MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

Mattie Shideler of Front Royal carries a clothes hamper and hangers for her friend Heather Russell, a Radford University freshman who also is from Front Royal, to her Muse Hall room.

RADFORD -- It was the voice of experience.

"Get here early and be patient."

Mark Carbo was moving two daughters into Radford University dorms Friday morning. Becca was a freshman last year, so the family -- especially younger sister, Chelsea -- learned from her experience.

Ratchet straps are better than bungee cords. Bed risers add storage space in a tiny dorm room. A hand truck is worth its weight in gold.

"Having a 1-ton pickup truck doesn't hurt, either," Mark Carbo said.

There were lots of pickups in Radford on Friday morning as students moved in ahead of the start of classes Monday -- Labor Day. Pickups, SUVs, minivans, U-Haul trailers, all packed with the essentials of modern college life.

"People are bringing in huge TVs," Chelsea Carbo said. "My roommate and I have a 19-inch."

She met her roommate at orientation, so they had plenty of time to work out color schemes and who was bringing what. But the room they're moving into is a little smaller than the one they shared this summer. But Carbo was confident everything she brought would fit.

"I brought everything," she said. "Absolutely everything. I don't regret it at all. I'm going to use it all."

She and her father had strapped sundries onto her rolling duffle bag. The stack of stuff on the cart beside her was roughly as tall as she is.

There was an astonishing variety of hand trucks, hand carts, rolling luggage, rolling storage bins and -- in at least one case -- a skateboard rolling around campus. They wheeled by, laden with clothes and electronics and appliances and guitar cases.

The line to get into Muse Hall -- the high-rise freshman residence hall -- stretched down the sidewalk toward the library, past Lucas Hall. But there seemed to be order and precision amid the chaos.

Carts that usually carry tools for maintenance and grounds crews prowled parking lots, looking for people and baggage to haul toward dorms.

Other carts hauled away stacks of cardboard from recycling drop-off points outside residence halls.

Big tubs of ice held bottled water at strategic points. University employees walked down that long line outside Muse offering water to parents and new students laden with all the accoutrements of a new school year.

Bands of sorority and fraternity members wandered the campus in T-shirts with Greek letters on them, offering help and information.

"We're helping with anything," Sigma Sigma Sigma sister Danielle Clark said.

"They do a good job here," Mark Carbo said.

His second daughter to become a Highlander had an advantage over most of the newcomers, of course.

Chelsea Carbo visited her older sister a lot last year, so she's gotten the lowdown on life at Radford, including which professors to take and which to avoid. And what to haul down from the family home in Reston.

"I got to hear what to bring and what not to bring," Carbo said. "Of course, I ignored her."