Preparing to go to from community college to university can be a stressful experience. Not only are you leaving community college and heading to a strange new place away from your family, friends, and the faculty that you’ve come to know (and hopefully love), you’ll be leaving your home and heading to smaller student digs. If you’re the sentimental type, it’s easy to dream of packing up your entire room, but that probably isn’t practical. Try these tips to make sure you take everything you’ll need, without requiring an entire removal van.
Packing is Easier if Your Room is Tidy
The first thing you should do is tidy your room at home. This might sound crazy – why put things away only to pack them again – but it works. By tidying up, you find everything that you plan to take, and it’s easier to tick stuff off the list when you pack it. Starting out by being organized ensures that you won’t have to stop every five minutes to run around hunting for stuff.
What to Take
Top of your list of things to take should be the paperwork you need for university, and any medication that you can’t live without. Once you’ve got that stuff organized, you can start packing clothes, gadgets, chargers, and entertainment items.
Pack a couple of outfits for different seasons – you can always buy more clothes once you get to university, but the weather can be pretty unpredictable, so you might be glad of that winter coat even if you travel down to uni while it’s still August.
Be ruthless when you’re packing – pick out one or two things (your favourite poster, the one book you always re-read, or a video game you know you’ll get a lot of mileage out of), and pack those things first. Your suitcases will fill up sooner than you expect, and you’ll have to make tough decisions about what comes with you and what goes into storage.
Laptops are commonplace in lecture halls these days, but unless you’re doing a computer design course you probably don’t need an expensive one. It’s probably a good idea to take a well made mid-range laptop with you to university, rather than a top-of-the-line entertainment machine. If you can afford it, you might want a laptop for entertainment, and a cheap but rugged netbook for note taking and assignments.
What Not to Take
Don’t waste your time taking basics like cheap cosmetics, kitchen utensils, stationery, or textbooks. You’ll probably find that the official course textbooks are cheaper on campus, and stationery, cosmetics and other bulky basics can be bought pretty much anywhere. You may even want to pack only a few basic items of clothing, and use this chance to revamp your wardrobe.
Of course, this isn’t an excuse to go on a spending spree. If you do decide to buy stuff once you get to university, make sure you’re only buying things you need. Remember that if you’re living in student accommodation that closes for the summer, you’ll have to put all the stuff you buy in storage until next term time. Try to get used to living light.
About The Author
This article was written by James Harper on behalf of Bingham Self Storage, a self storage company providing storage services. Click here to be taken to their website where you can find out more about the storage this self storage company offers.
