Over the past 8 months, I have bought new clothes, accumulated more junk, and brought new “necessaries” from home each time I visited. The last
I want to think about during the stress of finals is how I am going to fit my entire room into the back of my mom’s car. As a graduating senior, I have acquired some tips that will make the packing process easier, faster, and less stressful for everyone.
-Start Early-
I know everyone is busy with papers, projects, and studying for exams, but your brain always needs a study break. Instead of perusing facebook, pinterest, or shopping websites, you could start packing up little parts of your room. The movement during your study break will help you re-energize, but it will also help you prepare for the greater portion of packing later on. These spurts can come in 15-minute increments, but can be super helpful in weeding things out.
Suggestions: Start by grouping things together within your room. If you haven’t done laundry for a while, that would be a good start. If you are hoarding borrowed items from your other friends, take a short walk and return those. Returning overdue library books, selling books back, and the recycling also fit nicely into a 15-minute break. Another early starter suggestion is to remove posters early. Instead of ripping them when you take them down at the last minute, removing them early allows you the time to gently remove them.
-Toss, Toss, Toss-
I am just as nostalgic as the next girl, but there are so many things that just need to be tossed after the end of a school year. You cannot hoard the things you have collected over a year and expect to fit it all in one carload. This is where the toss, donate, and keep piles come into handy.
Suggestions: Start out by throwing away the things you aren’t going to use anymore. If you’ve made a collection of wine bottles, ribbons, or other useless items, start tossing them out. Secondly, think about cleaning out your drawers. Since Sigma Chi is still collecting clothes for their clothing drive, you could always take a quick look through your closet for things that you no longer wear. You can also donate unwanted items to Hidden Treasures. Drop off locations, as well as items taken, are listed here: http://www.bucknell.edu/x68072.xml. Keep an eye out for the cheap items that are going to take up a ton of space, for example: Solo Cups, nearly empty shampoo bottles, sponges, or folders full of papers. After doing this, you should be left with a manageable pile to pack up.
-Be Systematic-
I know that the easiest thing to do is toss everything into one big bag and call it a day; however, unpacking will be tortuous. In the fashion of starting early, you should start grouping things together in piles to put in different bags. By doing this, you will be less likely to “lose” things during your move, and you will have an easier time unpacking at home.
Suggestions: Make sure you put your posters, books, and other flat things into a container together. The weight of the books will help keep the posters flat and straight. Another organizing tip is to pull all of your clothes together, but keep the hanging things hanging. Finally, put all of your cleaning products, soap products, and other items that can be easily cleaned off together, just in case one of them happens to leak.
Happy Packing!