Dans Papers - May 11, 2007

As summer makes its way in, millions of college students around the country are making their way out of their small and dirty dorm rooms and back into their homes. College move-in days are filled with helpful parents, giant suitcases, wheeled buckets, and nervous undergrads moving a few items while scanning the room for future friends. But when May rolls around and it's time to move out, those once shy undergrads scowl as they look around at the accumulated mountains of junk in their room, and think: how the hell am I going to get this mess out of here?

My first tip on moving out of your dorm room is to clean your room prior to any packing. Sure, we can all throw our junk into boxes and sort it later, but that is also a likely way to lose valuable items. While cleaning, make sure to throw out all the items that you really don't need: c'mon, how many sentimental ticket stubs must one hold on to from their freshman year? And that business card from the expensive restaurant you went to on your first date? If the relationship didn't work out, you can throw away at least some of the relics from it. In addition to these mementos, you will probably find a plethora of your friends' clothes to return to them as well as an accumulation of t-shirts that you may have once thought were acceptable but, now, after another year of college, you realize you will never wear again. Your sartorial style has changed - let the nearest Salvation Army reap the benefits.

After organizing and minimizing the amount of items in your room, it's time to further distribute: is there anything you can ship or send home in boxes rather than throw in your luggage? If you fled your parents and went to school across the country, this can certainly get expensive, so choose carefully, but cutting down the amount that you bring home with you makes the entire experience easier. I recommend keeping clothes and valuables by your side as you make your way home - and of course, the traveling must-haves like the iPod and cell phone - and shipping back the "fun" items that may have made your room ornate, but in all probability should not have made it through the year in tact: posters, glass bottles, desk accessories, light fixtures, frames, etc. Organize old photographs and sort your electronic goods - put all the wires and chargers that you don't need in one box. Make sure to check at your college bookstore to see which of the mountain of books you have lying around can be sold back, and pack the important books that you have to hold on to in a box. Buy the proper boxes at a post-office or find out if your University has them handy, and ship them off.

And now the finale: dig through your closet for the luggage you forgot that you had back there, pull it out, open it and air it out. Open your drawers, grab the final pieces off of the floor, and - yes - throw it all in. Let your dresser flow like a waterfall and get all of your skinny jeans, bright hoodies, ironic t-shirts, oxfords, sweaters, and formalwear into that suitcase. Don't hold back, stuff it in. If you truly value your clothes, then by all means fold them. However, most people wash their clothes upon returning, so it's not always necessary to pack for the trip back with your clothes looking like a J. Crew floor room.

With your room cleared, your clothes packed, your bed stripped, and your posters and random crap put away, you can sit down on your dorm room floor and begin to feel nostalgic about the year that just went by. Cleaning, sorting, and shipping help make moving out less of a stress, which gives you more time to reflect with friends on the year that was. College students out there, don't do the following - push off packing in lieu of studying or partying for the entirety of the two final weeks, then stay out late and drink with your friends a night or two before you go home, sleep late, and think "!&^#&$^*(~!" when you see the mess in your room and realize you have about an hour to pack it all. But really, will this warning stop you?