College move-in is undeniably stressful. From trying to decide what your essential dorm toiletries are to finding the perfect dorm decor items to make your room feel cozy, putting your dorm together is truly a rollercoaster. With so much planning going into your move, it’s easy to forget about actually getting your stuff from point A to point B. When you get closer to your move-in date and begin to panic about how much you’ll actually be able to fit in the trunk of your car, it’s good to have some tried-and-true packing tips to ease your mind.
Luckily, TikTok is full of incredible videos of packing tips that can make that part of your move-in experience a little bit easier. From tips on what to pack your clothing in, to breaking down when you should buy certain items, these videos cover everything you need to know in order to move in with ease — plus some unexpected tips to make the whole process go a lot smoother. Whether you’re flying to a brand-new state or just packing up the car to drive a few hours away, these college packing hacks from TikTok will help you feel so much better about your packing process.
- Leave Your Hangers On Your Clothes
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It can be such a pain to get to your new dorm only to have to pull all of your clothes out of your bags and immediately put all of them back on the hangers they’d been on in your old closet, so why not skip that step? If you lay your clothes out on their hangers in a bag, or cut a hole in the bottom of a trash bag and pull the tops of the hangers through, while letting the rest of the bag protect your clothes, you can save yourself a lot of time when you make it to your new room!
- If You’re Flying, Ship Some Things Ahead Of Time
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Flying for move-in adds some packing challenges, since airlines limit how much you can travel with. Luckily, there are still ways to ease some stress in this situation. TikTok user @vanessacaluori recommends reaching out to the hotel you plan to stay at during move-in to see if they will allow you to ship some of your bigger items there before your move-in day. This saves you some room on the plane, giving you the space to pack some of your smaller essentials for the flight.
- Organize Your Things Before You Pack Them
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It can be tempting to just throw everything you own into a few giant bags and deal with organization when you reach your dorm room, and while that may save you packing time, it will only make unpacking that much more difficult, especially when you’re eager to start exploring your new campus. If you organize your things as you pack them, adding labels to your bags as you go, it makes the move-in process go a lot faster. If you’re bringing a dresser for your room, for example, you can also put the clothing you want in there before you leave, taping the drawers shut to give yourself one less thing to unpack on arrival.
- Utilize Your Space In Every Bag
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TikTok user @anjericampania managed to pack all of her things for her dorm in under an hour, and while it might be good to take a little more time than that, she achieved this feat by utilizing every single bag she planned on bringing, leaving no space left unfilled. My favorite hack was when she put her bikinis and sports bras into the purses she planned to bring, cutting down on the amount of bags she needed to take with her on her move.
- Use Moving Bags Over Moving Boxes
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If you’ve spent any time at all looking at move-in videos on TikTok, chances are you’ve seen the giant blue bags that everyone uses to lug their things into their dorm. These bags aren’t only great for holding a ton of your things, but also, their handles make them much easier to carry through your new residence hall than awkward boxes, so it’s no surprise that they’ve become so popular. In the caption of their TikTok video, @thedormguide recommends you get six to eight bags to make move-in easier, ensuring you have enough space for all of the clothes you want to bring.
- Buy Big Stuff After You Move In
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While it can be tempting to buy everything you need for your dorm before you leave your childhood home, it can often be easier to buy some of the bigger items, like mirrors, mattress toppers, or nightstands, after you get to your college town. Not only does this save space in your luggage, but it also allows you to see your dorm and decide which items to get based on the space you have. That way, you won’t be disappointed if you buy something only to find that it looks awkward in your dorm room.
- Only Bring What You Wear Often
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When you’re staring into the abyss of your closet trying to decide what to pack and what to leave at home, your mind can start to spin. This is when you really have to take a step back and ask yourself what clothes you’ll really be wearing when you get to your new dorm. TikTok user @mel_schmidtt points this out in her video when she decides to leave her jeans behind, knowing her Florida school will be too hot for long pants. It’s also a good idea to keep in mind that you can travel home throughout the year, giving you the opportunity to change out your wardrobe with the changing of the seasons, keeping the amount of clothes you have to store in your dorm room to a minimum.
- Use Vacuum-Seal Bags To Save Space
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One of the easiest ways to save space is to use vacuum-seal bags to minimize how much room your clothing, blankets, and even towels take up in your luggage. After vacuum-sealing some of your things, you can place the compressed bags inside bigger duffels or bags with handles to make them easier to carry.
- Buy A Portable Jewelry Box
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Jewelry is always difficult to pack, leaving you worrying about how you’re going to get all of your favorite pieces from one place to another without getting everything tangled together or jostled around. Buying a small, portable jewelry box specifically for your dorm room and filling the individual spaces with a few of your essential pieces before you leave makes it much easier to deal with.
- Pack Clothes in Your Laundry Basket
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As so many of these tips suggest, saving space is one of the most important parts of packing for your move-in day. Since you already know you’ll need to bring a laundry bag to your new room, you might as well utilize the space within it. Packing some of your clothes inside your laundry bag is another incredible space-saving tip to make it easier to pack all of your stuff into as few bags as possible.
- Pack A First Night Bag
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Move-in takes a long time, and it’s completely possible you won’t have everything unpacked and put away on your first night. This makes a “first night bag” an essential part of the move-in experience, allowing you to have easy access to all of your essentials even if you haven’t finished settling in. Toiletries, chargers, snacks, pajamas, and a change of clothes are a few things to pack that can help you get through that first night with all your essentials.