When Should You Start Packing For College?

If you are getting ready to start your college career, you’re surely feeling a lot of different emotions. You might be excited, you might be nervous, or you might even be a mixture of the two. No matter how you’re feeling right now, you probably know that you should get the jump on preparing early so you’re good to go on move-in day.
You’re going to want to spend as much time as you can with your friends and family before your departure, so you might not be thinking about packing up your stuff that much. You know that it is something that needs to be done, but you might be putting it off to do other things.
Don’t procrastinate! If you go ahead and make moving out of state moving checklist, you will be able to save yourself a lot of time when you get ready to start packing up your stuff.
When Do You Start Packing Your Things For College?
Once you’ve got that acceptance letter from the college of your dreams, you may be so excited that you don’t even want to pack. While you’ll want to be living it up with your friends and family members before you head out, packing up doesn’t have to be something that takes forever. If you do it right, it can be pretty easy.
Start a little early
Try and get started on packing up your stuff at least two weeks before your scheduled departure, if you can. This gives you plenty of time to get your stuff in order and decide everything you’d like to take with you. It also gives you plenty of time to decide on how you’re going to be moving your things, whether you choose to use a moving service, or opt to do everything yourself.
Prepare your checklist before you get started
Decide on the most important things you need to take with you to college, and write them all down in a checklist. This will help you mentally keep track of all the important things you want to bring with you, and will also give you some wiggle room should you decide to bring something else. Using a moving checklist, you will at least make sure to have all of the essentials with you when you head out.
If you have the time, go shopping for anything you need
If there is something you need but don’t yet have, then you can use some of this extra time to go shopping. This way, you’ll have everything you need and be prepared when your big move-in day arrives.
If you give yourself plenty of time to get prepared and get all of the essentials together with a checklist, then you will be able to be prepared ahead of time, and still, have plenty of time to enjoy with your friends and family before you head out on your new college journey!
What Do You Need For Move-in Day at College?
What might you need for your big move-in day when you get to college? You’re surely going to want to be getting your dorm set up, maybe getting to know your roommate if you have one. You’ll have all kinds of things to be doing, and worrying about making sure you brought everything you need with you isn’t one of them.
Think of some of the essentials that you’ll need when you get to college. You’ll want to be comfortable and be set up nicely in your new dorm room. Here are some of the biggest essentials you should consider bringing with you.
- Bedding: Get all of your bedding together, such as your sheets, comforters, pillows, quilts, and any other bedding you want to bring with you.
- Shower stuff and toiletries: Make sure you go through your bathroom at home and pack up all of your bathroom supplies and shower stuff, like toilet paper, shampoo, conditioner, bars of soap, skincare products, and anything else you may need.
- Clothes and laundry supplies: Make sure you have plenty of clothes, including sleep clothes and pajamas, along with things like your jackets, pants, shoes, and laundry supplies you might want to bring with you like laundry detergent, fabric softener, and the like.
- Electronics: You’ll want to make sure you have all of your electronics that you plan on taking with you packed up and ready to go. This includes things like your computer, your TV, your video game console, your tablet or e-reader, and your phone supplies like your chargers and headphones or anything else.
- Any decorations you want for your dorm: If you have any décor you want to take with you to decorate your dorm room, then you’ll want to go ahead and pack it up. Things like posters, LED lights, drapes, throw rugs, and any other decorative items you might want to take with you could be included.
- Any school supplies you might need: This could include things like your school textbooks, notebooks, binders, pencils, calculators, pens, rulers, dividers, staplers, highlighters, stationery, whiteout, tape, hole punch, printer paper, and any other school essentials you might need.
- Housewares: You’ll need some housewares for your dorm room, things like pots, pans, dishes, silverware, paper plates, napkins, coffee mugs, skillets, along with any other cookware you may need. You can even get yourself a miniature refrigerator for your dorm room so you can keep your food and drinks nice and cold.
These are some of the essentials that you should be bringing with you during your big move-in day. If you decide on anything else, you can always add it in later on down the line!
How Do You Pack Clothes For College?
When packing clothes, you will want to think minimal. You probably won’t have the biggest closet in your dorm room, and you may end up sharing that space with someone else. This is why the minimalist approach is a good one to take in college.
When packing up your clothes, you can use things like space bags that vacuum seal, enabling you to store a good amount of clothes without taking up much space. Big plastic tubs with tops can also be your friends here, allowing you to fold up several articles of clothing to store away safely.
When packing up your clothes, think of what you normally wear. You will probably also want to throw some workout clothes into the mix if you plan on hitting the gym or going for a jog at any point. Make sure you have some jackets for the colder months and some pajamas for being warm and cozy at night.
To save a little time when packing up your clothes, leave them on their hangers. You can bag them up while they are still on hangers, allowing you to simply remove them from the bag when you get to your dorm and hang them up in your new closet. Talk about convenience and saving time!
Packing up your clothes for college doesn’t have to be all that difficult. While packing in itself can seem like a daunting task, if you know what you want to take with you ahead of time, then going ahead and packing up can be a cinch.
How to Pack the Car Up the Smart Way?
One of the biggest things you will have to deal with when it comes time to get all of your stuff together is packing up the car. The idea is to get it all done in one go, so you won’t have to make several trips and burn through a bunch of gas money.
When you are getting ready to pack up the car, think about how to pack smart. Start with the heaviest items, put them at the bottom, and work your way up to the lightest items. Make sure fragile items like dishes are wrapped in newspapers or grocery bags and stowed away in boxes or tubs so they will be safe.
Put anything fragile or expensive, such as your electronics, upfront with you if possible. Your computer bag could sit in the passenger seat as long as you don’t have another human passenger riding with you. If you aren’t riding solo, then you should put anything fragile on top of where they can’t easily slide off and get damaged.
If you pack the heaviest items to the lightest items and sort everything just right, your car should be safely packed up and ready to go. All that is left for you to do now is just drive to college and unpack!
Let the Fun Begin!
People all over the world dream of living a college life. If you have been accepted into your dream college and are getting ready to pack up for your first semester, consider yourself lucky. You are achieving something that people everywhere wish they could, so stand up and be proud.
Once you’re all set up and unpacked in your dorm, you’ll be ready to start living that college life. Getting unpacked is only the beginning, you still have so much left to achieve.