End-of-the-year Moving Tips

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As the end of the semester quickly approaches, dorms and apartment buildings start clearing out. Follow this checklist to help your student move out, transporting belongings safely and inexpensively:

Decide what Needs to be Stored, what Needs to be Shipped and what Stays with your Student

Before packing one box, plan. Depending on your student’s summer plans and living arrangements for next year, she might need to store furniture until her lease starts up in the fall, ship unnecessary items home and take essentials with her abroad or to a summer internship. Check the university’s website and resource boards for partner moving companies, like Box My Dormor Lazybones, for services that help.

Don’t Pay for Boxes

Do load up on packing tape, labels or markers and newspaper to wrap small breakables. Check liquor stores and grocery stores for extra boxes they give away. Also, encourage your student to use every duffel bag, backpack, storage bin and grocery sack she has to store and move belongings. There are enough costs associated with moving – like gas, storage and cleaning – and buying boxes doesn’t need to be one of them.

Label Everything

Whether your student is moving everything from the dorm to an apartment or from campus housing back home, let’s face it: moving can be like the Bermuda Triangle, and things disappear. Especially when everyone else is boxing up their belongings, it’s easy to accidentally swap one box with a roommate’s or mistakenly drop the iPhone into the winter clothes box, to be left sealed until next November.

Be Vigilant

Don’t help your student load up her car one night with plans to head out of town sometime the next day. A car filled with stuff is a target for burglars. Also, use pillows, sleeping bags, coats and extra blankets as padding for breakables and electronics. A few potholes in the road could turn out to be expensive if the breakable items aren’t packed well.

Don’t Forget to Clean (not you)

Most dorm living agreements and leases have cleaning checklists that must be followed to get a deposit back. Save time after packing and hauling out your student’s items to clean. While it might seem easier to hang back and clean up while your student moves her things into the new place, deny the urge! Your student will gain a better appreciation for the value of her deposit and the importance of taking care of her living space if she has to clean up for the inspection with the dorm RA or apartment manager.