As a freshman last year, I was thoroughly relieved to hear about the magical Piece by Piece Moving Company that stores all of your things over the summer until you return to campus in the fall. It was the perfect solution to my mother’s many phone calls about what I was going to do with all of my stuff, “You are NOT bringing your entire room home to Tampa.”
With this resolve, I buckled down and attempted to get through finals unscathed. I was so unbelievably focused on finishing strong in my classes that I completely forgot about the six large boxes sitting in my room in Fenwick waiting to be packed. The day of my last exam came and went, and all of a sudden it was 9pm and I was sitting at Applebee’s (I still have no idea why) when I came to the realization that the movers were coming to pick up my things in less than twelve hours. Needless to say, I booked it out of the restaurant to head back to campus to begin one of the longest nights of my life.
I can’t even begin to list the amount of things I did wrong that night. Starting laundry at 2am, letting too many people borrow my packing tape, and deciding to catch up on a few episodes of Gossip Girl are just a few examples. So you don’t end up like me, here are a few tips on how to survive finals and moving out!
- Use packing as a study break. Honestly, it is never too early to start preparing for the move. Think of how many things you have piled up in your room that you wouldn’t miss if you put them in boxes. If you happen to be studying in your room, packing is a great way to productively procrastinate.
- Don’t procrastinate. Yes, this may be feel obvious to some, but speaking as a champion procrastinator, it really will not serve you well to procrastinate packing or studying.
- Do all laundry well in advance. Honestly, one of the worst decisions I have ever made was to stay up the entire night before flying home for the sole purpose of finishing laundry. Try to do all of your laundry (specifically linens and other clothes you will be storing) the week of your move out date so you can have everything ready to pack away without worrying about packing dirty clothes (yuck).
- Get a donation pile started. There were so many things last year that I realized I didn’t need as I was starting to pack, and the process would have been made so much easier if I would have started a donation pile early on. Most of the dorms on campus have an area that you can put all of your donation items on move-out day, so take advantage of it!
- And above all…keep calm! Trust me, it will all work out. If you and your roommates are moving out at the same time, just remember to try and respect their space, offer help when needed, and attempt to minimize stress as much as possible.
Good luck!
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