good terms with your neighbors, you and/or your suitemates should bring the following: alarm clock, extension cords, hammer, bottle opener, masking tape, mugs, hot pot, popcorn popper, phone, and answering machine (Yale provides voice mail for an extra fee.) Be warned, however, that the fire marshal prohibits the use of electrical appliances in dorm rooms, so you'll have to hide them over vacation.

* School supplies: You can enhance your popularity if you are well-prepared with random school supplies: pens, pencils, notebooks, markers, rubber bands, white-out, paper clips, and a stapler. These are available locally; the cheapest place near campus is Staples on Elm Street.

* Computer: You don't need a computer--there are public clusters all over campus, including one in every college and two on Old Campus--but it will make your life easier if you bring your own. Either Macs or IBMs are okay. Extra disks are a good idea, especially if you don't have your own computer. If you don't have your own printer, you can buy a printing card to use the laser printer in a cluster.

* Music: Someone in your suite needs to bring a stereo or at least a good boom box. You will also want to bring an ample supply of blank tapes so you can collect new music from all your friends and neighbors.

* Electronic equipment: If you can escape your house with a TV, VCR, Nintendo 64, microwave, blender, vacuum cleaner, or espresso machine, do!

* Money: You'll need plenty of it, especially for the expenses you'll incur at the beginning of the year. You can either bring cash or travellers' checks, or hit one of the ATMs around campus.

* Etc.: There are some items which are nice but not necessary. A bicycle is helpful, particularly if you plan to take science classes, so you can shave some time off the trip up Science Hill. And, of course, a camera and film to immortalize those moments you'd rather forget

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