8 Pro Tips to Make Packing for College Easier

8 Pro Tips to Make Packing for College Easier

Move in time is exciting, but packing is a pain. Instead of trudging through another week of packing for college, use these tips to make the process easier. When you label your boxes and use a strategic packing plan, for example, you can prepare and move in quickly and efficiently.

Write a List & Take an Inventory

Organization is the key to make packing for college easier and that starts with a list. This is the best way to be both efficient and effective—without a list, you’re likely to miss odds and ends and have last-minute items that don’t have a box to fit into. If your college sent you a packing list, go off of that, otherwise, you can create your own or use our Ultimate College Packing List.  Take Inventory of all of your personal property so that you also have an idea of how much stuff you have that might need to be replaced if it is stolen or damaged.  This will make it easier to file an insurance claim.  And yes, be sure to consider purchasing GradGuard’s college renters insurance that has a low deductible and typically costs about fifty cents a day.

Use Labels

Labels make packing and unpacking easier. When packing, you know where to put extras and last-minute items. It’s even more helpful when unpacking if you label any box with essentials as Unpack First: “Rather than having to search through every box for your pillow cases to make your bed that first night back in the fall, refer to your inventory list so you’ll know exactly which box it’s in,” suggests experts at EZStorage.

Go Room by Room

While you won’t be packing more than one room for college, you will need items from the various rooms within your house. As such, this packing technique ensures that you get everything you need, from your laundry basket to a can opener and more.

Don’t Overpack

Heavy boxes are a pain to carry, load and unload. Instead, “Keep the weight of each box under 50 pounds. This will help you in packing and unpacking if boxes need to be moved around. It will also facilitate quicker loading and unloading,” suggest moving experts at Abba and Sons. It may be a pain to weigh each box, so go by feel. If you can lift it comfortably, but it’s not light, you’re good to go.

Keep Clothes on Hangers

The worst part of unpacking is re-hanging all of your clothes. Avoid this tedious task by keeping everything on hangers. Pop holes in the bottom of plastic bags to use them as clothing bags, in case it rains. This is also a good way to keep your hanging items organized, if you like them sorted in a specific way, I.E. Long sleeves and sweaters in one, slacks in another, etc.

Check Last Year’s Stock

 If you’re returning to college, check all your stuff from last year before packing it: “Go through the stuff you threw in your basement when you moved out last spring—throwing out and replacing old or broken items and amenities now will save you the hassle of hauling them all the way to campus and hunting for necessities there,” suggests Sarah Kismet, contributor HerCampus. Check anything electronic, like your desk lamp and alarm clock, along with storage boxes that may have cracked and anything else that was on the brink of breaking at the end of last year. Replace those items now, before packing.

Tape Drawers

In college, organization is all about the plastic sets of drawers that are easy to transport and inexpensive to buy. Instead of taking everything out of these to re=pack in boxes, simply tape the drawers closed so they won’t slide open while moving. Unpacking will be great when you don’t have to remember what goes where, especially if the drawers already organized.

Place All Liquids in Baggies

There’s nothing worse than opening a box and finding that your shampoo has opened and covered everything else in the box. Avoid this potential mess, and move-in day headache, by putting all liquids (including soaps) in sealable bags. If anything spills, it will be contained, making clean up easier. Packing and unpacking doesn’t have to be a pain. Use these tips to make the process easier and more efficient. When move-in day comes, you’ll be unpacked ready to hang with your friends in no time.

 

 

This post was contributed to GradGuard by Jessica Thiefels

Jessica Thiefels has been writing for more than 10 years and is currently a full-time writer. She’s written for Reader’s Digest, Lifehack, SoFi and more.Follow her on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for health articles, new workouts and more.