College Essentials Kit

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My daughter Eleanor is in her second year of college, and she is finding it quite challenging. She just finished midterms and to help her get through the last half of the semester and stay healthy I made this College Essentials Kit with all kinds of important products for her!

Eleanor is studying nursing, and everyone told her that the 3rd semester is the hardest.  Well now that she is in her third semester she is finding out that they were right.  Classes are difficult with endless information to learn, and nursing clinical is long and tiring. With cold and flu season starting staying healthy is essential, since she can’t afford to miss classes or not be at her best. And since she spends one day a week at a hospital she has lots of exposure to germs!

To make the College Essentials Kit I headed to Walmart and bought a white plastic container and all kinds of items to fill it for her. There is plenty to chose from at Walmart to fill a kit up.

Here are the 10 essentials I included:

• Liquid Hand Soap – Hand washing is the #1 way to prevent diseases from spreading, so soap is important.  I bought her some Halloween themed soap to make it more fun.
• Centrum MultiGummy – Taking daily vitamins is essential to staying healthy, and these are a multi-benefit gummy multivitamin.  Eleanor prefers gummy vitamins, and these have 100% daily value or more of Vitamins D, B12, and E, so they supports energy, immunity, and metabolism. They are also gluten-free, and contain no no wheat,milk, soy, egg, peanut, tree nuts, fish or shellfish.
• Emergen-C – Emergen-C’s slogan is “Let Your Healthy Out”, and they are designed to provide More Healthy Days, More Healthy Nights. These drink mix supplements are easy to mix with water for a boost of vitamins. With over 20 varieties of vitamin supplement drink mixes, Emergen-C offers the formula, flavor, fix, and FUN you’re looking for! I bought Super Orange for Eleanor, because she loves orange drinks.
• Disinfecting Wipes – These are perfect for wiping down the counters and table at her apartment. She is sharing an apartment with three other girls, and needs to make sure they don’t share germs! The four girls don’t have a lot of time to clean, so disposable wipes lets them work fast, but effectively.
• Hand Sanitizer – A must for taking on the go for the cafeteria and in between classes.
• Tissues – Tissues are a necessity, and small packs are perfect for putting in her backpack.
• Lemonade Drink Mix – Staying hydrated is important for staying healthy. Eleanor doesn’t like to drink water plain, so I got her a bunch of lemonade packs to mix in her water to encourage her to get more fluids.
• Fruit & Nut Snack Mix – This is good to have on hand when you need a quick burst of energy and don’t have time to eat a meal.
• Advil Liqui-Gels (use as directed) - Nothing’s faster on tough pain (among OTC pain relievers). Eleanor can use this for headache,  joint pain, or muscle ache – like when her feet hurt after an 8 hour clinical shift. Since these are liqui-gels they provide advance liquid fast relief.
• ChapStick Total Hydration – Eleanor has a 15 minute walk from her apartment to the classrooms, and it gets cold and very windy. ChapStick is 100% Natural with advanced nourishing formula with argan oil and avocado butter and rosehip oils, along with omega 6 & 9, so it instantly smoothes and moisturizes. It visibly renews lips and is age defying. It is good for protecting her lips against dryness, and it provides clinically proven healthier looking lips.

I wanted to decorate the kit to be cheerful and uplifting, because this time of year can be depressing. The days are getting shorter, the weather is cold and rainy, and winter is just around the corner. It is easy to starting doubting yourself. Just this week she sent me multiple texts after a test saying she had done horrible, it was hard, and she hadn’t studied enough. Well it turns out she got a B on the test, so she had panicked over nothing!

So I wanted something that would encourage her to keep working as hard as she has been. So I use my Silhouette machine to cut out some adhesive vinyl stickers to decorate the lid.

I cut out “Believe in Yourself” in pink vinyl along with rosettes for the corners, and stuck them to the lid. It will make a handy storage box for the essentials, and hopefully keep her encouraged and positive. If you don’t have a vinyl cutter you could easily do something similar freehand using paint pens or permanent markers.

I’ve shared my ideas about what products to include in a College Essentials kit, I’d love to hear about yours! Please leave a comment to let me know what you would include in your kit!