Going off to college is considered one of the most fun and important parts of a young person’s life. You are leaving your family nest, possibly for the first time, and starting your new life. But, if you want to make sure that your relocation for education is worth it, you need to know how to approach packing for college. Some of you will be to lose and not pack enough while other might be too overbearing and pack too much. Luckily we are here to give you some useful guidelines.
Preparing your items for college
In order for you to deal with packing for college, you first need to know which items you should take. More often than not, you’ll be moving into a smaller residence than your current one. Therefore, you need to figure out which items you will need and which you won’t. You don’t want to find yourself constantly needing a missing item while, on the other hand, tripping on useless ones.
How to sort items
The way you approach this is to make three piles. Items you need, items you don’t need and the in-between. The third pile will be the toughest one for you to decide upon. As a general rule of thumb, if you haven’t used something in six months, you don’t need it. It will be much easier for you to get your items shipped to you, then to be stuck with them for a semester or longer.
Things that you will need
Think of this pile as if you are preparing for survival. Start off with your bare essentials and work your way up. Know that in a couple of months you will need to have room in your apartment for extra books and other college items. Therefore, you shouldn’t overburden yourself. Pick clothes that are most practical and easy to clean. Check if you need to bring your own pillows, blankets, and pillowcases. You should also ask one of the older students about their advice on what to bring to college. You will soon see that a lot of things you take for granted in your home will not be so in college. But, hey, that’s growing up for ya.
Things that you will not need
When packing for college you need to forget about fashion. You’d be surprised at how often people change their fashion sense once they come to college. They start exploring themselves and suddenly all your high school clothes seem outdated and silly. Therefore, you shouldn’t bring them with you. Also, forget about nostalgia. Do not overcrowd your room with sentimental items. While it is good to bring an item to remind you of where you came from and who your family is, you shouldn’t burden yourself with that. After all, you are going to college to start your new life, and that is much easier to do if you are not carrying your past luggage.
Packing for college
Once you have your items figure out, you need to pack them properly. Since you are packing for college you probably aren’t transporting many fragile, valuable items. Therefore, you cannot make catastrophic packing mistakes. But, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t avoid the smaller ones.
Proper padding
You will need to pad your items and boxes. That is simply not optional. While most of your items, like clothes and blankets, can survive bad weather, you need to protect your more fragile ones. Books, for starters, can be easily ruined by a bit of moisture. Make sure that you properly pad them so that there is little chance of them getting damaged. This is especially important if you are getting self-storage for college students. If you are going to store your items for a prolonged period of time, it will be up to you to make sure that they survive.
Finding boxes
This may be redundant, but we are going to mention it anyway. You are going to need moving boxes in order to pack your stuff. Now, there are many ways in which you can get moving boxes. The cheapest one, meaning that it is free, is to visit your local supermarkets and stores and ask them to save you some. Just know that you should start doing this at least a month ahead of packing. You never know how much time it will take them to save you some quality boxes. Therefore, it is in your best interest to ask them as soon as possible.
Finding the right movers
Once you have your items packed and ready you will need to take care of the final issue. And that is finding affordable cross country movers NYC. The golden rule that you should always abide by is cost-effectiveness. Do not look for cheap movers, look for reliable cost-effective ones. How to know if you movers are cost-effective? Simple. Get multiple estimates. Only if you have multiple can you know what is fair to pay for your relocation? Furthermore, you will know if a company is suspiciously cheap or outrageously expensive. You cannot know that if you only have one or two estimates.
Look locally
Another way in which you can better check your potential moving companies is to look locally. If your movers are local you can easily visit them. You can check their equipment and talk with the company representative first hand. Furthermore, if something changes in your plan, you can easily talk with them and figure out a new plan. So, take some good advice. If you live in Clinton, don’t go looking for your movers in Brooklyn. Look for a reliable Clinton moving company instead. You will pay less for your move and you will more easily know if you are in the right hand.
