The monday of the first week of school, it came to my attention that I needed to move off campus in order to be able to pay for school. While this was not ideal, as I loved my job being a Community Mentor on campus, I made the best of it and worked to move everything from the largest room in my residence hall to a shared bedroom with my friend off-campus. From moving every thing I own in 3 days, I of course ran into problems and struggled to get everything moved. Because of that, here are 3 things I would have done differently in those 3 days.
- START. PACKING. IMMEDIATELY.
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People say this over and over again, knowing that packing takes the most time out of anything, but I definitely took this for granted. I was still packing on the final day I had to move out, and that made being able to use my friends to help move everything difficult. Start packing before you’re sure you even will be moving out, pack when you wake up, before you go to bed. I think spending the first day packing would have been the most beneficial in the long run. Then, use the rest of the time to move into the new place.
- Enlist Friends to Help Quickly and For a Specific Day and Time
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Multiple friends offered to help me move, but I never had a specific day set for us all to get together and move as much as possible in a specific set of time. This was problematic, as it resulted in a couple late nights moving bags of things and a rushed day of moving and cleaning simultaneously on the final day before I had to check out of my room. I would change this, setting a day and time, and have been packed completely beforehand in order to get as many things moved as possible. This also would have been beneficial to my friends in them knowing exactly when to help instead of receiving rushed calls and text messages from me as I panicked to get everything out.
- Unpack as Quickly as Possible
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As I sit surrounded by everything I own in trash bags and boxes, I face the daunting task of putting it all away in my new room. This task, however, would have been lessened if I had started unpacking as soon as I finished moving in instead of starting three days later. Unpack what you can put up quickly, clothes and dishes are great places to start, and then move from there to things that can be a little more time consuming. Decorating can wait a little while, and it might just be the exact thing you need in order to look forward to something to get you through unpacking.
If you have to move suddenly like I did, there is little time to make plans and decisions, but I promise that you can do it. Remember to act quickly, and work really hard in the beginning while you’re motivated and finish quickly. Happy moving girl!