Last year at this time, I was packing up my first-year room and loading it into my car to head back to southern Indiana. Like most first-years, I brought way too much with me to college and ended up accumulating even more while I was here. When the end of the year came, I realized I was going to have to figure out how to get all of my stuff home. Through the whole process, I learned a lot, and this year I am way more prepared to get home for the summer. Here are my top tips for moving out!
Think ahead!
When you are coming home for Spring Break or Easter, it’s hard to think ahead to moving out, but it can be nice to go ahead and take home all of your winter clothes and some of the less necessary items that you might not need anymore. I normally try to go through my shoes and clothes and look at all those items that I brought but never really wear. It might seem sad to send home that really cute top that you swore you would wear in August, but it will be nice to already have it home when you go to back up in May. If you are lucky and have your parents come to visit for different events on campus, you can also try to send some stuff home with them.
Use boxes and crates!
One of the best presents I got for graduation was a collapsible box. It’s super big, and I normally use it to carry all of my clothes home, but while I am at school and don’t need it, it fits nicely under my bed or behind my desk. Having a couple big containers like this makes it easy to fit a lot of stuff in one trip out of the car, which is easier than having a bunch of little suitcases or bags.
Keep your clothes on hangers!
This is really handy and saves you a lot of time. Instead of taking each individual piece of clothing off the hanger and folding it, you just get to group them together. What I normally do is put a trash bag around a group of clothes. This keeps your clothes clean and makes it easier to carry them from your closet to your car.
Get rid of stuff as you pack!
It might be tempting to just throw all of your stuff in boxes and bags and deal with it when you get home, but if you take a little bit of extra time to go through all your stuff, you might find that there are a lot of things you don’t need or want anymore. Most colleges will have donation bins all over campus where you can give away the stuff you don’t want. This is a nice way to spring clean and also means you have less stuff to take home and unpack.