#NLR: Everything I bought for my son before dropping him off at college — 2024 edition (because this list might be helpful to others!)

  

---

For those new to the Lead Safe Mama website:

Tamara Rubin is a multiple-federal-award-winning independent advocate for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety, and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children (two of her four sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005).

• Tamara owns and runs Lead Safe Mama, LLC — a unique community collaborative woman-owned small business for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety.
• Since July of 2022, the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC has been responsible for five product recalls (FDA and CPSC).
• All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable.
• Please check out our press page to see some of the amazing coverage of our work so far this year!

---

Saturday: August 24, 2025
Updated: August 28, 2024

#NLR = Not Lead Related!

For now, I am just making this list for fun — I may editorialize about it later, but I thought others who might be dropping a kiddo off at college might find this list helpful/ useful (as a checklist perhaps).

Avi will not have access to his own kitchen this year — he is in a dorm (on the top floor of a high-rise tower!) with just a microwave, bathroom sink, and small fridge available for storing/ preparing food (he has a meal plan with only seven meals a week, as he has special dietary needs and cannot get all the calories he requires from the offerings available through the school) — so we are needing to get creative working within those parameters.

I told my husband that we have spent about $1,000 on all of this so far. (Note: Hawaii is more expensive than other places — and this includes one mega trip to Walmart last night, plus one very big trip to Target today!) My (66-year-old) husband replied “shouldn’t the supplies to set up for school be about $100?” — LOL!  So I thought this list might also be useful to share with my husband!

Note: Everything I buy for my kids is Lead-free (except the batteries)!

1.) KITCHEN & FOOD PREP

• One small caddy for kitchen utensils
• Two drinking glasses (clear glass)
• Two bowls (plain white Corelle)
• Two small plates (plain white Corelle)
• Two large plates (plain white Corelle)
• One large serving bowl (for salads? plain white Corelle)
• Two stainless steel tea spoons
• Two stainless steel dinner knives
• Two stainless steel forks
• One pack each of biodegradable “plastic” forks, knives, and spoons
• One small ceramic cutting knife
• One can opener/ bottle opener
• One set of three vegetable peelers
• Six large Ball jars (for dry food storage to avoid ants)
• Four medium Ball jars
• Two small Ball jars
• Two Anchor Hocking glass food storage cubes — medium (for the fridge)
• Two small glass food storage cubes (for the fridge)
• One box quart zip lock bags
• Many large bottles of water (there is a hurricane coming, after all!)
• Electric tea kettle
• Ceramic mug for tea — with a Lead-free glaze
• Glass mug for tea — with an integrated brewing mechanism and lid (to keep cockroaches out, because Hawaii)

2.) SCHOOL & DESK SUPPLIES

• Two informational/ educational maps of Hawaii
• One pack of glue sticks (with three sticks)
• One small alarm clock (so he can turn his phone off at night and still have an alarm!)
• Batteries for alarm clock
• One wooden bowl for his desk for things like loose change and keys
• One pair of scissors — multi-purpose, large
• One stapler kit — including: Staple remover/ pack of staples
• Two packs of Large index cards — white (4×6) 
• One pack of small index cards — colorful (3×5)
• Five three-subject spiral notebooks — lined
• Two notebooks — graph paper
• One pack of (10?) paper colorful folders (for projects)
• One drawing pad notebook — large
• One ream of printer paper
• One pack of multi-color cardstock 
• One package black sharpies (four pens)
• One package fine point sharpies (two pens)
• One package colorful highlighters (four pens)
• One package colorful Post-it-notes
• One small whiteboard/ calendar (with pens/ eraser)
• One desktop pen organizer
• One pack of erasers (three large pieces)
• One rubber band ball
• One roll of scotch tape
• One pack of paper clips
• Big box of Ticonderoga #2 pencils — sharpened
• One pack of sticky tack stuff for hanging paper things on the walls

3.) FOR FUN & EXERCISE

• One board game (Oahu monopoly!)
• One faux leather dice rolling tray (for D&D)
• New yoga mat (he never had his own until now!)

4.) STORAGE & ORGANIZING

• One $5 milk crate (being used for laundry at the moment)
• Five plastic drawer organizers/ pantry organizers
• Three little containers with lids (shaped like vegetables) for holding small things (like cough drops on his desk, to keep cockroaches away!)
• One pack of clothes hangers

5.) PERSONAL CARE, HEALTH, FIRST AID

• One Kokua sunscreen (we don’t use it often but he is fair-skinned and has thin hair, so puts it on his nose, ears, and the top of his head if he is out in the sun and not covered up — which is very rare!)
• Two large packs of toilet paper
• Two packs of unscented flushable wipes
• Three packs of “Dude Wipes”
• 12 boxes of tissues
• One first aid kit
• One box of Q-tips
• One pack of organic lip balms
• Two extra boxes of bandaids
• Antiseptic/ wound cleaning solution
• One bottle of Advil
• One extra tube of Neosporin
• One bottle of shampoo
• One bottle of hair conditioner
• One hair brush
• Two large bath sheets (100% cotton)
• Organic cough drops — two bags
• Tweezers (two pack, for splinters and such)
• Nail clippers
• Lavender essential oil to ward off cockroaches (we heard this may work!)
• A box of N-95 masks (he is on an injectable biologic medication, is severely immunocompromised, and needs masks — especially when there are a lot of people around)
• Special lotion for his psoriasis (we finally found something that helps when we were in Scotland!)

6.) CLEANING

• One box of UNSCENTED garbage bags (since when are nearly all garbage bags SCENTED?! So gross!)
• One stand with toilet scrubber and plunger (for all four roomies to use)
• Three containers of scent-free, bleach free Clorox wipes (only available at Target!)
• One container scent-free/ dye-free dish detergent (for hand washing dishes)
• One container ultra concentrated scent-free/ dye-free laundry detergent
• One four-pack of scrubber sponges
• Two 18-packs of white cotton wash cloths (we use these instead of paper towels)
• One box rubber gloves (he has severe psoriasis and cannot clean without them)

7.) BEDDING/ FURNISHINGS 

• One set of cotton sheets
• One extra set cotton pillow cases (nicer quality cotton, so more comfortable)
• One pillow
• One cotton blanket/ quilt
• Three throw pillows (to help with propping up in bed when doing homework in bed!)
• Three more throw pillows shaped like stars — just for fun because they were on sale for $2.50 each and he is getting a degree in astrophysics!
• One small sturdy solid wood side-table for the bed (to put tissues, water, alarm clock, etc.) — this doubles as a stool for visitors (was built as a simple stool/ ottoman)

8.) STUFF HE BROUGHT FROM HOME

• Clothes
• Neckties
• Bowties
• Sun-glasses (x2)
• Swim-suit
• Sneakers
• Knitting supplies
• Morse code flashlight 
• Transistor radio (old-style)
• Electric toothbrush
• Water Pik Water Flosser
• Books (recent purchases he has not yet read)
• Laptop
• Phone
• Magic The Gathering Card Decks (& Deck Boxes)
• Postcard collection (for sending to his brothers and friends)
• D&D Supplies (DICE!)
• Ukulele (he’s been playing for over a year — long before he got accepted into University of Hawaii at Manoa!)
• Keyboard (portable piano)
• Six regular juggling balls
• Three small juggling balls
• Three light up juggling balls
• Origami paper

9.) THINGS HE DIDN’T BRING
(but we will get to him soon)

• Telescope and telescope stand
• Unicycle

10.) Things we still need to buy…

• Bookshelf (seems silly that they do not include one in the dorm rooms!)
• Water filter
• Ruler
• Tape measure
• Another milk crate (to get the laundry off the floor — because of the cockroaches)
• A mirror
• A small wooden cutting board