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How to Not Over-Pack for Winter Break

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at TCNJ chapter.

With Winter Break quickly approaching, it’s officially that time when you have to start thinking about what you’ll need to pack up and take home for the month. This year though, rather than packing up your whole room, pack smart!

Tips for what to bring home:

1) Make sure you have an outfit for the holidays! Pick out a Christmas and a New Years outfit to take home. Instead of taking the majority of your clothes home and picking out an outfit later, try to brainstorm a few options now.

2) Most of the days you’ll be home, you’ll probably be casually seeing old friends. You won’t need piles of your most fashionable attire for these occasions, so just stick with a few pairs of jeans and some cute tops. Keep in mind, you might get some clothes for Christmas too.

3) Look at some of the outfits you’re bringing home and pick out some simple shoes that can easily be matched with multiple outfits. Lugging home ten pairs of shoes for break is not necessary. A pair of brown boots, black boots, and a cute pair of heels would do just fine.

4) You probably have old sweats and t-shirt’s laying around at home, so you can leave the sweats at school! For days when you’re just relaxing and not leaving the house, who cares if you pull out those sweats that have been hiding in the back of your drawer at home.

5) Either bring home or sell your books! Now that the semester’s over, there’s no reason to have your first semester books taking up space in your the room. It will just cause more stress and organization problems when you return from break, so get rid of  those books and binders sooner rather than later.

6) Of course, don’t forget your make-up, some jewelry, and all of your electronics and chargers. You can leave the shampoo, conditioner, body wash, etc. at school. These items end up taking up a lot of room so simply getting another set of toiletries to have at home is a lot easier.

Where to put it all:

  1. Suitcase! Suitcases are definitely the best option to pack your belongings in for easy transportation.
  2. Boxes, finding some cardboard boxes lying around shouldn’t be too difficult so if you don’t have a suitcase, this works as well, but may be a little hard to carry.
  3. If you have clothes on hangers, simply cut a hole in the bottom of a garbage bag, place the bag over your clothes sticking the hangers through the hole, and voilà! You now have your own garment bag. All of the clothes can be easily moved from one closet to the next without having to remove the clothes from the hangers.

Photo Credit: Here.

Hilarey Wojtowicz is a senior Journalism/Professional Writing major at The College of New Jersey. Hilarey works for TCNJ's Residential Education and Housing Department as a Community Advisor, but is truly aspiring to be the next Carrie Bradshaw. Not only does Hilarey love writing for her campus's chapter of Her Campus, but she enjoys writing about sports for local newspapers, as well. A true Jersey girl at heart, Hilarey is definitely not from the Boston area, but is a huge fan of the New England Patriots. You can find her interning in New York City this Fall at Woman's Day Magazine.