Gizelle Bryant is taking a “do as I say, not as I did” approach to preparing her twin daughters for their freshman year of college — at least when it comes to laundry.

Gizelle Bryant with daughters Angel and Adore. Photo: 

Gizelle Bryant/Instagram

“When I left for school in August, I didn’t wash my clothes until I went back home for Thanksgiving break,” the Real Housewives of Potomac star, 53, recalls to PEOPLE of her college days at Hampton University in Virginia. “When I ran out of underwear, I would just buy more. I told them, ‘Don’t do that! That’s disgusting! Don’t do what Mommy did.’”

Bryant knows she doesn’t have much cause to worry about 18-year-old Angel and Adore, whom she shares with her ex-husband, Jamal Bryant. “They’re light years past where I was at their age,” she admits. “So excited about their future, and planning to make sure they meet their goals. It’s an honor to see them grow.”

Still, like any good mom, Bryant — whose eldest daughter Grace is a sophomore at Florida A&M in Tallahassee — is allowing herself to worry a little, especially since the twins are heading to different schools: Angel to Spelman College in Atlanta and Adore to her mother’s alma mater in Hampton, Va.

“I was not prepared for that,” she says of their decision to go their separate ways. “They both applied to Hampton and both got in, both got scholarships. They both applied to Spelman and both got in. I was just thinking that they were going to — amongst two of them — have a meeting and say, ‘Okay, where are we going?’ That didn’t happen.”

Despite the “double anxiety and double stress,” Bryant is proud of all three of her daughters for choosing historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), and she realizes Angel and Adore’s different plans will provide a unique opportunity for them to grow as individuals.

“They’re really looking forward to being their own person and not necessarily connected to someone else,” she says. “But there’s also going to be a void. They’ve already said they’re going to call each other every morning.”

She adds, laughing: “Some days it’s ‘we don’t know how we’re going to do this!’ Others, it’s ‘get away from me!’”

As for advice of the non-wash-and-fold variety, Bryant has some in mind: “I’m reminding them to trust their gut,” she says. “It’ll never lie to you. If you’re in a situation in which you don’t feel comfortable, leave. Whoever you go to a party with, that’s who you leave with. You don’t go anywhere by yourself at night. If you put a drink down at a party, that one is done.”

But Bryant isn’t harping on the cautionary.

“I told Grace [when she left for Florida A&M],  and I’m going to tell the twins: Do everything. No matter what the event or activity is, do it. Embrace everything with all of yourself. You have four years. Four years of your father’s money! [laughs] So live it to the fullest and enjoy it.”