Packing Up Tips - Pre-packing

Ah leaving for college, always fun and exciting while also bitter sweet and somewhat frightening.  What was extremely frightening for me was packing up my beloved bedroom into totes and trying to squeeze all of it (or at least I had tried desperately to squeeze all of it) into a tiny 14' x 16' or so space which I had to share with another human on top of everything else.

Where was I suppose to begin?

I love my bedroom.  The year before I graduated high school, I completely redid the space and made it into [nearly] my ideal bedroom complete with lavender walls and a built in desk/shelves.  This of course only made the thought of packing up my serene escape even more daunting.  Regardless, its something that needs to be done, but it should not, I repeat should NOT be taken lightly.  When you are planning to pack up 18 years of life into a few totes and lug it all away to somewhere new, you can't just throw things in and go.  It will not work.

So here is a bit of packing 101.  I am the youngest of four children, so I have moved my siblings dozens of times.  And, since I am probably the most organized of the kids, I also do a great deal of the packing for these lovely trips from residence to residence (I have grown a deep hatred for moving, but that fact isn't really relevant here).  So lets get packing:

That's me on moving day, Freshman year!  Believe it or not, there was a great deal more totes in the hallway and bags in the car already.  I really did try to take everything with me :)

Lists can be your very best friend.  Especially when it comes to packing.  There are a ton of "college packing lists" floating around out there, but really those are all just guidelines, you have to make your own in the end, or at least customize one of them to fit your needs.  SallieMae has a really good list you download as a PDF;  its probably the best I've found.  But, before you start sorting through everything to throw it into boxes and totes, look at the other pertinent lists at your disposal.  This would be the following: 


- list of things you cannot have in the dorms (eg. candles and halogen lamps)
- list of things the school provides in the dorm room (eg. beds, desks, chair)
- list of decoration do's and don'ts from the school (eg. no wallpaper or paint)
- list of what your roommate, if you have one, is bringing vs. what you are bringing (eg. fridge and TV) 


Most schools have a section with their dorm policies in the housing portion of their website, you should find most of these lists there.


Now that you know what not to bring, make a list of everything you plan to take with you.  This quite literally means everything.  From clothing to decor and electronics to kitchen utensils.  It may be helpful to use the SallieMae list from above as a guide when doing this, it could help you not forget things that you might overlook otherwise.  Don't forget to include items that you may not have boughten yet, just make sure to mark that you still need to get those items;  you don't want to wind up at the dorms without any bedding or a fridge.  


So get out that notebook and pen, or at least pull of a word processing document, and get to making those lists!