A dorm room built for two people rarely has room for two lives' worth of belongings, and the mismatch shows up within the first ten minutes of move-in day: a car packed with home-sized furniture, full-size bedding, and boxes of extras has to fit into a room with barely enough floor space for two beds, two desks, and a …

A comforter rated for a heated house and a comforter rated for a dorm room with one radiator that either runs too hot or doesn't run at all are not the same purchase, even when they're folded identically on a shelf — and most first-time dorm shoppers only discover the difference on the first cold night of the semester. …

Most kids' backpacks are built to survive one school year, not four. Zippers give out somewhere around week twenty, the bottom panel wears through from being dragged across a bus floor or a hallway instead of carried, and the stitching at the shoulder-strap anchors stretches loose well before the last day of school. …