College Packing Guide 2011

First-time college students and parents of first-time college students, beware!

The college dorm room is smaller than it appears. With smart packing, you can bring the right number of things to make your dorm room feel like home, hopefully with little clutter.

As college students heading back for our second year away from home, your college packing tour guides, Taylor and Melissa, are here to help! We’ll begin with some basic steps to get started:

Step #1: Create a list of things you’ll want or need, using the lists provided by Bed Bath & Beyond, Target and other stores.

Check to see if there are lists specific to your school with items that are recommended or aren't allowed. Don’t go too crazy, but include things you think you might want.

Step #2: Highlight absolute necessities: bedding, toiletries, underwear, etc. Stacks of fiction books you think you’ll have time to read are not necessary. Believe us, you’ll have plenty of things to read in college. Pack by season, and determine the minimum amount of clothing you could survive with, and then don’t bring much more than that.

Step #3: Of the non-necessary items, be selective. If you’re going somewhere close to home, remember you can always get things during Thanksgiving or winter break. If you’re going out of state or somewhere far, remember that you have to transport everything you bring, perhaps by plane.

You may think you need all your shoes at school, or every bag you own, or every sweater you’ve got in your closet, but if you don't want your room and closet to be cluttered, choose your favorites and leave the rest at home.

Melissa, who goes to University of California, Santa Cruz, realized that she only used two pairs of shoes and one purse regularly. The others just collected dust under her bed. She ended up bringing things home, especially clothes, whenever she visited Pleasanton.

For students going out of state or traveling by plane, planning ahead is vital to college packing.

Taylor goes to the University of Oregon, and last year she had to fly all of her things back and forth during breaks because she couldn’t have a car on campus. Unfortunately, she brought way too many books, way too many clothes, and way too much pointless junk she didn’t even touch. Ladies and gentlemen, don’t become a Taylor.

This year, she is buying her furniture in Oregon for the house she's moving into to minimize her packing load. Compare that to last year, when she filled five suitcases to the maximum weight.

Moving is a lot less stressful when the load is light. And that includes purchasing smaller things when you get there, like snacks, detergent, and any other items you can find in stores where you’re headed.

College life is very different from high school life, and you may find that things you think you’ll do or need in college, you may not. Winter break is the perfect time to evaluate what you actually do need and what you can bring home.

We spoke with 2011 graduate Casey Curtis, who will be attending Boise State University as a freshman this month. She plans to bring three large suitcases to Idaho by plane.

To make packing more manageable, she’s purchased compression bags, which reduce the space that clothing, bedding or towels take up.

In addition to making packing organized, she also got an organizational shelf that hangs from the rod in the closet to organize clothes.

“I got this ‘My Life, My Wall’ art work at Target, and I thought it was cute to put on my wall,” Casey said. “My dorm room reminds me of San Quentin prison, so I wanted to jazz it up.”

Target and other home furnishing stores sell these types of wall décor, which are essentially large stickers for the wall. They’re entirely removable, too.

Melissa had one in her room at school last year, and everyone thought she had painted a tree on her wall.

Rather than buy everything, coordinate with your future roommate(s) as soon as you can to determine who is bringing the fridge, microwave and television, if you decide you need them at all.

One recommendation for storage that is a must-have for organized dorm life is to use bins with drawers that you can store under the bed, since most college beds are raised up. Cardboard boxes are hard to organize and it’s definitely easier to find things like silverware, napkins, food, and extra toiletries when they’re organized in drawers.

We wish you all the best of luck in your packing adventures and hope you are successful in your endeavor to bring just the right amount of things to college with you. Have fun, and don’t forget to organize those drawers in your desk every once in a while!

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