The year is over. Finals week is beginning. But were moving out!? It seems like it was just a month ago that I was hauling my bags and inexcusably large moving bins up the stairs and down the hall. Jam packing my parent’s car until I barely had any room to sit. Now, I’m looking at my small 9×12 box of a room thinking, why did I bring So. Much. Stuff. As I’m sure for most if not all HC readers, finals week is also the week that we’re expected to have all of our belongings packed away, ready for check out, everything the way from when we moved in. Trying to juggle daily exams, final papers, presentations AND tackling the monster that my closet is.
Thankfully, with a little organization and a written plan, we’ll all be able to make it through the week, balancing and not ripping our hair out!
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Clean Your Room
There’s no getting around it. No matter what it will save you time in the long run if you have everything organized before you begin packing. Don’t worry about scrubbing or bleaching anything. Most likely its fine, but once everything is packed up and you see something that needs it, then clean it.
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Storage?
Figure out whether or not you’re going to keep certain things in storage for the summer. Pick a place near your school, that hopefully has a college rate. If you are planning on using storage options here are a few helpful tips:
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Avoid putting blankets, sheets, pillows and linens in storage. Chances are they’ll be musty and gross when you take them out in the fall.
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Box up your electronics and keep them in a dust & moisture free space.
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Label all your boxes!!!
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Seal the boxes with packing tape
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Don’t lose the storage receipt!
If you’re not using storage, when you’re packing up keep bedding and other “soft” items out of the boxes. Once the boxes are packed in the car the pillows and blanket are easy to be stuffed into the cracks. Don’t waste a box and take up more room if you don’t have to.
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Make a Plan
Don’t try and tackle everything in one day, it’ll take too much time and will make you stressed easily. Planning to pack certain parts of your room every day will help you stay organized, and will make it easier to unpack the boxes later on! Overall pack what you know you don’t need first. If you’re packing a week before move out, look at it as your packing for a week-long vacation. Pullout the clothes to wear for the week. Pack you books and pens and pencils in your school bag. Everything left, box it up to be moved out.
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Tackle the easy, un-necessary items first, wall decorations, string lights, whiteboards, jewelry and makeup you know you won’t use between now and move out.
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Re-box electronics, printer, speakers, tv. Anything you can get away with not using. Put it back in its box, get all the cords needed in order so they don’t get lost or mixed up and put it aside. One less thing to worry about.
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Go through your textbooks & school supplies, figure out what books you can sell, what you want to keep, or what can be returned to the bookstore. Avoid packing notebooks, binders and textbooks in large bins, they can get extremely heavy, very fast.
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Open your closet, this gets its own step (see below)
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Pack Your Clothes
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Try and send your heavy/bulky winter shoes when spring comes so you don’t have to worry about it now. If you’re still stuck with them stack them neatly on top of one another to take the least amount of room you can. Make sure they’re on the bottom of the bin and put the res of the lighter, smaller shoes on top.
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When youre packing up your closet (clothes on hangers) take a XL garbage bag, bunch 10-15 articles of clothes and put the clothes in the bag, from the bottom to the top then pulling the strings around the hangers at the top, fitting the bag, so the clothes don’t fall out. This makes it easy so when you get home you can put the bunch right on the rack.
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Use your hamper as a bin. Don’t just fold it up and put it away, use any form of holder/storage you can.
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And Finally….Move Out!
Make sure your room is clean, vacuumed, and dusted. At this point, all that should be in your room is what it came with, plus your (neatly organized) boxes.
Also, be sure to know your check-out protocol, and follow all of the necessary instructions (i.e. getting your room inspected by an RA) as early as you can, to beat the rush. Close and lock your door, and you’re all set!
Congratulations, you’ve packed up your room! Now you can daydream about summer on the long car or plane ride home.