Students and parents can all agree that move-in day is filled with fights, yelling, and friction. However, moving out of your dorm doesn’t have to have such animosity.
Using the Collegeboxes guide, we’ll take you through how to prepare and successfully conquer move-out day. The tips about when you move out, packing up your dorm room, and how to officially finish off your semester will start your summer break off right.
Move Out Before Move-Out Day
There are a lot of differences between the day you move into your dorm and the day you left it behind for good. Unlike college move-in day, you aren’t assigned a specific date and time that your moving process must happen. The university sets a deadline for you to clear out your room, but that doesn’t mean it has to be that day.
Start planning early. In the first few weeks of spring semester, figure out what your finals schedule will look like and figure out when you’re done with classes. Once you’ve picked a day, talk to your family and/or friends that might travel to come help you on move-out day. That allows them to book a flight and help decide weather to ship, store, or even drive home your stuff if needed. Depending on what you do, Collegeboxes has a storage and shipping service for students.
It should also be in your plan to pack your room up as much as you can before finals week. This way your attention can be focused on your tests. If everything is already packed up, those that came to help you can take your belongings elsewhere to help clear clutter from the room and take a load off of your mind.
Ace your finals and be on your way to summer break with ease by moving out before move-out day.
How to Pack Up a Dorm Room
You’ve decided to move out early and have most of it done before finals week, but where do you start? We recommend that you start by prioritizing dorm room essentials. As much as you love the way you decorated your dorm room, it won’t help you study and should be one of the first things to be packed up. Create a list of what needs to be kept, donated, sold, or thrown away. Chances are you won’t be living in a dorm room the next year but rather an apartment or even renting a house with friends. Not everything belongs in the dumpster, donating items to the local Goodwill or Salvation Army will help pass those items along to others.
Maybe you saved your boxes from moving in, but we doubt it and you’re going to need them to pack up your dorm room. The best way to get the boxes you need is through Collegeboxes. We offer a handful of moving supplies including a supply kit, which comes with 5 double-walled (24″x16″x18″) boxes, marker, tape, 5 zip ties, 10 label pouches, a bonus box (36” x 24” x 7”), and free shipping right to you.
Lastly, it’s important to remember what belongs to you and what is your roommate’s. It was about 10 months ago when it was decided who would bring what, it’s not the easiest to remember. But if it’s something bigger like the microwave or the mini-fridge, be sure to let them know you plan on moving out a bit earlier than move-day as they might need to adjust accordingly.
Collegeboxes, the college moving experts, has more tips as well on how to pack up your dorm room.
How to Move Out of Your Dorm
When moving out of your dorm, each university has its own policy for move-out day. For most it’s along the lines of making sure all your items are out of the room, cleaning the room, attending your closing meeting with your residential community, return your room and mailbox key, and sign any moving out forms.
Don’t worry, the housing department isn’t expecting a deep clean of the room. However, don’t leave it like a pigsty either. The staff generally will be looking to see if the floor has been vacuumed, any furniture has been emptied out, the bathroom has been sanitized, and there’s no damage rather than normal wear and tear. As a precaution if you decide to move over before your roommate, take pictures of the room to show that any damage that occurred after you left was not your fault. No need to pay a fee for someone else’s destruction.
Make moving out of your dorm easy. Collegeboxes offers handful of services like student storage, ship to school, direct shipping, moving supplies, and tips to improve your college experience.