If you've ever helped freshmen cart their crap into dorms when they first arrive on campus with their parents (as I have many times), then you know how much junk they bring. Boxes, bins and milk Crates filled with CDs, TVs, DVD players, clothes, posters and computer paraphernalia. Tons of it.

My imagination? Hardly. Read this bit from the Washington Post:

Each year, the National Retail Federation asks incoming college students how much they and their families plan to spend on college. Last year, students estimated they would spend $34.4 billion on college merchandise, up one-third from the year before. Freshmen planned on spending the most-an average of almost $1,200 per student.

Virtually every major retailer now offers a special "back to college" page online with checklists of essentials (shower caddy) and decorating ideas (beachcomber theme, anyone?). The Bed Bath & Beyond Web site contains a college gift registry, designed like a wedding registry except that "wedding date" has been replaced by "move-in date." Now Aunt Clara can find out what Caitlin might like for her first year away from home besides the highly unsatisfactory response "just money."

Retailers' pitches are not subtle. Exhibit A: a 59-page brochure from Target that presumably was mailed to millions of homes. Titled "U.need.want.love.rock.," it offers, among approximately 600 other items, rubber cubes that fit over a bed's legs and raise the bed so a student can "store more."

When I left for college, I managed to fit everything I needed into a VW Rabbit. Now I suppose I'd need a minivan.