1. Why should I use Homeslyce.com?

We want to make your transition into college as smooth as possible! We know it’s tough. We’ve been there. Just 4 years ago, we were waiting in long lines at Wal-Mart buying our college stuff, making several trips to Staples, Safeway, Fry’s Electronics, and Bed, Bath, & Beyond after forgetting random things, making more trips after talking to my roommates about what we wanted in our room and who’d pay for it (it’s tough getting straight to business on the first day!), and lugging everything back to the dorm room. On top of that, we’d try to make time to meet new neighbors, entertain our family, and participate in orientation activities. It’s a pretty crazy transition.
With Homeslyce, we hope you have a better transitioning experience than we did. Homeslyce helps you find everything to make your dorm room perfect (we have a comprehensive checklist of college essentials!), collaborate with your roommate, split payments, and our items ship directly to your door.

2. How do I go about using Homeslyce to build my dorm room?

This is probably your first time using Homeslyce. So, welcome!
First of all, you can either choose a preset theme based on your personality and we'll suggest items that we think you would really like to have in college. The preset theme comes with the classic freshman package that we know you'll definitely need. For example, the extra long bed sheets. Afterward, you can add, swap, or remove everything you would like in your dorm. Next, you can sort your items based on ones you'd like personally as well as ones you'd like to share with your roommate. Afterwards, you'll enter your roommates' emails so that they can collaborate with you on your shared items. The collaboration page is that helps you and your roommates vote on what to get, who would pay for it or how to pay for it, talk about things you already have, or add more to the shopping cart. Your roommates can further shop for their personal items. After collaboration, everyone checkouts. "

3. What do the themes mean?

So we've pre-populated the shopping cart with all the standard items (hopefully the items we've chosen are on the inexpensive side - you're free to swap or remove any of them), and the themes are there to help you find additional items that fit your personality and help make your dorm room more comfortable and enjoyable.

4. What do you mean by collaborate?

When referring to her summer before starting college, one of my best friends, Sheena Chew, told me, "My roommate and I talked for hours trying to figure out who'd bring what and it actually ended up being a source of tension who needed to pay what." At Homeslyce, we try to make collaboration easy between you and your roommate(s). You and your roommates will choose items that you would like your dorm room to have based on a voting system of "check," "question mark," and "X." Moreover, our collaboration mimics real roommate interactions, where items can be paid for individually. For example, my freshman roommate brought the refrigerator, and in return my dad said he would get the TV. This way, it won't be confusing the following year who would keep which items. Homeslyce also allows you to split the payment of items evenly. For example, there are items both of you will use together such as detergent, futon, rugs etc.

5. How do I know who my roomate(s) is?

Many colleges should have already notified you either in an orientation packet or a letter. If not, your college might be one of the few that tell you when you get there.

6. How does payment work among roommates?

Once you and your roommates have selected your dorm room items, you and your roommates will have the choice to either pay for the items individually or have them split equally. If the items are paid for individually - for example, if Mickey decides to pay for the refrigerator and Jen pays for the TV - each person will individually check out the items he or she agreed upon. If the items are split evenly, then there will be a person (agreed upon in the collaboration page) that pays for all the shared items first, and the roommates will either pay them back in person or through Paypal. In this scenario, Homeslyce will remind the roommates to pay up and how much they owe. If there's a combination of items paid for individually and split evenly, then there will be a combination of the above.

7. Who gets the shared item once the year is over?

In the collaboration page, if you decided to pay individually by item, most likely you would share the item between you and your roommates. If you were to live separately the following year, you would just take the items you paid for. Simple! You might have to work something out if you and your roommates all contributed towards an item.

8. Do I have to remind roommates to pay me back?

If you decided to split some items evenly, we will send out individual emails to your roommate to remind them to either pay you in person or through Paypal.

9. Where should I ship my items?

Either your home or college address. Most people would prefer to have all their personal items shipped home to have it ready before they get to college, and have the big items such as a futon or fridge, normally items that are shared among roommates, shipped to their dorm room.

10. Will my dorm items arrive by the time I get to college?

This depends on when you ordered your items and the shipping options you selected. If your college gives you an address to ship to before you arrive and you provide sufficient time for your items to be delivered, your items should be there before you arrive. If you chose to delay shipping because your college does not allow items to be shipped before you arrive, your items should arrive give or take a few days around when you arrive.

11. What if I can't find the item I'm looking for?

If you can't find what you're looking for when you're browsing, try searching in our search box. This will go through all the items listed on Amazon - so you're guaranteed to be able to find everything (unless, of course, it's sold out).

12. Where is the checklist for college dorm items?

You can find the checklist by clicking "View Shopping List" in the top right corner of Homeslyce.

13. Why don't I just buy these items from my college?

Some colleges will sell some of the dorm room necessities. But a lot of colleges don't. At Homeslyce.com, you can make all your purchases at one stop and have them shipped directly to your home or dorm room. And rest assured, our product prices are the same as the ones on Amazon and Target's. We won't try to raise the prices on you.

14. About how much do incoming college students usually spend on dorm items?

It really depends. Some student already have a lot the things they want to bring to college and buy only a few necessities, like the extra-long bed sheets. And some students have to start from scratch and buy everything they would possibly need, such as the international students. We compiled a list of items that most college students would need and this is about $1000.

15. Who's behind Homeslyce.com?

Homeslyce was launched by four Stanford students in the class of '07. We love hanging out with friends, playing Mario Tennis on N64, dancing at a club, watching movies, reading Harry Potter, and exciting college traditions - fountain hopping, scavenger hunts, ski trips, and full moon on the quad. We hope you enjoy your college experience just as much as we did. Cheers to an amazing next 4 years! Don't forget to have fun :)

16. What happened to the birthday site?

We're so glad you remembered! We really think there is something to group purchases. So this time, we decided to add a twist to group giving with birthdays and help roommates collaboratively purchase everything for their dorm. This, we think, will really help students make a smooth transition into college.

17. What's the definition of homeslyce?

(n) friends or buddies. Homeslyce is the plural form of homeslice. Check it out on Urban Dictionary! What's up, homeslyce?

18. Will I be popular after using Homeslyce?

We sure hope so! We think you're pretty cool already for using Homeslyce.

19. How can I help promote Homeslyce?

We'd love you forever if you can could help! Share your virtual dorm room with your friends on your blogs or social networks. Email your friends and get them to use Homeslyce. It would mean a lot to us. Homeslyce is our baby project and we'd love to see it work out!

20. How do we make a profit?

Homeslyce is an affiliate of Amazon and Target. So we earn a very small percentage of every purchase that goes through Homeslyce to Amazon and Target. We don't raise the price of any product we sell.

21. What if we receive a defected item?

We definitely hope this never happens. But if it does, please contact the customer service of the seller of the item. This is most likely Amazon or Target. They should be able to resolve any issue you may have with your product.

22. Will Homeslyce.com sell my products?

Possibly. We are currently working with several online retailers, and we''d love to welcome more business. Please email us on your interest.